In this seasons episodes, I will be talking to the community members and business owners in Madrid, about who they are, why they have a passion for food and how they are coping during the coronavirus outbreak and much more.
On today's episode, I am joined by Stuart Colley, co-founder of Asian Army Madrid, a canteen-style restaurant within Mercado Anton Martin, specialising in South East Asian Cuisine with a military chic theme. Find out how he and his wife Isadora Tan went from selling street food in London and hosting supper clubs in their own home in Madrid to accomodating 30 people at any one time through authentic dishes in their own restaurant.
What we discuss
Selling Street food in London
Hosting supper clubs in their home
Opening a restaurant in a popular market in Madrid
Spicy food and hot sauces
How they are coping during the Coronavirus lockdown whilst being closed
Future plans for Asian Army
Advice for those looking to open a restaurant in the capital
How you can continue to support restaurants at this time
Their favourite restaurants in Madrid
About Stuart
Stuart Colley is the co-founder of Asian Army Madrid - with his partner Isadora Tan - a South-East Asian (Indonesian, Vietnamese, Singaporean, Malaysian) canteen-style restaurant with a military chic theme, based inside the Mercado Anton Martin.
He grew up in North-East London and worked for 27 years in the “City” in finance, both as a broker and a trader for several investment banks. During that career, he had the opportunity to work in Paris, where he spent 6 years, and it was his career as a broker which brought us to Madrid just over 3 years ago.
Stuart has always enjoyed eating out and because of his career in finance he's been fortunate enough to have eaten in some of the finest Michelin starred restaurants in London and Paris and tasted food cooked by some of the worlds best chefs, but it wasn’t until he met Isadora, who introduced him to Asian food, that he started to really develop an interest in more fast/casual style dining.
He has always been entrepreneurial and dreamt of one day of owning his own business but it was only when he first started dating Isadora that they started talking about opening their own restaurant. She has always worked in hospitality and is passionate about cooking so they put those two attributes together to create their street food business “Ayam Happy” (Happy Chicken in Indonesian). They first started doing street food from a 3 x 3m gazebo at festivals and street food markets around London and slowly built up to do private catering and pop-up restaurants.
When they moved to Madrid all of that ended and they took a bit of break from the hard work so that they could enjoy and explore Spain. In 2018 Isadora decided she wanted to start doing an Asian themed Supper club from their apartment. This was a great success, they organised 14 nights at their place, hosting up to 22 people each time, and this was the platform from where they launched Asian Army Madrid.
Connect with Stuart & Isadora through their restaurant Asian Army on Facebook & Instagram @Asianarmymadrid
Visit Asian Army on the ground floor of Mercado Anton Martin, Calle de Santa Isabel, 5, 28012 Madrid
Join our Facebook Community Eat Out Madrid to meet other food lovers in the capital who are on the search for the best places to eat and drink.
Podcast Produced by Onyx's Audiovisuales y Eventos