As megamall Westfield opens its doors we talk to one of the pioneer restaurateurs going in, both before the big event and on the opening day
One half of the French Invasion is Pascal Aussignac who together with his business partner Vincent Labeyrie created the original Club Gascon years back with minimal money and precious little encouragement. ”The banks didn’t want to know,” he laughs toying with his espresso in Cellar Gascon, his jacket barely concealing the chef’s whites beneath. ‘You know back then this area was pretty much dead, there wasn’t even any real street lighting. It was just the market and the evenings were strange, deserted and almost spooky.”
The two had done their research though and felt the area had potential for their clever idea of bringing Gascony food to London in small portions. ‘Because, you know, normally the food is delicious but pfffffff” Pascal mimes his stomach swelling to an enormous size. ‘We didn’t want the customers being carried out!’ In fact customers were soon clamouring to get in, with six hundred people a day trying to book a place with room for just thirty five. ‘Madness,” says Pascal ruefully shaking his head.
Up in the cellar
And so when the place next door became available, the duo grabbed it and turned a run down old coffee house into Cellar Gascon, although to be honest it is actually on the ground floor. Here they were able to feed people faster with quick dishes eaten at pace and with perfectly matched glasses of wine from the home region. Then needing more kitchen space their Gallic gaze fell on a disused building the other side of the market, ‘It was a pissoir,” says Pascal. ‘ No really, it was the lavatory supplied by the council for the meat market workers but it hadn’t been used for awhile I am glad to say.” Here they used the kitchen downstairs while upstairs they had a range of Deli items from Gascony all displayed in a classically simple manner along with plenty of fine patisserie. ‘At night though people going past seemed to think it was a restaurant and were disappointed to find out that it wasn’t,” Pascal shrugs, ‘so we turned it into one! We serve larger, more filling dishes there and we have different plats de jour every day because now we have locals to feed and they want variety, of course.”
Feeding fashion
Going west
And so now here they are again, in at the start of something big with the opening of Croque Garcon in Westfield, in just a week’s time as we speak, and they are not alone, many big names are venturing into the kind of area that they would not normally have touched with a twelve foot breadstick ten years ago, a place where fast food is normally filthy food. Pascal is excited of course.
‘It’s going to be superlative food served in minutes,” he enthuses. ‘You know Croque means toasted as in Croque Monsieur a superior cheese sandwich and we are going to serve food above the normal standard with a short menu of twelve dishes including Cassoulard, a kind of reworked Cassoulet and a signature dish of Duck burger made from the leg meat shredded and formed into a burger, served in a bun of course, and for an extra cost topped with some pan fried foie gras. It’s something we’ve seen as one offs around London but this is permanent, something never done before for the general public, all in a place dedicated to raising the concept of fast food.”
The day dawns
“I’ve never worked in a shopping mall before! This crowd, the numbers we are serving. I’m really pleased even if it’s not quite as fast as I want it. But then we only took over the kitchen just yesterday!” he yells above the noise, ‘before that it was just dust everywhere. But I am so happy to be here right now, being able in this recession time to be serving decent food at a decent price to anyone who drops by. We are open until 9pm and I like the location, I prefer it to being on the outside terraces. I am going to be here for three weeks, checking and refining, it will be long days! Good fast food the Gascon way!”
With that he scuttles off to the kitchen to make some Churros, the sweet Spanish crisp piped donuts dipped in chocolate that are also popular on the beaches of his native South West France. ‘We only tried the machine this morning,” Pascal calls over his shoulder cheerfully, as happy with his new kit as a kid with a new toy. ‘Some things we are learning as we go along!” The whole Westfield opening is a challenge but it’s clear that these Gascons are going to rise to it.
Gascon Online
Comptoir Gascon, 63 Charterhouse Street, London, EC1M 6HJ
Club Gascon and Cellar Gascon 57 West Smithfield, London, EC1A 9DS
La Cercle 1 Wilbraham Place, London SW1X 9AE
Croque Gascon Westfield