Scallop week pops up

On Saturday, February 18, Rye Scallop Week began. At Rye Fine Wines there was an excellent choice of wines available and Kyle Tatner, of Tatner’s Street Kitchen, cooked scallops – what an event. No wonder there was a queue for tables at the venue on Cinque Ports Street.

Kyle had set up a pop-up kitchen in the garden and once he took his first order there was no respite; the orders flowed until the food ran out. The happy faces and jollity of those in the bar said it all.

Kyle explained that Rye Fine Wines was his very first pop-up and so it always has a special place with special memories for him. “I always commit to doing scallop week here as it is very close to my heart, nostalgic really. Today we are serving a crispy breaded panko scallop which we deep-fry, so it is like a take on scampi. I always serve my scallops with meat because that is our speciality. Beef brisket and pulled pork work well with scallops and they hold their own against the meats – surf ‘n turf sort of thing. They are very versatile and you will see a lot of chefs preparing meat with scallops these days. We take our inspiration from global street food so today we have a mixture of Asian influence and deep south smoked meats. I have travelled to Thailand, Vietnam and worked in France in my twenties.

“How I got into cooking I put down to two things really. I was a great lover of food as a child and I was also severely dyslexic so I warmed towards cooking as I did not have to read and write that well: I could learn by looking and asking. The passion for food has always been there. I studied at Salisbury college and then went to France. I became a head chef at twenty-four. I came back to England to master fine dining, worked with chefs like Richard Philips, moved on to The Mermaid and then I thought I would do something on my own. Tatners was meant to be a catering and events company that specialised in weddings. The pop-up we did here changed the line of where I wanted to take the business. I got rid of the event side of things and concentrated on the street food side of the business. We use fine dining techniques to produce our signature sauces and prepare most of our ingredients in advance so when we are putting it together it looks simple and quick. The art is in the preparation and it works. The flavours are layered and the dishes have been thought about in great detail.”

So to the future. Kyle says: “You will just have to wait.” The people of Rye miss Tatner’s greatly so let’s hope the waiting bears fruit for the town.

Jarrod and Emma had stayed in Rye a few weeks ago and had popped into Rye Fine Wines for a bottle of wine. Emma says: “This was at 4 o’clock in the afternoon. Cathy was so welcoming and chose some wines for us to taste before we bought our bottle. Graeme arrived and lit the fire which was an added bonus. We tasted some amazing wines and settled eventually for a bottle of Ciu Ciu. Lots of locals popped in, the wine flowed, the conversations were interesting and we eventually left at 11pm. Today we returned and brought four friends with us to experience scallop week at this wonderful venue. It is a fantastic day with awesome food.”

Graeme summed it up: “Another fantastic scallop event at Rye Fine Wines. It is so great to see people returning because of their last visit and the memories they made. Kyle adds the perfect ingredient to the mix and although tiring, it was a splendid day. Oliver Campion does a great job in organising this event which brings lots of people into Rye. Our job and that of all the other establishments is to entertain them royally.”

It was such a great success that Kyle is returning on Saturday, February 25, to re-run the event. If you missed out last week or want to come again it kicks off at 12pm.

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Image Credits: Kt bruce .