A Hot Dinners exclusive
What: temper City
In a nutshell: Neil Rankin's second temper is all about curry and gin...
Summing it all up: Neil Rankin turns his barbecue expertise to his second temper restaurant. But while the first was about meat and tacos, this is all about curries cooked on open flames using creative ingredients, and there’ll be 20 different types of gin for you to sample too…
Curry, gin AND breakfast too...
You should already be familiar with temper, the Soho taco restaurant from meat expert Neil Rankin. Well, now he’s set to open a second temper in the City. The open fire is back, but this time it’ll be used to cook curry.
The curries, cooked on the open flames, will draw on influences from all over the world, and he'll be using the kind of creative ingredients you expect from him - including bone marrow in the meatball masala. You can also try mutton rolls, laksa lamb belly, and for the brave, a fiery lamb scotch bonnet vindaloo. On top of that, there’s also Japanese-inspired dashi chip shop chicken, made with curry and dashi stock over temper-smoked chicken, and crisp egg with katsu.
If you're heading along at lunchtime, there's also a chance to sample a bit of everything with their thali-style set menu - and he'll be serving breakfast this time around.
The other thing to note that gin will be a HUGE focus here (hurrah!), with 20 different types from the UK and beyond which includes a bottle of KI NO BI from the Kyoto Distillery, the first dedicated artisanal gin distillery in Japan - *definitely* one to try for gin aficionados. Plus, bar staff will have a tonic, and a bespoke cocktail on hand depending on which type of gin you go for. So gin fanatics have PLENTY of reasons to return.
We're very intrigued about all of this - and caught up with Neil Rankin himself to find out a bit more...
So, why curry this time around?
The concepts are based on things that work well with the whole animal thing from a practical angle but, more importantly, they’re things I’m passionate about.
Curry is my first food love and it's still my favourite thing to eat. I grew up on British-style curries but I never fancied doing an Indian concept - being a middle-class, white, Scot. But when I came up with the idea to focus on curry in its entirety and cover not only Indian but Malaysian, Japanese, Thai, Sri Lankan, European and British interpretations as well as using smoked meats as a base, it made it feel more like me.
So the curry will be inspired from lots of cuisines from all over the world and some I’ve just made up for giggles.
Anything else we can expect?
We’ll also be doing lots of poultry, so there will be whole and half ducks and chickens. We'll smoke those first and then finish in a tandoor. Expect lots more fish and a much bigger focus on vegetarian dishes too.
Will there be something new at all the new tempers that launch?
I have four ideas in mind but we’ll decide when we pick a site. It might be that we do a smaller version of 1 or 2 first but there is one idea I’m pretty excited to do, if I find the right spot. What I can promise is there will be little cookie cutting here. It's not really my style. I like to keep things fresh and my chefs inspired.
And how about the planned breakfast?
Don’t hold me to it but the following might be part of the menu as well as a few classics....
- Boiled egg and peshwari naan soldiers
- sambal telur
- banana curry and roti
- Avocado, poached egg and sambal roti
- bacon congee
One of the most striking features about the original temper was the central kitchen. Will we see something similar here?
We have an open grill - actually it's even bigger than the first. We have a section for hanging poultry in smoke, a robata section, an adjustable sauce area (less weird than in sounds) and a couple of bling tandoors. Like the first, you can sit round the kitchen and watch the action.
And instead of mezcal, it's gin this time around...
Again it's just something we wanted to do. It's an exciting time for gin in the UK and elsewhere and we thought it would be fun to work with some interesting brands. Putting it with the curry concept just seemed to fit naturally.
Martinis, big G&T’s and smoked meat curries feels like a place I'd like to go to, so that's a decent start.
More about temper City
Where is it? 2 Angel Court, 30 Throgmorton Street, London EC2R 7HJ
When does it open? 24 July. There's a soft launch from 24-29 July with 50% off food.
How to book: Email joanna@temperrestaurant.com.
Find out more: Visit their website or follow them on Twitter @temperldn.
