Ollie Templeton, co-founder of top London restaurant Carousel, talks travel, tostadas and liquid nitrogen.
In 2016, before the idea of guest chefs was even a twinkle in the eye, Ollie and his brother Ed were inviting international culinary whizz-kids over to Marylebone to cook tasting menus for the hungry and the in-the-knows.
Now restaurants using this model are two-a-penny and Carousel has moved to Charlotte Street, where huge names like New York’s King and Melbourne’s Lee Ho Fook grace its kitchens.
They’ve opened an incredible wine and tapas bar on the same site, host Amy Poon’s eponymous Poon’s Wontoneria next door and have just launched a sell-out event called Paired, partnering DJs and chefs to create an unforgettable culinary and music experience. It’s clear that the Templetons are completely and utterly obsessed with food.
When we meet, Ollie has a spring in his step as he’s just back from a trip to Guatemala and Mexico. I ask him about the beaches and he frowns: ‘well, I was cooking’. Of course he was.
Ollie says that the best thing, excluding all of the amazing skills he’s learnt after nearly 300 residences at Carousel, has been the friends.
He was joining Pablo Díaz (Mercado 24 and Dora la Tostadora) in Guatemala, cooking up a mouth-watering 7 courses. The menu featured some wine bar favourites including the scene-stealing fried chicken – wild garlic replaced with local herb hoja santa - and smoked butter squid. Though this time, it was made with tuna - hook-and-line caught, of course. It’s hard to come by in the UK, which is why he very rarely uses it.
‘The food I cook and the flavours I’m interested in are from that part of the world,’ Ollie muses, lighting up when talking about going to the markets and selecting the produce. The wine bar’s menu is an ode to Central and Southern America. I’ve eaten there several times and still dream of the anchovy crisps and oh, the potatoes – some mashed, some roasted, with pickled white onions and crispy shoestring fries. A Russian doll of potato delights; dig deep and you discover beige riches… Never interview a chef on an empty stomach.
The pair then headed to Mexico City to join good friend Emme Prieto at his restaurant Taverna, where they teamed up to create an incredible feast including mussels and clams on toast, tostadas with yellow-tail, habanero and coriander, oysters with smoky tomato, Carousel’s signature fried chicken and grilled baby lobster with spinach and crunchy fries. This was rounded off with a chocolate mousse and sour orange mescal granita to finish.
Templeton laughs: ‘I’ve now learnt that unless they have the right kit, don’t put anything frozen on the menu’.
Ever the hustler and a family business by name and nature, he sent his girlfriend out in an uber to the barrios of CDMX to find liquid nitrogen to set the dessert. Luckily he had Carousel’s head-chef and Mexican native José on the phone back in London to advise. ‘Never again’. He smiles and somehow, I don’t believe him. I can’t wait to see what they do next.
September, 2023
