JUMP x FKABAM : The Christmas Party
This year we were incredibly lucky to have our Jump Christmas lunch at the amazing FKABAM / Black Axe Mangal on Highbury Corner.
It’s a tiny place that’s easy to walk past if you aren’t looking for it – but inside this magic little restaurant, they are conjuring up some of the most creative and absolutely delicious food in London! It’s run by husband and wife team, Lee and Kate Tiernan. Lee was previously Head Chef at St. John’s in Clerkenwell, famous for championing nose to tail menus – and this continues at FKABAM – except with Lee’s added crazy creative skills, flavour combinations and smack-you-round the face sichuan spiciness.
FKABAM seats 22 people which is very handy as Jump has 21 staff – so we had the whole place to oursleves. The soft glowing gold wall with hand painted murals and the mulitcoloured skateboards with rock motifs hanging on the wall give you a clue this is not your average restaurant. Lee presides over a big Gozney dome oven which commands the corner of the room and is also hand painted in a very cool “The Warriors’ movie mural.
Russell Hilliard – Marketing Director at Jump:
“Fortunately for me I live really close – so I’ve been eating in FKABAM regularly since it opened. I’ve been organising our team-bonding JumpDay events and it’s been an idea of mine to try and get everyone here. I knew it would be a fantastic place for the Jump Christmas Party!”
This was certainly no ordinary Christmas lunch menu – featuring delights such as sichuan crispy duck, ox heart, snail shallot butter, smoked dripping potato cakes and deep fried mince pies to name just a few dishes. Vegans and Vegetarians are equally brilliantly catered for at FKABAM though. The nut roast was getting big groans of pleasure.
Lee’s particularly famous for his flatbread recipes. He developed the dough especially for BAM with the help of Chad Robertson from the famous Tartine Bakery in San Francisco. The dough takes three days to make. Our menu featured Baked Tunworth flatbreads with Lyonnaise onions and cornichons. Absolutely delicious.
In keeping with the vibe at FKABAM, our party had a ‘Most Rocking Christmas Outift’ competition.
Russell Mann and Kate Norley had definitely applied the most amount of fake tattoos between them – but senior animator, Mark Fairless maxed out the clapometer adjudication system and took home the star prize – which was a copy of the Black Axe Mangal Cookbook (signed by Lee of course).
Fuelled by Whiskey Sourz, Margaritas, Negronis and Irish Whiskey – and with very full bellies – the Jump team retired to nearby a bar for Secret Santa and games.
We would love to say a massive thank you to the team at FKABAM for hosting this year’s party. You were brilliant.
If you haven’t been before – we highly recommend you get yourself to Highbury Corner for a meal there … and most definitely a few cocktails too.
As Mark said … “That BAM is some tasty shizzle!”
