‘Any meal we have together is fun!’ Wild by Tart founders Lucy Carr-Ellison and Jemima Jones show you really can mix business with pleasure.
When Jemima Jones and Lucy Carr-Ellison joined forces to create exclusive catering company, Tart London, their success was immediate and client-list star-studded. They opened restaurant, retail and events space, Wild by Tart, in Belgravia in 2019 and since then, the duo has gone from strength to strength. We catch up with them to find out what they’ve been up to and, most importantly, what’s on the menu this season. We’re hungry.
GM: Hi Lucy and Jemima! How is 2024 going for you so far?
Lucy: It is going really well, thank you. The past few years have flown by in a flurry of madness. Of course opening a restaurant and events space just before Covid wasn’t ideal, and we’ve rather been chasing our tails. But this January is the first time that things feel really positive (touch wood). We have had a good start to the year at Wild by Tart - it’s very nice to see a lot of people are not doing dry Jan! We’re currently working on a few exciting projects.
GM: Would you mind telling BSF members how you met?
Jemima: Thinking back to the moment we first met really feels out of a scene from some cool 90s movie. Well, in my head it does! We met in New York in April 2010, both of us living the Big Apple dream. I had just arrived days before and hadn’t yet sorted a phone, so when our mutual friend Anna Brewster set us up for a coffee, I came with instructions - a café in the Lower East Side at a certain time - over email. The streets were abuzz with people midweek sitting outside, a welcome early spring heat wave, and the energy and hum were quite incredible. I sat in the hip chosen café, soaking in the vibe, waiting for Lucy to arrive. As the minutes ticked by - 10, 15, 20… 30 - I started contemplating getting up and leaving, but luckily Lucy caught me in the nick of time. She was bounding down the street in her dungaree shorts, breathlessly apologising that her tattoo appointment had run over. We hit it off instantly; walking with iced coffees in hand around the LES talking about all things food related. Thank god for that sliding doors moment. We had a lot of fun in NYC together!
GM: And how quickly did you decide you wanted to work together?
Lucy: It was pretty quick. We both moved back to London and were trying to find our feet; I was working as a freelance photographer and Jemima was at a creative agency. Tart emerged sort of out of nowhere, and a little by mistake. We started catering for a few editorials and then the snowball effect happened; we were suddenly taking on big advertising jobs. We LOVED it, it was so much fun. We were young and had the energy to be up every morning at the crack of dawn and would pretty much burn the candle at both ends. Back to your question – we just worked together one day and then never looked back. We’ve worked together everyday since!
GM: Your Tart London client list is incredible. Did it take off pretty quickly?
Jemima: We were blessed when Tart started in 2012 to hit a bit of an unexpected niche in the market. Catering for fashion shoots to date had always been quite a sorry affair; we both knew this first-hand from prior work in the industry. Food was typically brought in from industrial kitchens on big trays, accompanied by a limp, overly dressed salad. Or, if you were lucky, a local takeaway from Pizza Express. Tart brought homely cooking onsite, popping up in any location: Studio, dilapidated house, rooftop, beach, horsebox in a field… circus tent…you name it. Always with our kitchen equipment, induction hops, mismatched crockery, cut flowers, music, bags laden with fresh produce and a couple of cakes baked the night before, crammed into one of our wee cars! We really hit the ground running and our days were filled with exciting shoots and incredible clients; clients that we still work with today at Wild by Tart, and feel eternally grateful for.
GM: How long did it take to find the perfect site for Wild by Tart?
Lucy: We had a pop-up restaurant in Queens Park back in 2014 - or was it 16? A while ago! And we loved it. We came up with the menu every morning, depending on what produce we had in that day. We just cooked and cooked and cooked, and we really got the buzz for it. So we thought to set up our own permanent spot; an events space that we could cater for and a small eatery on the side, which ended up being a little bigger than we imagined! We had actually found a pub in Primrose Hill, which heartbreakingly fell through at the very last minute. So we started looking again and whilst being shown a spot in Eccleston Yards, we walked through a derelict car park. We just stopped dead and knew we had found our home. This beautiful, derelict car park was to become Wild by Tart.
GM: Tell us about what’s exciting you on the menu this season?
Jemima: It’s funny how certain seasonal ingredients come around throughout the year and never fail to bring huge delight and inspiration. During these bleaker days of winter, we find the arrival of forced rhubarb and blood oranges one of the most joyous. With their vibrant pinks and evocative juicy reds, they feel like treasures at this time of year. We are presently recipe testing and conjuring up a chic, blood orange salad with pretty leaves and delicious dressing, and a tangy pickled-spiced rhubarb to go alongside a charred mackerel.
GM: How often do you guys manage to share a meal together for fun?
Lucy: Not as much as we would like / all the time, depending on how you look at it! Any meal we have together is fun; it’s a time when we can talk food, plans, travel – it’s so easy to get carried away. The laptop and spreadsheets are put away, and we can talk food for hours. Even better if there is a cold glass of white wine involved. We eat all the time at the restaurant, always tasting, testing, thinking, planning – and this is fun. But to go out for a meal? The weeks go by so fast these days and suddenly it’s been months. We love to go out for an inspiring lunch; Mountain was the most recent. I’m going to book one in before Jemima goes on maternity, for a pre-baby treat.
GM: And when it happens, where do you go?
Jemima: Most of the time this will be at Tart. But on the rare occasion we find ourselves out, we really love to treat ourselves to one of the amazing new restaurants in London. We definitely have our favourites; Clipstone in Fitzrovia, Duck Soup in Soho, Towpath in Dalston and Petersham Nurseries in Richmond
GM: How do you find the juggle of childcare and work? Tell us all your secrets.
Lucy: Very difficult! And I certainly have not nailed it yet, either. Oh it’s so hard, the guilt. It’s great when they are tiny, in slug mode, as we are able to just bring them into the restaurant and they chill while we’re in meetings. I’m finding it much more difficult as my daughter gets older, as you are constantly pulled in both directions. Jemima has breezed through having 4, and I struggle with 1. One thing it’s taught me is to put boundaries in place. I was really bad at doing this before and would work around the clock, but now I make sure - or try to - that when I am with my daughter, I am with her. My phone is put away, and even if it is just for 20 minutes, it’s 20 minutes of full concentration.
GM: And finally, what’s your 2024 game plan? World domination with the odd holiday thrown in?
Jemima: Yessss (mwwuuhahaha)!
Lucy: World domination and a very delayed honeymoon – I am off to Mexico next week (toddler in tow), and can’t wait!
February, 2024
