Gabriel Waterhouse, a chef at the Waterhouse Restaurant in London, casually mentions that he was involved in constructing his family’s home. Along with his father and brothers. Both psychologists, his parents moved to rural Northumberland, “the middle of nowhere,” as Gabriel describes it, outside a tiny village named Wark. It’s the kind of place a neighbor might leave a pair of pheasants on your door for a present. His mum was working as a psychologist in Gateshead while his father held the fort and put his four sons to construction work. Gabriel tells me that “his childcare included lots of pouring cement and hammering nail,” Gabriel.

Gabriel’s world has changed a lot. Gabriel is a chef at The Water House Project in an urban area of London near Bethnal Green, serving up high-end food. But some core principles remain. There are certain traits that he inherited from his childhood. Gabriel’s philosophy degree was renounced in favor of dexterous endeavors and a sense of self-sufficiency that has guided his career as a restaurateur and chef. Trish and Gabriel Wakaimba oversee a small group of front-of-house staff and cooks who do everything. From developing the seasonal tasting menus to wine pairings, ingredient sourcing and aesthetic decisions. The Water House Project has been a family affair for many years. Other Waterhouse members have contributed, including Trish’s sister, Trish, who created beautiful arrangements of dried flowers suspended from the ceiling, and Samuel and Josh, Gabriel’s brothers.

He says that the restaurant began as a supper club in 2015. Gabriel, who was employed at Galvin La Chapelle in Spitalfields, decided to take off Friday and Saturday nights for a couple of months to test out a supper-club idea he had been developing. As a restaurant proprietor, Gabriel says that he appreciates the generosity in this concession, which was to give up a senior chef on the busiest two nights of the weekend. He purchased some trestle tables and assembled them and disassembled them every weekend to accommodate 12-14 diners at a six-course tasting menu. He says that, at first, he just repeated what he had been taught. But over time, ‘I found my voice. He decided then to leave Galvin and focus on the Supper Clubs (“the rewards are greater,” he said, “and you have high blood pressure and low freedom when you work in restaurants like Galvin”). The supper club also moved into a warehouse owned by Bert & May, a tile manufacturer on Vyner Street.

What is the Waterhouse’s voice in food? Gabriel is a fan of keeping things local and sources all his ingredients from Britain. I wonder if Gabriel is also inspired by his childhood as a vegan and the fact that three of his siblings are vegan for different reasons. He says that the focus of a dish never is the protein. While it’s important and can be marketed, the main ingredient in a dish usually isn’t the protein. It’s the flavors that surround it. The menu at The Water House Project is a bit traditional and gives the impression the protein will be the star. Hampshire rainbow trout from Hampshire, Orkney Scallops, Lake District Lamb. But it’s the flavors surrounding these ingredients which do the heavy lifting. The scallop is smothered in cherry blossom vinegar and flecked with hazelnuts and pieces of oyster leaves. It tastes like fresh oysters. Gabriel chose to pair the cod with abundant ingredients. It is a beautiful fish. “Lemon Verbena is a popular ingredient in restaurants with a high-end feel. It’s beautiful, but also very expensive. I wanted a similar fragrance but something more modest and abundant. “Lemon balm is underrated. It’s aromatic, grows easily, and works well in this recipe.”

He says that for him, “good food is all about the way you combine ingredients.” I believe chefs tend to put too much focus on technique, especially when it comes to fine dining. I focus on the way the flavors merge. Each dish at The Water House Project has a delicate taste but is also layered and complex. They are challenging enough to get you to sit up straight, think about the food you’re eating without sacrificing the deliciousness or tranquility. We all want to be relaxed when we dine out.

Gabriel confirms that the concept of The Water House Project, which was originally a supper club where guests would sit around a table in the kitchen, has changed over the years. It was unfortunate that the restaurant opened independently from Bert & May just six weeks prior to the first lockdown, which will occur in early 2020. This is devastating for a chef who wants to start a solo business. Covid-19 changed the way people eat with strangers. “Post-pandemic we evolved this idea so people could enjoy communal dining but with less intense interaction.” The space is utilitarian, with exposed pipes and cement columns, but the linen curtains soften the look by filtering the evening light that bounces off of the canal. Tall shelves display small arrangements of dried flowers. The open kitchen is probably the most transparent kitchen I have ever seen.

Gabriel says that the kitchen is “open” to the maximum. “There’s not a border between us and the guests, the space has no borders.” We wanted the restaurant to feel like a homey supper club because of its roots. Gabriel says that because they only serve one meal per service and everyone eats at the same time, there’s no need to panic. All diners receive the same dishes and low-intervention drinks, including a Slovakian Orange Wine called ‘Just Kids,’ or a Devon smoky Cider to go with a dish of calcots, wild garlic, apple, and Suffolk Baron Bigod Cheese. Everything is carefully planned, choreographed, and curated, with flawless execution.

The Water House Project’s Spring menu will soon be replaced by its Summer version when I visit. The staff are excited about the upcoming change and talk enthusiastically of their tasting the next menu the following week. The menu includes a brief history of the restaurant. It says that Gabriel began by “figuring out what worked and what he liked.” “A Project” I get the feeling that parts can be changed up until the last minute: ingredients, wines, and seasonings. It’s a team effort and a work in progress. It may be that cooking this way is an act of self-realisation, finding your voice through what people taste and communicating with them via flavour, but I think it is especially self-conscious on the part of Gabriel Waterhouse, who named his “Project”. Let the project continue.