‘We come together as a force’: the perfect partnership behind the new Da Terra

New look, new beginning

Now Cagali has a completely new kitchen to focus on. Da Terra reopened in mid-October following a four-week refurbishment. The kitchen now has increased its work surface area and feels more open, thanks to removing a glass panel that obscured the view of diners, while the adjoining 28-cover dining room has also had a light refresh.

 

The dining room isn’t all that has changed: the guest experience now begins in the new-look bar, the former Peg + Patriot space. The idea, Lee says, was to elevate the guest experience while freeing up space in the main restaurant.

 

Here, a sous chef and chef de partie plate and finish snacks, such as duck Caesar or stout cup and scallop, that form the introduction to the eight-course menu. A fridge showcases ingredients that are being aged, such as quail and coppa, which guests are welcome to ask the chefs about – “but we don’t force anything”, Cagali says. Lee adds that they wanted to create “a kind of cosy lounge”, where customers would feel comfortable returning after their dinner, and also because the room had to be appealing as a standalone bar for anyone not eating in the restaurant.  

 

A reception desk now stands in the lobby between the bar and dining room, while the hotel doors on Bethnal Green Road closest to the restaurant are now only open when Da Terra is open. “It all feels like it makes a lot more sense,” Cagali says. “Bookings are staggered every 15 minutes and there’s now a natural flow from the bar to the dining room.”

When guests arrive in the dining room, they are given another snack and greeted by Cagali in his new kitchen, where pride of place is given to a custom-built double Molteni oven that cost £75,000. Other bits of new kit that the chef is proud of include two planchas, a salamander and a freezer set to -10°C that is perfect for ice-cream. “The kitchen is now the focus of the restaurant,” Cagali says. “Redoing the kitchen is something I’ve had in my head since day one of Da Terra. Before, it wasn’t designed in the way that I put my food together.”

 

Formula for flavour

The menu has changed, too. What was a blind tasting menu now lists the major components of each dish to help customers choose the type of wine they would like to accompany it: langoustine/white asparagus/tomato vodka, say, or Huntsham Farm Middle White pork/morel feijoada/endive/cavolo nero. “Regular guests have said it’s nice to be led by something when they’re deciding what to drink,” Lee says.

 

“We’re not trying to reinvent the wheel here. We’re just creating the Da Terra wheel and the experience that we can offer”

 

Cagali says he and Lee didn’t have the money to refurbish the restaurant exactly how they wanted when they took over the space from Lee Westcott’s Typing Room, which may surprise anyone who thinks Da Terra is a hotel restaurant funded by the Town Hall. “Loh Lik Peng, who owns the hotel, is a partner in Da Terra,” Lee explains. “We know we can lean on him, but we are not supported by the hotel. We stand alone.”

 

Da Terra, of course, isn’t the only two-Michelin-starred restaurant offering pre-dinner snacks in the bar; Kitchen Table in Fitzrovia and Ynyshir in Ceredigion, for instance, both begin meals with something similar, but Cagali rejects any comparisons. “We’re not trying to reinvent the wheel here,” he says. “We’re just creating the Da Terra wheel and the experience that we can offer. We know where we stand and what we want to achieve.” Does that include achieving three Michelin stars? “I knew that question would come,” he laughs. “It comes all the time. But it’s not up to me. I don’t know the formula.”

 

And yet as the changes to Da Terra demonstrate, there is, if not a formula, then a recognisable framework to award-winning fine dining. How, then, do Cagali and Lee prevent things becoming formulaic? “We’ve got the standards and the structure we know we need to maintain what we do,” Lee says. “But it doesn’t mean we lose the creativity.”

From pubs to precision

Cagali came relatively late to hospitality. Although his mum owned a restaurant in São Paulo and his grandfather owned a soft drinks company, he says his family never pushed him to become a chef when he was growing up in Brazil. Instead, he began a degree in economics. He came to London when he was 20 to learn English and began cooking to earn money as a student, before abandoning his studies. “I worked in pubs and casual places,” he says, “but I never enjoyed smashing out meals for 300 covers a day and not really caring what the food looks like.”

 

A job at Shumi, the Italian-Japanese fusion restaurant owned by Roger Moore’s son Geoffrey in the early noughties, was Cagali’s first experience that things could be different, though it was his time spent with Stefano Baiocco at Villa Feltrinelli on Lake Garda in Italy that was the real eye-opener. “I like the precision of fine dining and the accuracy of everything it involves,” Cagali explains. “Taking care of the mise en place.”

 

Lee, likewise, started out in pubs, with a Saturday job in his native Essex. The couple now live in the county near Lee’s family, driving into east London together on the Wednesdays to Saturdays when Da Terra is open. What do they chat about in the car? “It’s 24 hours talking about this place,” Cagali says. When do they switch off? “We try and find time for ourselves at the weekend. We take the dog for a good walk on Sundays.”

 

Cagali says the main difference between working together at Da Terra and when they met at the Fat Duck is that now he and Lee have a team to take care of. “We feel responsible for creating something special in everything we do. When we started Da Terra, we had eight people – now it’s a team of 22. It’s our job to guide and be a leader. That comes with an extra pressure.”

 

 

As one of the most prominent same-sex couples in hospitality, do they feel any pressure to be role models too? “It would be amazing if we were seen as that,” Lee says. “We’ve had young staff who have said they feel comfortable telling us they are gay, which they didn’t feel able to talk about in the previous place they worked. That’s so good to hear, but also sad, because I think, ‘you’re amazing and you shine and it’s a shame you couldn’t do that before’.”

 

Cagali adds that it was tough working in male-dominated kitchens when he was younger – “I would be talking about girls so I wouldn’t be judged and thinking, ‘fuck, this isn’t who I am’. Growing up is not easy.” 

 

The grown-up Da Terra, at least, now make it all look easy. Lee says: “A lot of people who have come love the link between the front of house and the kitchen, and that link exists because Rafa and I are both here. It’s not just Raf’s word or my word on the floor. We come together as a force.” And, increasingly in fine dining, a force to be reckoned with.

 

From the menu

Langoustine
White asparagus/tomato vodka
Wine: Moric, Somlo, 2021

 

The quail
Tortellini in broda/Australian black truffle
Wine: IDOA Rosso, 2019

 

Sourdough
Bone marrow/cultured butter/Gonnelli 1585 olive oil
Wine: Rathfinny, Blanc de Noirs, 2019

 

Moqueca
Chalk Stream trout/manteiguinha beans/farofa
Wine: Estate Argyro, Cuvée Evdemon, 2020

 

Huntsham Farm Middle White pork
Morel feijoada/endive/cavolo nero
Wine: Ridge, Geyserville, 2020

 

Romeo & Juliette
Cheese/guava
Wine: Tissot, Macvin Blanc

 

Baba
Cachaꞔa/pistachio/N25 Reserve caviar

 

Pineapple
Coconut/fermented pineapple juice/verbena
Wine: Mullineux, Straw Wine, 2023

 

Portrait photography: Justin De Souza. Food photography: Alex Teuscher