WILL BOWLBY
This 28-year-old didn’t grow up surrounded by Asian cuisine but in summer 2015 he opened Kricket, one of the best Indian restaurants in the capital. Success came immediately, with the likes of Michel Roux Jr and Pierre Koffmann heralding him as one of the city’s top young cooks of Indian food.
Bowlby’s (pictured, left) vision of subcontinental cuisine is rooted in street food and his restaurant in Pop Brixton is a British take on his experiences living and working in Mumbai.
‘Every 100m you go in India, the food changes,’ he explains. ‘What we knew of it in London wasn’t a fair representation.’ When he came back to work at Cinnamon Kitchen, he was already cooking up plans for his own restaurant. The idea was to keep the Indian authenticity in the taste, recipes and use of spice but to do it with seasonal British ingredients.
His samphire pakoras are a solid example. But don’t dare call his food fusion. ‘The word is thrown around too much and because of that its importance has been diluted,’ he claims.
Since returning from his travels, Bowlby has developed an interest in the Ayurvedic diet. ‘This is a holistic approach to health and presents an ancient solution to many modernday problems,’ he says. ‘I think its system of eating, which matches foods to your body type, is going to start to see an increased interest here in the UK.’
He points to Chinese food as the next cuisine that’s due a renaissance. ‘There is a lack of good Chinese restaurants here, so it would be great to see more options and better quality.’ There have already been a few excellent launches in the past year: Alan Yau’s Park Chinois, The Sichuan and TA TA Eatery.’
Bowlby has just opened a second Kricket site in Soho and now has his eyes set on Berlin, Ibiza and New York. He thinks the trend of heading away from formal dining will continue. ‘There will always be those restaurants that will stand the test of time, but I think the focus is moving to good decent food in an informal atmosphere. It’s certainly what we’re trying to do.’ kricket.co.uk