Soho restaurant Gunpowder is known for its creative approach to modern Indian dining. And next month, it’s launching Soho Sessions – three Sundays in autumn that will see guest chefs collaborate with Gunpowder’s kitchen team to create one-off Sunday menus, paired with soundtracks specially curated for each event. The result? Three distinct events that will showcase the chefs’ unique perspectives on South Asian cooking.
Kicking off the series on September 20 will be Ruhi Amin and Simar Deol of Firangi. The London-based duo has grown a dedicated following for experimental South Asian cooking, and has recently taken over kitchens including Hackney wine bar and restaurant Bruno, Forest Hill’s Ancestrel Wines, Side Piece in Dalston and further afield in Berlin, Marseille and Paris. In bringing their concept to Gunpowder (their first collaboration with an Indian restaurant), Amin and Deol hope to push the boundaries of Indian food in London.
“To be able to work in a restaurant that really brought a new style of Indian cooking to London is such a delight,” they said in a statement. “Fundamentally, both Gunpowder and Firangi are doing the same thing, cooking Indian food in a rather inauthentic way, which makes collaborating together all the more fun. We love how natural it feels to work with someone that shares the same vision as us.”
The centrepiece of the menu will be the Firangi x Gunpowder beef burger. But the snacks, including the poha-stuffed chicken wings with tamarind-cider fudge and Firangi hot sauce, as well as venison tartare with achari romesco, betel leaf and puffed masala quinoa, sound equally exciting.
“It’s been great to work with [Gunpowder’s executive] chef Nirmal Save to create a menu that reflects both of us while upholding the central theme of playfulness that is so important to us at Firangi,” the pair said.
The second event on October 18 will see Rezma Rahman bring her Roti Mami concept to Gunpowder. Rahman’s cooking, inspired by her Bangladeshi and Sylheti heritage, as well as her upbringing in east London, promises to be equally experimental; guests can expect her signature Sylheti duck “taco”.
Lastly, on November 15, Smoke & Lime founder Sohini Banerjee – who made her name by hosting intimate supper clubs in her one-bedroom flat in north London – will showcase the flavours of Bengal.
“There isn’t one definition of South Asian food in London, and that’s what makes it so exciting,” Gunpowder co-founder Harneet Baweja said in a statement. “Soho Sessions is about bringing together people with completely different stories, influences, and ways of cooking, but who are all part of the same city. We couldn’t think of a better way to start than with Roo, Rezma and Sohini – three brilliant women whose food we love and who each represent a different side of South Asian London.”
Each Soho Sessions menu will only be available at Gunpowder Soho for one day only, and bookings are open now through the Gunpowder website.
