We recently grabbed a five-minute chat with condiments connoisseur Ayo, founder of South London Kitchen.
What’s the significance of the name ‘South London Kitchen’?
South London Kitchen represents everything about who we are as a business.There is something special about South London, the way people talk, the way I can walk along a single street and feel like I’ve travelled from Portugal or Brazil to India, before making my way down to Jamaica. It’s this constant exposure to so many different cultures that really inspired the rubs we produce. People will say that applies to all of London – but South rules, don’t @ me!
How has the brand grown since you launched?
South London Kitchen has really evolved over the last two years. We started off primarily with supper clubs before COVID hit and was encouraged (forced) into pivoting to retailing the sauces and rubs that I used, which has been really successful. We’ve had orders from all over the UK but I especially got a little gassed when we started getting orders from mainland Europe. We recently got a space in the heart of Deptford to step up our production and provide a base for all our food experimentation
Where do you plan to take the business?
Now that we can scale up production, I hope to get in some big retailers soon. But first and foremost, I would love get back to hosting supper clubs. I have some exciting new chefs that I intend to collaborate with once we’re free and I’m very excited to develop the new menus and dishes. Ultimately the plan is to establish an SLK high street presence where we can support and showcase a curated selection of independent retailers.
What’s your personal favourite sauce or seasoning?
My favourite has to be our ‘Original Berbere’. I knew so little about it before developing it, but ever since I’ve been hooked. I love its versatility: meat, fish, veg – it basically goes on anything and makes you look like an OG cook in the process!
What’s the most blasphemous dish you’ve ever eaten?
While in China, we ordered an entire deep fried lamb and they left nothing behind: brain, tongue eyes – the full works. We debated if lambs have foreskins, but thankfully that remained a mystery (although the testes were not). Big and grainy, they hung low on our list of parts of the lamb we were willing to fight over. God may not have a problem with it, but I sure did.
