How many chefs could call up rapper Action Bronson and legendary chef Ms Angela Hartnett to ask them for a quote to adorn their debut cookbook? How about getting a heartfelt foreword from one of the world’s most influential restaurateurs, Mr Fergus Henderson, too? Very few. Perhaps none, in fact – apart from Mr Lee Tiernan.

The chef and owner of Black Axe Mangal – one of the most well-respected and singular restaurants in London, where the flavours are as loud as the music – has won fans in the upper echelons of music and Michelin-starred cooking for good reason. His food – foie gras and blackberry doughnuts, century eggs with anchovy dressing, and shrimp-encrusted pigtails have all featured on his ever-changing menu – is famously irreverent, yet satisfying. But you get the sense his personality has been instrumental to his success, too. In Black Axe Mangal, his book, which is out today, Mr Tiernan provides his restaurant’s origin story and, in the process, reveals that he would still be a removals man living with his parents were he not the sociable, endearing guy that seemingly everyone is happy to help. And a little bit lucky, too.

Mr Tiernan didn’t starting thinking about cooking until he was 25. The book details how the travels he embarked on after leaving school – which he nearly bailed on because he was homesick – brought Mr Tiernan his first chef gig at a bar on the US Virgin Island of St John (humorously prophetic, as it turns out) after someone failed to show up. It touches on his big break at namesake London restaurant St John, Mr Fergus Henderson’s hugely influential “nose-to-tail” establishment – despite turning up on his first day with a face full of cuts and bruises following a bar brawl. It describes how, after leaving St John in 2013 as head chef (and having met his wife Kate), Mr Tiernan set up his Black Axe Mangal pop-up, selling kebabs at the back of a nightclub in Copenhagen, and relied on the assistance of bouncers to feed the snaking queues outside. We also learn that Mr Chad Robertson, the god-tier baker of Tartine in San Francisco, helped him perfect the flatbread recipe he has since served as a sort of anchor and foundation philosophy for Black Axe Mangal and his favourite dish, lamb offal flatbread.

As he prepared to sign 500 copies of his book (as you can imagine, Mr Tiernan has a lot of expectant friends) last week at Phaidon HQ, MR PORTER asked the author about the history of his restaurant, and his debut cookbook.

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Why did you write the book?

I thought it would be fun. Also, I thought “f*** it”. [Phaidon] gave me freedom. I’d been approached by other companies and they were formulaic, tome-like, generic. I didn’t want to do anything generic. Like I didn’t want to do a generic restaurant. I mention in the book something David Chang said a while ago that resonated with me – life’s too short to be mediocre.

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How did Black Axe Mangal come to be? It seemed to follow a sequence of accidents…

Cooking was the first thing that made sense to me. It was liberating when I realised that. I don’t like to use the word epiphany… But I was really f***ing enjoying myself. It was a happy accident. I always did manual labour. But I did some travelling. In the first week I had a full-blown panic attack and I nearly went home. I’m glad I didn’t. I was exposed to a whole range of food experiences. I had that in my artillery without really realising it when I came back to the UK. I love spicy food – that was a big trigger.

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Did you feel lucky getting a chance at St John?

I didn’t know how f***ing lucky I was. I was there for one of the best periods of St John restaurant. Not that there’s ever been a bad period. Everyone dedicated themselves to putting out the best food they could. I didn’t want to go to a place where I was going to get humiliated by some arsehole who didn’t appreciate my work. I started cooking late. I think I made up for it in enthusiasm. The patience I was shown by the owners Trevor and Fergus in the St John kitchen was invaluable.

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How specifically has St John impacted on your cooking?

The St John mindset is about having fun with the ingredients and seeing where you can take them. The bone marrow salad they do is one of the simplest things you could put together. The food at St John can be very simple or extremely complex. There are so many techniques at play. Not everything can be that simple if you’re cooking tripe, which needs a lot of care and attention to get it to a point where you put it in your mouth and go, “Mmm, that’s delicious”. That’s the bones of my education from St John. The oxtail, bone marrow and anchovy dish that we do at BAM is using the same ideas, but in a different way.

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How did you create such a genuine buzz around BAM so quickly?

It’s important to stress that it’s not just me. There are hundreds of people involved in supporting and promoting us and giving me confidence – pulling me out of the s*** when I’ve got 300 people waiting outside at the back of a nightclub in Copenhagen (and London). Even the bouncer helping out.

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What is it about your approach that makes people want to help you?

No one wants to see a grown man cry. I’ve always been a sociable person. I just want it to be fun. I want people to have fun. That’s been my approach from day one. I didn’t want BAM to be too stiff and stuffy. I wanted it to be celebratory. Sometimes, I’ll go to restaurants and it’s like I should feel privileged to be there. I don’t want to go too far into comparisons because you start to annoy people.

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How did you go from a pop-up to a permanent site in Highbury?

I felt pigeonholed when I first opened BAM. The press love to pigeonhole. When I was writing the book, I started to watch interviews of people I’m interested in. Skepta has done some great documentaries on Noisey. Anthony Bourdain [was] so candid. No matter how good his last show was, he wanted to do something entirely different the next time. And I feel like that’s exactly how I approach the menu, the restaurant and this cookbook.

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How would you describe the food at Black Axe Mangal?

You’re trying to pigeonhole me! You’re trying to get me into that pigeonhole. Er, Turkish kebabs? No, I’m joking. It’s definitely not Turkish kebabs. Describe the food? Tasty. Fun and tasty.

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If you had to pick a dish in the cookbook that sums up BAM the most, what would it be?

The lamb offal flatbread. I still feel quite satisfied when I eat it. My ambition when I opened BAM was to nail that dish and I think we did. I think the fact that Tartine bakery gave me that bread recipe enhances it. I realised you don’t need restaurant equipment to do a good portion of the stuff in this book. I think people can have fun with this book. I wanted to write it for people, not for me. I like to have a laugh with the people in my restaurant. Sometimes I make fun out of the people at the counter. Not everyone that comes in is nice, though.

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Do you get people asking to turn the music down?

I think we’re kind of established enough that people know what they’re getting themselves into. Bring the vibe, don’t try and change it. A few weeks ago, we had a guy come in and he was like, “Can you turn the music down?” And the waitress said, “We don’t really do that.” And he got up out of his chair and said, “Are you the owner?” I said, “Yeah.” He said, “If you don’t turn the music down, we’re going to leave.” So, I said, “There’s the door.” And he was flabbergasted. Jay Rayner recently mentioned in his review – it might not be for you, but it might be for you. Giles Coren said the same thing. Not that these people’s opinion matter more than anyone else’s. But they do provide information. There used to be a spell where people would come in, they’d look at the menu, they’d look at each other and then they’d make some lame excuse and leave. I respect that – I don’t want to cook for everybody, and I can’t. It would make me miserable.

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Black Axe Mangal (Phaidon) by Mr Lee Tiernan is out now (UK); out in January (US)