“I wanted to do this 10 years ago,” Sally Abé tells Broadsheet. “But for one reason or another, it just wasn’t the right time.” Now, on the quaint Wilton Way in Hackney, she’s poured her “love, blood, sweat, tears, and life savings,” into Teal, her first solo restaurant.
The delay, she says, has worked in its favour. “In those 10 years I’ve learned so much more. I’ve grown in myself, I’ve got confidence, and I’ve built an amazing network.”
Still, Abé – who cut her teeth at The Ledbury before making her name at The Harwood Arms, and going on to head up The Pem within Hilton’s Conrad London St James hotel and the Public House Group’s Bull in Charlbury – says that going out by herself is terrifying. “This is my restaurant,” she says. “I’ve not got a hotel behind me or any investors, it’s basically just me putting myself and everything on the line to do something that I believe in.”
Her instinct led her east, where Abé “fell in love with Wilton Way.” Hackney, she says, feels like the right due to its adventurous crowd. “It’s a very vibrant, young area, where people seem more receptive to new things.”
Abé describes Teal as a “British bistro”. Her reference point, though, is the gastronomic movement of ’90s Paris: “Back then, all these young chefs had left two and three Michelin-star restaurants and set up their own places where they applied those techniques, but in a more casual setting. That’s what I’m trying to do here,” she says. “I’m still going to use those exact cooking techniques [I learned working in fine dining], but it will be much more relaxed. More hearty and robust food.”
The chef has been collecting cookbooks for years – and it’s this long-standing fascinating with the history of British cuisine, going back centuries, that has inspired her menu. “I love exploring those dishes and flavour combinations, considering why they put certain foods and flavours together,” she says. Some are best left on the shelf: “There’s a recipe for grouse and bananas, which I’m not going to be putting on the menu anytime soon". But others, such as lockets savoury – featuring toast topped with watercress, sliced pears, and melted Stilton cheese – and beef and oyster pie, are already fan favourites at Teal.
Other dishes on the concise, often-changing menu include “devils on horseback” – prunes cooked in Lapsang souchong tea, wrapped in pancetta and filled with chicken liver parfait – alongside a “knife and fork bacon,” named as such because “it’s too good to be eaten on bread,” says Abé. A marmalade ice cream sandwich, meanwhile, has already emerged as a front-runner among the desserts.
The wine list is made up of 10 whites, 10 reds and six champagnes. “The whites are quite chardonnay-heavy because that's what I like to drink, and that's what goes well with my food,” she says. Her refusal to follow certain east London conventions such as not serving any natural wine has also been received by some customers as “quite refreshing”.
Teal also is championing a different, more gender-balanced kind of kitchen culture, with an entirely female team on the pans. It’s something that has happened organically, rather than by design, though Abé is conscious of the role she now plays as a figurehead in the industry. “I'm happy to be that voice if it's going to make a difference; if it’s going to promote other women and give them a chance in the future in the industry,” she says.
Otherwise, Abé is keen for Teal to embed itself in the local community, by hosting hospitality nights with £5 rose and oysters, as well as working with the local Hackney food bank. “We’re going to donate all the money we make from the penny lick [ice cream] to them. I think it’s irresponsible not to consider the fact that we’re here expecting people to spend £100 pounds a head while there are people using food banks and in extreme poverty in Hackney.”
And how does it feel to achieve her dream 10 years on? “99 per cent of the time I’m really happy. I’m just so proud to put out the food I want without anybody telling me what to do.”
Teal by Sally Abé
52 Wilton Way, E8 1BG
Hours:
Thu 5.30–11pm
Fri & Sat midday–11pm Sun midday–5pm
