It isn’t always a great sign to see a chef striding purposefully out onto the dining room floor. My wife — who, in waitressing job terms, is a multi-tour combat veteran — always talks about having had to essentially be a human shield between displeased diners and the cleaver-wielding chefs desperate to march out for a violent confrontation with them. In my line of work, meanwhile, it often heralds either the awkward offer of a kitchen tour or a well-meaning monologue about regenerative carrot provenance.
Well, late on during my second trip to Mamapen at The Sun and 13 Cantons, a new Cambodian pub residency in Soho, I watched the dread scene play out. Chef-founder Kaneda Pen wandered down from the kitchen before engaging in a tight-smiled conversation with a table of office lunchers who, it transpired, had sent a fried chicken burger back because it looked a bit pink.
