Don’t give up the, er, day job, Brooklyn
Our Polly Hudson samples Beckham lad’s ‘pop-up’ food
Sometimes life takes you in unexpected directions, and today you find me about to eat Brooklyn Beckham’s nan’s sandwich.
With her blessing I hasten to add. Neither Brooklyn Beckham or his nan are here, but some of the food he’s offering in the pop-up restaurant he’s launched via Uber Eats Hosts is.
It’s easy to have a pop at Brookers, fresh prince of the Nepo Babies, infamous for releasing a photography book of blurry pictures, and online videos where he attempts challenging culinary feats like making a cheese toastie.
But when you consider that he could be sitting on his bum doing nothing, or a full-time messy party boy, well, he’s not actually doing any harm is he?
That said, this latest foray is probably not going to gain him many new admirers. This is his restaurant, but he won’t be anywhere near it – or even, apparently, in the same country – and he won’t be doing any of the… you know… cooking. And this is a pop-up, only lasting 10 hours.
His five dishes are Iberico pork and Atlantic prawn dumplings (£10), Buffalo cauliflower with Brooklyn’s homemade (ahem) secret hot sauce (£10), charcoal barbecued corn-fed tikka chicken (£15), 12-hour slow cooked Wagyu Bolognese (£15) and Nanny Peggy’s English breakfast sandwich (£10).
As the chef explains: “My Nanny Peggy taught me how to make her English breakfast sandwich when I was five, and it’s been my favourite ever since. That was one of my earliest memories of loving cooking. Spending time in the kitchen is definitely something me and my dad bond over… even though I think I make my English breakfast sandwich better, he does make a pretty good one!”
Of the three dishes I’m trying, the sandwich is the most underwhelming. Limp toast, pale bacon, fried egg, sausage, ketchup – if you got it in your local greasy spoon cafe you’d think it was… fine? The cauliflower in batter is… OK? The secret hot sauce is… hot-ish? And the Wagyu Bolognese is nice, in that way that spag bol always is, but pretty unremarkable.
None of it’s a disaster. None of it’s that great either though. Brooklyn, don’t give up the day j… oh never mind.
■ Brooklyn’s dishes available only in London yesterday and today, 5pm to 10pm.