Minute on the clock: Stuart ‘Tommo' Thomson, chief executive of Barge East

We gained planning permission for mooring it in Hackney Wick and it's proved popular.

You've expanded the business into the surrounding land to create a garden space

We used the first lockdown of 2020 to build the gardens on the surrounding barren ground, which took us from 90 covers on both decks of the barge to an additional 250 seated in the garden.

As well as space for our guests, we grow produce in the gardens and try to be as sustainable as possible with our farm-to-table concept. We grow a lot of herbs and vegetables, such as chard, but we've also grown our own hops and partnered with the Truman brewery 500 metres down the road, which has made us a special batch of beer.

What's next?

We are planning to build a bit of a vineyard at Barge East, where we will grow our own grapes and have seating among the vines for guests to enjoy wine and charcuterie. We also hope to open a second barge at another site.

How do you keep your customers comfortable in the unpredictable British climate?

Twenty per cent of our covers are inside, but the remaining 80% are outdoors, so we need to keep people warm and dry. We have things like parasols and winter greenhouse huts, as well as heaters, and we provide hot-water bottles and blankets.

In the winter we offer our bottomless brunch with a twist, where we serve mulled wine and mulled cider in teapots alongside the usual bubbles and beer.

So we're well prepared for any eventuality in terms of the weather, but we like sunny days. There's nowhere better to be than by the river with the view of the London skyline, the Gherkin on one side and the Olympic Stadium on the other.

How have you approached the food at Barge East?

We have two sides to Barge East: the seasonal set menu on the barge itself and a street food menu we serve to people in the gardens.

The barge offers a set four-course menu for £39, which is a really fantastic dining experience, with dishes like Jerusalem artichoke tart with elderflower vinegar and mint, and roasted duck breast, chervil root, three-cornered leeks and chard. For dessert we might offer dark chocolate sorbet with Amaretto, nougatine and pear.

Meanwhile, the gardens are a more casual dining concept, with two street kitchen menus, one offering burgers, like our Korean Ruban, with soy-glazed salt beef, kimchi, Swiss cheese and sriracha mayonnaise, and the other is our Flatbread Society, which is our take on pizzas.

What are some of the challenges of cooking on a floating barge?

Space is a huge challenge – we have a galley kitchen and there can be four chefs cooking in there. Our head chef Stefano has to be super-organised and everything is prepped on the day. There is no space to store food, which means we use the freshest produce possible – including that grown in our own gardens.