Minute on the clock: Yuma Hashemi, chef-patron of the Drunken Butler
The chef-patron of the Drunken Butler in Farringdon, London, speaks about dropping classical French tasting menus in favour of a Persian feast
You recently changed your classical French tasting menu in favour of Persian cuisine. What prompted the change?
When I opened the restaurant I had an interview, and in it I said we served French cuisine. I felt like another guy who opens a restaurant to serve French cuisine, so I instantly said "with Persian influences". She asked "what does that mean?" and back then I didn't have any idea what it meant, I'd just said it, so I said "you've got to come and find out, I can't say too much".
I'm German Iranian and we did adopt Persian influences, but it was more in the hosting of guests. Iranians love to have guests over, they love cooking and entertaining people.
We attracted a lot of Iranian guests and I had a French Iranian couple who came for the tasting menu. They wanted to come back on a Sunday, when we were normally closed. They were a table of 12 and we had only just opened and I thought "I should just say yes". I told the guests there's no menu but I that I wold do something different – a feast rather than a tasting menu.
Because it was a Sunday I thought I should cook my mum's recipes, so I called her and she helped me out. The French Iranian couple invited only Iranian friends, they chose amazing wines, and they stayed until 2am, we had such a great time.
I serve the food on dishes that belonged my parents; we have things in the restaurant from their house
How did that lead to you offering a Persian menu every Sunday and then through the week as well?
That first table, they were quite influential as a young group of Iranians who go out and eat and grew up in the UK, and we got more and more requests for their menu. Eventually there were so many requests I said I'd do it every Sunday. At first it was OK, but not like it is now. I didn't know how to serve this food in a restaurant and I needed to understand the whole concept.
Eventually we had a really good review in The Sunday Times which helped a lot. That made my life easier because even though we were really full suddenly, people knew what they were eating.
This year it felt like the right step to just try it [taking the menu seven days a week]. After five years my head chef was leaving and I thought, I'm just going to do it, if it doesn't work we can go back to tasting menus.
What is it you enjoy about cooking Persian dishes?
It's like childhood memories for me. It allows us to express ourselves in a different way. I serve the food on dishes that belonged to my parents; we have things in the restaurant from their house.
A lot of guests compare the food to that from their childhood, but the presentation is very different.
And you serve a blind wine pairing – tell us how that came about
A sommelier I knew came in to the restaurant. Over the years we had been to tastings together and I appreciate his palate, and normally when you're out in the industry you drink blind and try to guess what you're drinking. So I served him the same pairing as everyone else but didn't tell him what he was having. I gave him a pen and paper and asked him to write it down.
The blind tastings started from that, and we now serve the wine blind for every guest. Not knowing what you're drinking means your mind is open to anything, and it's surprising and fun to see how the guests react.
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