The best dinner I had during my holiday 2022/2023 trip to the UK was at Silo London. I met Doug McMaster, the chef and creative mind behind this zero waste (and green Michelin starred) restaurant, a few years ago at a pop up dinner series in Brooklyn (see the full story on that over here). I was blown away with the ethos and the food quality. When I found out that he had moved his restaurant from Brighton up to London, I knew I had to stop in during my trip. I convinced my trusty foodie partner in crime to join me and we headed across town for one incredible meal.

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Everything is consciously and locally sourced to prevent the use of single use packaging. They make so many things in-house, or partner with other local businesses to source the rest. I included the menu for the night we went, and tried to match the captions to the menu for reference. We did the “all in” option so we got to try everything. This is the way to go, trust me. Also, if you can sit at the bar, you get an amazing view into the kitchen and all of the precise and beautiful work that goes into each dish. This is an option when you make a reservation so definitely pick that if you can!

Thanks for coming along to an incredible meal with me, let me know if you make it here during your next trip to London.

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Cheers & Happy Travels, V

All photos taken on a first-gen iPhone SE

If you’d like to learn more about the ethos behind the restaurant and how it all came about, check out the short film embedded below.

A Failure of the Imagination from ENGLAND your ENGLAND on Vimeo.

Every year, the UK food industry wastes 1.9 million tones of food. A FAILURE of the IMAGINATION documents the story of one chef and his efforts to change this.

Five years ago, Douglas McMaster opened the restaurant Silo, hoping to change the unsustainable practices of modern food systems. His aim was simple, yet frighteningly ambitious: create an award winning menu using a zero-waste food system designed from scratch.

This is the story of that restaurant’s first five years.

Director: Matt Hopkins (matt@progressfilm.co.uk)
Production Company: The Progress Film Company
Cinematography: Matt Hopkins, Joe Sampson, Zak Thorpe
Photography: Xavier Beundia
Animation: Jessica Hislop
Editor: Matt Hopkins
Additional Editing: Ben Smith
Colourist: Vlad Barin
Colour Producer: Thea Dagnaud, CHEAT
Composer: James O'Connell
Sound Design and Mix: Joe Munday