Ayo Salau
Founder of South London Kitchen
Interview by: Emma Tucker
South London Kitchen’s supper clubs take place beneath an unassuming railway arch in Deptford, which is where founder Ayo Salau serves up his hands-on (literally, diners are encouraged to eat with their hands) meals, and also brews up SLK’s range of hot sauces, bbq rubs and flavour kits.
Rewind a few years, to when Ayo was still at university, and he admits he wasn’t much of a cook. But in a bid to impress the ladies, “I’ll be honest, I had to sharpen the weapons I had,” he says. He started trying out recipes, buying random ingredients at the market and seeing what he could make back at home. Over time, and through lots of trial and error, he developed a natural flair for flavour. “I can’t stand recipes, if I’m perfectly honest,” he says of his self-taught cooking skills. “I get recipes and do completely different stuff. I think it’s because I’ve messed up so many flavours that I know what works.”
“I’m completely and utterly undisciplined in the way I cook,” he continues. “And it depends on what’s inspired me that week, but a lot of the time it’s inspired by travel or friends.”
After graduating, and while working as an accountant, Ayo appeared on BBC series Best Home Cook, which he says prompted him to set up the business. He started running supper clubs, and serving people food that brings together a huge diversity of flavours and cultures - with miso, fattoush and adobo all appearing alongside one another on menus. “The supper clubs are for anyone who wants to enjoy some fantastic food, and wants to be filled up to the brim,” says Ayo. “I try to be authentic and respectful to whatever ingredients I’m using. I like to expose people to different flavours they haven’t had before, different smells and different textures.”
Making SLK sauces was also a natural step for Ayo, who comes from a big Nigerian family that gets together every year for a huge bbq. “Sixty or seventy people would come,” he says. “So we’re used to feeding that amount of people, and it’s always about how you get flavour into food.” His scotch bonnet hot sauce, berbere spice rubs and citrus salt blend all proved popular with his relatives, who encouraged him to start selling them. SLK products are now stocked in various south London shops, says Ayo, who has ambitions to manufacture them for the supermarket shelves one day. For now though, he’s happiest when he’s serving people at his supper clubs.
“You know someone that little bit more when you’ve seen them put their face into a massive chicken wing, with bbq sauce on their chin and bits in their teeth,” he jokes. “That’s when you really know someone, and it definitely helps to break down barriers.”
