Another page in the rapidly evolving story of FEASTED has been turned, following the launch of a Stoke-on-Trent restaurant’s latest tasting menu.
Given the title of NEU FOLK, the nine course micro-seasonal and hyper-local feast - as those who already know Potteries Chef Cris Cohen will not be surprised to learn - is far from simply being about the food and drink. It’s an experience. And one featuring his two major ingredients: “deliciousness” and “storytelling”.
Neu Folk, subtitled, “Come One, Come All”, opened on 12 July and is now available for bookings through to the end of September.
This time, the nine courses have been curated by Head Chef Alex Norcop and the rest of the FEASTED team. But, as ever, storytelling is an integral part of the dishes created at the Chefs Table, which is located deep within the former Spode Works.
These stories have been as carefully crafted as the dishes themselves, to go hand in hand with the NEU FOLK menu; and all are linked to the exploration of local folklore.
Always looking for ways to create a new narrative for the city of Stoke on Trent, Cohen has quickly established his restaurant as a “landmark experience” for visitors to the city. Having established FEASTED in an old pot bank in a post-industrial city, he’s not only making things happen, but has also managed to make his voice heard on topics which are close to his heart: “Place, Purpose, People”.
Chef’’s Table began in October 2022, and was created by Cohen with the intention to raise the perception of what dining could be in Stoke on Trent.
“Celebrating our city’s heritage, creating dishes that mean something to the city,” he explains. “Our guests can ask questions about technique or simply enjoy the atmosphere of being in the kitchen”.
Only 10 people dine at Chef’s Table, making it one of the most exclusive dining experiences in the UK right now.
Having worked in hospitality in both Staffordshire and London since the age of 14, his journey up the food chain, to the top of his very own Chef’s Table, has been long and arduous at times. But with beliefs about food as complex as some of his own dishes, he’s now at that point where a seat at the table of the best kept secret in Stoke-on-Trent could soon become one of the hottest tickets in town.
It was while working for a private client in 2019, that Cohen experienced a seminal moment. “I had been teaching from 2010 to 2016, when I had to leave that job due to long-term illness,” he begins. “Then, in October 2017 I put out a super-simple and super-humble message on Facebook saying ‘Hey - who wants some soup and bread’.”
The four people who responded not only enjoyed a fine lunch, they also played a small part in restoring Cohen’s self-belief to the point where he started cooking dinner parties for private clients, and thinking about ways in which he could combine the food he was creating with a strong sense of place.
The key moment when everything finally fell into place - “an affirmation”, to use Cohen’s own words - was when, in April 2019, he heard Claus Meyer the co-founder of the revolutionary NOMA restaurant in Copenhagen being interviewed on BBC Radio 4’s Food Programme on the subject of ‘How To Start A Food Revolution’.
NEU FOLK calls on the cooking and foraging skills of a young team, and includes dishes such as The Black Cat of Getliffes Yard (well-fired roll, koji tomato butter and wild rose xorissa); Saracens of Biddulph Moor (tomato consommé, heather honey, bilberry, cucumber and sumac onion); The Blue Pigeon of Spode Tower (pigeon, sui mai, cherry jus gras, apricot, pear granita and lavender); and the deliciously sweet On Life & Death (hawthorne vinaigrette ice cream, strawberry, sancho, white chocolate and penny bun).
A Saturday Lunch costs £70 per person, with an additional £35 charged for paired drinks. Friday and Saturday evenings are priced at £120 per person, with paired drinks at £60. And a Thursday evening ‘special’ tasting is £65 per person.
For further details, visit https://www.feasted.co.uk/chefs-table.