A Live-Fire Reimagining of Japanese Dining in London: A conversation with Head Chef Nick Tannett, MOI
- James Massoud
- 3 days ago
- 5 min read
London’s Soho is no stranger to culinary theatre, but with MOI, the newly launched live-fire restaurant from MAD Group (of ALTA fame), something altogether different is happening on Wardour Street. At the helm is Head Chef Nick Tannett, bringing a distinctly modern, London-born take on Japanese cuisine, where binchotan, smoke and British seasonality collide. MOI doesn’t aim to mimic Japanese fine dining, it seeks to inspire it, fusing Japanese techniques with hyper-local produce and primal fire cooking with refined execution. Think game birds roasted whole over embers, tomato dishes smoked and blistered to new extremes, and damson mustard made with wild English plums. From its sake-laced cocktails to the vinyl-spinning listening room downstairs, MOI is the rare restaurant that feels at once grounded and experimental. The Knife caught up with Nick to talk about his creative freedom, seasonal thrills, and the dishes you’ll want to catch before they disappear.
MOI has only just opened its doors this summer, how would you describe the restaurant’s identity to someone walking into London's Wardour Street with no idea what to expect?
We really wanted to do something that was more reflective of where Japanese cuisine is in London now. There are a lot of chefs who have dived into the Japanese style of cooking and the ingredients and techniques that go along with that, who have come from a more European style of cooking background. We are a Japanese-inspired restaurant, born in London and championing British produce as much as we can. So we feel we offer a different take and a next generation style of Japanese that is a move away from the Zuma/Roka style, which doesn’t seem to have moved on in the last few years.
The restaurant champions Japanese-inspired cooking with a live-fire approach. How do you balance authenticity with innovation in the way you’ve designed the menu?
The aim of our restaurant is to create something which, while Japanese-inspired, is unique in its offering. Rather than directly imitate and copy Japanese cuisine, we’re trying to offer something that may inspire Japanese cuisine itself; by using some Japanese techniques with western produce, or western techniques with Japanese flavours.
Can you walk us through the role live fire plays in shaping flavour here, and perhaps an example of a dish where it makes the most difference?
Our leek dish is a great example, showcasing the importance of live fire cooking at Moi. At the end of every service, we bury English leeks in the embers of the grill to blacken the exterior. Once blackened, we place them in an airtight container to steam, ensuring the heart of the leek is cooked through. We take the leek heart out of the burnt 'husk', slice it, and place it back into the skin to warm through in our wood oven with silver birch.
There’s a real range on the menu. How did you decide which ingredients and dishes would headline MOI’s offering?
We’re a hyper seasonal restaurant, so by working with the best suppliers and producers we possibly can really dictates what we can use in the restaurant.
For our pork dish, we started using a peach mustard, then moved on to a wild bilberry mustard. Our latest iteration is a damson mustard, using the most stunning wild English plums from Flourish Farm.
As far as range is concerned, we’ve got a huge three metre grill and a wood fired oven to play around with, which lends itself well to a huge range of Japanese cooking methods. From robata to wood oven-baked dumplings, to a yakitori skewer grill.
Some of MOI’s plates feel almost primal in their cooking method yet refined in presentation. Was that contrast intentional?
Well the restaurant is a beautiful, well-considered and thoughtfully crafted space, so the food has to have an identity and a certain level of refinement to it.
I suppose the simplicity of the cooking medium has a primal aspect to it, but the contrast is not intentional. We just want to cook delicious food.
How does seasonality influence your menu planning, and are there any ingredients or dishes you're particularly excited to showcase?
Game season is exciting for us. Showcasing the grill, cooking whole game birds, and cuts of venison. As the weather gets slightly colder, the food lends itself to being warmer and heartier. Autumnal food is delicious, soulful kind of food.
MAD Restaurant Group already has a strong reputation with ALTA. How did their vision influence MOI’s development, and what creative freedom did you have as head chef?
My executive chef, Andy, and the owners of MAD, Artem and Aleksander, have given me a great deal of creative freedom as far as the dishes are concerned. They created a vision for the restaurant, and Andy had a vision for the style of food and flavour profile he wanted us to have. Beyond that, I’ve been given a great deal of creative freedom, which is a really empowering feeling.
The drinks menu ranges from elegant sake to inventive cocktails. How closely did you work with the bar team to ensure the food and drink are in harmony?
Pretty close, there is lots of crossover with some of the ingredients that we like to use: miso, pickled plum, sake for cooking etc.
MOI’s private dining room offers an intimate, exclusive side to the restaurant. What kind of experience do you aim to deliver in that space?
It shouldn’t be any different from the main restaurant; we are a sharing concept.
The restaurant world in Soho is notoriously competitive. What do you think will make MOI stand out in the long term?
Hopefully, the quality of what we are doing, from food to service to the drinks offered – we are affordable for what we do. You can come for a simple, quick lunch for under £40 or come for dinner and experience some amazing sushi and whole fish cooked over oak, then head downstairs to the listening room for more drinks and some tunes often played by our own chefs and front-of-house staff.
If you had to recommend just one dish for a first-time visitor, which would it be and why?
Pineapple Rib Tomato. It’s going out of season soon, so best come ASAP to enjoy it. It’s essentially a celebration of the humble tomato. Smoked tomato cream, green tomato and nori jam, and some stunning tomatoes from Flourish Farm, lightly dressed in chilli and garlic.
