Setting The Table With… Gizzi Erskine
Gizzi Erskine needs little introduction. We have long loved her as a chef, food writer, and when she graced our screens as a TV presenter. Her talent in the kitchen is obvious, but we’re also huge champions of her social presence as well – from her hearty, flavour-packed recipes that will add a chefy spin to your everyday repertoire to her vampish style and innately rock ‘n’ roll cool she brings to everything.
Having made a celebrated return to London’s foodie destination, Mare Street Market, as Chef Creative Director this autumn, Gizzi is busier than ever. She still found the time, however, to be our next dinner party guest in our Setting The Table series. We sat down with the British star to find out what her dream dinner party situation would look like, from the rock-star/artist-heavy guest list to dangerous martinis and the fabulous outfits. Full disclosure: Gizzi’s dinner parties sound like a raucous, otherworldly affair, and we want an invite to the next one.
My dream dinner party would be… a list of history’s grimmest serial killers and satanists. I love all the dark, disgusting and freaky stuff. I don’t think I’d make it out of that alive, and at this stage in my life – where I’m back in love with the world, my existence and work – I should probably give myself a better chance and time to see the tiny circle of my really close friends and family.
My best friends are pretty jazzy… to be honest. Rose Dougal, from the band the Waeve and her partner in work and life, Graham Coxon from Blur. Pop star Lou Hayter, and songwriter Ciara Haidar, my dearest friend Leonie Cooper, who is a music and food journalist, my sisters Heni and Cora, their partners and their kids, and my Mum. Oh, and my boyfriend and love of my life, Matt Turner from the punk band Luxury Apartments. Plus our four cats.
I’ll start the night with a cocktail… an icy cold Plymouth Gin Gibson martini with five pickled onions.
Oh, if I entertain. It’s like Christmas.
For welcome snacks… I’d do one of the dishes we are going to be sending out from the deli at Mare Street Market (after hours). Hot crisps layered up San Sebastián-style with either jamon iberico and Guindilla peppers or my favourite, both pickled and salted anchovies with Guindilla peppers – essentially the gilda ingredients over freshly made hot chips. These would be perfect with my martini.
I want everyone to be shoulder to shoulder… with bottles of icy Albariño and aged Barolo and eating morsels of outrageous mouthfuls.
On the menu will be… oysters with yuzu kosho mignonette, my famous lobster-and-black-pudding fried wontons with bisque and lime leaf. Then I’d serve a monster oxtail pie with bone marrow chimney. This is all not too far away from my ambitions with our main restaurant – lots of fresh things paired with lots of rich things.
I’d finish with more Barolo… and maybe (if no one was looking) I’d have an amaretto sour for pudding to share with Rose. I’d make chocolate mousse with salt and really good double cream pooled over it for everyone else.
My friends don’t always expect something grand… because of my profession, more because I’m extremely extra.
For the tablescape… I’d look to Bacchanalia. Piles of grapes, figs, eucalyptus and fig leaves. Long candles and candelabras, whole wheels of cheese.
I am a great cook and love to nourish people… but I’m really disorganised with the silverware and linens. I have one set of white light linens and a set of silverware.
What makes my table really personalised? My anxiety to carry me along? Cat hair? It’s a pretty mad site as it is.
I love skill and technical stuff… I thrive on it. So I want to do things properly, but I find entertaining stressful. I want to get to the part after we eat. My friends and I love to yap for hours and dance. My mother is the worst!
On the dinner party playlist is… everything from Richard Hell and The Fall to Abba and Prefab Sprout. So long as it’s not dance music and I can sing along, I love it.
At my dream dinner party, I would be wearing… a red leather gown by Dilara Findikoglu. I have been a fan of her work since her first collection.
The perfect dinner party would end with… no one leaving until after 2 am. We talk, sing and dance ourselves to death. Matt and I clear up with the help of the cats, then we’d roll into bed, sleep and curl up for hours. The next day, I’d make him a roast just for us, because a roast for two on a rainy day is what we love to do the most.
For more information on Mare Street Market or to book, visit marestreetmarket.com
