Sertaç Dirik & David Carter: How They Created London’s Restaurant of the Year 'KID' | Reinventing Turkish Food, Michelin-Star Kitchens & Becoming Action Bronson’s Favourite Chef

The Go To Food Podcast

David Carter and Sertic Dedek discuss the launch of their highly anticipated Soho restaurant, KID, which aims to reinvent Turkish dining in Londo

Key takeaways

The partnership formed organically following a two-hour meeting after SertaÃ§ left Mangal II.
KID's interior design utilizes approximately 73,000 bricks to create warmth and energy.
Sertac shares how legendary chef Musa Daivadene acted as a mentor, passing down historical recipes and books.
The restaurant employs an emotional pricing strategy rather than a strictly academic cost-based approach.
Key menu items like Ichi Kofte highlight traditional Turkish flavors through modern techniques like using aged beef and garlic yogurt.

Main topics

Restaurant launch and partnership
Turkish culinary heritage
Interior design and infrastructure

Notable quotes

Dining is an emotion, right? The whole experience is an emotion.

Conclusion

The episode provides an inspiring look at how passion and cultural res

Transcript preview

Speaker 5 (0:12) Boys and girls, welcome back to the multi-award winning Newsome Playhouse. We're with the multi-award winning genius here and a man who's, well, he's actually multi-awarded as well back in the day. He's soon to be more than multi-award winning. He's a gorgeous man. The earrings actually are putting me to shame. I've got one little sleeper, but his are looking unreal. And we should say this is brought to you by Blink, the greatest POS system in the world. David, when are you going to fucking take it up? On a good time, my friend. On a good time? On a good Speaker 2 (0:36) time. Speaker 5 (0:36) I hope that's a promise, because last time I offered you two months free and you said you're going to take it. I know, Speaker 2 (0:39) we've got to blame John for that. You're thinking about it. He's thinking about it, Greg. Speaker 5 (0:43) But we are joined by two of the most exciting names in London restaurants. One is the chef who completely reinvented Manga 2 and in doing so changed a lot of people's perceptions of what a Turkish restaurant in London could be at that point. Blew everyone's mind. The other is a restaurateur with an almost ridiculous hit rate, Smokestack Manteca, Oma, Agora. Just exhausting saying all those words, but they're incredible. And they've now come together to open one of the most talked about restaurants of the year, Kid and Soho. It's the brilliant David Carter and Sertic Dedek. How are you both doing, boys? I mean, you must be fucking knackered. Speaker 6 (1:12) Oh, I'm alright. I Speaker 5 (1:13) mean, he's been Speaker 2 (1:13) on a shift. Get my sleep. He's definitely tired. I'm cool, I'm cool. Speaker 5 (1:17) Must feel sexy to be behind the greatest opening of the Speaker 2 (1:20) year already. I mean, flawless reviews. I mean, we're in week four. You don't pop the champagne until you get there. But even Speaker 4 (1:27) with the suite of reviews you guys are getting, you're not going, Speaker 6 (1:29) we're Speaker 4 (1:31) going to be okay. Speaker 6 (1:32) I don't know. I think that's a dangerous mentality, right? Everything's slipping when that happens. But no, I mean, listen, I'm extremely proud of what we've done here. The team are insane. The fact that half of them never tried Turkish food before. I think they're... Really? I think they're nailing it. Yeah, I mean, I just think, yeah, you know, this has been a dream of my dad's when he opened Manga back in the 80s. So I call him every day, talk to Speaker 5 (1:56) him Speaker 6 (1:56) every day and he's just like super proud, super proud, Speaker 5 (1:59) super proud. We're Speaker 6 (2:00) really happy. He's been in them. I hope. They arrive tomorrow from Turkey. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Good. They're going Speaker 5 (2:05) to Speaker 6 (2:05) the Royalty. I can't wait to have them. I mean, Speaker 5 (2:09) you must be happy when the only bad thing anyone can think of is the fact that you can't find the door. That seems to be the only negative. It's so funny how Speaker 2 (2:16) many people have picked up on that because, I mean, to be fair, that's it for a street. It is on Bateman. Yeah. And it was used to be there but it's sort of like... When we build restaurants we try to create vibes right away, right? As soon as you walk in there, you've got the man gallery, you've got the pass, it's loads of action. In here, it's a nice spot of the restaurant, don't get me wrong, but it's a bit, it's not the same vibe, right? So I think having it over there is like, you know, the front door and the man gallery, exact same spot pretty much. It's amazing. It's a beautiful entry. Such vibe. And a good door. Speaker 5 (2:42) We were just with John to road and he was saying when he did, when he built Smiths at Smithfield, He'd worked for Terence Conran for 10 years and his best advice was create somewhere where when you walk in there's chaos and atmosphere. That is the Speaker 2 (2:52) key to a good restaurant. I don't disagree with it. I mean ours is like, I don't know, a lot of our infrastructure kind of fits the sort of profile as well. Sort of landscape I guess. And it always seemed to kind of work for us in terms of creating a bit of energy straight away. I think that people, you vibe off of that right? Whether it's kitchen or punters or whatever, you vibe off of that energy straight away. So yeah. Speaker 5 (3:10) Talk us through the fit out here. We watched the Brutalist last year, Ben and I together in a private screening. It was a beautiful thing. It feels like I'm back in there, but just with the best food in the world. Speaker 2 (3:19) Yeah, I mean, the thing is, I think infrastructure speaks to you first and foremost. And I think all of our restaurants, as I mentioned before, all kind of fit to this landscape. So when we kind of saw the site, it was sort of two buildings. This was a pret and that was a bar. We kind of knocked all the way through. And they kind of created a sort of vibe straight away. And I think what designers did really well is get under the hood with their touch. family and Turkish roots and stuff like that and just went double heavy on brick brick on brick on brick. I think it relates to 73,000 bricks or something like that. But it kind of gives it a lot of warmth, a lot of vibe and it just kind of adds a lot to the experience. Talk Speaker 4 (3:51) me through briefly the chronology of how this comes about. Are your mates first? Is there a site first? Is the idea first? Are they all swimming around and suddenly it all locks in place and it kind of happens? Like how does it come together? Speaker 6 (4:05) Dave Wood. sneak into MangaL2 late at night, 2020s. Yeah, that Speaker 2 (4:09) was early days. Even before then, you know, even Speaker 6 (4:12) before then. You know, we've known Dave a long time. I was reaching the end of my tenure at MangaL2. You know, we really, really, really pushed it as far as we could creatively, in my opinion. And I just sort of needed a change. And then I think the day I announced, I asked to meet with Dave just because... I didn't know what the fuck I was doing. So you didn't have a plan Speaker 4 (4:31) at that point? I just Speaker 6 (4:33) went to him for advice. We sat for like two hours. We had like two or three coffees. Talking, talking, talking. He ran me through the whole process of what you do, how you approach an investor, how you do this, how you do that, what type of bills to look out for, what he thinks works. And then at the end he was like, if you need an investor, he's like, I'll invest. He's like, but go see what's out there first. Speaker 6 (4:53) I didn't actually end up speaking to anyone else. Speaker 4 (4:55) You're like, yeah, I'll do that. I'll do Speaker 6 (4:57) that. Probably texted like an hour after, you know what Speaker 2 (5:00) I Speaker 6 (5:00) mean? And then, yeah, we just, obviously you were just about to open Oma Agora at the time. It was a busy time for us. Before that you'd been open. Speaker 2 (5:06) Yeah. Speaker 6 (5:06) So we were chatting about it. And then, yeah, it was like three years of just like talking, talking, talking, many trips to Turkey. Speaker 2 (5:11) Yeah, I think it's like, to what Sir Dutch says, it's quite organic, you know what I mean? I think at one stage, you know, I was starting out as well and you kind of want somebody to kind of give you a little bit of a boost, let's say. I like to think, you know, we kind of play a role where we get involved in a project and, you know, hands dirty type of thing versus just strictly investment. I mean, there's a lot of deep pockets out there. And anyhow, I think it sort of happened quite organically. It was like, look, I want to see you do well, whatever that means. And it was kind of like, this is what I would do if I were you. And then one competition led to another. And then before we knew it, we were like, cool, let's kind of do it together. The timing, I think, we also said, if these sites are on the market right now, it's probably not for you. Because I think to try and get a bit of a unicorn site, you know, I think this is a bit of a unicorn as well. you've got to kind of be a bit patient you know it's not in the market and if it's on the market there's 20 others lining up for it yeah so we were quite patient with it and then when this site came along the road the timing was right and it just felt like right and we kind of looked at it and again it's all restaurants are emotive man it's not even you go in there it's not on a piece of paper we're like look at each other like i remember when you told me about it as well what do you think yeah yeah Speaker 6 (6:09) he was just like look i found this site it's a little bigger than what we were looking at before and he was like you know but i'm used to big sites and He's like, well, just let me know what you think. And I was like, oh, okay. All right, yeah, let's go for it. And it was like, good, because I've already been dropped off. Speaker 4 (6:22) Decision was made. Talking about the size of the Speaker 5 (6:24) site, I mean, does that allow you to keep the menu prices, you know, accessible for a wider Speaker 2 (6:29) audience? You know what? Especially Speaker 5 (6:31) in the heart of Speaker 2 (6:31) Soho? It's a good question. I mean, we don't really think that academically. I think we think quite emotionally. If you came here for dinner, what's a reasonable price to pay on certain dishes? And I think because we have elbow room to grow into, like, Let's do extremes, right? Let's say we're eight, see the restaurants in Tokyo. You're relying on X amount of covers, or you're limited to eight covers. You need X amount to spend X amount of money to kind of make it work. Because we've got a bit more elbow room to grow into, we can be a little bit more, a bit more, I guess, laid back. So if somebody comes in here and has a couple of pieces of bread and a hummus and see you later, that's fine. Because a lot of averages means somebody else is going to order more. So I think we price menus based on emotion, what kind of feels right, what we'd want to pay. And then, you know, in the overtime, in the long run, you kind of adjust if we need to. But we don't go down a very academic road and start costing things and stuff like that. It's like, you know, macro feels good at 24. 22 sounds a bit cheap. 26 sounds expensive. So it's 24. Yeah, Speaker 1 (7:24) really. Speaker 2 (7:24) And I think that kind of works itself out. It's kind of worked before and it kind of hopefully kind of works now. And I think dining is an emotion, right? The whole experience is an emotion. And you need to try and get, you need to get that right even as far as the bill is concerned, as far as I'm concerned. Speaker 4 (7:36) Was it always going to be Soho? Could it have been anywhere? Speaker 6 (7:39) No, it wasn't always so. I guess we looked down a little bit. We looked least. Obviously the space dictated what the project became. And I think that actually made it easier. I think also creatives as chefs. I hate saying creatives as chefs. You're dictated about with the build, with the covers, with what you can do. And us being able to land so many seats meant that we could actually go a bit more authentic, if that makes sense. But it still feels like a Turkish restaurant. Without it being too over-conceptualised or... you know the core the core is still there and that's i think that's sick yeah big time especially this part of town um Speaker 2 (8:13) yeah yeah i think infrastructure matters that's more than the location and what i mean i'm really glad it's so i think it's always a vibe and we're already seeing the differences between here and east and borough yeah Speaker 4 (8:22) but Speaker 2 (8:22) i think infrastructure kind of fits you know as a landscape site corner unit um that kind of really works for us and when these sites we kind of like a lot yeah i think if i it was in so it's an added plus and so that's just point early on like you know train heavily in Copenhagen so you know and Copenhagen goes from subway to you know normal right there's not a whole lot in between in the grand scheme of things and then you know obviously come from the heart of Dawson where you've got some amazing mangal's right and then we kind of how do we kind of slot between there and I think the penny dropped I think he made a Lagustin Tava and it's still the dish that we kind of like that dish okay times 20 we need 20 of those on Speaker 6 (8:59) the Speaker 2 (8:59) menu now and that kind of dictated where the menu went and it kind of Langoustine is a bit chefy but not really. Tava means oven. Yeah, Speaker 6 (9:06) yeah, so it's an oven dish. It's an oven Speaker 2 (9:07) dish and it was like, okay cool, that's your jumping off point. That's not in the menu right now, but you know, and then it kind of really worked in terms of, you know, being able to have an amazing experience but not be sort of too nice and equally not be too, too dulcet. You know, Speaker 5 (9:20) you Speaker 2 (9:20) need to respect the dulcet. Because Speaker 5 (9:21) you were working with Kierma Safar at Omar, who's gone off to do Kizma, which is more of a Maka Meyhan, kind of all drinking. Speaker 2 (9:27) Have you been there? Yeah. I actually haven't, I've booked it twice. I've booked it twice. I've been up there. He's been. You've Speaker 5 (9:32) been Speaker 2 (9:32) up there? Yeah, he's been. Did Speaker 5 (9:34) you Speaker 2 (9:34) enjoy it? Fucking incredible. Yeah, yeah. He's Speaker 5 (9:35) a Speaker 2 (9:35) good guy, man. He's a really good guy. He was always going to do well. Speaker 5 (9:37) Yeah, no, he's doing very well. But obviously you walk in there and you can see it's more like a drinking little thing to, you know, and obviously those who don't know Turkish food as well as you, sir, or you. I mean, it's big for Turks. It's big for Speaker 6 (9:47) Turks having a spot like that, having a Meyhane concept in London. It just shows how vast and rich and... Yeah. developed the cuisines. We're all used to seeing that mezze, kebabs Speaker 5 (9:57) structure. But the mehaneh concept was yet to be Speaker 6 (10:01) tapped. There's Speaker 5 (10:02) a Speaker 6 (10:02) couple spots. There's Sadiar Balik in Newington Green, which is also incredible. They're like a seafood mehaneh, rocky, seasonal seafood. It just makes you proud. You go to a spot like that, you're just like, this is fucking epic. We all Speaker 4 (10:14) win when something like that Speaker 6 (10:15) happens as well. Do you know what I mean? Speaker 4 (10:16) It's alright, now is it all positive? I remember we spoke to, what's your man called, Natty Can Cook, down in East Dunham, he was saying like, you know, he's shooting for the stars, he's excited, people are behind him, and then you have people coming in going like, you shouldn't be doing this. Like you're dragging traditional dishes out of where they should be, you know, he thought it would be all positivity, and then he's Speaker 5 (10:33) got Speaker 4 (10:33) people from his community going like, man, you know, we shouldn't step out of Speaker 6 (10:37) the Speaker 4 (10:37) lane. Speaker 6 (10:38) Do you Speaker 4 (10:38) get a bit of that, or are people just going like, this is unbelievable, you know, it's even linked to... Changes you made at Mangal 2 back in the day. Speaker 6 (10:44) Especially when we were at Mangal 2. I saw that was almost every other Turkish guest. I understand that though, I get that though. I think it's huge. It's a Speaker 2 (10:52) culture, right? And how they interpret it. Big time. Speaker 6 (10:55) It's hard, I get it. I think when we try and when we think that we're really pushing the boat out, we're developing something. But in the same breath, maybe it's already perfect. I think Speaker 2 (11:06) there's a happy medium with stuff like that as well. Speaker 6 (11:09) But yeah. Your own people can be your biggest haters sometimes. I saw a Turkish Speaker 5 (11:13) newspaper gave you zero stars, didn't they? At Night Girl 2. Yeah, Speaker 6 (11:17) actually, I do remember something like that. I didn't see that. I haven't seen Speaker 3 (11:21) it Speaker 6 (11:21) yet. Fuck, some kerbals on this podcast. Yeah, so Speaker 3