One of America’s Most Influential Chefs, Nancy Silverton, Is Coming to London

Nancy Silverton, one of America’s most influential chefs, will host her first ever residency outside the USA — at Passo, on Old Street roundabout from 26 March to 30 March — in London. A recent appearance on Chef’s Table brought the chef back into the wider food consciousness, as did her response to Mario Batali (a former investment partner) and his repeated sexual misconduct.

Alongside head chef, Massimiliano Iaquinoto, and group executive chef, Joe Hill, Silverton — whose restaurants include Chi Spacca, Osteria Mozza and Pizzeria Mozza in Los Angeles — will offer a seven-course tasting menu as well as a one-off chance to taste Pizzeria Mozza’s famous dough (and toppings.) The tasting menu will be offered at dinner, while the lunch service will offer Mozza’s famous pizza, the first time Silverton’s highly secretive dough recipe will be allowed outside of the institution that bears its name.

The menu itself is a tour of Silverton’s most well known dishes, including:

• Chopped Salad
• Mozzarella Caprese — Pizzeria Mozza
• Ricotta and Brown Butter Ravioli — Osteria Mozza
• Grilled Octopus with Puréed and Fried Ceci (chickpeas) — Chi Spacca

With a preference for privacy over limelight, Silverton’s influence on the direction of American food culture may be less apparent to Londoners than it should be. Founding Campanile and La Brea Bakery in Los Angeles in 1989, and her pair of Mozza restaurants in 2007, Silverton is an undisputed architect of both the California cuisine that shaped 1990s America, and the modern bread movement that is apparent in bakeries across the globe today. Anywhere featuring food driven by market availability with a California/Italian slant — aka a lot of restaurants — is operating somewhere within Silverton’s orbit. Any bakery treating bread as artisanal in America, and likely further afield, is operating in Silverton’s orbit. This is all to say: Nancy Silverton doing a residency in London is a big deal.

Reservations for the residency can be found here.