At Chef Andy Beynon’s Behind in London, the Ever-Changing Seafood Menu

The tasting menu at Behind, a contemporary seafood restaurant in London’s hip Hackney neighbourhood, changes almost daily. That’s why chef Andy Beynon doesn’t post a 10-course tasting menu online. It’s also why many diners return to the 18-seat restaurant again and again—because you’ll never have the same meal there twice.

“We’re working on it all the time,” Beynon said, speaking to the Observer in mid-January. “For example, tomorrow we are doing a Mylor prawn dish because it has just entered the season. There are some dishes that we can adapt depending on the seafood available, but there are dishes that we completely change and improve throughout the week to put on the menu next week.”

Beynon opened Behind, his first restaurant, in October 2020. Less than three weeks later, the restaurant earned its first Michelin star. It was a time of change for the chef and the success of the restaurant.

He recalls: “I had never owned a restaurant, and I really wanted money. “I was borrowing and begging left, right and everywhere. But because we won the star, we were surprised. And then I didn’t have to worry too much. So I don’t really know what it would be like to have a restaurant without it.”

Before Back, Beynon worked on top British dramas, including Phil Howard’s The Square, Claude Bosi’s Hibiscus and Matt Weedon’s Lords of the Manor. Becoming a chef wasn’t a lifelong dream—he originally thought of himself as a hairdresser—but growing up in Hertfordshire, he always loved cooking shows like one. Ready, Tough, Cook in children’s shows. He took a job as a dishwasher at the age of 16 while still at school, and was soon drawn to the art of cooking.

“When I started cooking, I loved it,” Beynon said. But it wasn’t actually considered a job, a lot of people around me were saying, ‘Are you sure you want to do this?’ They would not understand that high quality cooking is really serious. That changes—working in a kitchen is a really good job—but that’s how it was when I started cooking.”

Beynon has always had big ambitions, and his try-hard attitude has translated well into the culinary world. He says: “I like to try to push myself and be good at sports. “And I think about cooking, that pushed me too. So I wanted to work in the best restaurants.”

He started straight up. Beynon’s first cooking job, aged 17, was at The Ledbury in London, which had just won its first Michelin star. He says: “That really shocked the system, I worked when I was very young. “I didn’t know anything.” He passed on to J. Sheekey, a well-known seafood establishment. Later, at Hibiscus, Beynon saw his first restaurant.

“I’ve been thinking about my restaurant forever, but I didn’t have the skills to understand how a restaurant works,” he says. “I always knew I wanted to do it, but I think there’s a big part of the chef’s table [came from] when I worked with Claude Bosi, he also had a chef’s table at Hibiscus. It was very chef-driven and customer-driven.”

She quickly realized how much she loved talking to customers and cooking in front of them. “You get more of an adrenaline kick, instead of being in a basement or a dirty kitchen where you’re being told by a French waiter whether the fourth table liked you or not,” says Beynon. “You can be honest and talk to people.”

Beynon knew he wanted to open his own restaurant in Hackney, his favorite place. The original design came from a space he found near London Fields. He knew it had to be open concept with the kitchen in front of all the guests, and he wanted a curved seating area. In the back there is lunch and dinner with only one seat at each meal—all guests sit and receive their courses at the same time. It helps create both camaraderie and an opportunity for everyone to see what the chefs are doing as they do it.

The food at Behind is sad and agreeable. When I went in December, the dinner felt like a meal and a show. Everything the chefs do is visible to the diners, who sit around the circular counter. There is an island in the middle so that the arrangement of dishes can be seen. The diners talk to each other and the chefs, something that doesn’t always happen in fine dining. It also gives Beynon and his team a chance to understand how people feel about the ever-changing menu items.

“It helps a lot because I have many preachers who are honest and who speak frankly about what’s going on,” said Beynon. “I’ll talk about new dishes that I wear freely with some of my customers. You can gauge how people react to what they think of the food.”

The background is dedicated to seafood, although Beynon is open to adding other ingredients to the menu. He always prefers to make seafood dishes, especially in restaurants with a menu-driven taste. “It’s really easy, it’s really fresh, and it’s something that people don’t always get at home or know how to cook,” he said. “The fish is fresh every day, and you can be very creative with seafood. You can play, like the prawns in the toast bowl that I do, and really try.”

Beynon is constantly changing his dishes, but a few have stuck around, including his unusual take on the Chinese restaurant’s fried prawn classic. It’s so popular that he’s kept it on the list for the past six months. “That dish keeps changing and changing,” he says. “We use really good prawns, so we just serve prawns and head meat, and that’s it.” We used to serve it in a shell. So a lot of the dishes I’ve been using, but adapt them so you don’t really know what the original dish was originally.”

The plates have an amazing range. Some find inspiration in flavors and cultures around the world—Beynon recently traveled to Malaysia and brought back many ingredients and spices—while others focus more on highlighting the fish.

Beynon is not interested in following trends. For him, what makes food fun is thinking outside the box and doing something unusual. “It’s about trying to keep things fun for me,” he says. “And with seafood, you can be creative in different ways. You can be creative with the way you cut the fish. But also about adding interesting spice flavors. We are going to make a curry style butter sauce with Mylor prawns. That’s where the next level with Michelin and trying to get two stars comes into play.”

Most of the fish served at Behind comes from UK waters, although some seafood is imported from Morocco and Sicily. Beynon likes to highlight gray mullet, a bottom-dwelling fish for seafood. He also includes smoked kippers, another British favourite, and has thought about trying a dish of jellied eel. “We go through five pounds of smokers a week,” Beynon said. “So if you put it together since we’ve been open, I’ve got to be one of the best kipper buyers in London. I love the idea of ​​keeping traditions alive.”

As a young chef, Beynon remembers thinking it would be better to keep adding ingredients to the dish. But now you realize that it is more skillful to adjust things and let the main ingredient shine. He is currently incorporating smoked kippers into a scallop container, allowing the kippers to grow scallops caught in Cornwall.

“We don’t season the scallop,” he says. “We serve it when the scallop is opaque, undercooked, and really sweet and creamy. So when you put that sauce on, you get a lot of salt and smoke flavor, and you can still taste the skull. The combination is amazing. But if you put a normal amount of salt on the scallop, it can spoil the dish to be able to really taste it. he’s smart about it.”

Beynon is not shy about admitting that Behind is currently working towards a second Michelin star. He’s ambitious (so much so, in fact, that he’s beating his former boss Jason Atherton for charity in March). He is in the process of opening a bar behind Behind, which he plans to call Behind Behind, and has many ideas for new dishes. That second star may not come as quickly as the first, but Beynon knows it takes time to develop a restaurant, especially one with a vision like his.

“I feel like we’re there,” he says. “For me, a two-star rating gives something different to your food. I do what I think is best, and keep things old, and keep a good team around me. I’m an all-or-nothing guy. If I’m not interested in something, I don’t spend my energy on it. I’ve learned growing up that it’s better to save your energy for the more important things in the restaurant.” It’s clear that he’s channeling that energy.