One of east London’s hottest wine bars has announced a permanent restaurant concept from chef Yuto Fujimoto.
Oranj has been a staple of Shoreditch’s dining scene since 2022 and is known for its natural wines and changing roster of chef residencies.
Fujimoto has twice been in residence at the bar but has now been appointed chef director and will develop the venue’s first permanent menu.
The chef started out at Tokyo’s two Michelin-starred restaurant Maz, before working at some of Europe’s most acclaimed and famous kitchens.
He is to join Oranj fresh from a residency at Paris’ great Aux Deux Amis, a French bistro that attracts food pilgrims from around the world.
Fujimoto has developed a menu riffing off his time cooking and eating in Europe, with Oranj’s list of low intervention wines in mind.
Dishes will change regularly. To begin with, they’ll include gnocchi with sage and cep sauce, beef tartare, monkfish with chard and lemon butter, and oyster mushrooms with cured egg yolk.
The concept comes after a long line of guest chefs, including husband-and-wife pop-up legends Ha’s Đặc Biệt, now with their own Vietnamese-American restaurant in New York; chef and author Sami Tamimi, who showcases the food of Palestine; and Jesús Durón, the former head chef of Mexico City’s acclaimed Pujol, recognised a number of times in The World’s 50 Best list.
Oranj was founded by sommelier Jasper Delamothe, who said: “Through the residency programme at Oranj, I’ve had the privilege of working with some of the most talented chefs from all over the world.
“It’s been a logistical minefield, but a priceless education in how to run a restaurant, which I’m now ready to put into practice, and it’s given me a uniquely broad insight into the minds of culinary geniuses.
“By the end of each Oranj residency - whether it was a week or a month long - I’d be in this incredible groove with the chefs, on a high from our customers feedback, so saying goodbye was never easy and many of those chefs have become great friends.
“Working with Yuto - who also catered my wedding this year - has felt so natural and something that I simply couldn’t allow to end. Luckily for me, he felt the same way.”
The permanent restaurant will launch at Oranj on October 14.
14 Bacon Street, E1 6LF, oranj.co.uk
