In a small kitchen garden in London, on an autumn harvest day, chef Isaac McHale thrusts a copy of a paperback by Christopher Stocks from 2009, called Forgotten Fruits: The Stories Behind Britain’s Traditional Fruit and Vegetables, into my hands. “This book was part of my journey into discovering more of the fantastic old varieties of fruit and vegetables that Britain has to offer, and helped crystallise my hopes of running our own market garden for the restaurant into something I knew I really wanted to do,” he says.
That garden has been erected on the edge of an east London school playground, where students can watch 45-year-old McHale, who was born in Orkney and raised in Glasgow, grow from seed a variety of vegetables and fruits for his two-Michelin-starred Shoreditch restaurant The Clove Club.
For McHale, “being able to grow produce and have a connection to it” was integral to the experience he wanted to create at his restaurant, following in the footsteps of establishments such as Manresa in California, Alain Passard’s l’Arpège in Paris, Mugaritz in Errenteria, Le Manoir au Quat’Saisons.
I visit on a harvest day. We walk through the school campus to the one-acre site, about the size of a football field, where the growing happens. That seems like a large amount of land, but the Royal Docks Academy has plenty of outdoor space — I count five actual football pitches as well as open land with benches on for the students to use for sports and recreation — so the growing space feels a lot less invasive.
McHale (right) with his grower, Hugo Silva, in the polytunnel 
Tomatillos verde
As we cross the rows of plantings, McHale invites me to taste Kristian yellow chillies, Pink Brandywine tomatoes and Tagetes leaves, which are grown in a polytunnel alongside thick, fleshy Costoluto Fiorentino tomatoes and petite cherry Chadwick tomatoes, Caloro chillies and tonda di Chioggia beetroot. “These are things I often couldn’t put into the menu in the past, because we got so little of them from suppliers,” he says.
Next to these towering plants sit rows of chilli varieties in what grower Hugo Silva describes as planting “pits”. It is noticeably warmer inside the polytunnel than the early autumn temperature outside, which is why there are still tomatoes ripening on the vines around us.
This isn’t about replacing the basic onions and carrots — this is about growing specialist things
Isaac McHale, The Clove Club
“This isn’t about replacing the basic onions and carrots, which we get from New Covent Garden — this is about growing specialist things,” says McHale, who is preparing to plant seeds gifted from other chefs and restaurants, including Jorge Vallejo in Mexico City and Dan Barber of Row 7 Seed Company in New York. “It’s expensive in comparison, but worth it if we can reduce the amount of fruit and veg we buy from overseas suppliers.
“It’s about seasonality,” he continues, “but the pit allows us a little bit more time to let those beans and tomatoes just go a little bit longer because they need to be cosy and warm.”
The project is backed by the local authority, Newham, and built in partnership with OrganicLea, a workers’ co-operative based in an acre of once-derelict allotment land in the north east fringes of London. They were put in touch with the school by Patrick Vickers, a self-described “food activist” and founder of Regenerous, which works with councils and schools to set up food growing spaces.
Golden and Black Beauty courgettes 
Costoluto Fiorentino and purple and golden bumblebee tomatoes, with nasturtium leaves and flowers
Vickers waxes lyrical about the symbiotic relationship between chefs like McHale and schools trying to teach about healthy eating on limited funds, but admits it was not easy to find an appropriate site. The Royal Docks Academy, which has provided the land, has quite substantial green space, but I am guessing the children who spill out during break time have had little contact with nature in their home life, given the lack of parks nearby and the concrete shopping arcades and blocks of flats abutting the campus.
“I have been to 50 or 60 schools and six or seven have a surprising amount of green space, but the rest are concrete jungles,” Vickers says.
A second polytunnel has been erected on the plot for the school to grow their own produce, complete with ramps to assist students in wheelchairs, though when I visit this is still a work in progress.
McHale pays about £30,000 a year to cover Silva’s salary part-time, plus a second seasonal grower for the busy summer months, seeds, tools and a contingency fund, as well as the cost of a weekly food delivery to The Clove Club. The land is provided rent free by Newham.
McHale pulls out a chickpea pod for me to taste the contents, fresh from the plant, brimming with pride. “I don’t know anywhere else in the UK that grows chickpeas like that,” he says.
Early Scarlet Horn carrots 
Silva in the polytunnel among French climbing beans and chickpeas
Cucumbers are another plant that grows for longer in the season, thanks to the polytunnel’s warmth. McHale picks one off its vine, making sure to retain the leafy yellow flower attached at its tip. “That’s kind of a catnip for chefs,” he says.
Back at The Clove Club, based in the grand rooms of the Grade II-listed Shoreditch Town Hall, McHale’s team will use the tomatoes in a beetroot gazpacho granita, served as a palate cleanser. “We use the tagetes leaves [Mexican marigold] to garnish this dish,” he adds.
Earlier tomato harvests have gone to The Clove Club’s sister venue, Bar Valette, where chef Stan Wroblicki used them to make tomato tonnato, and a peach and tomato salad.
“The courgettes and patty pan squash we used in the summer with lobster to make courgette purées and for pieces on the plate; the aubergines we have used to make organic aubergine with green tomato juice, lemon verbena and St Nectaire cheese,” McHale explains. “Right now, we are making a dish with steamed Cornish mackerel and a little stew of shell beans and fresh chickpeas from the garden, alongside broad bean leaves and pea shoots.”
Recommended
The kitchen garden was only started in April, so McHale has not been able to capitalise on a full growing season, but he describes it as “great start” as well as an education. “The garden forces you as a chef to change your mindset. The garden leads you. You need to work with what it gives you, and preserve when you have a glut.”
Find out about our latest stories first — follow @ft_houseandhome on Instagram
Comments are closed.