On the 8th of March, Bonny Porter, founder of Balls & Company on Soho’s Greek Street, will host a formidable line up of some of London’s best female Chefs in celebration of International Women’s Day. The one off five course dinner, will see Margot Henderson, Olia Hercules, Sandia Chang, Freddie Janssen, Emily Dobbs, Tania Steytler and Roz Bado, join Bonny at the stoves for an evening championing women in the industry and beyond.
Each chef will create a dish inspired by the women who have shaped their lives. Paying homage to her mother’s home style Chinese cooking, Sandia Chang, Founder and Sommelier at bubbledogs, has created a canapé of Crab potsticker with black vinegar and pickled ginger to begin. Author of Mamushka, Olia Hercules, draws on her Ukrainian heritage with a fermented sorrel broth for the first course, inspired by her mother and grandmother who she describes as ‘broth masters’. Olia’s recipe for Green borsch and sorrel will be served with Maldovan flatbreads, packed with aromatic herbs and spices, created by Roz Bado, baker for GAIL’s. Having started as a pastry chef at GAIL’s in Blackheath, Roz soon mastered sourdough baking and created the much-loved Blackheath Wild white sourdough, which she’ll be making for the table. Emily Dobbs, Founder of Sri-Lankan pop-up Weligama, and formerly of Spring and Duck Soup, will bring Pickled pumpkin, burrata and speck with chestnut and sage oil, a dish she learned from former colleague Skye Gyngell during her time spent in the kitchens at Spring.
F.A.T pickles Author and 2016 YBF Street Food winner Freddie Janssen will bring a taste of Mexico City to the evening, with Pink mole tacos, a dish she has made with Elena Reygadas in mind, one of Latin America’s leading female chefs. The fourth course will come courtesy of Margot Henderson, renowned cookery writer and Co-Founder of Clerkenwell’s Rochelle Canteen. Margot will be serving one of her favorite dishes – Braised squid and fennel, which will be cooked as an ode to Italian cookery writer, Marcella Hazan. Margot’s dish will be accompanied by a medley of artichoke by Bonny Porter. Rounding off the evening will be a dessert by Tania Steytler, Head Chef at Snaps + Rye. Tania’s Saffron bread and butter pudding with Cornish clotted ice cream and ginger fairing, draws on her Cornish roots and memories of her grandmother, who triggered her love of cooking. The evening’s wine list will be curated by award winning Sommelier Sandia Chang, with beers chosen by Balls & Company’s Hilary Brett.
‘We have a wealth of incredibly talented female chefs in London and I’ve wanted to bring everyone together for a while now – International Women’s Day seemed to be the perfect occasion. It’s a real honour for us to have all of these women cooking in our kitchen at Balls & Company; they’re people I respect and who inspire me, and this dinner will be an opportunity to showcase a host of different flavours, influences and talents in one night’ says Balls & Company Founder and Head Chef Bonny Porter.