“I opened Bocca so that I could eat that food in London. And I think that was what was the killer move. Because I was opening a restaurant for myself, and you can do that well. You can't really successfully imagine what other people want. It's a disservice to them.”
The Go To Food Podcast · Food & Beverage · October 2026
Kenedy on why he opened Bocca di Lupo. He says London's Italian restaurants at the time either adapted the food for English tastes or served French-style plates with an Italian accent, and nobody cooked the regional trattoria food he kept flying to Italy for.
Transcript
Yeah, I'd reached a point in my career where I felt I wanted to do something of my own. Victor was not in the sector, he was an accountant, but we decided to do something together. And I explored a few concepts. The first idea, which I still kind of wish I'd done, was a really dirty, nasty taqueria, all kind of, you know, heads and lips and tongues and sweet bread. Yeah, that's been good. And that would have been good. And I had an idea of doing something which is a bit kind of farm to table, taking a garden space somewhere outside of London and a restaurant in the centre. But they were kind of concepts. And then at some point, I think towards the end of that year, I was getting on a plane to go to Italy because we were living there, but still came back a couple of times for family stuff. And I got really excited to get on the plane. And I recognised that I always got really excited to get on the plane to go to Italy. And the reason was for a style of cooking that we didn't get here then. The kind of very honest and very regional trattoria level or home level cooking that you find in Italy. And there was nowhere doing that. At the time, there were restaurants that were.
What was the landscape? Because obviously River Cafe was there.
So River Cafe was there, and that was the closest to that level of cooking. But they were very much rooted in Tuscany. But that was the closest. Other than that, it was mostly local neighbourhood, Italian-run Italian joints, where sometimes the food was very good, but it was all not dumbed down, but adapted for the English palate. Like Chinese restaurants used to be as well. Not quite Italian. Italian-ish. And then at the other end, there were places which were finer dining. And they, some of them were quite good. Azafferano was great at the time, but they all would do meat and a jus on a plate with some vaguely Italian vegetables and putting together a plate that was really a French or British plate with an Italian accent. And there wasn't anywhere, I think, cooking food like you get it in Italy. And I opened Boca so that I could eat that food in London. And I think that was what was the killer move. Because I was opening a restaurant for myself, and you can do that well. You can't really successfully imagine what other people want. It's a disservice to them.
When you were in Italy, what were the sort of stand-out restaurant standard dishes which blew your mind? I mean, this isn't that that long ago. But I mean, the discoverability where you're like, fuck me.
I'm older than I look.
Gorgeous now.
More from The Go To Food Podcast
