Former reality TV star to launch restaurant in Shoreditch
Former reality TV star James Knight-Pacheco, who appeared in the BBC's The Restaurant with Raymond Blanc and spin-off show Out of the Frying Pan, is to open his own restaurant in London.
The chef, who together with partner Alasdair Hooper was the runner up in The Restaurant's second series in 2008, has teamed up with investor Alicia Whitby and will launch the Assemblage restaurant in Shoreditch in October.
The restaurant will be inspired by the "correlation between art and food" offering a "modern progressive menu" focused on British ingredients, 80% of which will be sourced from the West Country.
Named after the method of making three-dimensional artistic compositions by putting together found objects, at Assemblage Knight-Pacheco will create "art on a plate" by putting together various ingredients.
"Assemblage will be a fine-dining restaurant but it will reflect both the Shoreditch location and the fact that we're both in our 20s so it will be quite quirky," explained Whitby.
"I feel that food presentation in fine-dining restaurants in the UK has become very samey and we want to push things forward."
Located on Commercial Street, Assemblage will be spread over two floors with a 40-seat main restaurant and bar on the ground floor and a 16-seat private dining room in the basement.
Interiors will be developed by DTwo Design and include lots of different materials ranging from a wooden bar to mirrors, glass, concrete and stone.
The Assemblage will offer three different menus, including a set lunch menu priced £20 for two courses, as well as a six-course tasting menu at £65. The à la carte will be "reasonably priced" according to Knight-Pacheco, with the most expensive main course costing £29.
After starring in The Restaurant and the Out of the Frying Pan series, which followed Knight-Pacheco and Hooper running an events catering company, the chef spent nine months working at Raymond Blanc's Le Manoir aux Quat'Saisons.
He previously worked at Michelin-starred restaurants including Gordon Ramsay at Claridge's and the Square with Phil Howard.
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By Kerstin Kühn
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