Bocca di Lupo

The story

Bocca di Lupo, London – Regional Italian Cuisine in the Heart of Soho

A phrasebook in miniature

Jacob Kenedy and Victor Hugo opened Bocca di Lupo in November 2008, and the description on the menu has barely needed updating since: "a phrasebook in miniature, containing a taste of the twenty main dialects of Italian cuisine." That ambition — to represent all of Italy rather than any single region — is what sets this Soho address apart, and what has earned it recognition from Gambero Rosso among other sustained critical acclaim.

The menu changes twice daily to follow the seasons. Everything that can be made in-house is: gelati, breads, sausages, salame, pickles, mostarda, pasta. What cannot be made is carefully sourced from Italy. Despite the glamour of the surroundings — marble counter, open kitchen, the paintings of Haidee Becker on the walls — the restaurant describes itself, without irony, as "a small and humble trattoria at heart."

Jacob Kenedy and the kitchen

Chef-patron Jacob Kenedy came to cooking via an unlikely route: biology, glassblowing, and a stint as a semi-professional DJ. He trained at Moro in London and Boulevard in San Francisco, where Nancy Oakes called him "the most gifted natural cook I have worked with." He spent a year travelling Italy with Victor Hugo before the two opened Bocca together. He has since written three cookbooks — The Geometry of Pasta, Bocca: Cookbook, and Gelupo Gelato — and opened Gelupo, the gelato shop, in 2010. Today he directs menu and recipe development alongside Jake Simpson, and selects the wines with Phill Morgan.

The walls of the restaurant carry a permanent presence of his mother, Haidee Becker — painter, Londoner by adoption, and Roman by upbringing — whose triptych hangs in the dining room alongside a chefs' group portrait and rotating canvases. It is a family business in the most literal sense.

The room and how to use it

Condé Nast Traveller's advice — "bag a couple of spots at the marble-topped counter" — remains sound. The chef's counter puts diners directly in front of the open kitchen, on high leather bar stools, watching the regional Italian dishes come together. Dogs are welcome at the counter section by the window (call ahead). The restaurant is fully accessible for wheelchair users, and a number of seats are kept free for walk-ins.

The private dining room seats up to thirty-two, with its own dedicated kitchen and chef. It was recently redecorated with marble panelling and wall paintings by artist Stewart Helm depicting mythical creatures and the joy of food and wine — a fitting mirror to Soho's appetite. Feasting menus change monthly, and individual menus can be designed on request.

Post-theatre, from 9:30pm, any wine on the list — up to £300 — is available by the glass. That detail says something about the seriousness with which the wine list is assembled, and the generosity with which it is offered.