Isaac McHale: Chasing three Michelin stars at The Clove Club

For Isaac McHale, the goal is clear – to join the illustrious list of UK restaurants to hold three Michelin stars.

Scottish chef Isaac opened The Clove Club in Shoreditch in 2013, after previous experience in the Michelin-starred kitchens of René Redzepi’s Noma, Elystan Street with Tom Aikens and being part of Brett Graham’s opening team at The Ledbury.

The Ledbury has gone on to achieve the coveted three Michelin stars, making it one of just ten restaurants across Great Britain & Ireland to hold the honour. That includes long-standing three-star venues, such as Heston Blumenthal’s The Fat Duck and The Waterside Inn under Alain Roux.

The latest addition to the list was earlier this year, when Mark Birchall at Moor Hall earned its third star.

Many chefs, publicly at least, insist chasing accolades is not something they do. But for Isaac, having quickly achieved its first Michelin star in 2014, followed by a second eight years later, he is not shying away from where he wants to take The Clove Club.

“Three Michelin stars and you've got to say it if you're going for it, you’ve got to write it down and believe it and make that goal if you’re going for it,” insisted Isaac.

“We're halfway to three. We're not there yet, but it’s a funny time in hospitality and you can see those places that are pushing for it. We are in our own way, but we need a little bit of work on the environment here.

“It's meant to be only about the food, but I think there's some things around the building here we need to touch up.

“So I'm working on that and then things we need to improve that I'm aware of. Pastry and snacks we can lift up a bit and some other bits.

“I'm scared and I don't want to shoot our prices up to north of £300.

“We're £225, one of the cheapest two stars. But none of my friends come here. It's not that they don’t like me, it’s because they can't afford it and it's tough out there for people.

“It’s just a struggle really with increasing the prices more in order to make a situation more luxe. But I still think with improvements here we can cook food with a skill and discipline needed for three Michelin stars.

“I just don't want to go to £400 a head just for food to achieve that. I think that's just alienating even more people.

“I think that fine dining might eat itself if we do that.”

Earlier this year Isaac opened Bar Valette, also in Shoreditch, with Stan Wróblicki recently moving across from The Clove Club to become head chef there.

That has been part of a reshuffle in Isaac’s team at The Clove Club, with long-serving head chef Paul Quin set to leave to move and open his own restaurant in the Basque Country. That will see Rhys Lebreux step up to that position from his role as sous chef, having joined seven years ago from Saint Peter, under Josh Niland.

Sardines, Sashimi & Shoreditch: Elevating Humble Ingredients

Given his background, Isaac unsurprisingly specialises in fish cookery, with dishes such as sardine sashimi and lightly grilled tuna part of his menu.

Isaac credits linking up with Cornwall-based supplier Kernowsashimi as a “major turning point” for him and the restaurant, which saw him become more flexible in terms of what would go on the menu, with the main focus becoming quality of available ingredients, rather than insisting on particular fish.

“It made it much harder for us, because we had to change dishes all the time,” he said.

“One of the favourite parts of my job is getting the amazing produce and then figuring out how to elevate it to its highest level.”

Born to be in the kitchen

Cooking was in Isaac’s blood from an early age.

“I'm from rainy Glasgow and I didn't want to get a paper round cycling around in the rain,” he said.

“I already loved cooking so when it came to get a part-time job, I got a job in the fishmonger's, working on school holidays and Saturdays.

“I learned all about flat fish and how to fillet fish for customers, digging my hands in and out of ice every day and building up a beautiful display. So I loved that job.”

He continued: “I loved cooking at home from a very young age. Aged seven, I wanted to know how to make chicken pakora.

“All the other boys would go to play football in the park and I would go to the cash and carry and try to memorise the names for all the Indian spices.

“All I wanted for my ninth birthday was money instead of presents. I used that money to buy ingredients to cook a multi-course meal for my friends. I guess that's the sign you've got it, or you want it.

“I bought an amazing book called Japanese Cooking: A Simple Art. I really wanted to move to Japan to learn about Japanese food, but it was a time when Japan wasn't open.

“It was Catch 22, you can’t get a visa without a job and can’t get a job without a visa.”

Instead, Isaac opted to head to Australia, turning down a last-minute job offer from Ashley Palmer-Watts at The Fat Duck.

The plan was to work for Japanese-Australian chef Tetsuya Wakuda, but again visa issues scuppered his plans, so he went to work at three-hat restaurant Marque in Sydney under Mark Best, formerly of Le Manoir aux Quat’Saisons and L'Arpège.

Isaac then learned London was the place to be, so he returned to the UK, working alongside the likes of Tom Sellers, Elwyn Boyles, Aidan Byrne and Roger Hickman at Tom Aikens’ Elystan Street. He also met Nathan Thomas there, which proved to be the link which would take him on to The Ledbury, before opening on his own at The Clove Club.

Isaac said: “You spend your life working in places with the food that excites you and chefs you want to learn from. While you're doing their food, you don't ever do your food. You don't get to have an opinion.

“You're just there to be the worker, just do things faster than yesterday and you'll be okay.

“Then there's a bit of freedom to create and add things and have little bits of ideas, but you still don't have your own identity and your own style.

“You're just cooking in somebody else's style to add to their menu.

“But I learned so much from all those places.”

He added: “Here we are, 12 years on, and the most amazing thing is we set up with no money in this place.

“We need to do a little bit of a refresh, but we have, in that time, had the best chefs in the world come and visit us here and love their time here - people who were my heroes growing up.

“The Roca Brothers, Heston, other people who are now my friends in my phone book.

“It's been an amazing journey for me. I couldn't imagine this young chef setting up a restaurant and going for it, how things would have turned out.

“That doesn't mean I didn't have self-belief. The first dinner I was going to do, I wanted to invite 20 of the top chefs in the world, because they were all in London for the World's 50 Best.

“The response to The Clove Club has been overwhelming.”