Meet the Burberry model and the former Le Gavroche chef behind new Hoxton restaurant The Pearl

George Craig, a Burberry model and musician and Terry Edwards, a former Le Gavroche chef have come up with the perfect recipe for a new London hot spot, says Susannah Butter
p41 edition 0304 MUST CREDIT: Rebecca Reid
3 April 2014

George Craig and Terry Edwards must be the best turned out chefs in London. Both are kitted out in head-to-toe Burberry as they emerge from behind a towering pile of pans in the tiny kitchen of their first permanent restaurant, The Pearl at Hoxton’s Dolls House. They are discussing who will supply their asparagus and explaining that at most of their events everyone ends up singing along to Wham! “Sundays get a bit naughty,” says Craig. Fans of their imaginative food venture, Check On, are thrilled that they are settling in a fixed location, opening this Saturday.

It’s been “a whirlwind” first year, says Edwards. They started in 2013 with a northern themed pop-up at Patty & Bun and have sold out all events since. A TV series is also in the offing.

“These nice clothes that George sorts out are all new to me,” says Edwards, 28. He is the one with the cooking expertise. It’s working in kitchens that was “a surprise” to Craig, 23. He started out as lead singer of One Night Only, an indie band that had Top 10 success and caught the attention of fellow Yorkshireman Christopher Bailey, chief creative officer of Burberry.

“Bailey is amazing,” says Craig.

“He champions young British talent. Although when I told him I’d moved into food he was surprised. When I was 17 I worked on my first campaign modelling for Burberry. Mario Testino was the photographer. I was this naïve kid and didn’t know who he was.”

In 2009, Craig starred in the fashion house’s campaign with Emma Watson, who he went on to date. She was the star of One Night Only’s video for Say You Don’t Want It. They have since gone their separate ways, and Craig lives near Victoria Park with his girlfriend of three years, singer-songwriter and X Factor alumni Diana Vickers. Edwards has just moved in too, to get away from Shoreditch — “It was dangerously easy to go out there.”

Craig says: “Emma and I aren’t in touch. I don’t really talk about it. We’re getting on with our lives.” Vickers is a big Check On fan, although Craig won’t let her in the kitchen. “We do all the cooking, they do the eating. Once we let the girls help and had them on the sofa picking thyme for about half an hour.”

Recently the pressure that cheffing puts on private lives has been under the spotlight with Paul Hollywood and Lorraine Pascale publicly breaking up with their partners. “Being a chef can definitely put a strain on relationships,” says Edwards. “I had a long-term relationship and I think being a chef had a big effect on why it broke down. She had a nine-to-five job so as she came home I’d be going out to work. My girlfriend now is an actress and it works really well, although she can’t cook.”

For Craig it’s the cooking itself that is “a new challenge, a bit of proper work”. Edwards laughs: “He’s a grafter. It makes me laugh because it’s like second nature to me but George will say ‘I can’t wait to get into the kitchen early and prep those chicken legs’, while I’m dreading it.”

Craig is still in One Night Only (we make all the obligatory jokes about pop-ups also being one night only), and is starting a new post-punk venture, Boyband.

The pair met in 2008. Craig was on tour with One Night Only and Edwards went to see them. Edwards, who grew up in “the roughest part of Liverpool”, worked for the Michelin-starred chef Paul Heathcote before moving to London for a stint at Le Gavroche — “it was very French, not really me” — and then finding his niche working with Mark Hix.

As they became better friends, Craig’s palette developed and they launched Check On last year, with an event called Northern Invasion at Patty & Bun. By London standards it’s affordable. Their last tasting menu was £30 for 10 courses. Edwards says: “I can’t afford to pay £120 at Gordon Ramsay.”

All the food at Check On is British and meat is from the Ginger Pig farm near Craig’s home town in Yorkshire. “British food heritage has fallen by the wayside,” says Edwards. “You could walk around this area and see 10 Vietnamese restaurants and three burger joints, but where can you go for fish and chips or steak and kidney pie?” The Northern Invasion menu included Lancashire hotpot and sherry trifle, presented with original twists.

Edwards is still on good terms with the HIX team. They also take great delight in saying they recently beat HIX’s team in a charity cooking challenge. Edwards says: “It was his top boys and we beat them on dessert, against a chef who has a background in pastry. I was very happy.”

He doesn’t plan for his successes to end here. “After this interview we’ll be changing out of the Burberry and tidying the kitchen,” he says. “We take it a few weeks at a time but ideally after this we’ll be legends of the food game.”

The Pearl is at The Dolls House, 35 Hoxton Square, N1, checkonpresents.com.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in