Leeds chef Craig Rogan hopes The Collective menu will play 'mind games' with diners

The venue opened in Boar Lane in 2021, offering an interior design and cafe-bar concept where customers can purchase the furniture they sit and dine on.

Founded by Dale Wynter, it is inspired by the Los Angeles art scene and hosts pop-up dining events. Although tonight’s event is sold out, Craig and Dale are already planning another for next month, on July 20.

The pair only met about three months ago but were in sync, both wanting to offer something exciting and unexpected for Yorkshire diners.

“It's a real chance to just be really creative,” says Craig, 34, who says the event – similar to his pop-up called Radix in York in 2018 – will present food that plays “mind games”.

The dishes are “the way my mind works, on a plate, and I think if it wasn't that, then I wouldn't put it on the menu.

"Every single dish complements each other, one after the next. Really bright, vibrant colours and flavours. Some of it you look at and your mind is already telling you one thing but then you eat it and it tells you something completely different.”

He adds: “There’s a bit of surprise to it, a bit of theatre as well.”

While they’re hoping to retain an element of surprise for diners, dishes which have been previously been revealed include violet potato with ox cheek and lovage, glazed pork rib with fennel and yuzu, and sweet cheese with clementine and dark chocolate.

Craig’s career before his move to Leeds includes training in some of the UK’s top restaurants including L’enclume, his father’s restaurant in the Lake District, Fera at Claridge’s in London, Manchester House, and received 3 AA rosettes in his first head chef role at The Grand in York.

As a youngster, he had hoped to play football professionally.

But Craig, who lives in the West Yorkshire city, says: “I think I was always destined to fall into (cooking) just because I've obviously been around it so much when I was a kid. I was around the kitchen from being a baby. It's funny because I can't remember what I did yesterday, but I've got memories of being sat in a kitchen when I was about three years old.

“Even though I never planned to be a chef, I still just fell into it and I’ve never looked back. I've loved every second of it really.

“My dad was a big influence, obviously, growing up, seeing him go off to work and doing what he did.

"But in terms of learning, I think I've learned a lot more - and this is obviously no disrespect to my dad - from the chefs around him because obviously he would be off doing what he needs to do for the business and doing his own thing and whatever else he had going on, whereas it was the (other) chefs I'd work with on an everyday sort of level, his head chef, his sous chef, they were the ones I was really learning from.”

He mentioned the likes of Mark Birchall and Dan Cox, who both worked with his father.

Craig moved up north, from the south coast, to be near his son, Max, who’s 12.

“I won’t say this to my southern friends and family but I’m definitely an adopted northerner now. I've been up for a long time,” he says.

“Yorkshire, in general, is just an amazing place and I absolutely love being here - I can see myself being here forever, really. It's always nice to go back down to the south coast and see family and stuff but the funny thing is, when I'm down there, always ready to come back, ready to get back up north.”

The region, he finds, is a great place to be a chef.

“Yorkshire produce is unbelievable. If you look at any of my menus, especially in my time at Dakota, they've been very Yorkshire-based. Lots of local produce, meat from up the road,” he says.

“I try and get anything that I can from Yorkshire because you can get pretty much everything from Yorkshire. I even had a dish on at one point with Yorkshire chorizo on.”

While the food and hospitality industry is exciting, the Covid pandemic affected it hugely, but in one sense perhaps for the better – more workers are now expecting a better balance between work and their personal lives in what is a notoriously gruelling trade.

Craig says: “I think we have to adapt for our team because otherwise you're not going to get the best people, you're not going to get people 100 per cent committed because they might not feel appreciated, or I might feel overworked and all these other things.

“That’s one of the biggest things I’ve noticed, people wanting - and deserving - a better work-life balance. And it's just trying to navigate through the hours of hospitality. It's a notorious job for not getting a lot of time. We've had to do things to change that.”

He is looking forward to the next collaboraiton with The Collective, but also hopes to have a place of his own one day.

“I'd love to have my own restaurant. I think that's what a lot of chefs will say when you ask them what their major ambition is.

“I by no means think I'm going to overtake my dad in any way. Obviously, what he's achieved is absolutely unbelievable. But, I mean, if I can emulate just a little bit of his success, then I'd be happy. So I think the natural step for me now would be to open my own restaurant and just go for it.”