The MEATliquor Chronicles: The Meat Wagon Rolls On

Yianni Papoutsis and Scott Collins have gone from burger van to London dining champs. Their new book, featuring DBC Pierre, is less a cookbook than a distillation of their style and ethos

When Yianni Papoutsis and Scott Collins were first in discussions about the book that would become The MEATliquor Chronicles, their publisher pointed out that Faber & Faber, the distinguished house that brought the world TS Eliot, Siegfried Sassoon and Sylvia Plath, didn't really do cookbooks. "Neither do we," they replied and so, Papoutsis tells me in the half-light of a booth in east London's MEATmission: "It kind of works out quite well, really."They are also, as Collins points out, great delegators: "Yianni doesn't claim to be a head chef, I don't claim to be a bar manager, but we like getting people involved and pooling talent." That approach, which Papoutsis likens to "herding very drunk cats", extends from the designers and graffiti artists who give a distinctive look to each of their six restaurants, to the 20-odd contributors they have marshalled to create a book worlds away from the aspirational pretension of many restaurant spin-offs.There are recipes, for sure, including relatively easy to accomplish favourites such as spag bol and ossobuco; and more ambitious affairs courtesy of chef friends, such as Margot Henderson's salt cod, cream and potato pie and a tournedos de cheval, foie and frankfurters from Montreal restaurateur Joe Beef, whose book The Art of Living According to Joe Beef was an inspiration (even though they think he should have called it Meet Joe Beef). And there are plenty of cocktails, many of them from Giles Looker - the man behind the bars at Mahiki and Quo Vadis, described here as "the Rain Man of cocktails" - with intriguing names. Donkey Punch, anyone? Accidental Limousine?But in between the recipes and the funky pictures of food, drink and an awful lot of nights out comes the writing. It is not what you might expect, even for an off-kilter cookbook. There are the revelations of "kitchen gimp" Helen Graves, who describes working a shift at #MEATEASY, the pair's 2011 pop-up; a piece by Andrew Weatherall entitled And You Shall Know Me By My Trail of Onions, on the perils of eating in the street; there is a discussion about the perpetually vexed question of no-reservations restaurants featuring Polpo's Russell Norman, the Pitt Cue duo of Jamie Berger and Tom Adams, and David Strauss, operations director of Goodman Restaurants, who own the Burger & Lobster chain; as well as a fiery afterthought from columnist Grace Dent: "Quite plainly, anyone who queues for a beefburger needs to spend more downtime trying to lose their virginity."And, in perhaps Papoutsis and Collins's finest coup, there is a series of utterly baffling and hugely entertaining interjections from the Booker prize-winning novelist DBC Pierre. "If today isn't a reason to drink, get creative and get real," Pierre writes, "nothing will ever be. So this book is about what happens when people grow tired and refuse to have fingers up their asses.""He has a very good sense of the slightly absurd," says Papoutsis. "And he likes a drink," chips in Collins. They were put together by Lee Brackstone, creative director at Faber, and it was, they say, a likely match from the off. "He likes food, fun, music, booze. So we were always going to get on," says Collins. "He invested a lot of his time, which was very flattering."The pair first found each other in Peckham, south London, back in 2009. Papoutsis, at the time a technician for the English National Ballet, had begun his much celebrated MEATwagon "because I wanted to test myself a little bit". (The 2010 theft of the MEATwagon is marked in the book with a reproduction of a police victim-of-crime letter. Were they distraught? Collins: "Shit happens.") Collins had opened 13 gastropubs in 10 years and was also ready for a change: "Everywhere was quite prim and proper - that was just what I'd done and was good at. His background is very gonzo and Burning Man. It's just how we've come together," says Collins. "We've bounced off each other, and bounced into each other ... and then spat out these ugly children." Papoutsis laughs: "The most dysfunctional family ever!"Dysfunctional it might be, but it's profitable, with an annual turnover of around £15m. Their first permanent restaurant was Marylebone's MEATliquor in 2011. They went on to open Covent Garden's MEATmarket, Hoxton's MEATmission and Brixton market's CHICKENliquor (Collins was involved when it opened as Wishbone in 2012, and received a scathing review from Jay Rayner; now it has been brought into the MEATliquor brand). Last year saw their first opening outside London, in Brighton, and now they're venturing to Leeds, with a two-floor, two-bar 170-seater. "It's a bit of a beast," says Collins, "but a sexy beast." He says they are ploughing every penny they have made in the south into the north. And they've launched a radio station, MEATtransMISSION. They're awfully relaxed, aren't they? Hollow laughs. "The phones are on silent, though," says Papoutsis.The MEATliquor brand has not been without its critics - often for the original branch's no-reservations policy (they point out that some of the restaurants, MEATmission included, do take bookings). They were told that they'd never get regulars, but their favourite story is of a couple who got married at Glastonbury and had their wedding lunch at MEATwagon. When their son was born, the bloke came into MEATliquor, ordered a portion of chicken wings and took them, with a bottle of Dom Pérignon, to the hospital, "because all his wife wanted was wings". The baby now has free chicken wings for life. Queuing aside, that's customer service.The recipes below are extracted from The MEATliqour Chronicles by Yianni Papoutsis and Scott Collins, published by Faber & Faber on 18 September
Brown Butter Steak & Eggs
DBC Pierre: Although this recipe can be enjoyed throughout life, like all good weapons, it has a specific application. Timeline: 8.40am. Location: unknown. Two bodies in shades and Hawaiian shirts are propped across a desk. They faintly resemble Yianni and Pierre. "Is this a hangover?" Pierre checks his limbs, satisfied that all six are intact.Yianni lowers his shades, addressing the ashtray: "It can't be a hangover - we haven't slept yet.""Things are looking grim if this is still yesterday. Do you think the ambulance will come out if we pay them this time?""We could give them next door's address. Or a better idea: ever hear of meat, carbs, fat and salt?"100g fillet steak
250g butter
2 eggs
1 thick slice of white bread
Salt and pepperSalt the steak thoroughly and leave, uncovered, in the fridge for an hour.Scrape away any salt left visible on the steak and pat dry with a paper towel. Crack one egg into a teacup, and add just the yolk of the second.In a heavy frying pan, heat 75g of butter until it has started to brown. Give the steak a good grind of black pepper then fry quickly for a minute or so on each side. Remove the steak and let rest. Add another 75g butter to the pan. When this starts to brown, tip slightly so that the butter pools and gently lower the eggs into the butter. They should cook very quickly - remove them as soon as the whites have cooked while the yolks are still runny.Add the remaining butter to the pan and fry the bread until golden brown on both sides. Pour any remaining butter over the steak.Drink: red snapper and black coffee.Wear: sunglasses.Blood & Sand
We were lucky enough to get perfect blood oranges while the #MEATEASY was open ... for the next three weeks the whole bar drank these.25ml whisky
25ml sweet vermouth
25ml Cherry Heering
25ml blood-orange juicePlace all the ingredients into a cocktail shaker and shake. Pour ingredients into a pre-chilled cocktail glass. Drink.
Wings @home
Wings are something you can cook as well in the oven at home as you can in an industrial fryer. And they are almost embarrassingly easy to do. The baking powder and salt will dry out the skin so you get that all-important crunch rather than a mouthful of flaccid fat.1kg chicken wings, jointed
1tsp baking powder
1tsp salt
250ml Frank's Hot Sauce or similar
250g butter
For the blue cheese sauce:
200g mayonnaise
100g sour cream
100g gorgonzola
2 cloves garlic, minced
15ml white wine vinegar
½ tsp onion powder
10ml lemon juice
A pinch of salt
A pinch of ground black pepperFor the blue cheese sauce: combine all ingredients except the cheese. Crumble the gorgonzola into very small pieces and stir in. Refrigerate, ideally overnight, and season to taste.Toss the wings with the salt and baking powder and refrigerate overnight. Roast in the oven on a wire rack at 220C/450F/gas mark 8 for approximately 30 minutes or until golden brown and cooked through, turning halfway.Melt the butter in a pan and slowly stir in the hot sauce. Add the wings and toss. Serve with ice-cold beer.
The New Cross Negroni
This was one of #MEATEASY's few house cocktails. The sweetness, bitterness and punch of gin is a killer combo.35ml Tanqueray gin
15ml Antica Formula
20ml Aperol
Orange twistPlace ingredients into a rocks glass over ice cubes and stir. Express the orange twist over the cocktail. Drink.Backyard Burger
Yianni Papoutsis: In the course of my travels across the US, I have seen many methods of cooking burgers, and in general the simpler recipes work best on a barbecue. I always use processed American-style cheese slices - on a burger no other cheese comes close. For the bun, use a white roll with a bit of texture. Your butcher will be happy to grind you some chuck steak. Get hold of some British hardwood charcoal - you get a much better flavour than you do with briquettes.160g freshly ground chuck steak
A generous pinch of salt and pepper
1 burger bun
A half-inch-thick slice of a large white onion
2 slices of American-style cheese
A squirt of Heinz ketchup
A squirt of French's mustard
2 or 3 slices of dill pickle (not sweet)Light your charcoal and let the coals burn down - when they are coated with a white ash and the flames have died down, you're ready to cook.Pull out a wad of ground chuck steak, form into a ball and squash into a burger patty a bit bigger than the bun to allow for shrinkage during cooking.Place the patty on an oiled and preheated barbecue grill and cover the top side with a healthy dose of salt and pepper. Put the thick slice of onion on the barbecue. Cut the bun in half and toast over the barbecue.When the bottom of the burger has formed a good brown crust, it will easily lift without sticking. Flip it and cook the other side. It won't take nearly as long. Flip the onion when it starts to brown. Lay a couple of slices of cheese over the burger on the barbecue.Squirt some Heinz ketchup and French's mustard on the bottom of the bun. Stick some dill pickle on there.Lay the burger on to your bun base and stack the onion on top. Put the bun lid on top and serve immediately.Drink: something with an umbrella.MEATliquor's Blood & Sand.