A Tasty Pairing
Before bringing their skills to the Design District, Bureau’s resident chefs, Matt Strutt and Sean Fleming, were taking London’s restaurant scene by storm. St. John, Salon, Shepherd’s and Soho’s Andrew Edmunds are just a few of the iconic locations that the duo have called home in the past decade. But in 2022 they both answered the call to head up a new venture on the Peninsula, where they’ve since devised a gourmet-style menu unlike any other in the area. Working in collaboration with local producers, they’ve crafted a menu that evolves with the seasons, always focused on keeping dishes simple, modern, fresh and fun.
What are your names and where do you come from?
Sean: My name is Sean Fleming. I’m from Hong Kong. I moved to the UK when I was around 11 years old. I used to work in fashion before I became a cook.
Matt: I’m Matt Strutt. I grew up in Norfolk and did two years of chef school in Norwich. Then I went on to work at a hotel where I was able to learn the trade working alongside other chefs as a commis.
Tell us a bit about some of the restaurants you worked in previously?
Sean: When I eventually became a chef, I ended up at St John, where I met Matt and Karl Goward, who was the Head Chef there. They both went to catering school in Norfolk, so I learned the ropes from them quickly. Then I dotted around a bit, moving from St. John to Salon in Brixton. Matt and I also worked together at Shepherd’s in Westminster, focusing on simple and seasonal dishes. Then I moved to Andrew Edmunds in Soho as the sous, collaborating with the head chef and working with Matt again, who was the pastry chef.
Matt: Chefs tend to follow each other around, especially if you build a rapport with each other. I helped Sean at one of the first Bureau supper clubs and we went from there.
Sean: We’ve always worked well together. In this kind of environment, you want to work with someone who you can kind of feed off.
What brought you to Bureau?
Sean: The premise behind the menu appealed to me, focusing on modern cuisine that’s simple. The challenge of creating something similar to what you have in central London also appealed, as you have to get quite creative. We hadn’t really worked on creating a café culture before, which was part of the brief, so I thought it would be interesting to explore a different field.
Matt: I sort of shoehorned my way in after Sean. I’m interested in design, so coming here felt like the right environment - not just from a chef point of view but also from a creative perspective.
What do you enjoy most about working here?
Matt: Definitely the creative community aspect. It’s great to be in a creative environment and it gives you a bit of inspiration knowing that others appreciate your work. I set up a creative project back in 2014 to raise the awareness of Crohn’s Disease, a condition I’ve dealt with during my entire career. Part of the pull to work in the Design District relates to my project and how I can further explore creative avenues. It’s been a supportive environment.
Sean: It’s great to be at the embryonic stage of such a landmark destination. We’re establishing events, educating the community about the simplicity of food and bringing people together.
Your supper clubs are for everyone, not just Bureau members. Tell us a bit about them.
Sean: The intention was to produce a more elaborate menu from the lunch menu, using our background and experience to create a more restaurant feel. We have a few guidelines in place, like the seasonality of the protein and where we source it from. One month we could be creating a dish with scallops, it could be oysters the next. We also invite guest chefs to come in and get creative for the monthly supper club, where they have free rein to do as they please.
It’s a weirdly creative job; it’s a bit like being a comedian. You perform a very funny joke, but then you have to think of the next one for the next showing. You have to be very shrewd about how you deliver as people will always be comparing it to the last supper club menu and the one before that. So it’s about being strategic, finding what we can do with the resources we have.
Images by Joe Howard & Anselm Ebulue
