In prison, Nathaniel Mortley was known as ‘the chef’. Before his incarceration for selling drugs in 2019, he had cooked at top London restaurants including Oblix. Inside, he combined his culinary skills with his Caribbean heritage to transform the bland cafeteria food. His version of jerk chicken with rice and peas was a particularly big hit with fellow inmates.
Five years later, he’s cooking for a very different crowd, albeit just a few miles down the road from HMP Brixton, at his debut solo restaurant. Currently in soft launch (the restaurant officially opens on 5 November), Mortley’s Herne Hill venture offers refined versions of Caribbean staples including ackee and saltfish spring rolls, roti with scotch bonnet butter, and a terrine of slow-cooked jerk-marinated chicken with mango and pineapple salsa and charred spring onion - presumably quite a step up from what he was serving his fellow inmates in prison.
“Caribbean food is banging. It’s my favourite food; I absolutely love it. But there’s so much more that can be done with it than your bog-standard Caribbean food. What I’m trying to do is offer the same flavours you get when you go to a West Indian takeaway, just with a nice sleek touch,” says Mortley, now much better known as Natty Can Cook, when we catch up about his new restaurant.
He is pushing a shopping trolley piled high with a weekend’s worth of restaurant supplies down Peckham High Street, having been let down by one of his wholesalers. This is very much Mortley’s manor, a point underscored by our call being constantly interrupted by people trying to say hello to him. Born just down the road to a German-Jewish father and a Bajan and Guyanese mother, Mortley comes from a middle-class background and did well at school but fell in with the wrong crowd.
He ended up at catering college where it was quickly identified that he had a real aptitude for cooking, leading to a stint at Oblix within London skyscraper The Shard, where he was taken under the wing of then-executive chef Marcus Eaves. After four years, he moved on to a Michelin-starred restaurant he doesn’t want to name, where he says he didn’t have such a good time.
“I lasted over a year there, but I ended up losing my passion for cooking. It was a big step up and it wasn’t a good environment; there was much less of a work-life balance. On top of that I was the only black person in the kitchen and there were racial undertones.”
Mortley falling out of love with kitchens saw him fall in with the wrong crowd once again and ultimately go to jail, although not before he made the finals at Young Chef of the Year while working for BM Caterers at the head office of law firm Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer.
Initially sent to HMP Belmarsh in east London (not for nothing is it nicknamed ‘Hellmarsh’), Mortley was later transferred to HMP Brixton where he worked at charity restaurant The Clink. He ended up practically running the place.
The only person that was really representing Carribean food on social were people like Ainsley Harriott, and he’s old enough to be my dad.
“The Clink was good for me, but it was a very different environment to what I was used to. Nobody had any real training. The job was primarily about managing people that had never even stepped foot in a kitchen or worked under the pressures of hospitality.”
From The Clink to getting clicks
Upon his release and encouraged by a new breed of influencer chefs popping up on social media, Mortley set his Instagram profile to public and quickly went viral with pacey cooking videos that juxtaposed high-end Caribbean food with rap music. He now has nearly 55,000 followers and is now gaining traction on TikTok.
“I just thought ‘I can do this’. At the time there were very few young black people doing that sort of thing. There was a gap to fill. The only person that was really representing it were people like Ainsley Harriott, and he’s old enough to be my dad.”
Social media success led to various pop-ups, corporate dinners, and a residency at Peckham’s The Greyhound. Impressively, he has got his debut restaurant 2210 by Natty Can Cook off the ground by himself using the proceeds from these apparently very successful projects.
“It’s cost me a pretty penny getting this place to where it needs to be, so it has to work,” says Mortley, who has spent around £45,000 refurbishing the 75 Norwood Road restaurant and has also invested a considerable amount in branding, marketing and PR.
2210 by Natty Can Cook has a high-end feel, and an average spend of around £65 a head. “The dress code is smart. I don’t want any hoodies or tracksuit bottoms. That’s not the vibe I’m going for.”
The restaurant is à la carte only for the time being, but Mortley is planning to launch a tasting menu soon.
“We’ve had significant staffing issues. I don’t have a full team at the moment. We eventually want to work with The Clink to get ex-offenders into work but we’re not ready for that yet. I’ve never done anything like this before. Running a restaurant is a lot more than just cooking food. It feels like every day is a different battle. But I’m learning and it’s all going in a positive direction.”
The dress code is smart. I don’t want any hoodies or tracksuit bottoms. That’s not the vibe I’m going for
The size of the site, around 80 covers, has also proved a challenge. “We could do a maximum of 25 people at The Greyhound. Last Saturday we got slammed with 80 covers at once.”
But the initial reception has been positive. “We have great reviews on Google, Tripadvisor and OpenTable. Things are going well. My focus at the moment is making sure that the service is up to the same standard as the food,” says Mortley, who does admit he is getting some pushback from people who have grown up with Caribbean cuisine and don’t take too kindly to it being mucked about with.
“I get the odd person that asks why I change things so much. My answer is that this community deserves a place where we can get dressed up and enjoy Caribbean culture. As a community we are often left behind while other communities evolve. Sometimes it feels like we’re doing the same thing over and over again.”
Caribbean food’s moment?
Recently a number of other chefs have looked to elevate Caribbean food in London including Caribe’s Keshia Sakarah, and LIMIN’s Sham Mahabir. Perhaps most notably is Dom Taylor, who gained prominence after winning the TV show Five Star Kitchen: Britain’s Next Great Chef in 2023 and went on to launch modern Caribbean concept The Good Front Room at the luxury hotel The Langham London and later in Notting Hill.
Mortley rightly points out that no restaurant serving Caribbean food has ever won a Michelin star. This is partly because the Michelin Guide doesn’t currently cover any Caribbean countries or territories, so no restaurant located in the Caribbean could have a Michelin star, regardless of quality. Probably the closest anyone has come is Martinique-born chef Marcel Ravin who has attracted two stars at his Monaco restaurant Blue Bay cooking Caribbean-influenced Mediterranean food.
“This might not be the place where I get a Michelin star, but this is part of that journey. Eventually I will try and get a place with fewer covers but the focus at the moment is on this business making money.”