Setlist Brings a Quartet of Leading Female Chefs to Somerset House
Four trailblazing female chefs share a kitchen at Setlist, a new riverside bar and creative platform for Somerset House.
Find our more about Setlist
A new riverside bar and venue – launching during Somerset House’s milestone 25th birthday year – Setlist is a platform for creators that will represent the breadth of London’s cultural excellence across food, music, and art, all within a new bespoke structure offering views across the Thames.
Developed by a team of independent innovators and veterans of London’s restaurant and bar scene, the minds behind the Setlist project include Thomas Kidd (previously of Bar Elba – which now operates under the name Circe’s – and Luna Springs); James Dye (co-owner of Frank’s in Peckham and the ‘music-led’ wine bar Bambi); Paul Smyth (one half of the artists Something & Son and co-founder of Mission Kitchen and Makerversity, one of Somerset House’s long-standing creative residents); and Clement Ogbonnaya, pub trailblazer and founder of the Prince of Peckham and Queen of the South pubs.
Ensuring that the new Setlist kitchen represents the degree of creativity, engagement and play that defines the Somerset House ethos more widely, Setlist brings four incredible female chefs together under one roof to create a unique set of international menus that represent the best that London has to offer. A curious cuisine to parallel the exploratory culture as showcased in Setlist’s programme, read on for more on the unique work of Opeoluwa Odutayo, Sophie Wyburd, Andrea Montes Renaud & Laura Copp and Terri Mercieca, and for a taste of the dishes they’ll offer up to mark Setlist’s first days and nights at Somerset House.
The Chefs
Opeoluwa Odutayo x The Future Plate
Rising star Opeoluwa Odutayo is one of the core chefs of The Future Plate, the house of African and Caribbean cuisine and culture, who are also former Somerset House residents. Founded in 2021 by Julian George, a specialist with over 15 years of experience in TV, food, and publishing, The Future Plate intersects cuisine and culture. With a high-tech kitchen in our New Wing as their first permanent home, they highlight the work of thirty-five pioneering Black chefs, promoting diversity in hospitality through storytelling and heritage.
A CODE ‘30 under 30’ Class of 2024/25 awardee, and in addition to her work as a core chef contributing to the Future Plate project, Odutayo has worked as private chef, recipe developer and development chef and her menu is inspired by Nigerian upbringing. For Setlist, Odutayo will serve plantain fritters with parmesan aioli; jerk chicken skewers with scotch bonnet mango chutney; and African spiced goat croquettes. Future Plate will also preview My Chale, their new West African Wahala burger concept, including Beef Wahala – aged beef patty, kaanne sauce, yassa onion, slow cooked beef brisket, suya mayo – and Chicken Wahala, suya buttermilk chicken, scotch bonnet chimichurri, bell pepper relish, caramelised onion and curry mayo.
Sophie Wyburd x Wildfarmed
Sophie Wyburd is a cook, recipe writer and presenter from South London. With a career in food spanning restaurant cheffing, food styling and heading up the food team at Mob, she now brings simple comforting home cooking to the masses via her newsletter ‘Feeder.’ Wyburd’s latest book Tucking In (Ebury Press) – a 2024 Cosmopolitan Book Award winner – is all about simple, hearty comfort food.
For Setlist, Sophie will team up with Wildfarmed – producers of the UK’s first and only regeneratively farmed flour – to create a menu of pizzette such as the Saucisson, topped with sausage, potato, caramelised onion, rosemary and taleggio, and the Aubergine, topped with smoked aubergine, mozzarella, fermented chilli and tomato sauce, and hot honey. Sophie will also offer snacks like smoked cheese beignets, and slow roast tomatoes with walnut cream and tarragon gremolata.
Andrea Montes Renaud & Laura Copp
Andrea Montes Renaud & Laura Copp are the duo behind Masafina, who create incredible heirloom corn tortillas and salsas made using ingredients sourced directly from small, regenerative farms in Mexico.
At Masafina, they make their tortillas from scratch, daily, using a masa dough made from heirloom corn sourced from Mexican milpas, which they nixtamalize and stoneground at their North Acton Tortillería, before baking the tortillas on an open flame. To learn more about the history and heritage of Masafina’s traditionally made tortilla (and for a glossary of terms, to know your masa from your milpa) see the Masafina website for more on their commitment to time-honoured methods of corn cultivation and biodiversity.
Bringing an array of Mexican flavours to Somerset House, their Setlist menu includes a baja fish taco with Mexican chilli and lime slaw, burnt garlic and habanero mayo; mushroom tostada with salsa macha chilli oil, sun dried tomatoes, guacamole and feta; and Mexico City nachos, topped with salsa verde, salsa roja, melted cheese and pulled chicken.
Terri Mercieca
Terri Mercieca – YBF award winner and champion for Queer businesses – is an award-winning pastry chef, ice cream maker, chocolatier, dessert chef and founder of Happy Endings who will serve a rotating selection of soft serve, sorberts and will collaborate with each in-house chef to produce a signature ice cream sundae available exclusively at Setlist.
Opening on 08.05.25, book a table now via the Setlist website.