Their story began modestly with event shifts between auditions and long hours behind café counters, but those years forged a detail-led philosophy. Today, dishes are designed around plates, glassware is measured to fit bespoke ice, and a table is set and served like choreography. “It’s almost military-like,” Charlie laughs. 

The precision is literal: white gloves on, tape measures out, string laid down the center of table. Every element is measured so the spacing is exact, each distance perfectly consistent. Looking down the length of the table, everything aligns seamlessly, with each member of staff working cohesively with one another to create the perfect tablescape. The ease you see is the result of exactness you don’t. In their words: “If one detail drops, the others won’t stand out.” 

Opus 11 call their style contemporary modern fusion. “Every element is considered: the plating, the visuals, where we’re sourcing our ingredients and what’s going on in the food world at that moment.” And the goalposts keep moving: “There are still so many firsts—the moment that stops is the moment we stop.”

Charlie and Josh attribute much of their success to their team. Four of their chefs come from Michelin-starred restaurants, including head chef Julien Pickersgill from the two Michelin-starred restaurant The Modern in NY, whose “incredible eye has changed the game for [them]”. “We’d been hunting him down for a long time, so when we found out he was considering moving back to London, we managed to convince him to take the leap and join the team here.”

ABASK sits down with Charlie, Josh and Julien as they talk us through three plate studies, each one an example of the synergy between plate and food. 

One question struck Julien when he saw the busy, story-rich rim of Cabaret: keep the center minimal or rise to meet the energy? Needless to say, he chose the latter and answered pattern with flavor and form.

He echoed the dotted motif in the sauce with passion fruit pearls and ginger dice, letting texture “speak back” to the decoration. He calls out the strip of pickled butternut squash that he’s placed on top of the half-disc of caramelized butternut—a detail he achieved with a pasta cutter. The result is graphic, "I wanted to retell the story of the plate through food", says Julien.

Even Opus 11’s service has a dialogue of its own. Charlie and Josh note its theatricality, informed no doubt by their early days, and the tight choreography it follows, “a quiet fan-out, a single nod, right plate first, hands behind backs, a beat, then a sweep.”