By Majella Taylor, New Openings Editor, H&C News: EDIT, championing organic and sustainable produce with a circular, low waste philosophy.
Earlier this week, EDIT, a brand new hyper-seasonal veg-forward restaurant opened its doors in the heart of Hackney. Former architect-turned-restaurateur Elly Ward’s Mare Street venture is challenging traditional thinking and wasteful practices in the food industry with an innovative menu that celebrates the whole, championing organic and sustainable produce with a circular, low waste philosophy.
Taking its name from ‘the creative craft of altering elements in order to improve the whole’, the restaurant ‘edits out’ the intensively produced, unnecessary waste, homogeneous varieties and the single use mindset, replacing them with the regenerative, the harmless, the natural and the wild, restoring a sense of connection with our food sources.
The kitchen is headed up by chefs Fabrice Jacquet and Beth Olivier, who together with Elly have created a menu which reinvents and refines the age-old culinary principle of ‘less is more’, offering a concise list of modern British plant-based dishes and an accompanying selection of low intervention wines, local beers and ciders. Ingredients are sourced from small-scale farms, foragers and independent producers using regenerative and minimal intervention methods, with the finest local produce always being the star of the plate.
The daily-changing menu is devised in accordance with seasonal availability and harnessing ‘root to fruit’ principles of zero waste cooking. Diners can expect the likes of small plates such as roast salsify, crispy kalettes, mustard green leaf and beetroot à trois, followed by larger plates of Pied de Mouton with barley and oats, salt crust turnip with smoked garlic, and seaweed-cured celeriac with oyster leaf and radish. For dessert, EDIT serves traditional puddings, seasonal fruits and homemade chaga ice cream and blood orange granita, as well as a plant-based cheese board that showcases the finest artisan vegan cheeses with homemade chutneys and breads. Running alongside the main menu, each day is the ‘Daily Edit’, a six-course tasting menu offering the full farm-to-table experience fully paired with natural wines and ciders.
Entering the 30-cover dining room, guests are greeted by the stripped back bare brick walls and original cast iron columns of the former factory building, with reclaimed furniture and tabletops made from recycled wood waste set against a striking tomato-red floor, brightly lit by large windows overlooking Mare Street. The rear bar, where cocktails and small plates are prepared, and the kitchen wall are both covered in rescued red terracotta tiles. Behind the counter, the restaurant features an exclusive 12-cover private dining room available for hire, and a plant filled internal courtyard seating area for warmer months.
Elly’s background in architecture and design lends a unique perspective to EDIT’s creative process where ideas are encouraged from the whole team and research and development is built into daily activities. The interiors of the restaurant follow the same ethos as the cooking and are centered around the concepts of circular design, created in collaboration with her husband Joe Morris of award-winning Morris + Company.
On the opening of EDIT, founder Elly Ward said: “I’m so excited to take my team with me on this next stage of our journey. With EDIT we plan to take our hyper-seasonal and low waste approach to the next level, putting amazing local produce where it belongs, at centre stage; celebrating those farmers and growers that share our ethos, and ultimately creating delicious, sustainable food and a fine dining experience.”
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