Rochelle Canteen opening second restaurant at the Institute of Contemporary Arts

The launch coincides with the announcement of the institute’s autumn programme
Doubling up: Margot Henderson, left, and Melanie Arnold have a new venture at the ICA
Daniel Hambury
Samuel Fishwick @Fish_o_wick13 September 2017

“We're bringing the Rochelle Canteen into town,” explains Margot Henderson, sitting next to her business partner Melanie Arnold in the one-time bike shed that has been their Shoreditch restaurant since 2006. This autumn, the pair will open a second Rochelle Canteen at the Institute of Contemporary Arts, including a new café, bar and restaurant.

The launch coincides with the announcement of the institute’s autumn programme by recently appointed director Stefan Kalmár, who is reclaiming the famous organisation as a centre for radical culture and progressive thought. “For me, galleries should feed your soul and mind,” says Arnold. “But also the tummy.”

The uninitiated might struggle to find Henderson and Arnold’s east London canteen: it’s one of those secluded spots that feels oddly remote, despite being just 10 minutes from bustling Liverpool Street station. Set behind red-brick walls, entry is via a buzzer next to a locked door which opens on to the grounds of a listed school building which has been converted into studios.

For me, galleries should feed your soul and mind... but also the tummy

Melanie Arnold

“Giles Deacon, when he worked next door, said he was the healthiest he’d ever been thanks to us,” says Arnold. Björk, Jefferson Hack, Keira Knightley and her husband James Righton are regulars.

Both Margot's husband and Melanie's ex-husband are giants of the restaurant business — Fergus Henderson and Jon Spiteri ran The French House with Melanie and Margot in 1992 before opening St John in Clerkenwell. Yet both women have shaped the canteen in their own right, nurturing luminary chefs, from Trullo’s Tim Siadatan to the Canton Arms’ Trish Hilferty. “There’s a big family,” says Henderson. “They’ve all been through here and taken a bit of it away with them.”

The two met at Arnold’s wedding — Fergus and Margot Henderson had only begun dating weeks beforehand. “The first time I saw Margot, she and Fergus were late for our wedding,” laughs Arnold. “I was coming up hill with my dad to the church and they sprinted past.”

Outside the restaurant, rows of home-grown vegetables spring up from planting pots. “A lot of our influences come from Margot’s New Zealand heritage — our way of thinking about vegetables and salads, for instance,” says Arnold.

The Canteen is unashamedly old-fashioned — devilled crab, gull’s egg with celery salt, posset, rosemary-fragranced salad of roast lamb. “Sometimes its relaxing, taking a break from being constantly told this is the one new thing you have to try,” laughs Arnold. “But I love new things — except smears.” To clarify: smears are those daubs of sauces spread on a plate beside the food . “That’s boy cooking. Women don’t do smears. They’re just ugly.”

Both are a force for equality in the kitchen. “There are certain jobs boys insist on doing, and others they won’t do,” says Henderson. “Everyone thinks girls should just be pastry chefs. There’s nothing wrong with being a pastry chef but girls can get sidelined. Men are also very competitive, especially in the culture of a kitchen.”

Is it harder work being a woman in the restaurant business? “In the kitchen, no,” says Arnold. “In life, yes.”