JKS partners with chef Luke Farrell for Arcade Food Hall restaurants
Plaza Khao Gaeng will be Luke’s debut restaurant which will occupy the mezzanine at Arcade Food Hall Centrepoint, is a celebration of Southern Thai cuisine.
JKS, a London restaurant group, has announced its partnership with chef Luke Farrell as it launches a series of restaurants.
Farrell has spent over 15 years in Thailand, training and working in kitchens across South East Asia. Alongside his “extensive” culinary learnings, over the years he has also acquired hundreds of cuttings and seeds which he has cultivated back at his own nursery, Ryewater, in Dorset.
According to the firm, this has allowed him to dutifully grow and recreate his favourite regional cuisines of Thailand, Malaysia, Vietnam, India and China, here in the UK, as well as supply Europe’s top Thai restaurants and the Thai embassy in London.
Plaza Khao Gaeng will be Farrell’s debut restaurant which will occupy the mezzanine at Arcade Food Hall Centrepoint, is a celebration of Southern Thai cuisine. Khao gaeng broadly means ‘curry over rice’.
The group said the menu “hinges” on fresh curry pastes from small producers in Thailand. Some have been “pounding pastes” for three generations with specialist chillies, turmeric, and long pepper in ready supply. Premium shrimp paste, palm sugar and fish sauce too, ensure a strong link to Thailand’s traditional foodways.
Farrell’s second offering, Bebek! Bebek! is an Indonesian street food kitchen joining a roster of other brand new concepts at Arcade in the main food hall. The menu will focus on traditional smoked duck and chicken from Yogyakarta.
Karam Sethi, creative director, said: “I first met Luke in 2009 when he was a stagier at Trishna and have since followed what he’s been up to from a distance. He’s an encyclopaedia on all things Thai and Southeast Asian and the first person I called to work with on the Thai restaurant at Arcade.
“I can see similarities between the Indian food market in London in 2008 and the Thai food market currently. There is a genuine love for the cuisine and the opportunity to showcase pure, regional Thai food using the ingredients of Thailand is exciting.’”
