Work in Process, episode two: inside the kitchen at Osip with chef and owner Merlin Labron-Johnson

Welcome to Wallpaper’s new video series, ‘Work in Process’, where we delve into the creative methodology of today’s most inspiring artists and creators. For this episode, we were granted access to Merlin Labron-Johnson’s kitchen to discover what a day in the life looks like at a Michelin-starred restaurant.

When Merlin Labron-Johnson was born, he was initially called Osip after the Russian poet Osip Mandelstam. The name means ‘he who brings plenty’. Although it was later changed, its legacy lingered.

At around 15, Labron-Johnson struck a deal with his school cook: he would help prepare lunches in exchange for free meals. He later worked as an assistant at a local cookery school, before placements in ‘very traditional’, ‘classical’ and ‘disciplined’ kitchens in Devon, Switzerland and France. But it was his work at a farm-to-table restaurant in Belgium that ‘really had a profound influence on [him]’.

This is the philosophy that now underpins Osip, Labron-Johnson’s Michelin-starred restaurant in Bruton, Somerset, which recently expanded to include four bedrooms created by designer Johnny Smith, where minimalist luxury meets the heritage of the 17th-century coaching inn that Osip inhabits. The menu is a reflection of what’s growing on the local farm, often harvested that morning – 'an expression of the landscape at any given moment', says Labron-Johnson.

What some may describe as a constraint – cooking only with what grows locally – is a source of creativity for the chef. With limited options, ‘it’s about finding new techniques to use [ingredients] which can often be seen as mundane or uninspiring’. His approach to food is both reactive and cumulative: ‘Every season brings the same ingredients at roughly the same time, so we revisit certain dishes, layering in new ideas.’

Labron-Johnson’s relationship with the land is intimate and essential. ‘If I wasn't a chef, I can definitely see myself just growing vegetables at my own pace on a farm,’ he says. It is that equilibrium – between the serenity of the garden and the intensity of the kitchen – that underpins his process. Yet farming and cooking are more alike than they seem – both require discipline, care and process. 'The different stages – from propagation to planting and nurturing [a plant] until the eventual harvest is, in many ways, like preparing a recipe,' Labron-Johnson explains.

Process is, of course, paramount in a kitchen, where dozens of moving parts need to come together in exactly the right way in order to achieve success: 'There's an interesting dance that has to happen where it's very coordinated and every team member plays an important role. Without one the whole system can break down.'

Inspiration for Labron-Johnson can come from anywhere: ‘Travel, a piece of art, something architectural.’ In fact, he often begins with an idea of what a dish will look like before a flavour profile. That visual sensibility is evident at Osip – not only in the immaculate plating, but also in everything from the design of the crockery to the art on the walls and the hand-carved wooden spoons. Every detail '[feeds] into a bigger picture'. That said, the chef qualifies, the food is the undisputed protagonist.

Featuring: Merlin Labron-Johnson
Director: Dael Poulter
DOP: Oscar Oldershaw
Colour: Selected Works
Colourist: Nielsan Bohl
Sound design: Indústries Sòniques
Wallpaper* Head of video: Sebastian Jordahn
With thanks to Osip Restaurant