Known for its prime cuts, excellent accompanying wine lists and breathtaking Tower Bridge views, the Butlers Wharf Chop House team is welcoming Behzad Gotla as the new Head Chef.
With over 10 years’ experience in top kitchens around the world, Gotla’s menus are an ode to everything British and traditional whilst also driving the Chop House onto bigger and better things by introducing larger cuts and re-establishing strong links with British suppliers.
Gotla comes to Butlers Wharf Chop House with a host of impressive kitchen experience in his back pocket. Having cut his teeth in the restaurant industry at the esteemed Hyatt Regency hotels in Mumbai and Kolkata, he then headed to Scotland to whip up bespoke dishes at top Edinburgh restaurants, including the stylish Apex Hotels chain and the famous Hard Rock Café.
Before arriving at Butlers Wharf Chop House, Gotla spent eight years working his way through the ranks at Gordon Ramsay’s restaurant empire to become group Head Chef at Ramsay’s Maze Grill restaurants. Ramsay’s commitment to using British produce to create brilliant grills is a clear influence on Gotla’s cooking, and he brings a similar passion for local suppliers and high-quality meat to Butlers Wharf.
Gotla’s menu sees a return to classic British chop house dishes but with a more refined, modern look. British classics like the Steak & ale pudding and the Chicken and mushroom pie are made using the same techniques and flavours as the earliest London chop houses but with an updated presentation, while plates like Devilled Suffolk chicken livers with girolles and potato sourdough – Gotla’s favourite dish on the menu – are a showcase of the team’s versatility in being able to create delicious dishes out of every bit of each animal.
Keeping food waste to a minimum is one of Gotla’s top priorities, and barely any of the meat is thrown out; the trim is used in the Chop House cheese burger, the bones are used to create the Bone marrow, shallots and red wine gravy and the fat is used to crisp and intensely flavour the triple cooked chips.
Gotla has also added two brand-new sections to the menu that are aimed at encouraging guests to share their meals and learn more about where their meat comes from. The Cut Above menu features huge prime cuts that weigh over 1kg each, and it showcases a different breed of British cattle every week while providing guests with information about exactly where the meat on their plate has come from.
The Butcher’s Table menu is perfect for groups as it offers 6-12 diners a bespoke five-course menu with champagne and canapes on arrival. What makes this menu truly special, however, is that each chef, including Gotla, brings out the dish that they have created and talks the diners through it and where the meat came from, making it an interactive and immersive experience as well as a delicious, meaty meal.
Gotla said, “I’m delighted to have joined the Butlers Wharf Chop House team. I want the restaurant to be a place where people come to share the best – and biggest! – meat cuts in the city. I’m also really proud that our meat is all British. It’s crucial to me that diners can trace their meat right back to the field that it came from.”
