The 115-cover restaurant and wine bar in Bethnal Green, East London, Sager + Wilde has appointed a new chef team; Head Chef Diarmuid Goodwin and Sous Chef Dara Klein.
Diarmuid will take charge of Sager + Wilde’s restaurant menu, along with snacks and small plates for the wine bar and 25-cover private dining space in the eves of the railway arches.
Diarmuid has been cooking for almost a decade in some of London's best-known and most loved restaurants. Originally hailing from Belfast, he started cooking at the tender age of 15, eventually finding his way to London and into Angela Hartnett's kitchens.
He worked for Angela for seven years; first at Cafe Murano, then onto Michelin-starred Murano, and, following a stint at Bruno Loubet's Grain Store, returned as Sous Chef at Cafe Murano St James and Covent Garden for two further years. Most recently he was Senior Sous Chef at Trullo in Islington where he met Dara Klein.
Dara has been surrounded by food from a young age. Her mother, chef Maria Pia de Razza, features in the internationally acclaimed book, The Silver Spoon and owned the celebrated Maria Pia's trattoria in Wellington, New Zealand for most of Dara's life. Klein’s parents also started their local Slow Food chapter in Wellington after relocating from Emilia-Romagna, in Italy, in the late 1990s.
Dara started cooking professionally around four years ago, following a stint of pop ups with her mother. 2019 saw Dara move to the capital and land in Margot Henderson’s Rochelle Canteen before moving onto Rubedo, Brawn and, ultimately, Trullo, where she stayed for two and a half years. Alongside the day job, Klein also runs a successful pasta delivery service, Pasta Princess, which draws on the traditions of pasta making in her family.
After years of hard work, Diarmuid is ready to marry all of his experiences together to bring new energy to Bethnal Green with the help of Dara. With a strong focus on modern Mediterranean cooking, Diarmuid is drawing on the culinary traditions of Italy, the Basque Country, Provence and around the Middle East. He is dedicated to paying homage to those cultures while fusing them together in his own unique style.
Dishes include:
Antipasti
Fior di latte and soused tomatoes chilli oil with pangrattato, £12.50
Honeymoon melon and barrel aged feta with mint Za’atar, £12
Primi
Fettuccine with sausage and fennel ragu with pecorino, £16
Spaghetti with grilled Corno di Toro pepper, marjoram and salted ricotta, £15
Secondi
Monkfish tail with prawn and sobrasada sauce and sea beets, £28
Grilled lamb neck, courgette and basil purée with summer squash and mostarda, £28
Sweets
Strawberry semifreddo with macerated strawberries, black pepper and roasted white chocolate, £8.50
Chocolate ganache with saffron caramel shortbread and pistachio, £8.50
Goodwin’s menu will be served in the main restaurant and wine bar of Sager + Wilde daily, with specially designed menus for events on a case-by-case basis.