McGuigan Goes Walkabout to Roussillon

A criminally good idea

The Aussies vs. The French

There are some invitations Laissez Fare does not turn down. After briefly meeting Chris Mitchell, one of the head honchos at Cube Communications (a boutique PR firm focusing on the wine trade) at the recent Blaggers’ Banquet, I somehow found myself getting an invite to one such event. A no-show was not an option.

The innovative and maybe somewhat ambitious plan was to pair the wines of one of Australia’s hottest wine producers with the light and refined French cuisine of Alexis Gauthier, who is head chef at the 1 Michelin star Roussillon, which is set on a quiet residential street in London’s Pimlico. The premise? Could Australian wines – which for so long have unfortunately been thought of as ‘sun in a bottle’ by many consumers, despite fairly radical revolutions in recent times at many of Australia’s wineries – blend in with the elegance and subtleness of Mr. Gauthier’s cuisine. Would they overpower and clash, or would they meld just as easily as French wine would? Even if they didn’t, I was much looking forward to a second visit to Roussillon, which was one of the first restaurants I reviewed on this blog, and which Mrs. LF and I enjoyed very much.

Shortly after arriving, we were appropriately plied with drink. All of McGuigan’s entry-level wines (which have a gray label in the UK) were on offer. As I tasted through them, I was introduced to Neil McGuigan, who is an MD at the company and oversees viticulture and winemaking at the eponymous firm. He is a very down to earth and affable fellow, and his love for humor becomes apparent quite quickly. One of the little anecdotes he told me, of which there were many, was the fact that his great-great grandfather had been deported from the UK to Australia for being a criminal. You see, he had stolen some wine from a nobleman, and Neil explained that his family had been trying to pay the world back for his ancestor’s transgressions ever since. Tuh-dum (drum roll please). It was hard to believe this laid-back dude was the at the helm of such a big winemaker, which is now one of the top-10 brands of Australian wine in the UK.

Neil gets serious...just for a minute

I was even more surprised when Chris asked Neil to give a little introductory speech, which while still peppered with his own brand of comedy, was also very eloquent, informative and to the point.

But we had rambled enough and it was time for the main event.

By the way, most of the wines from the classic range were quite pleasant and quaffable, and I remember particularly liking the Sauvignon Blanc, the Chardonnay (which had ripe apple and not too much oak), and the Pinot Grigio (which I found to be less fruity than Italian versions I’m familiar with, and which oddly seemed to have the aroma of petrol I normally associate with Riesling).

Some ‘pretty good piss’

So into Roussillon’s downstairs private dining room we went…

The table was set...as were our places...

...and the chef was explaining his special menu...

Alexis came in to go through the menu in detail and explain how, in theory, the wine should complement the food and vice versa. I was quite excited to taste what was on offer, especially after having recently seen chef Gauthier on Masterchef: The Professionals, where Marianne Lumb and viewers of the programme discovered his disdain for timers – indeed, he decides when things are cooked to the desired specification purely by touch and feel. I just hoped my lamb wouldn’t be totally raw!

I was also eager to taste the higher-end wines form McGuigan. Earlier on, as I tried to explain my struggle to better explain verbally how wines tasted to me, Neil had said that when he really enjoys a wine, he just says it’s “some pretty good piss.” Although it was a light-hearted joke, I did take what I gathered to be his point: that you should just enjoy really good wine, and not worry too much about trying to make sure you can describe it in exact detail. I just hoped that his top-end wines wouldn’t taste like, erm…

The basket of bread was full to the brim – woohoo!

While waiting for the first course to arrive, I hunkered down on one of the lovely little baguettes on offer, which was accompanied by some high quality French beurre.

Lobster & Purple Basil: Light Lobster Bisque Infused with Purple Basil with Scallops & Confit Tomato Tortellini – Paired with 2004 Earth’s Portrait Riesling

I enjoyed the lobster bisque, which was rich while remaining fairly light, and I did note that the purple basil was present but much milder than its green cousin, and that it worked well with the seafood flavors. I loved the two little tortellini in the center, too. I found that the Riesling’s acidity cut through the creaminess of the bisque rather well but, for me, the pairing didn’t set the world on fire. I didn’t feel that the wine either added to or detracted from the dish. Maybe being fairly new to Riesling myself, I just don’t ‘get it’ yet, but the wine wasn’t one I would probably go back to.

Wild Sea Bass & Razor Clams: Grilled Cut of Wild Sea Bass, Steamed Razor Clams with Szechuan Pepper & Lightly Spiced Fish Velouté – Paired with 2003 Bin 9000 Semillon

The next combination worked much better for my palate. The sea bass itself had been delicately cooked, and had a lovely soft firmness. I am a sucker for razor clams and felt that they worked well here. Looking at the description of the dish, I don’t now recall the pepper and spice that is alluded to, but I did like the dish overall, even though it didn’t really pack a punch. Peter Hall, the winemaker, was on hand to describe his Semillon himself. He explained that Hunter Valley Semillon is “one of the most distinct wines from Australia,” and that it is a lighter, finer style with usually about 9.5% – 10.5% ABV. Apparently, they have ‘Semillon & Seafood’ days locally, as the taste of the sea goes so well with this grape variety. I generally agreed with him in this case. The wine exhibited strong citrus and lime and had a wonderful structure. It didn’t dominate and seemed perfectly happy to swish along with the fish in my mouth. Peter mentioned that it was still “a little ways off yet”, and that its full toastiness and golden color were not quite showing through yet. I would certainly be happy to sample some more of that wine in a few years’ time.

Milk Fed Lamb & Thyme: Pyrenean Milk Fed Lamb Rubbed with Thyme, with Parmesan & Swiss Chard Gratin & Thyme Infused Lamb Jus – Paired with 2008 Shortlist Cabernet Sauvignon

The third course was highly enjoyable. The milk fed lamb was stupidly soft and had a mild and fine flavor which was subtly accented by the thyme. I was a little worried that a Cabernet Sauvignon might overpower a dish of such finesse, but I was wrong. The wine itself was very young (being a 2008), and my notes indicate that there was blackcurrant on the palate, that the wine was thick but not tannic (quite soft), that it was fairly jammy and fruit forward, and that there was a touch of spice present. The flavor of the wine actually went pretty well with the dish, especially the rich lamb jus. Neil pointed out that McGuigan was making a big push to give varietal definition to its range, especially at premium price points. He added that this wine was, after all, “only a baby” and that it had a “terrific future,” with the “oak being subservient to the fruit.” I agreed and think this will make a fantastic wine at its peak.

Blue d’Auvergne & Madeira: Feuillette of Blue Cheese, Madeira Reduction Jus, with Wild Rocket & Red Chard Salad – Paired with 2008 Handmade Shiraz

I don’t think I quite ‘got’ the last savory course. To me it seemed to be a nice, crispy puff pastry that was meant to have cheese inside, but that about 90% of that cheese had been sucked out prior to serving, leaving only the aroma and a few remnants of that blue from Auvergne. Possibly like so many other things, its subtly had passed me by. In any case, the Shiraz was a winner. It had a deep purple hue; it was voluptuous, rich, supple, and not overly tannic or oaky. This was not an aggressive Syrah from the Northern Rhone, it was a classically velvety red that had gentle spice and is bound to age well. I personally didn’t understand the pairing here, although chef Gautier said that the sweetness of the Madeira reduction should have gone well with the Shiraz flavors (black fruits)…

Quince & Yogurt: Quince & Sultana Parfait, Honey & Yogurt Sorbet – Paired with 2005 Personal Reserve Botrytis Semillon

But I soon forgot my little quandary when this little slice of heaven arrived, paired with some rather divine golden nectar from down under. ‘Tis the season to be jolly, and ‘tis also the season for that elusive yellow fruit called quince. This parfait was indeed parfait. It was gently cooled, firm, soft and full of that unique quince flavor, which had the softest touch of sultana essence infused throughout. The sorbet was creamy, dreamy and retained that tartness of yogurt which beautifully balanced the sweetness of the parfait. But the real discovery was how well the sesame tuile combined with the sweet wine – bloody brilliant. I really loved this dessert wine, which is made in the Sauterne style, and was much finer than other may Australian sweeties I’ve tasted. Peter said that it was not common for botrytis to develop in the Hunter Valley, and that they only made in a “hit and miss” fashion. Most recently, they have produced it in 2005, 2008 and 2009. If I remember correctly, I don’t think you can yet buy this in the UK, so there’s probably not too much point in rambling on about how much I liked it anymore

At the end of the rather extended luncheon, chef Gauthier re-emerged to share a celebratory glass with Neil, which was a fitting end to a great 3-hour partnership between the Aussies and the French.

The two creators smile & celebrate a job well done

I came away from the meal with a greater appreciation of McGuigan’s wines, which I had hencetoforth only tasted in their entry-level form. Neil explained over lunch that they were striving to innovate, modernize and drive their higher-end wines to become really special, and that this would have positive ramifications for their wines at every price point. I certainly did get the feeling that these guys care very much about making excellent wines and also liked the fact that they seem to have a great time doing it.

Their success has not gone unnoticed either, as Neil himself was recently awarded White Winemaker of the Year at the International Wine Challenge and McGuigan Wines was a few weeks ago crowned Winemaker of the Year and Australian Producer of the Year at the International Wine & Spirits Competition.

What else can I say but “Good-on-yah mayte” in my best Australian accent?

* * *

Many thanks to Chris and the Cube Communications for organizing the meal.

If you’re interested in eating at Roussillon, they have a number of good value deals, including a 3-course price-fixe lunch menu which includes ½ a bottle of wine for £35/person. All contact details and menus can be found on their website.

McGuigan Wines are broadly available at Majestic, Tesco and many other supermarkets and wine merchants nationwide.

Great Queen Street – Long Live the Queen

Great Queen Street
32 Great Queen Street
London WC2B 5AA
Website: nonexistent
Map
Reservations: +44 (0)20 7242 0622

Our 2-course lunch with wine cost approximately £25/person (starters from £4-7, mains from £10-14, desserts from £4-6)

Note: this is a joint review done in tandem with fellow food blogger Craig Linton of London Food Detective

Great Queen Street (GQS) succeeds in achieving what I imagine it is setting out to do: cooking up simple but tasty British food that changes with the seasons. The place is simply decorated, the staff is fairly knowledgeable and the food is pretty good. To me, there were minor echoes of St John throughout GQS. The prices are about right for central London & it's a great place for lunch if you work within walking distance (like me!)

A Meeting of Minds…and Food of Course!

Laissez Fare: I had been looking forward to meeting fellow food blogger Craig Linton (website: London Food Detective, twitter: @craigdlinton) for a few weeks after I invited him to meet up for lunch a while back. Luckily, I wasn’t too nervous as I had already met another food blogger a few months back for lunch (see a post about that meal here). Although it is always a bit disconcerting meeting someone you’ve emailed and tweeted with but never met in the flesh, I had the sneaking suspicion that we were going to get on, given our seemingly similar attitudes towards restaurants and food, which are of course the two most important things in the world (Mrs. LF is going to kill me if she reads this).

So, in the middle of our two places of work, Great Queen Street (GQS) awaited. The little sister of some British gourmets’ favourite (and I cringe as I write the word) ‘gastropub’, GQS has no real name, no website, and no gimmicks. It is all simple wood and dim lighting inside, with informal but fairly knowledgeable staff. Like so many London restaurants today (St John and Bocca di Lupo spring to mind), the daily menu is presented on a loose sheet of paper, inferring that the menu changes daily and is probably more or less seasonal. And GQS checked all those boxes. The menu was quite traditionally British, and the simple, hearty fare sounded good to me as it had been a rather long and cold walk to get there.

The Menu, Innit

Unsurprisingly, I arrived on time, and was shown to a little square table for two, where my blind, male food blogger date was to join me. It was all a bit weird, but luckily I had seen a photo of him online so more or less knew what to look for. A bit over-anxious, I waved haphazardly to the next dude through the door based on just the faint outline of his face, who luckily happened to be the man himself. Phew.

After a long and enjoyable getting-to-know-you chat, we were scouring the menus like to men on a mission, trying to make wise selections in the presence of the seasoned foodie across the table. Decisions made, we continued with a very engaging and pleasant discussion, until the thing that united us finally arrived. Grub time.

Craig Linton: Although I’ve been blogging on and off for nearly five years it is only in the last six months or so that I’ve been writing up my thoughts on restaurants I’ve visited.

In that time I’ve found a whole new world of people who share my passion for eating out and good food.

One of the blogs I’ve got subscribed in my RSS feed is Laissez Fare and I always enjoy reading his in-depth reviews. We’ve been to a few of the same places and seem to have had similar experiences (see for example our thoughts on Le Gavroche here and here) and so I was delighted when he got in touch to see if I fancied meeting up for lunch.

After establishing we both work fairly close to each other we settled on Great Queen Street, Holborn, the sister restaurant to gastropub favourite the Anchor & Hope.

Now this is the first time I’ve ever met up with someone I’ve chatted to online and the occasion almost had a sense of a blind date to it. Would LF be the friendly, helpful, chatty guy his online persona gives off or would he turn out to be some sort of foodie psycho? I’m very pleased to report that it is the former, though whether the feeling is mutual you’ll have to check!

Anyway, we hit it off straight away and had a good chat before we got down to the serious business of ordering our food. Great Queen Street is all about seasonal, hearty food and the menu reflects this with dishes like slowly braised mutton and pressed ox tongue.

After a bit of deliberation we decided the desserts sounded better than the starters, so we elected to go for a main and dessert.

I went for devilled Hereford Beef and LF chose the special of room temperature slices of Old Spot pork with crab-apple jelly. We also shared a side of greens.

Getting Down to Bi’ness

Brown Bread & Butter

Laissez Fare: Some brown bread and butter had arrived, so we both had a small piece of it. It was pretty average and there’s nothing much more to say about it. I now eagerly awaited my main. 5/10.

LF Main Course: Slices of Old Spot Pork with Crab-Apple Jelly

I had heard a lot about Old Spot pork but had never knowingly tried it, so despite some reservations about a room temperature dish (that’s how they serve it) on a cold November day, I went for it. Luckily, I was not disappointed. It was a very simple dish with three main components. The pork was sliced to a medium thickness and the circles of fat were left in tack around the rim. It definitely had a unique full, round, mouth filling flavor that I hadn’t experienced before. It was surprisingly interesting and had me going back for more, especially when combined with the tangy yet slightly sweet and in-season crab-apple jelly. Because the side of greens we ordered was so delicious with its naughty, slightly creamy mustard sauce, which had a nice streak of acidity, I sort of ignored the little salad that came on my plate. This was a shame, because when I tasted it as an afterthought, I found it was actually quite good and it would have been a nice little accompaniment to the meat and jelly. Overall, then, a simple and accomplished dish. 8/10.

Shared Side Dish: 'Greens' with Mustard Sauce

I had ordered a glass of Beaujolais to go with my pork, thinking a soft, easy-drinking fruity wine would marry well with the flavors. It was brought out in a little ridged tumbler (like a small water glass you get in a bistro), as was Craig’s Portuguese red, which I thought was taking the minimalism a tad too far. It’s okay to serve wine on tap into a glass like that (like a place I went to in Venice once called Da Marisa), and Beaujolais after all is a very casual wine drunk with simple food in France, but I like my wine to breathe a bit and think a normal little wine glass would have been better. Rants aside, the wine did what I hoped it would and was a nice sipping partner for my late Old Spotted friend.

It’s worth noting that before tasting my own dish, I was quite jealous of Craig’s main course just on the looks. It reminded me of the hearty beef stroganoff my mom used to make us when I was a teenager. Luckily, he didn’t think I was a complete freak when I asked if he wanted to taste some of my dish, and even offered up a bit of his beef. The meat itself was very soft and tender, having been stewed for a long time, and the sauce it was bathing in was not bad at all. If I had to label it, I’d say it was sort of a European beef curry sauce, with its richness being supported and enhanced by a nice underlying spice (the ‘devil’ bit, I supposed) that ruminated and lingered in the mouth for a good while. I didn’t taste the rice or the egg, but the bit of meat and sauce I did have was very satisfying indeed. 7/10.

Craig Linton: The mains arrived pretty quickly and both looked good, so I was thankful when LF asked if I wanted to try some of his pork. Now my girlfriend found it hilarious when I told her that I was sharing food with a bloke I’d just met, but surely it makes sense for two people who love food to try each others dishes?

CL Main Course: Devilled Hereford Beef

My beef just melted in the mouth and the ‘devil’ in the title came with the accompanying stroganoff style sauce that had a satisfying curry kick to it and lifted the dish beyond a standard stew.  It was served with rice, half a boiled egg (not quite sure why) and some chopped gherkins, which gave a fresh, crunchy, acidic contrast to the beef that I really enjoyed.

I’m not normally a huge fan of cold pork as I find it can be quite dry, but this was moist and full of flavour. I haven’t had crab-apple jelly for years and my memories of it are from school and I was surprised at how sweet it was.  I thought it worked well with the pork and made for a decent main dish.

Special mention needs to go to the greens we ordered as a side dish, which we believed to be black cabbage (kale). They were well-cooked and retained a bit of crunch and had a creamy mustard sauce that I thought really elevated them above the ordinary.  Very good indeed.

Just Desserts

Laissez Fare: When the desserts arrived, I thought I’d definitely ‘won’. Oh, what, you haven’t noticed my competitive streak?

LF Dessert: Bitter Chocolate Terrine & Chestnut Cream

Unfortunately, just as I learned at my other recent food blogger lunch, looks can definitely be deceiving. There was nothing wrong with my bitter chocolate terrine with chestnut ice cream. The cake itself was, dense, smooth and full of nice dark chocolate flavor. I guess it was just a bit one-dimensional for my taste. The side of chestnut cream worked well and had little chunks of chestnut which paired nicely with the chocolate. It wasn’t a memorable dessert though, and I definitely had reason to be jealous this time. 6/10.

My companion’s dessert was head and tails better than mine (yes, he did let me have a bite). It was a gorgeous pile of thick creamy white chocolate whipped creamy looking stuff, with a thick syrupy sauce of bittersweet oranges (and orange sections too) sprinkled with a bit of praline. The citrus cut right through the cream and made for a simple but sublime combination. I loved it and wished we had ordered two. Alas, I made my peace and tried to hide my disappointment by quickly scoffing down the rest of my okay dessert. 8/10.

Craig Linton: I’d have happily ordered four out of five of the desserts and after a bit of deliberation I went for white chocolate pudding, oranges and praline. On the waiter’s advice LF went for the bitter chocolate terrine with chestnut ice cream.

I often get dessert jealously, but with a certain sense of smugness I can say that I definitely chose the better dessert!

CL Dessert: White Chocolate Pudding, Oranges & Praline

The white chocolate pudding was very good. It had the consistency of thick whipped cream, but with a rich white chocolate flavour. The oranges had been cut into slices and been gently cooked so they had just started to caramelise and worked really well with the white chocolate.

There was nothing wrong with LF’s chocolate terrine, but it wasn’t anything special either.

Post-Mortem

Laissez Fare: I think Great Queen Street has a lot going for it. It’s paired down, simple, seasonal and hearty food was good on this occasion and I’ll definitely be back as it’s walking distance from work. I thought that £25/person for two courses plus wine was fair enough as I left full, happy and contented. But, as is usually the case, what really made the meal was the company, which in this case made for a fun, relaxed and thoroughly enjoyable two hours.

Craig Linton: Overall, a highly enjoyable two hour, two course lunch and I would definitely go back to Great Queen Street. I recommended it to my boss when I returned to the office and will hopefully get him to take me on our next lunchtime meeting.

Really enjoyed my first lunch with a fellow blogger and fingers crossed we’ll do it again.

Tips if You’re Eating with a Fellow Blogger for the First Time

Craig Linton: Make sure you’ve read their recent blog posts.

- Decide if you’re going to review the place individually, together or at all.

- Know what the person you’re meeting looks like, so you don’t look slightly crazy by asking the other single diners in the restaurant if they are the person you are meant to be meeting.

- Choose who is going to take the photos and then share them after.  Compare embarrassing stories of partners/friends/restaurant staff getting annoyed at you insisting photographing everything.

- Despite funny looks from other diners, it is perfectly acceptable to request to try the other person’s food.

Laissez Fare: I couldn’t have said it better myself!

Rating

Ambience: 7/10

Service: 7/10

Food: 7/10

Wine: nice little selection, but please serve in a proper glass!

For more about my rating scale, click here.

*Note: I have dined at Great Queen Street once and it was for lunch.*

Pearl by Jun Tanaka – Pretty…Average

Pearl by Jun Tanaka
At the Renaissance Chancery Court Hotel
252 High Holborn
London WC1V 7EN
Website
Map
Online Reservations

Our 3-course lunch using a toptable.com deal was £24/person (excluding wine)

Pearl is a feast for the eyes – the interior is very attractive (if a bit corporate) and the food is presented beautifully. Unfortunately, on my first visit the flavors were generally muddled, imprecise and didn’t create something memorable in the mouth. While not a disaster, I certainly haven’t had a burning desire to return in the few months that have elapsed since my meal there.

Thring for my Lunch

I must say at the onset that this is quite a belated post. It was one of those meals I wasn’t sure if I should write up (hint, hint), and has been in my back-log of posts for ages. For whatever reason, I’ve decided to do a little piece on it now.

I was quite excited about this meal, as I would be dining with fellow food blogger Oliver Thring (@oliverthring), whom I had met briefly a few weeks earlier at the a screening of Julie & Julia (see his review of the movie here). After a bit of tooing and froing, we eventually decided to lunch at Pearl by Jun Tanaka, as it was strategically positioned smack bang in the middle of our work places, and as I had followed Tanaka’s career for a while and always wanted to try his food.

I arrived a tad early as is my wont, so decided to do a bit of recon and took some rather dull photos of the rather dull exterior. If you’ve never been, it’s worth noting that the restaurant is loosely connected to the Renaissance Chancery Court hotel. If you’re facing the father long facade, the restaurant is on your left and the hotel is on your right side.

The exterior

Ollie turned up and we entered the rather empty restaurant. We were promptly led to a nice little table in the back corner and I thought it was quite a pretty space overall, though despite their best efforts, it still retains that part-of-a-flash-hotel feeling.

The view from our little enclave (photo courtesy of Oliver Thring)

I did like the decorative plate settings, though.

The pretty decorative plates and slightly odd & fancy spotlight (photo courtesy of Oliver Thring)

The menus soon arrived and a lot of it sounded appetizing and interesting. It was my first proper meal with another food blogger, which was great because it turned out that we were both very happy to share and try a bit of each other’s dishes.

We decided to have some wine by the glass with our meal and I was a bit shocked to see that only one of the reds and one of the whites were under £10/glass. Having dined at many hoity-toity restaurants as of late, I can’t remember seeing this anywhere else and really don’t consider it good form.

Compounding the problems in Pearl’s wine department was the fact that Ollie’s glass of Gruner Veltliner (£11/glass) was definitely corked. Now, there’s nothing wrong with a corked wine, but I would say that (a) the sommelier served the wine to us in a full glass – implying he had tasted it and was okay, otherwise he should have asked us to do so – and that (b) I don’t think it was the first glass they had served of that bottle, which is all the more unsettling. Wine diatribes aside, the food was coming and it certainly looked appetizing.

Great Expectations

Amuse Bouche (photo courtesy of Oliver Thring)

Sadly enough, given the tardiness of this report, I can’t remember what the heck the amuse bouche was or what it tasted like. I thought I’d include the picture that Ollie took anyway just to confuse you.

Starter 1: Venison – Spiced Venison with Beetroot & Plums, Elderflower Vinaigrette

I was justifiably excited about my starter. I mean, just read the description, and then look at the presentation – so bright, colourful and elegantly served. Unfortunately, it really didn’t hold up to what it had promised visually. The beetroot flavor was overpowering and there was almost no hint of venison to be tasted. While the fruits looked nice, they also didn’t quite fit in and the whole thing kind of merged into something that was pleasantly edible but not particularly tasty or memorable. Sigh. 5/10.

Starter 2: Haddock – Brandade & Egg Yolk Raviolo, Smoked Haddock Veloute, Watercress Dressing (photo on right courtesy of Oliver Thring)

Déjà vu with Ollie’s starter: it looked the business but failed to deliver in the flavor department. I must say that from the bite I had, the pasta had been perfectly cooked and the golden egg yolk spilt out perfectly upon being broken with the fork (a trademark of this dish). I just wish there had been some oomph to it. If I am being kind, I’d say that its subtlety and cleverness were lost on me, but this was a growing trend and I was beginning to think that nothing would stand up and grow some balls. 6/10.

Main Course 1: Plaice – Cornish Plaice with Artichoke Gnocchi, Caramelized Chicken Wings, Girolles & Baby Artichokes

The mains came and they were two more lookers. Actually, looking at them now, they were very similarly presented. My dish of Cornish plaice was again pleasant and slightly better than the preceding dishes, though not by much. The little chicken wings were by far the winners, and the veggies were flavorsome, but although the fish had been delicately cooked, it was all just rather ho-hum. Nothing was out of step, but nothing enlivening my taste buds either. 6/10.

Main Course 2: Pork – Pork Belly ‘Pot Au Feu’ with Raviolo, Borlotti Beans & Ravigote Sauce

I got a taste of my companion’s main, which was a good deal better. The pork was really well cooked – moist and full of flavor. The little sauce had a nice zing of acidity, which held everything together. The textures worked too, with the pasta and beans offering chew and the greens providing crunch. I was finally happy, and Ollie was kind enough to offer me have the rest of his dish. I politely declined once, but when he insisted I didn’t say no a second time. 8/10.

Dessert: Prune - Poached Prune & Almond Crumble, Almond Ice Cream

After being offered a glimmer of hope, things were looking up for the puddings. For reasons I cannot now comprehend (20/20 hindsight, I suppose) , we both went for the same dish for our last course. Very un-foodblogger like of us indeed. Architecturally speaking, it was little short of a masterpiece. But we were back to the beginning of the meal with the flavors – nothing to write home about. Pretty, pleasant, platitudinous. 5/10.

Beauty but no feast

The name of the restaurant reminds me of our recent honeymoon, part of which was spent in beautiful Bali, where we went to one of the local pearl factories along the northern coast of the island. We learned that while pearls are ‘natural’, as a round sphere is stuck into the inner tissue of a mollusc and then gestates in the sea water, it is in reality something created by man for man to appreciate. This is much like food, in that we now often grow, manufacture or artificially farm the specific ingredients we wish to eat, although the growth that takes place is of course ‘natural’. In both instances, it is rare to find a pearl/food that truly stands out from the ordinary and captures your imagination. In this instance, the Pearl that rested inside the shell of the Renaissance Chancery Court was certainly beautiful to look at, but when you took it out and examined it more closely, and then laid it next to some other beautiful pearls, it began to fade into the crowd and became a bit average, a bit banal.

Man & science fashioning 'natural' beauty

Yes, the food Jun Tanaka’s restaurant, while technically well cooked, tasted pretty average. The service was professional but a bit soulless. There were certainly some nice design elements lurking about, but the overriding feeling was that you were in a posh hotel. The combination of this led me to come away from the restaurant with a slight sense of disappointment and no real urgency to give it another go. This was saved however, by the stimulating and jovial company of a fellow food blogger, with whom I much enjoyed talking about what I love talking about best.

Rating

Ambience: 7/10

Service: 6/10

Food: 6/10

Wine: too expensive by the glass, plus my dining companion’s glass of wine arrived fully poured and was corked, indicating it had obviously not been checked beforehand by the sommelier.

For more about my rating scale, click here.

*Note: I have dined at Pearl by Jun Tanaka once and it was for lunch.*

St John – Twice as Nice

St John Bar & Restaurant
26 St John Street
London EC1M 4AY
Website
Map
Online Reservations

Starters approx. £4-7, Mains approx. £15-25, Desserts approx. £6-7

St John serves simple, honest, delicious food that brings out the best of what its often humble ingredients can be. The dining space mirrors head chef Henderson’s paired down philosophy and is reminiscent of a posh school canteen for grown-ups...in a good way. The thing about St John is that, while it’s brilliant, there should be places like this in every town across the UK, where you can find well-cooked everyday dishes that won’t blow the bank. It’s the kind of food you might have gotten at your Nan’s or Auntie’s house in days gone by, and it’s not rocket science, after all. If you haven’t been, by all means go, if only to taste the marrow and sample one of their brilliant puddings. I just can’t believe there aren’t more places like this in London and elsewhere throughout Britain.

Sundays at St John

St John had been on my hit list for a long time – too long. So, when the weather began cooling and the days got darker, and when my stomach began craving for heart-warming comfort food, I happily discovered that St John was open for Sunday lunches. What a brilliant idea, I thought, and promptly booked myself in for the upcoming weekend.

I think that most readers of this blog will already know as much (or more) about St John, and its head chef Fergus Henderson, than I do, so I will spare you all of the literally gory details here. Suffice to say that the original outpost is located just opposite the Smithfield meat market in 1994 and that the building was formerly a smokehouse. Henderson is well-known for his ‘nose-to-tail eating’ philosophy (in fact, this was the title of his first cookbook), and the interior of the restaurant mirrors his style of food: it is paired down, simple and honest.

In 2003, Henderson and his business partner Trevor Gulliver opened a second branch, imaginatively called St John Bread and Wine, near Spitalfields market (spot the trend?). The original restaurant’s baking operations had outgrown its existing baking capabilities, so this new site took care of the new baking needs and also housed a smaller, less formal restaurant serving food and drink throughout the day.

As you will read further down, Mrs. LF and I so much enjoyed our first visit to St John that we immediately booked Sunday lunch for the very next week upon leaving. So this review comprises two meals on two consecutive Sundays.

Meal 1: Initiation

It was a typically bleak autumn afternoon as we made our way East to the City of London, gliding stealthily beneath its dragon-crowned gates in the anonymity of the Circle Line. I had only ever seen St John from the outside, and didn’t realize there was a little bakery and bar on the ground floor, with the main restaurant on a slightly raised level up a small flight of stairs. (You can see some pictures of these areas towards the end of the post).

An industrial entrance on a rather gloomy Sunday afternoon

We made our way up and found the place to be about half full but with a nice but quiet buzz about it. Our waitress took us to our little table for two, which was nestled very cosily against the right wall. After being given the paper menu (a good deal of the dishes change every day, with only a few fixtures/signature dishes such as the infamous marrow), we were served some bread. It was a wonderful loaf of sourdough with a great crust and bags of perfect sourdough flavor. We loved it. And one of my unofficial rules that normally holds true in restaurants is that, if the bread is excellent, there is a very good chance you’re in for some good food, too.

The amazing sourdough bread, the paper menu & the anticipation of that fabled marrow (with its eating instrument on the right)

We eventually ordered and took stock of the place. It is pretty much what I expected. Stark, basic, and mostly white. Industrial looking light fixtures, bistro-style wooden chairs, paper table cloths on top of the real ones, silverware that you can tell has been well used, waiting staff in kitchen whites. But most importantly, all of the diners there seemed to be genuinely having a good time. It was a posh school canteen for grown-ups.

The semi-open kitchen & 2 views of the canteen-style dining room from our little nook

After attempting to turn my eyes into binoculars while peering past the pass in the kitchen, to see what offal tricks these culinary wizards were conjuring, and soaking everything in, our efficient waitress came back with our starters.

Starter 1: Roast Bone Marrow & Parsley Salad

And what a starter. Phwoah – just look at those bad boys! This was the signature dish I had been waiting to order. Despite my expectations being ridiculously high for what is after all a very simple dish, I was not let down one bit. This was one of the best and most satisfying things I’ve shoved down my gob in recent memory. It just worked on every level. The marrow was rich and smooth, with a half liquidized fat texture. Spread across the perfectly toasted bread (which was the right thickness for the dish), sprinkled with a bit of that chunky gray salt, and topped off with a good dose of fresh parsley and onions (with a faultless vinaigrette), I was eating way too fast. You had richness that was accented by salt and shot through the heart with fresh green acidity; you had smooth, you had crunchy you had chewy. It was all there…for about 2 minutes that is. Mrs. LF concurred and, had she been able to stomach it, would have had much more of it than she did (thank God she is slim and didn’t have the stomach for it!). No doubt, 10/10.

Starter 2: Split Pea Soup

Meanwhile, she was slurping up another wonderfully simple and rustic dish, a bowl of split pea soup. And what it lacked in looks, it certainly made up for in taste. It was one of the best pea soups I’ve had, hands down. Pure sweet pea flavor, perfectly seasoned, with a great thick but not-too-thick texture, we couldn’t really fault it. Mrs. LF informed me that when she was growing up in the Normandy countryside, they often began their meals with a simple vegetable soup, and she thought it a great start to the meal. 9/10.

Main Course 1: Ox Heart, Carrots & Aioli

For my main course, I ordered something I had never eaten before – we were in St John, after all. The ox heart had been masterfully cooked, being seared on the outside but with a very soft and buttery core (zoom in on the second photo to see what I’m talking about), and I loved the way it felt in my mouth. The taste was quite full-on; after all, it is a friggin’ heart we’re talking about. It is quite a lean meat (being a muscle), and you can taste its high mineral content on your palate (it’s high in both iron and copper), but not unpleasantly so. It had a nice little accompanying sauce and a lovely aioli on the side, which was good because it needed a little kick from time to time. I could see how eating the meat itself could become monotonous after a while as for me it wasn’t like a sumptuous steak you’d keep coming back to again and again without relief. For this reason the aioli and the simply cooked sweet carrots were well thought-out partners. Overall, I was really glad I tried this dish and enjoyed it. Would I order it again? Not necessarily, but it was well worth the experience. 7/10.

Main Course 2: Smoked Eel, Beetroot & Horseradish

Mrs. LF couldn’t believe how good her dish of smoked eel was, and neither could I when I tasted it. She commented that it had a “rich and strong taste of eel, yet it was perfectly balanced, so flavorsome and distinct and unlike any other seafood dish I’d had. The beetroot, which I never really loved before, was outstanding; it was as if they had marinated or cooked in some kind of vinegar, and that sharpness was the perfect accompaniment for the intense taste of the eel. I truly enjoyed this dish for its authenticity and honesty. 10/10.”

Dessert: Plum Jelly & Shortbread

The puddings…ooh…the puddings. My god, they all sounded so simple, so satisfying, so good. But alas, as one of Catherine Tate’s characters might say, “we was well full” by then. So we decided to split one and rolled the dessert dice. Thank God we came up trumps.

We simply loved this dessert. It was a perfect jelly – firm yet with a bit of wobble – whose creators had achieved the miracle of blissful balance between the sweet and tart. But jelly on its own is not a proper pudding. Luckily, the good folks at St John agreed, and provided some cooked plums on the side, as well as a dollop of thick cream and two of the best rectangles of homemade shortbread I’ve had. Just like the marrow, salad and toast – it just all worked together. We wanted another one, but in the end, we were good little adult canteen goers. 9/10.

Meal 2: Conversion?

With an overwhelmingly positive first meal at St John, we were back the next Sunday, same bat time, same bat channel. But could Fergus’ kitchen charm us twice?

Starter 1: Squid & Tomato

I had also heard good things about their calamari, and as they were on the menu that Sunday, I went for it. I was a bit underwhelmed. They were a little firmer than I thought they should be, but had good, sweet flavor and were well seasoned (like everything else at St John). The peppery rocket and sweet tomato provided good contrasts in both taste and texture, and I ate it quite happily though it was nothing compared to those towers of shins the week before. 6/10.

Starter 2: Pea & Ham Soup

Given Mrs. LF’s previously mentioned predisposition for a simple potage as the opening to the show, she again opted for the pea soup, although on this day there was some ham too. It was again an extremely satisfying soup which did everything it could possibly have. 9/10 once again.

Main Course 1: Whole Grouse with Bread Sauce & Grouse Pâté on Toast

Being bang in the middle of grouse season, I thought I would have my first grouse of the year, and for that matter, my first grouse ever so far as I can remember. I knew that this bird has a very pronounced flavor, and I hoped I would like it. I was delighted to see that when I cut into the meat, it had been skilfully cooked – perfectly reddish-pink in the middle. It did indeed have a strong flavor, which is quite hard to describe if you’ve never had it. Gamey and rich, I did enjoy it but didn’t fall in love. It does have a wonderful texture to it, though. I liked it best when eaten with some bread sauce (I needed that sweetness), and while I’m sure you’d be hard pressed to find a better grouse that was better cooked in the UK, I just don’t think this bird is my bag. Saying that, the accompanying little slice of crispy toast with grouse pâté was divine, and they were right to only include one as it was insanely rich. I will give it a 7/10 because I think it was a well-executed dish but one whose main component wasn’t really to my taste.

Main Course 2: Braised Hare & Mash

Of her main course, Mrs. LF said: “I chose this dish because I love rabbit, and since I never had hare before I thought that it would have similar taste to rabbit but in a more gamey way, which I imagined I’d like. And like it I did. It had that raw, rural feel to it that reminded me of French boeuf mode (although not with beef!). The hare was perfectly braised, with the meat threading off the bone, and the rich sauce with its bits of carrots and onion was rustic and just right. 9/10.”

Before dessert, I had the chance to visit the bathroom, which proved to be just as starkly designed as the rest of the place.

The storm trooper loos

The light & the luminary (Fergus himself in the background, dining with friends)

After being mildly disappointed so far, more with my menu selections than with the cooking itself, I was looking forward to those glorious puddings even more.

Dessert 1: Poached Plums & Spiced Ice Cream

After much heated debate, I had finally opted for the poached plums. After the success of last week’s dessert, I was again a little let down with this course. Not that it was bad, far from it. It just didn’t deliver that punch I had been expecting. The plums were well poached and had a nice sweet and sour flavor about them. The ice cream was pleasant if a bit forgettable, and the toast was a good vessel for soaking up the juice of the plums. But the real reason for my mild state of depression was that Mrs. LF was going on about how great her dessert was. So, being me, I started to pillage and plunder, which didn’t go down too well. I would give the plums 7/10.

Dessert 2: Baked Egg Custard & Blueberries

Yes, now this was the business. This is what I had been dreaming about, another proper pudding that could hold its weight against last week’s finale. The custard was thick, sweet and extremely more-ish. This was especially the case when you ate it in tandem with a little bit of the sweet blueberry compote. And those shortbreads were back again, there for dipping, dunking, defiling. As the little dog from the Churchill ad says, “Oh, yes”. So we had our happy ending, the meal had been pulled back from the brink of slight disappointment. 9/10.

The dining room at the end of our meal

The bakery & the bar as we prepared to enter the real world, once again

The St John scooter we spotted as we exited

Parting Thoughts & Shots

Despite the fact that I didn’t particularly like some of what I ordered on our second visit, St John now holds a special place in both my, and my fair lady’s, heart. We love the simply prepared and delicious food and the place’s complete and utter lack of pretence. As I mentioned before, you get the best of what these often modest ingredients have to offer at St John. And if you like one of the meats or fish in particular, they are almost guaranteed to make a great dish out of it for you. I think their puddings deserve a special mention, because they are just so satisfying – no tricks, gimmicks or unnecessary components, just plain good combinations.

One thing we did discuss at the end of our second meal was the fact that while most people think of St John as a thoroughly British affair, we’re not quite so sure. Of course, Henderson is a British chef, and some of the ingredients (i.e. the grouse I had) are native to the British Isles. But Mrs. LF reckons that the majority of the cooking techniques in the kitchen are, at their heart, those of good French home cooking. To wit, the flawless vinaigrette on my parsley salad, the hearty potages and the sauces. And she was also quick to point out that Britain is not the only country that utilizes a wide range of cheaper cuts of meat in its menus, as French country and bistro cooking does as well. Sure, the puddings are mostly British, but I think the woman makes a good point.

Another thing one might consider is the fact that some people reckon that St John is the 14^th best restaurant in the world. While I would say it is probably a unique restaurant in my experience with London dining establishments – and maybe the wider UK – I think that, if true, this is a very sad fact.

Again, Mrs. LF piped up with some insightful thoughts, saying: “Yes, it is unique, but it shouldn’t be. There should be loads of places like St John all over the country. It’s not rocket science after all. Not everyone wants poncy fine dining, but people should have ready access to this kind of food – they’re not cooking foie gras, caviar and truffles, are they? Every single town in England should have a place like St John – I mean, why don’t British pubs, those ancient symbols of tradition, serve food like this? St John represents the things that are disappearing from our lives (not just in Britain, but in France too), where once upon a time you could eat like this every day, even at your family table. I mean, this is the kind of food you’d go to get at your best Auntie’s or Grandma’s house.”

And this is unfortunately what makes St John unique; it is exactly that kind of amazing home cooked food that we should all be having much more of, both at home and when we decide to eat out.

But whatever the case, what is clear is that St John is surely worth a visit. For my money, I can’t imagine a better place to enjoy a leisurely Sunday lunch in the din of winter.

And one last thing. If you do believe it is the 14^th best restaurant in the world, it is certainly pretty easy to get a table here (at least for Sunday lunch) compared to some of the others on that list. So go already.

Rating

Ambience: 8/10

Service: 8/10

Food: 8.5/10

Wine List: 7/10

For more about my rating scale, click here.

*Note: I have dined twice at St John, both times for Sunday lunch.*

Navigating an Absolute Maze of InterContinental Welch Coco Sauce

Don’t worry, the title will make sense by the end of the post.

I recently received an email asking me if I wanted to preview a copy of a new book that would be making its way onto the market soon. The book is called Coco, which doesn’t particularly help in identifying what type of book it might be. Once I found out it had something to do with food, restaurants and famous chefs, I of course said yes. And it turned out that Coco and her promoters had much more in store for me than just a review copy of the book…but first a few facts and opinions about this unusual book.

A unique, engaging, fun & beautiful book about food, restaurants and their passionate creators

7 Facts about Coco

1. It is huge: 439 pages in total
2. It is important: 10 famous chefs have picked the 10 chefs they think are the most interesting up and coming chefs
3. It is international: the 10 top chefs hail from many countries and continents, as do their chosen upstarts
4. It is diverse: besides selecting a smattering of Michelin starred chefs, the top chefs have also selected a wide range of culinary characters, ranging from a woman running a mini ice cream van in London, to an innovative coffee beverage creator in Taiwan, to a sandwich maker in Portland, Oregon (USA)
5. It is colourful: 10 colors to be exact, as each top chefs’ picks are identified by one particular strand of color
6. It has ribbons: one ribbon bookmark for each of the 10 top chefs’ colors
7. It defies simple categorization: it is about chefs (mini-biographies for each), it is about restaurants (impressions of the chefs’ restaurants/outlets are given), it is a cookbook (it contains a few signature dishes from each chef), and it is packed with food photography

7 Opinions about Coco

1. It is beautiful: the photography and the layout are fantastic, being consistently engaging, interesting and gorgeous
2. It is the perfect coffee table book: it looks the part and, due to its sort of random nature (the chosen chefs are in alphabetical order), you never know what you will find when you open up the book and flip through the pages
3. It is innovative: I am not aware of any book out there that has tried to achieve harmony through this type of fusion before
4. It is controversial: obviously not everyone will agree with all of the selections, and some people will feel that important people have been overlooked, left out, or favoured (due to their association with the top chef who picked them)
5. It is a cool travel guide: now, whenever I know I will be travelling internationally, I will consult Coco and see what chefs are in the city/country I am going to, and try to book a table if their establishment(s) seem interesting to me
6. It is a bit annoying: if you want to go back and find a particular dish/chef/restaurant, you can’t really do it quickly and usually have to check the index for the page number(s) you’re after
7. It is a triumph: simply by virtue of the fact that it now sits on my coffee table and I think I’ve picked it up every night to read about another chef, recipe or restaurant

Now, the PR company handling the launch of the book (more on them later) also happens to represent a fair number of the UK-based chefs and restaurants represented in Coco, and it just so happened that they wanted some food bloggers to partake in a gastro-tour around London to go to some of these restaurants, eat some of their signature dishes and possibly meet some of the chefs. Was I down for that? As we used to say in high school: “Well, duh…!”

After a week or so of heavy anticipation, the evening finally arrived, and first on the stop was a mysterious meeting-up location: The House of St Barnabas in Soho. All I knew was that (I thought) it had something to do with a charity, and wasn’t quite sure about why we were meeting there. It all became clear though once the well-healed bouncers finally let us through the doors. It turns out that this beautifully revamped building has been turned into a ‘pop-up private members club’ by the folks at Quintessentially and that we were to have canapés in a nice little room upstairs.

Canapés by Lyndy Redding of Absolute Taste

As we were all getting acquainted with each other (which can be odd for food bloggers as quite often we communicate regularly with each other via social media without first meeting face to face), we were offered champagne and some of the most beautifully presented canapés I’ve seen.

Lyndy Redding’s canapés, as presented in Coco

Many of the nibbles we had are presented in Coco and they were all pretty more-ish. My favorite was probably the tuna tataki with radish, apple and mustard served on chopsticks. I also liked the salt & pepper crusted beef skewers with horseradish cream (though, to my taste, it was a tad too heavy on the seasoning). Both of these were presented in an innovative and appetizing fashion (see page from the book above), and I loved the fact that many of the canapés were served on trays which were elaborately framed antique-looking mirrors that faced upwards.

I had the chance to speak with Lyndy for a good 10 minutes (in-keeping with Coco’s measurement units, I guess) and found her to be a very personable and down-to-earth woman who was clearly passionate about what she did. We had a nice chat about her experiences working with Gordon Ramsay over the years which I found to be both enjoyable and enlightening.

Starters by Jason Atherton of Maze

The entrance to Maze and their clever little cutlery holders (by the way, they have those at Maze in NYC too)

Having been to the New York version of the original London Maze, and having had a pretty decent meal there, I was really looking forward to a taste of Jason Atherton’s cooking. I had booked a table at Maze a while ago, but subsequently cancelled due to negative feedback I got from fellow food bloggers and other friends who had recently dined there. I was hoping that they might all be wrong as, in theory, I thought I would like Atherton’s style of cooking which is centered around small plates that employ often unusual flavor combinations in his own version of fusion cuisine.

The fine dining room at Maze (to the left when you walk in – to the right is Maze Grill) was dimly lit and seemed to have a little bit of a buzz going. There were signature Gordon Ramsay Holding design elements throughout and I generally thought it seemed liked a nice space, although a bit corporate and lacking in individuality. The staff were professional but not all that engaging.

Cornish Red Mullet, Rabbit Bolognese, Cuttlefish Tagliatelle, Squid Paint & Asparagus

The little bowl of food we were served certainly looked interesting, and the assembly of flavors and textures had us all commenting – some positive, some negative, some neutral. For my part, I thought the red mullet had been cooked very well (a nice texture if maybe a tad dry) and that it tasted very good. The bolognese was certainly rich and flavorsome. But I guess the real question was whether they belonged together on the same plate. Eating them together wasn’t at all unpleasant (nothing stuck out sorely), but I don’t think it was quite harmonious either as neither element lifted the other. If anything, the bolognese overpowered the delicate flavors of the fish. And I didn’t really see the point of the two cuttlefish rings on top as they kind of got lost in the mix. Finally, all the textures were quite soft; it could have used something to provide a bit of bite. So, while it was interesting and sort of tasty, it certainly wasn’t perfection on a plate for me.

Unfortunately, Chef Atherton didn’t seem to be around, so after finishing up the starter we were on our way back to the mini-bus for the next stop.

Main Course by Theo Randall at the InterContinental Hotel London

The entrance and the bar at Theo Randall

Next up was a brief trip to Italy, within the confines of a big corporate London hotel. I had never been to either the InterContinental Hotel London or Theo Randall’s restaurant there, and was looking forward to it. After all, he was head chef at one of my favorite London restaurants – River Cafe – for aeons and I like his Italian cooking.

The menu and the man himself teaching us about different fishing techniques

This time, Theo himself came out to our table and gave us the background to the dish we were about to eat. He had an infectious enthusiasm and a bubbly passion that quickly won everyone over. After learning about the different techniques of catching and storing fish in Scotland, the quite sizable dish was served.

The Italian breads on offer – the focaccia was particularly nice

Monkfish with Prosciutto, Artichokes, Capers, Parsley 7 Charlotte Potatoes

Phwoah, now that looked like a hearty plate of food. I’m not sure my photo really does it justice in terms of how it looked, though it was quite a rustic presentation, which is fine for me with Italian food. The monkfish itself was amazing, and should have theoretically paired well with the Parma ham but I found that the saltiness took over a bit too much. However, for me the star of the plate were the artichokes, and I don’t even normally like artichokes. They had been peeled down and soaked in some sort of delicious marinade for hours and were simply divine – without a doubt the best I’ve ever tasted.

The service at the restaurant was very attentive and good, and although the room definitely had the hi-I’m-part-of-a-hotel feel about it, they had managed to add some warmth through the quality of the staff. Theo was also a gracious host throughout and even indulged us by letting us take photos with him as we were leaving and answering the odd question. He genuinely seemed like a really nice guy.

But on with the odyssey, and next up, desserts that we had to find some room for, and quickly.

Desserts by Tristan Welch at Launceston Place

The entrance to Launceston Place, home to Tristan’s Welchness

I was the most excited to visit Launceston Place, mostly because Mrs. LF and I had one of our best London meals in recent memory at the very same place a few weeks earlier. Head Chef Tristan Welch had not been there on that occasion, and I wanted to tell him personally how much we had enjoyed his (kitchen’s) food.

Tristan presented the desserts himself along with his magnificent pastry chef and smooth-talking (American) sommelier – on the right side is the sublime palate cleanser of raspberry jelly and lemon sorbet with black pepper tuile

I like the way that they’ve redesigned this building, which has been a restaurant of various incarnations over the years. The D&D crew have made it into a sophisticated, modern restaurant, with the bold choice of off-black walls, almost broody paintings and nice little individual design touches here and there.

It turned out that Tristan was there to greet us and serve the medley of desserts himself. He was joined by his pastry chef and the sommelier. We were all quite simply bowled over when the multiple desserts began arriving on trays of thin black slate. Each temptation was described in full detail by Tristan and the pastry chef, and the sommelier did more than justice to the lovely accompanying dessert white (a 2004 Jurançon, ‘Syphonie de Novembre’, Domaine Cauhape) by explaining what grapes it was composed of and his own abbreviated tasting notes. While I guess I would have liked to hear what he thought after I had tried it (so as not to be biased), it was a lovely description and he was quite clearly passionate about his Jurançon. Is it just me, or do these Jurançon sweet wines seem to have sprouted up on most fine restaurants’ dessert wine lists over the last couple of years?  Were they always there and I just never noticed? Well, whatever…on to the desserts!

Assiette of Desserts

- Rice pudding soufflé, raspberry ripple ice cream -
- Lavender cream, violets, raspberry -
- Apple parfait, toffee, walnut -
- Dark chocolate, iced milk, crumble -
- Set custard cream, caramel and praline, malt ice cream -
- Banana sticky toffee pudding, Guinness ice cream (by Steve Grove, Winner of MasterChef The Professionals 2009) -

I have to say that I thoroughly enjoyed all of these wonderful creations. I had ordered and liked the set custard cream on my last visit, and found it just as nice this time around. However, it was overshadowed by a few of the other concoctions. The most fun of the bunch was also the most sweet, the apple parfait, which had cleverly been constructed into the shape of an apple, replete with a real apple stem sticking out on top. It was all sweet apple, caramely toffee and it reminded me of the toffee apples we used to get at Halloween. The walnut bits on the outside tried to balance the overriding sweetness, but didn’t quite do the trick. Nonetheless, it was a great dessert, I just couldn’t manage more than a few bites due to its potency. I also loved the dense and indulgent mound of dark chocolate and Steve Grove’s sticky toffee pudding creation (the Guinness ice cream was interesting in a good way).

Close-ups: rice pudding soufflé, dark chocolate, violets

But the triumph of the evening was the Tarte Tatin with homemade clotted cream. It was honestly one of the best ones I’ve ever had. I mean, just look at @mathildescuisine photo of it!!!

Tarte Tatin from Launceston Place (photo courtesy of Mathilde’s Cuisine)

So that was my little tale of a whirlwind tour of some of London’s top restaurants, their food and their chefs…all thanks to Coco. I hope you enjoyed it – we all certainly did!  Thanks to Sauce Communications for organizing everything and ensuring it all ran smoothly.

The motley crew

Oh, and if you still don’t get the title, just follow the trail of the bolded words throughout the article!

A Tale Of Two Coffees…Well, Sort Of…

Okay, maybe three coffees, maybe four, or maybe more…

As some of you may know, I really do love my coffee. Always have. Ever since I first started drinking the stuff about fifteen years ago at a drive-through espresso shack in the parking lot of my small town’s big supermarket, I have been hooked.

You see, where I grew up in the US, even truck drivers drank decent espresso 20 years ago, and that’s saying something in a country where in most places the best coffee you could hope for at that time – if it wasn’t instant (pardon me while I blow chunks) – was an archaic version of Boyd’s that hadn’t been scorched by sitting around too long on the burner and where the tea you normally got served was Lipton Yellow Label (yuck!).

As I pressed down on the accelerator of my gray Nissan Pathfinder each morning before high school, racing toward my Mecca which was that espresso shack, anticipating the bitter-sweet attack of my morning Mocha (complete with chocolate malt ball on top of the lid), knowing that it would give me that jolt I needed to see the morning’s classes through, I knew I probably wouldn’t be able to give up the stuff. Sure, I’ve tried to wean myself off of coffee (and caffeine) a few times – for punishment, my body gave me worse headaches than most of my friends had when withdrawing from cigarettes – and I even succeeded a few times, once for over a year.

These days, my palate has moved on and prefers something less sweet, namely a simple espresso or the occasional macchiato. I like my coffee the way it comes, no sugar added please, whether it be white sugar, brown or what have you. I have also become pretty finicky over the years when it comes to my morning ritual (occasionally, if really tired, I have an injection after lunch). Having tried what are purportedly the best places for coffee in many of the countries and cities that are meant to have the best coffee, I can honestly say that only the rare occasion have my eyebrows perked up and my taste buds said, “Hey, now this is one of the better coffees I’ve had in a long time.” I would not say that I am elitist about coffee, though, I just know what I like and, even better, what I don’t. For example, when in New York, if in a diner, I might still order coffee, but I just know it will be diner coffee and set my expectations accordingly.

The coffee scene in London has improved dramatically in the 10 years that I’ve been living here. Although a lot of the chains serve very poor coffee and are often inconsistent across their branch network, there are now a number of places dotted around this fair city which serve up a pretty good cuppa joe. Not a lot, but some – hey, such is the march of progress.

But before moving onto the major chains, I would like to focus on two places in particular. Within a 10-minute walking radius of my workplace, there are a couple of very good coffee houses. Unfortunately they don’t happen to fall along the straight line that I walk from tube station to office door, so I don’t frequent them every day, but when I feel the need for caffeine or the burning desire for a good espresso, it is to them that I most often turn. They are my mid-morning or mid-afternoon luxury, my fix, my me-time.

Monmouth Coffee Company (Covent Garden Branch)

The original Monmouth coffee shop in Covent Garden

The first is probably the most established of the well-respected coffee houses in London, the original Monmouth in Covent Garden. Having tried all of their espresso based drinks and their black coffee (Americano), I have settled on ‘dry cappuccino’ as my beverage of choice, although all their drinks are fantastic and they probably do make the best Americano I’ve had in London. Their house espresso blend has a nice intensity, lots of chocolate on the palate and is very smooth, with an almost velvety mouth feel. To me, it has a lovely rich, round flavor that beautifully balances the sweeter fruity notes with a not-too-harsh streak of acidity. Paired with the dense and luxurious yet butterfly-light foam from Monmouth’s organic milk to balance the just slightly bitter tannic undertones of the espresso, it is a very competent, highly enjoyable espresso drink and does the trick for me every time.

Monmouth’s dry cappuccino with cocoa powder

I love Monmouth’s passion and quirkiness: A booth for 1 please? Of course Sir. They also try to keep the few tables that they do have mobile-free...how quaint

Some of the coffee beans on sale at Monmouth (they can grind them for you too)

The gist of it: Their drinks are consistently good, and I just like the charm of the place and the impressive knowledge and passion of most of the staff. I mean, they have a wooden bench and table for one person – how quirky and great is that? They also sell a wide range of coffee beans that are painstakingly sourced from around the world and can tell you all about the differences between them. There is normally a long queue if you don’t know what times to go, but I like that it’s on a little street in Covent Garden, that remains slightly funky and has a nice vibe and independent streak about it. I don’t really like the one across from Borough Market as it is too large and too busy.

Caffè Vergnano 1882

The entrance (left) and the artistry (right) of their cappuccino

The only other place in the area that really sways me away from Monmouth is a rather new and somewhat flashy upstart. Set along the shop-fronts on an unlikely stretch of Charing Cross Road (unlikely in the sense that you don’t expect a serious coffee house here amongst the touristy drek), it is none other than Caffè Vergnano 1882. I have been in a number of times now and haven’t exactly gotten to the bottom of what the 1882 stands for (okay, I haven’t really tried to find out), but that is beside the point. The small chain has been set up by Luciano Franchi, whose family has been working for three generations in the London food industry. They apparently supply coffee and related machinery to the Italian Embassy, for whatever that’s worth.

The grand dame herself (the machine that is)

But the best thing about walking into Caffè Vergnano is seeing their gargantuan silver madame, the holy grail of espresso fabrication, the elegant and maniacal stainless steel workhorse that pumps dark brown blood through its veins, the aortic arch from which the pulse of Verganano’s espresso emanates. Yeah, it’s the big honkin’ shiny espresso machine that you can’t miss from window. It is the Elektra Belle Epoque, and on its crown is perched a peering eagle.

To make a long story short, it makes a mean cup of espresso. Their own blend of espresso is composed of seven single-origin beans (including the elusive and expensive Nicaraguan Maragogype) and it is one of the nicer ones I’ve had, certainly one of the top in London. It has a full and broad flavor spectrum and, to me, has a tad more bitterness beneath it than Monmouth’s, though without being cloying. My favorite incarnation of Vergnano’s espresso is a double macchiato, with the little bit of foam providing a tiny cushion of creaminess to offset the fine espresso flavor.

The other thing I like about Vergnano is that it is sort of like an Italian espresso bar. You can order your drink and have it standing up at the counter – or if you want you can sit down or walk out with it. With each coffee they also give you a little Italian biscuit or chocolate (I have never figured out if it’s the drink you order or the luck of the draw that determines which one you get), and I think it’s a great little touch. I would probably describe the service at the Charing Cross Road branch as ‘professional’. It’s not warm, it’s not touchy, it’s not personal, but it’s not rude or mean either. They are just there doing their job and trying to provide you with a good drink.

The gist of it: I haven’t been to their other branches, but I think that this one is great. No-nonsense accomplished espresso drinks and the holy grail of coffee machines staring you in the face. Plus you get a little treat with your coffee and can stand at the bar.

Honorable Mention: Flat White

A flat white at...Flat White

Although it is really a trek from my office to Flat White, I’ve tried this Soho-based coffee house a number of times and almost think I’ve walked into a funky little American coffee house on a college campus somewhere. There is always rock music on the radio, the staff sort of ignore you (at least me!) and I don’t really like the vibe all that much (it’s a bit up its own backside if you ask me), but the coffee drinks are pretty good. Here, I like the eponymous drink the best.

At the Top of My Wish List: Gwilym Davies Espresso Cart

The World Barista Champion (photo courtesy of youngandfoodish)

I really want to taste an espresso drink from Gwilym Davies, recently crowned the World Barista Champion, who runs a few coffee carts in the City, but haven’t tracked him down as yet. Youngandfoodish did a great little write-up on him recently, and reckons that Gwilym just sees himself as “the last [person] in a line that stretches from grower(s) to roaster to barista and determines the quality of the cup.”

So why do I go to Pret?

Well, after focusing on these two gems, here comes the hypocritical bit. In spite of these places being pretty close to my place of work, I still get my morning shot from one of the larger coffee chains that uses a push-button espresso machine. I know, the travesty, the indecency, the illogicality (is that even a word?) of it all. Come on, go ahead and bombard me with comments about what a sell-out I am, I am expecting it. I just want to be honest, though!

Yes, I will admit it. My morning ritual is to stop by a tiny branch of Pret A Manger located directly on my walking route to the office. They make me a single, slightly long macchiato with just a dollop of foam on top. I like the taste and I like the two or three people who serve me each morning. They are always there, they are exceedingly friendly, they know me, they know what I like and we have a little chat from time to time. Oh, and it costs £1.25, so about half of the two places mentioned above. So, out of the chains, my preferred one is Pret. I think their espresso is perfectly good; it is convenient (hell, they are everywhere) and they are in my experience the most consistently professional, cheerful, fun and well-trained staff out of any of the national chains.  So here’s my little list of the big boys, in descending order.

The Big Boys

1. Pret A Manger – see rationale above.



2. Coffee Republic – always liked their coffee, though they don’t seem to have many outlets these days.



3. Caffè Nero – I never really had a big affection for Nero, and think their espresso is simply too bitter, but they’re pretty consistent and it’s not all that bad. They really try with their food offerings too, and it is packaged well, but it just never tastes very good in my experience. The places all have the same vibe, and I sort of like it, I just never leave that satisfied in any respect.



4. Starbucks – can’t put them as number three, as they are more the Häagen Dazs of coffee than a real coffee house anymore, but if their normal drinks are made well, they are pretty good. Their espresso is actually okay to me, but is a bit bitter for some people. The main problem with Starbucks in the UK is the lack of decent training of the people making the drinks – it’s simply all over the place. They often burn the milk…



5. Costa – I have tried this place about once a year for the last 10 years and have always hated it. I may be wrong, but that’s always my conclusion. They are making a big advertising push now saying that they don’t push buttons (a stab at Pret, presumably), they hand craft their coffees, so maybe I should give them another try. Should I? Am I completely wrong?

As a side note, after noticing the huge PR blitz around McDonald’s recently re-launched coffee offerings, I eventually succumbed and used a free coupon from the Metro newspaper to try a cappuccino from my local branch of the golden arches. It was Horr. Ibb. Uhl. Not exactly unexpected, but not exactly drinkable either. Milk severely burned, espresso extremely bitter and unbalanced. Puke.

In fact, they are really annoying me these days with their ad campaigns – they have ripped off the best tune from Disney’s Robin Hood (which was one of my favorite movies when I was a child) and are trying to make people believe they’re all into local farming and are a shiny, happy friend of the farmer. They should get real about what they really do and people should not drink their coffee, because it sucks…big time.

So, that’s my little coffee tale. Let me know what you think. I wrote this all at once without thinking too much, so maybe I’ve missed something (?). Let me know.

Disclaimer: I have yet to make it to a lot of the little artisan coffee shops in London (i.e. Fernandez & Wells and so forth), so would be interested to know your opinions of other establishments and your recommendations.

Over and out for now,

LF

An Indian Summer & Autumnal Eating in the Heart of Italy

An abbreviated version of this article was recently published on CheapOair’s Travel Blog.

My wife and I recently took a short break to Umbria, the green heart of Italy, to visit my parents who are in the process of finally realizing their little Italian dream. About three years ago, they purchased a rather remote piece of land in the rolling hills of Umbria just north of the largest lake on mainland Italy, Lago Trasimeno, and are now in the last stages of completing their home on the site which was previously home to just a few scattered ruins.

Note: you can click on any of the photos for higher-resolution images.

En route to Bella Italia

The closest airport to the property is the tiny one located just outside of Perugia (San Egidio), the largest city of the area. It is only a 2-hour direct flight from our hometown of London via Ryanair, the Marmite of airlines (i.e. you either love it or hate it, although most people probably fall in the latter category), making it very convenient for a quick trip.

The Italian Project – ‘Under Construction’

As the property is not yet habitable, we stayed for five nights in the charming hill town of Montone which, although just off the E45 motorway, is not visible from the road and therefore less visited by tourists. The small village is well worth a diversion, if only for an hour or two. Our base was the lovely and very affordable Hotel Fortebraccio, a newly constructed hotel with well designed modern and functional rooms (we stayed for €80/night).

The morning view from our large private terrace to the hills behind Montone at Hotel Fortebraccio

The view of Montone from our architect’s offices

As my parents were busy making final selections on furniture and paint colors during the weekdays, we were able to slip away and take a few day trips. We were very lucky as the weather was unseasonably warm during the days, with pleasant breezes in the evenings, enabling us to make the most of our time in Italy.

Tuscany, Part I: Volterra & San Gimignano

On the first day, we drove into central Tuscany to see the pristine hill town of Volterra and the nearby walled medieval commune of San Gimignano with its fabled collection of ancient towers. I had been to both places about 15 years ago and was eager to see if they would live up to my fond memories. While they are both prime tourist haunts, both are certainly worth a visit, and we especially enjoyed our time in San Gimignano, with its wide variety of shops, architecture and (most importantly) some very good gelato!

Can you get more Italian than this?! A new maroon Fiat 500 on the outskirts of Volterra

A few of the many towers in San Gimignano

Some laundry hanging on the back streets of San Gimignano – a common scene throughout Italy

Pluripremiata Gelarteria in the central piazza of San Gimignano – apparently some of the best you can get in the world! It certainly lived up to my memories from 15 years ago...

The coffee was particularly amazing, and the texture of the gelato was a perfect smoothness

Tuscany Part II: Montalcino & Castello Banfi

Our second day trip took us to the town of Montalcino, which is about a 1.5 hour drive from Montone. The town is perched atop a hill that is most famous for its native Sangiovese grapes, as these are what the ever popular Italian cult wine of Brunello di Montalcino are made from.

One of the churches in Montalcino

A steep pedestrian street in Montalcino

A typical scene from Montalcino

Montalcino is yet another beautiful little village, but we didn’t have that much time to spend in the town itself as we had a reservation for lunch at Castello Banfi, one of the best-known (and the largest) producer of Brunello di Montalcino. We believed it was just outside the town, according to some rough maps we had to hand…

After attempting to use my blackberry’s GPS to navigate our way to the winery (which took us, and our little Mini rental car, down an extremely steep and narrow dirt road that lead to the middle of nowhere), then losing my rag when I realized (and finally admitted!) that we were very lost, and finally having my wife not talk to me for a what seemed like forever, we eventually made it to the castle about 45 minutes past our reservation time . If you ever go there, please be warned that Banfi is a good half-hour drive from Montalcino!

Luckily, their Taverna Restaurant was still serving lunch and our table had not been taken. The food was quite simple for such a formal room, and generally looked better than it tasted. It was okay, but we had much better meals elsewhere for less money (see the end of this post for more details).  That said, the free tour of the winery, which took place directly after lunch, was truly fascinating and entertaining, and we greatly enjoyed our visit overall.

The Taverna dining room at Castello Banfi

Aside from making wine, Banfi also produces its own olive oil

Homemade Fusilli with Chianina Beef IGP Ragoût

Roast Pork Loin with Rosemary Flavored Potatoes

Pear & Chocolate Tart

Selection of Tuscan Pecorino with Montalcino Honey & Pine Nuts

The meal was naturally paired with wines from the estate, of which the <2004 Castello Banfi Brunello di Montalcino> (right) was by far the best, and one of the best I’ve had from this very good vintage for Brunellos

My guest pass for the winery tour

The remains of the day – they actually make Grappa (the popular Italian digestif) from the bits of the grapes that don’t make it through to wine production

Recently purchased gargantuan modern vats for fermenting the white wines

Roll ‘em on out...

The cellars at Banfi are truly cavernous and take up two subterranean levels, with the smaller barrels located on the higher of the underground levels, and the larger barriques located further below

They use only the finest French oak and the best barrel maker in Italy (Gamba)

A very cool light fixture down below...and, before we leave the tour, did you know that Banfi produces 20% of all Brunello di Montalcino and a grand total of 10 million bottles per year when including all of their wines together?

Umbria: Deruta, Perugia & Assisi

The bulk of our remaining time was spent in and around Umbria with my family. I have to say that while Umbria may not be nearly as well-known or as well touristed as its more famous cousin Tuscany, whose central eastern border it shares, it certainly does have a lot to offer, and is often less full of foreigners and less costly than similar places in Tuscany.

The town of Deruta lies directly south of Montone down the E45. It is world-famous for its traditional, handmade ceramics industry, with a large percentage of most studios’ pieces being sold in the Unites States and other international markets. We were there to check out some potential designs for the dishes in our future Italian retreat (see below for some examples) and also meandered into the older part of the town which lies above the rows of ceramic shops that line the commercial streets below.

Some of the ceramic artists at work in Maioliche Originali Deruta (MOD), one of the better known ceramics houses

Before the ovens...

...and after glazing, the final products

Heading into the old town...classic! Now which was it to the city center, again? Only in Italy

The center of Deruta is small but cute, and there are clues to the town’s ceramic heritage, with beautiful old ceramic designs integrated into the facades of many buildings

We found a great little restaurant down a side street in the old town, which looked promising, and indeed had very good food. Unfortunately, I can’t for the life of me remember the name now, and can’t find it on the internet either – sorry!

Prosciutto with Melon (all dishes were served on beautiful modern Donitiani plates, which were atypical of the designs we saw elsewhere)

Spaghetti with Butter & Truffles

Chianina Beef with Balsamic

And, of course, what else but a nice Brunello to wash down the meat?

Our penultimate afternoon was spent in Perugia. In reality, we ended up there because one of my relatives knew there was a fantastic gelateria there, and somehow we ended up parking directly in front of it without even realizing we had done so!

I didn’t know that the place my relative had been searching for was none other than GROM, probably the most famous Italian gelato maker. In recent years, its popularly has swelled both within Italy – where you can now find a branch in most major towns (we had our first in Venice earlier this year and loved it) – and also internationally, with shops recently opened in New York, Paris and Tokyo. Anyway, it is probably the best gelato that you can get consistently across Italy, and I was very excited to be trying it again as I wasn’t even thinking about going to one on this trip.

A gelateria, an Italian man & his Piaggio – we had arrived

The ‘laboratory’ within Perugia’s own GROM

What to order, what to order...

You can get three flavors in one small dish (a great value). I loved my original Crema de GROM, Cioccolato Fondente (the less strong of the two dark chocolate flavors, the other being Extranoir) & Caramello al Sale (Salty Caramel) – yummmm!

A Fiat and an Italian gentleman in shades in the Autumn Umbrian sun

Three old men relaxing on the main pedestrian stretch in Perugia

On our last day, we made the quick 30-minute car journey to Assisi, the birthplace of St. Francis and home to the world-famous Basilica of San Francesco d’Assisi, which Christians from all over the world flock to for pilgrimage. We were pleasantly surprised at just how well-maintained this ancient town was, and couldn’t believe some if its immaculate preserved pedestrian streets. It was truly stunning.

A food shop in Assisi

One of the pristine streets of Assisi

The front of Basilica of San Francesco d'Assisi

Basilica di Santa Chiara atop Assisi

A dome viewed from afar

An elderly gentleman having a snooze in the shade

Tuscany, Part III: The Hidden Gem of Sansepolcro & the Two Restaurant Jewels in its Crown

The one truly hidden gem of a town that we discovered on this trip just happened to be a little past the Umbrian border in the far eastern reaches of Tuscany. The town is called Sansepolcro and, while it certainly doesn’t look like much when you first drive in off the motorway, it has a little secret. Drive further in towards the middle and there lies an old walled city that is home to some very charming streets, some very good shopping and two restaurants which certainly deserve special mention, as the best meals we had on our trip were spent in them.

Da Ventura is both a restaurant and a small guest house. It is very traditional in its decor, with wooden beamed ceilings and wine bottles lining the open arched doorways.

The traditional décor of Da Ventura restaurant in Sansepolcro

Service is wonderfully personal and professional, and we quickly learned the one rule that all the locals abide by: order by the cart, live by the cart!

The wooden trolley is first rolled out at the beginning of the meal and is filled with an assortment of antipasti that will get you salivating. They also shave truffles on top of pasta on the cart if you order that for your appetizer.

A simple gnocchetti starter

The neighboring table’s pasta, with fresh truffles being shaved on top

The cart is then pushed out again for the meaty main courses. On our visit, they were offering roasted Chianina beef, lamb and pork (by far the best of the three). The dessert selection is also presented on a trolley, and they just sort of put anything you want from the offering onto a plate for you.

My veal carpaccio with truffles

The meat main course cart, with a wide selection of seasonal vegetables

My selection of desserts - 'off their trolleys'

And one of my parents’ selections

The neighboring table, which was made up of three Italian gentleman who were clearly locals and regulars, noticed that I kept staring at their food as it was being served – especially when the waiter just decided to give one of the men the last hunk of one of roasts, and slopped about 50 ounces of meat onto his plate along with the already large portion he had served him just before. While they were sipping on Vin Santo with their desserts, they asked me if I had tried it before, and told the waiter to give me a glass on their tab. The whole meal had that wonderful feeling throughout, and we really felt at home there even though our Italian left much to be desired.

But I would have to say the best meal we had by far was at Ristorante Fiorentino, which also doubles as a small hotel and is smack-bang in the center of the old town, a few blocks down from Da Ventura.

Ristorante Fiorentino’s night-time facade

First established in 1807, the restaurant has been run by the Uccellini family for over 50 years. Alessio, the man who greets you at the desk upstairs, is clearly the owner and runs the show. He is a truly amazing character, who will regale you with tales of how he has played his little tricks and surprises on other customers over the years as he slowly plates up the restaurant’s wonderful homemade dessert from the impressive trolley. He has an amazing sense of humor and you can tell that this is a family affair through and through, which makes it all the more enjoyable. His daughter is a very professional sommelier and is also very affable.

Alessio running the floor

The food at Ristorante Fiorentino was also a bit of a departure from the menus we had become accustomed to in the region (which tend to be very similar, traditional and not all that inventive). They serve historical Tuscan dishes but also infuse elements of Renaissance cuisine into the dishes (i.e. in those times there were many sweet and sour combinations, or piquant and salty dishes at the same time), with some particularly interesting flavor, texture and temperature combinations.

Legume Soup with Spelt Ice Cream – we were told it was inspired by Italian Renaissance cuisine

For example, I absolutely adored my starter of Legume Soup with Spelt Ice Cream. The bean soup by itself was perfectly fresh and good, but when eaten with the ever so slightly sweet spelt ice cream (which also had little bits of chewy grains scattered throughout) it was truly delicious and interesting.  You can see some more photos of the restaurant below, which I believe is a fitting way to bid you adieu from central Italy. Until next time: arrivederci!

On the way upstairs to the toilets, you can see a portrait of Alessio and some old memorabilia

A fascinating contraption containing all types of grappa

Alessio does his thing – he juggles dessert dishes and flips them over (with the desserts still inside!) and somehow the contents don’t ever escape...

My selection of desserts tasted were out of this world...Strawberry Shortcake, Chocolate Pudding & Coffee Crème Caramel...I will definitely return to Ristorante Fiorentino on our next trip!

sketch Lecture Room & Library – Gastronomic Theatre Fit for a King

sketch
9 Conduit Street
London W1S 2XG
Website
Map
Online Reservations

- À la carte: Starters from £21-44, Mains from £28-55, Desserts from £10-27 (all but one under £14)
- Tasting: 8-course menu at £95; 7-course vegetarian menu at £70
- Lunch: Gourmet rapide menus from £30-£48 (depending on 2 or 3 courses and whether or not you want wine and water included)

Be transported into a surreal and magical world that is sealed off from the mundane trappings of the everyday world. You have ascended to the upper echelons of sketch, and you are here to be looked after. Let the food dazzle and delight; permit the grand surroundings mesmerize; allow your whims be catered for; and, most of all, enjoy every minute...because it don’t come cheap!

No ordinary townhouse

Let me preface this review by saying that I have been to sketch once before, so it wasn’t a complete shock to me when I walked in this time. One of our friends had somehow managed to secure one of the bars for her birthday drinks and Mrs. LF and I were introduced to the decadent, avant-garde madness that lies beyond this Georgian townhouse’s rather ordinary looking white facade. If you’ve never been and are planning to go, whichever part of sketch you decide to visit, do insist on visiting the bathrooms on the ground floor that lie through The Gallery dining room as they are certainly worth seeing.

Looks normal enough from outside

Yes, sketch. A London institution that has somehow managed to retain its en vogue status since opening its doors six years ago, which is no mean feat given the constantly sprouting up competition. But we were not there to celebrity spot; we were there to eat some good food. And that meant stepping into the upper echelons of this mysterious and quirky little world. We were there for The Lecture Room and Library, the 1-starred Michelin dining room that is run under the close control of Pierre Gagnaire (who is apparently present every 4-6 weeks for a number of days), the acclaimed French chef whose iconoclastic modern fusion style of cooking seems rather well suited toward the raison d’être of sketch.

No ordinary greeting

When we ‘checked in’ at the little reception desk, David, the tall and charmingly flamboyant Irish man who seemed to be in charge, became very animated when he learned we would be dining upstairs. He offered us a tour of the premises, to be carried out by his rather fetching assistant, but we opted to postpone this until the end of the evening. We also declined the offer of a cocktail in one of the downstairs bars as we had already had that pleasure at our friend’s birthday celebration. I should say that the cocktails at sketch are imaginative, fun and excellent – but they are also probably the most expensive drinks I’ve ever bought in a London bar. Mrs. LF told our host that we’d rather just go upstairs. He then informed us that, as we were the first guests to arrive, we could have the upstairs parlour to ourselves. Now that sounded like a plan.

While attempting to ascertain our knowledge of chef Gagnaire, he opened the roped-off stairs for us and with a grand gesture and bid us to follow him up the stairs. As we ascended, he informed us about all of the chef’s restaurants around the globe and gave us a potted biography of Mr. Gagnaire in his very pleasant but thoroughly OTT fashion. We noticed some of the intriguing artwork on the way up to our destination (see below), and were indeed being made to feel like we were quite special guests at this most hoity-toity of establishments. But of course that felt very good .

Note: you can click on any of the pictures below for higher-resolution versions of the images.

At the foot of the stairs

Ascending the stairs

When you reach the top of the stairs, there is a large doorway which remains sealed. Then, in his special way, our leader opened the vault, revealing what is probably the most striking dining room I’ve ever had the pleasure of stepping foot into. Our photos, most other photos I’ve seen, and even the professional video cameras from the recent episode of Masterchef: The Professionals simply don’t do the place justice. It is something to be seen in person, that’s for sure. You really feel like you’ve entered an extremely exclusive and luxurious place that is sealed off from the rest of the world.

The Lecture Room (main dining room)

While Mrs. LF made her way back downstairs to powder her nose, I had the good fortune to meet the chef, Jean-Denis Le Bras, who recently took over the upstairs kitchen. He was very pleasant and clearly enthusiastic about his food. Upon her return, Mrs. LF and I walked through the main dining room (which I presumed to be the ‘Lecture Room’), and the smaller ante-chamber (which I assumed to be the ‘Library’), which led into a very beautiful little parlour area, replete with rich reds, fireplace and Moroccan style window hangings and light fixtures.

The ‘royal’ parlour...all to ourselves

The Library (smaller dining room) as viewed from the parlour

After downing my favorite sketch cocktail, whose name now escapes me but I think has something to do with Barry White, we were offered an array of canapés, which we decided to have in the parlour as it was so cosy and we were having such a nice time there.

Our tray of canapés

Element 1: Petite Tarts with Goat’s Cheese

Elements 2 & 3: Parmesan Sablé and Tapenade & Caramelized Hazelnut (top); Tarragon Balls with Corn Purée & Curry (in pot)

Element 4: Tuna Cream with Cumin Bread

Element 5: Yogurt with Tandoori Biscuit

Without going into laborious detail, it is suffice to say that this was a magnificent opening to our meal. Each element on the tray tasted every bit as good as it looked – which is saying something –with the goat’s cheese tarts and yogurt with tandoori biscuits being our favourites. We already felt spoiled receiving an entire tray of canapés, and not just the usual little dainty plate with one or two morsels that you normally find in such high-end restaurants. 9/10.

After asking a lot of questions about the dishes on the main menu, and receiving very detailed answers from our waiter, we finally arrived at our decisions and it was time to finally make our way to the Lecture Room.

No ordinary meal

Our table in the main room was against one of the side walls and afforded us a great view of all the action. The first thing we noted was just how comfortable the well-cushioned chairs were. Once seated, they were quick in offering to place Mrs. LF’s bag on a little stool near our table so that it didn’t stoop to retire on the god-knows-how-much-this-costs-per-square-foot carpet.

Vaulted Pantheonic ceiling & North African inspired lighting in the main dining room (check out the decanters and the plush seats, too)

Les pains: mini-baguettes, white rolls, brown chestnut rolls & brioche sticks

Les beurres: salted, unsalted, seaweed (all unpasteurized)

Of the breads, we tasted the mini-baguettes, the white rolls and the brown chestnut rolls, all of which were very good, with the mini-baguettes standing out as the best with their crispy crusts and lovely chewiness. The butters were beautifully presented (see above), and we both loved the one with seaweed in particular given its slightly salty and rich umami flavor. 8/10.

Amuse bouche: Raw White Tuna, Cauliflower and Dried Bonito Cream & Salmon roe

The amuse bouche of tuna tartare was a very clever, refreshing and flavorsome dish, with all of the ingredients working together in concert. The clean taste of the raw fish was accentuated by salty salmon roe which was then toned down and rounded out by the bonito flakes which again possessed a lush umami flavor. The little chewy and crunchy pieces of cauliflower provided some much needed solid texture to offset the smoothness of the other ingredients. I really enjoyed this first ‘proper’ course. 8/10.

A bit of theatre: Presenting the 'Cocotte of Vegetables' in Mrs. LF's starter course about 10 minutes before it was served

Starter 1: Perfume of the Earth / Inspired by one of Pierre Gagnaire’s Favourite Perfumes 'Terre d’Hermès' (£39)

- Cocotte of Vegetables, Smoked Myrtle and Bay Laurel / Foie Gras Soup with Sarawak Pepper
- Chicory Fondue with Sake / Girolles Poached in Pig Jus / Culatello and Iberian Ham
- Almond Tart / White Beetroot Purée with Redcurrant / Red Beetroot Syrup / Purslane Salad
- Flambé Reblochon with Génépi / Toast “Terre de Sienne” / Caramelised Black Olives (Mrs. LF substituted the Reblochon for Brillat-Savarin)

Mrs. LF said her cocotte of vegetables was light and delicious, apart from one vegetable, which could have been a turnip (but she’s not sure), that didn’t have the sweetness of the other vegetables. 7/10.

Of the chicory fondue, she described it as a meaty and flavorsome dish with all the ingredients interacting beautifully together. 7/10.

The almond tart was “Interesting in the way it looked and the way it tasted also. It tasted more like a dessert because of the white marzipan-tasting layer that enveloped the dish (not my favourite, but very different and unique for sure).” 6/10.

The flambé of Brillat-Savarin with génépi was amazingly tasty as all of the ingredients used here came through somehow…even the Génépi in a very subtle way. We were also so surprised and pleased to see génépi on the menu as we love drinking in the alps at night after a hard day of skiing and had never seen it outside of the little region we normally go skiing in. 9/10.

Starter 2: Langoustines, Addressed in Five Ways (£44)

- Roasted in Chickpea Flour / Carrot Syrup and Chorizo
- Tartare / Hitcho Vodka Jelly / Sardinian Lemon Paste
- Spicy Jelly / Cockle Marinière / Macco Artichoke Ice Cream
- Mousseline with Noilly Prat / Basmati Rice / Matcha Green Tea and Almond Paste Butter
- A la Plancha with Epine-Vinette and Lardo di Colonnata / Toast of Agria Potato

The most ‘normal’ of the langoustine quintuplets was arguably the best. It had been roasted beautifully and was still moist and succulent. It was resting on top of a deeply flavoured sauce, of which the strongest element was the chorizo (there were also chunks of the meat scattered around). The sausage made a surprisingly good companion to the langoustine and did not overpower the delicate, sweet flavor as I thought it might have. It was well seasoned, and I liked the addition of the thinly sliced chives on top. 9/10.

The tartare was probably my second-favorite dish and simply showed off the freshness of the crustacea. I don’t remember the vodka jelly, but I do remember the divine lemon paste, which was a perfect foil for the raw langoustine, and the crunchy slivers of cucumber also worked well. 8/10.

Although I did like all five of these mini-creations, my least favorite was probably the third one, which included a cockle marinière, although I did rather enjoy the artichoke ice cream. 6/10.

We were back on track with the little moussiline, which definitely had a subtle hint of vermouth, and went exceedingly well with the Japanese green tea soup, with the rice providing the necessary grip and bite. A mellow and subtle dish which I appreciated. 8/10.

Last up was a little sandwich of langoustine with some clever toast of extremely thin fried potato. The inherent sweetness of the langoustine was here matched with the quite sharp flavor of European barberries and the unctuousness of the little dabs of lard. 8/10.

What I loved about this starter was the sheer variety of ingredients – both in terms of geography (from Italy to Japan) and typicity (alcohols to rarely used berries) – and how they unearthed a variety of pleasing flavor duos (and trios) with the simple luxury of sweet langoustine. It was highly inventive, technically well cooked and thoroughly enjoyable.

Main Course 1: Pig (£32)

- Spanish Pork Fillet Marinated with Juniper
- Black Pudding and Rhubarb Ravioli
- Blackcurrant Sauce Diable / Thinly Sliced Turnips in Dark Beer

Of her trio of pork dishes, Mrs. LF reflected that the Spanish pork fillet had been perfectly cooked, and tasted exquisite. She felt that “It didn’t taste obviously porky, perhaps as it was accompanied with a reddish sauce and also marinated in juniper. Usually I have pork more with a white wine or white sauce. Anyway, the marinade gave an unusual twist to the pork, which I really liked.” 8/10.

She said that the black pudding dish was “Quite rich for my own personal taste, and I therefore appreciated the small portion as I couldn’t have stomached more than that. Having said that, if you are a black pudding lover, it is a perfect dish. The black pudding tasted great and suited its well-textured ravioli wrapping perfectly.” 8/10.

Unfortunately, due to the amount of time that has elapsed since our visit and this review (and our lack of sufficient notes), neither of us can sufficiently recall the last dish (blackcurrant sauce diable and turnips) and therefore can provide no description/rating (shame on us!).

Main Course 2: Scallops & John Dory (£49)

- John Dory Fillet Poached in Citrus Butter / Paimpol Coco Bean Velouté
- John Dory Gravlax / Scallop Tartare with Gingerbread
- Oyster Hummus / Liebig Cucumber

I had opted for seafood again in my main course, which this time came on a trio of plates. The principal dish was my favorite. The fish had been skilfully poached and the butter flavor came through nicely. There was diced vegetal crunchiness and the unusual flavor of the white bean velouté  was yet again another example of a rare ingredient (at least for me) providing a new flavor combination that worked well with the core element of the dish, the delicate  and mildly flavored John Dory. 9/10.

I thought the prettiest plate by far was that of the raw fish. It didn’t pack that much of a flavor punch, although there was again evidence of Gagnaire’s hand in the use of three thin slices of crisp gingerbread underneath the fish and scallops, which I thought was a little stroke of genius. 7/10.

I must say that I am not an oyster person, having only had one or two in my life, and was sort of nervous about the last little dish. I went along with the waiter’s suggestion of swallowing it all in one go, and was actually pleasantly surprised. I think this was because the most dominant flavor by far was that of hummus. It was the familiar rich chickpea and a hint of cucumber that I could taste, and it was the slimy texture of the chewy oyster I could feel, so I managed to get through without too much pain. I would certainly like to learn to appreciate oysters, but as of now I am a total novice and just don’t get the fascination. 6/10.

Dessert: Nonette

- Saffron nonette with citrus and limoncello marmalade
- Traditional crème caramel
- Confit grapefruit melon and watermelon

We were quite torn between a few of the dessert on the menu, but as we were feeling quite full by this point, we opted to split one of the lighter-sounding sweets. The nonette cake itself was the main component of the dessert. Although we were informed it was a traditional dessert from the Alsace region in France, it certainly did have its Middle Eastern influences with the main flavor elements being orange and saffron. The pain d’épice based cake was dense, sticky and packed with that sharp and sweet flavor of orange marmalade (here, more sweet than sharp), along with a subtle hint of saffron which was well infused throughout. It was okay, but didn’t knock our socks off. My favorite part of the dessert was actually the crème caramel, which was excellent. It had the perfect consistency and very good depth of flavor. The citrus hit of the last pot was very refreshing and nice way to finish our last course. Overall, this was probably the weakest part of the meal, although we did shy away from some of the more ambitious sounding desserts and, given the renown of Gagnaire’s – and his kitchen’s – pastry skills (i.e. they make the good pastries at Fortnum & Mason), I am sure his Grand Dessert (at £27!) or his Gâteau au Chocolat (£10) would have been mind-blowing. But our bellies were already blown and we just couldn’t stomach it. 6/10 for our little trio.

Petit Fours

- Dark chocolate with lemon syrup
- Blackcurrant and marzipan
- Turkish Delight with ginger

Saying that, there’s always room for (some more) dessert . The little petit fours were all very nice and were given to us even though we didn’t order tea or coffee. The little chocolate discs and the dark chocolate with lemon syrup filling stand out as the best of the bunch in my memory.

No ordinary blue loo

Black and blue loo for you

I finally had my chance to nip off to the bathrooms, and was eager to see what I might find inside (okay, that didn’t sound quite right). But given the insaneness of the sketch’s other toilets, I didn’t know what to expect. These were much more ‘normal’, except for the fact that they were black and neon blue, and that pretty much all surfaces were reflective. It was sufficiently cool, though, and I didn’t feel let down. The only slightly odd thing was that there was a very nice Japanese woman whose only job seemed to be keeping watch on the loos and escorting customers up and down the stairs from the restaurant to the WCs and back again. She also had to wear a slightly odd, and probably fairly demeaning, costume which was essentially a glorified maid’s outfit. But hey, I guess that is just sketch.

No ordinary sommelier

I didn’t discuss the wines earlier as I thought they deserved a special mention. Helping us throughout the evening with our wine selections was the extremely helpful, professional and generous Baptiste, who we later learned was actually Assistant Manager and not the sommelier after all. He hails from the Loire region in France and was thoroughly knowledgeable (and slightly partial ) to the wines of this region, and proved to be the perfect sommelier throughout the evening. The wine list was very interesting but, as I was the only one drinking, I was limited to glasses or half bottles.

He started me off with a 2007 Muscadet Sèvre et Maine sur Lie (Guy Brossard) to accompany the first course, which worked sufficiently well due to the mix of sweet melon and bracing stringency.

He could tell I was really passionate about wine and when I saw that they had a half bottle of Raveneau Chablis on hand, my arm didn’t need too much twisting. It was the 2006 Chablis 1er Cru, Vaillons (Raveneau) and I can say without hesitation that it was one of the best wines I’ve had. It was a classic Chablis through and through. Its nose was slightly citrusy and floral; it was intense in flavor, with lots of green fruit and extremely subtle use of oak; and finished with a powerful, extremely long and dry finish. It was such a treat with my main course of scallops and John Dory.

To finish, Baptiste suggested I go for a 2004 Saumur, Brèze, Le Clos (Guiberteau) – a wine he knows well – and I wasn’t disappointed here either, as it abounded with fresh green apples, citrus and pears, complementing the dessert well.

But besides the amazing Ravenuau and the other well chosen wines, Baptiste was extremely observant and very eager to make sure I was happy and that my curiosity was being satisfied. At one point, he saw me staring at another table’s wine, which happened to be a 2005 Meursault, Les Luchets (Guy Roulot). He asked me why I was looking so intently at it as he had poured it, and I confessed that I was really into white Burgundy at the moment. I couldn’t believe it when he went and fetched some more of the very same wine and poured me a little tasting portion of it. It was a truly spectacular wine and I was overjoyed to try it.

But it didn’t end there. He also brought over small tasting portions of two other wines he thought I would be interested to try, without me asking and without hesitation. The other two, a 2005 Montlouis Sec, Rémus, Domaine de La Taille aux Loups (Jacky Blot) and a 2005 Coteaux du Layon, Beaulieu (Pierre Bise), were also both excellent and he knew one of the producers personally, so was able to add a lot of color to his descriptions of the wines and their makers.

This personal touch and obvious desire for the customer to walk away happy and feeling well looked after is one of the things I still remember about the meal over a month later, and one of the reasons I would want to return. This general spirit was present across all of the front of house staff, who I must say were mostly French, and made the evening a thoroughly pleasurable affair, along with the beautifully presented, appetizing, inventive and delicious food.

No ordinary damage

Le Bill

Once our evening had drawn to its close, Le Bill was presented to us within the casing of an old book which had been hollowed out inside – I suppose a little reference to the ‘Library’. It was definitely one of the more expensive dinners I’ve had, although given the fact that Mrs. LF and I felt we had been treated like minor royalty, I didn’t mind one bit paying up for this privilege.

Extraordinary enough to visit?

As you can no doubt tell, we had a delightful evening at sketch from start to finish. It is a unique venue which really pushes the boundaries in terms of design (see below for the parting shot to this review if you don’t believe me). The service and attention paid to us at every stage, from greeting to goodbyes, was exemplary and we were truly made to feel special throughout our time there, even though we were just another table of two. Chef Gagnaire’s food was inventive, creative, fun, explorative and, most important, it all worked. The kitchen was also technically proficient and all of the dishes were well seasoned (not over or under), and this on a night when the head honcho was not present. The wine list is formidable, and I have never been so well looked after by a sommelier that wasn’t even the ‘proper’ sommelier, with my desires being anticipated and more than met. Lastly, I really liked the fact that when you order à la carte, you essentially get a tasting menu of sorts anyway as there are canapés, amuse bouches and petit fours thrown in, plus the fact that each dish – whether a starter or a main course – is made up of three to five elements. This eliminates the niggling feeling that you might be ‘missing out’ on something if you don’t order the tasting menu.

As we made our way back to the ordinary world that lay outside, sketch gave us its parting shot...and I give you mine

This is a place for special occasions, when you really feel like celebrating and being treated like a king (or queen). While it will certainly put a dent in most peoples’ bank accounts, on this occasion I was quite happy to pay for it. And I would certainly return…although next time I may opt for the Gourmet Rapide Lunch as it seems to represent good value by comparison to the dinner prices.

Rating

Ambience: 9/10

Service: 8/10

Food: 8/10

Wine List: 9/10

Wine Selected: 9/10

For more about my rating scale, click here.

*Note: I have only dined once at sketch Lecture Room & Library for dinner.*

A Bit More Wining: Saturday at Vinopolis with Oz Clarke + Some Chefs, Critics & Tapas

We spent a long and enjoyable Saturday at Vinopolis, first enjoying a wine tasting with noted wine expert Oz Clarke, then a self-guided tour of Vinopolis, then popping out for some satisfying tapas at Tapas Brindisa in nearby Borough Market, and finally a front-row seat at a Chef vs. Critics quiz show which included some of the UK’s best known food personalities

The Wine Wizard, Oz

For better or for worse, twitter seems to be my best friend as of late in terms providing access to some great food and wine experiences, and often for free!

As readers of the blog will already be aware, it was through an early leak of the booking line number from fellow tweeter @richardvines that I was able to secure a table at Pierre Koffmann’s pop-up restaurant on top of Selfridges.

More recently, I also scored two free tickets to a wine tasting with well-known wine personality Oz Clarke held at Vinopolis through a competition organized by none other than @vinopolislondon. I was very excited to meet Oz after seeing the first two series of his program with James May, where they first visited France and then California in order to educate the lager-loving petrol head about the merits of fermented grape juice. Oz’s down-to-earth attitude and no-nonsense (and, for that matter, no-pretence) approach to wine is refreshing and, in my view, well suited to today’s average wine consumer, who can easily be put off and alienated by wine experts preaching from upon high.

So Mrs. LF and I headed down to Borough Market for our 3pm date with Oz and five of his top wines for 2010. The event took place within the cavernous vaults at Vinopolis, which are used for their own events and I presume would also make an excellent venue for corporate events and other private shindigs as well. The vaults originally stretched from Vinopolis’ location (just a few steps Northwest of Borough Market) Eastward down the river all the way to the end of Tooley Street and were the center of the British wine trade in Victorian times up through the beginning of the second world war.

As you can see below, it is quite a cool space, and so it was that…

...the stage was set...

...then was filled.

The audience was ready...

...and Oz’s eye was on the prize.

I wasn’t exactly sure of the format of the session, but it ended up being a lot of Oz doing what he does best: storytelling. In fact, he is a master storyteller, which makes sense given his earlier career in theatre with such troops as the Royal Shakespeare Company, the Royal National Theatre and The Old Vic, amongst others.

While we did taste each of the five wines he had selected – usually with him nonchalantly asking the audience “Shall we have a swig of this one?” or something similar – and while he did offer some brief and insightful thoughts on how he thought the wine tasted, what I remember most are the accompanying stories he used to bring the countries and wineries that these wines came from to life. It was brilliant entertainment that was educational at the same time, and everyone seemed to be having a good time, Oz included. Although I did wonder if it would be a bit boring for him doing two further sessions of a similar nature that same afternoon, complete with book signings at each. But, alas, I guess these are the trappings of success, eh?

Oz’s storytelling reaches its peak as he recounts the gales he experienced while at a vineyard in Northern Chile

You can find my brief notes about the wines we sampled below, some of which were pretty outstanding for their respective price brackets.

• Roederer Estate Quartet, Brut Sparkling Wine NV (Anderson Valley, California)
  • Notes: Very fruity (notably pear) with beautiful miniscule bubbles, a tad of toastiness and serious depth. Interesting to note that, according to Oz, there are about 7 million bubbles in each glass of champagne (to be fair, though, he didn’t know which poor sod had been sad enough to do that research). Fair value at £19.99 in my view, as it is comparable to decent entry-level champagnes, if not a fair bit nicer than some of them.
• 2008 Villa Maria Cellar Selection, Sauvignon Blanc (Marlborough, New Zealand)
  • Notes: I have tried the 2007 ‘normal’ version and thought it was a great, classic Kiwi Sauvignon. This wine had a light and bright appearance, a nose of apple, lime and fresh grass, and on the palate it was dominated by greens as well (green apples, grass, nettles, even green pepper). The bottle has a screwcap, which Oz rather likes as he believes it is better for fresh, young white wines and obviously far more consistent than cork. A fine Sauvignon for £10.19.
• 2005 Kooyong Estate, Chardonnay (Mornington Peninsula, Australia)
  • Notes: For me, this was the clear winner out of the five. It was a marvellous chardonnay, with a golden, rich straw color in the glass, a slightly citrusy and floral nose (plus some butter), and a little streak of refreshing acidity along with some fruitiness to balance what I thought was mostly a creamy, buttery, smoky and nutty depth. It had excellent length. Not inexpensive at £18.95, but it was one of the better chardonnays I’ve tasted recently, and certainly compares strongly with white Burgundies in the same price range. I wasn’t all that shocked to see that it was Oz’s #1 wine for 2010 in his new book when I opened it up after getting home.
• 2006 Vina Falernia, Syrah Reserva (Elqui Valley, Chile)
  • Notes: A lovely deep, dark red in the glass, with a lot of smoke on the nose. On the palate it was again smoky, with notes of cigar tobacco and also some blackberry fruit. It was a very intense wine, and I agree with Oz in that it does have a very Northern Rhône feel about it. Cracking value at £10.95 in my opinion.
• 2006 Yalumba ‘The Scribbler’, Cabernet Sauvignon/Syrah (Barossa Valley, Australia)
  • Notes: To be honest, I forgot to write anything down about this wine as I was a bit caught up on one of Oz’s stories. Oz says it “has a fascinating initial flavor of blackcurrant and mint, scented with a few drops of eucalyptus oil and a scrape of lemon zest. There’s some decent rasping tannin too and the whole experience is hugged by plump, chocolaty Shiraz.” Literally couldn’t have said it better myself! £14.99 a pop.

Oz and Laissez’s Big Wine Photo

After the session, we purchased a copy of his pocket-sized 2010 wine guide and I had a brief conversation with the big man himself while he signed our book. I have used his 2009 guide quite a bit this year, and found his recommended wines to be very good for the price in general, with the exception of one or two which didn’t suit my taste. So I am much looking forward to taking advantage of his 2010 guide, which seems to be composed of much different wines than last year’s collection of 250 recommendations, although some of the same producers do feature heavily in both (i.e. Tim Adams, Primo Estate and Villa Maria).

Wine guide authors & publishers: how can you can make your readers’ lives easier?

One thing I would suggest, both for Oz, and for other authors (and publishers) of such annual guides, is to make their recommendations more usable for readers. For example, while they do list which suppliers carry each wine at the end of the description, there is no way for you to easily find which bottles out of the hundreds in the book are available at, say, Waitrose or Tesco when you walk in.

At the beginning of the year, I actually created my own spreadsheet, which is broken down by supermarket/wine shop (the ones I tend to visit the most), and what wines are available at each place that I have found interesting from all of the different wine magazines, guides and books I have read as of late. It is a fairly simple thing to do, but it is extremely time consuming and labor intensive for the consumer (and only geeks like me will take the time to do so).

So, my suggestion to publishers and authors is simple: include an index in the back of your book that is organized by store. It should just be a simple list with the largest national supermarkets and wine merchant chains in bold and all of the wines in your book that are sold at each store underneath (organized by white, rosé, red, sweet), along with the page number that the detailed review can be found on. There is no need to include all of the smaller/independent wine shops in this index if there are tons of them mentioned in your book/guide, but it would be great if the next time we walk into a supermarket or major wine merchant, we can be armed with a list of wines we might be interested in buying without having to commit the information to memory or create Excel workbooks .

…In any case, the tasting session and chat with Oz were great, and Mrs. LF and I both enjoyed our time very much. But it turned out that our day at Vinopolis wasn’t over just yet. The kind people there had given us complimentary tickets for a tour around Vinopolis itself (which I had done before and enjoyed doing again), and also some more free tickets to attend the ‘Starter for Ten’ quiz show, which was one of the London Restaurant Festival events, that happened to be held at Vinopolis in another of their many private function rooms. With the prospect of seeing such chefs as Richard Corrigan and Rowley Leigh fight it out with critics including Giles Coren and Matthew Norman, we would have been stupid to pass the opportunity up.

So, after winding our way through the Vinopolis tour, we headed to Borough Market to get a spot of early dinner before the quiz began.

Briskly to Brindisa

Unfortunately, the market had pretty much wound down by the time we headed out, but fortunately Tapas Brindisa was open, and somehow they had a table for two. Perfect! I had always wanted to eat here given how popular it seems to be amongst foodies, but this was the first time I’d actually tried, so I was excited.

After perusing the menu for a while, we decided on a few dishes and they came out very quickly, with the exception of my sardines, which I checked on twice, and after assuring me they had been ordered (twice) finally appeared about 10 minutes after all of the other dishes had been polished off (?!).

Spanish Potato Omelette (£4.50); Grilled Lamb Cutlets with Allioli & Fresh Mint Sauce (£8.75); Onion & Rocket Salad with Pear, Quince & Kokos Vinaigrette (£3.20)

First to arrive were the omelette, lamb chops and salad.

The potato omelette was surprisingly good for being such a plain dish. I thought it was seasoned well and it had a very good texture of half egg, half soft potato. Mrs. LF agreed, and enjoyed it mucha. 7/10.

The lamb chops were also well seasoned and nice and moist, though they had spent maybe a minute too long on the heat for my liking and were just barely pink in the middle. While there was a fairly spicy allioli to accompany them, I didn’t particularly like it and ate them solo for the most part. They were fine, but didn’t have that extra flavor hit to make them stand out and be memorable. 6/10.

The salad was the disappointment of the bunch. It was really a salad of red onions, with not much rocket and the pears being almost nonexistent. But the thing we both noticed (and still remember) was that it had a very strange taste permeating throughout. At first, we thought it must have come from the quince, but then again quince is a fruit, and that didn’t make any sense. I thought it tasted like corn nuts, but slightly sour ones. Maybe it was the ‘Kokos’, but I don’t know what it/they are. In any case, neither of us liked this distinct flavor. 3/10.

Pan Fried Padrón Peppers (£5.00)

Despite at first glance all looking alike, there were a couple different types of peppers on the plate, some of which had a wicked little kick (Mrs. LF’s nose began to run), and some of which were very mild. They all had a rich, sweet taste and a nice sour acidity to boot. We only ordered them because the huge and rambunctious table next to us had a plate of them and they looked too good to pass up. Plus Mrs. LF fancied eating them with her omelette, which did turn out to be a good combination. We really enjoyed these green little guys. 7/10.

Pan Fried Sardines with Red Onion Salad & Chilli (£6.50)

The sardines finally arrived and they were alright too (they certainly were very nicely presented). The fish was soft and meaty and had a nice flavor to it, and I enjoyed the hints of chilli. The skin was pretty soggy though, and seemed to be intentionally so (don’t know if it’s supposed to be for fried sardines?), which didn’t make it all that pleasurable to eat. All in all, another solid but uninspiring dish. 6/10.

I have to say that I did rather like the place overall. I enjoyed the buzzy atmosphere, the quick turnover of tables, and it seemed like everyone there was genuinely having a good time. It is certainly a good place to come with friends and spend a leisurely weekend afternoon. They also have some decent Spanish and Portuguese wines available, both by the glass and bottle. We didn’t order that much, but what we did have was generally cooked well, although from the dishes we chose, I didn’t really see what all the fuss was about. When in the area again, I would definitely go back to try sample more of the food.

Chefs vs. Critics & One Confused Host

After the tapas, we headed back to Vinopolis to watch the quiz show that pitted four famous critics against four well-known chefs. In true University Challenge style, the event was hosted by none other than Bamber Gascoigne, the original host of University Challenge before Paxman began residing over proceedings in 1994.

Another empty stage at another of Vinopolis’ private rooms

Rowley Leigh (Le Café Anglais) and Thomasina Meirs (Masterchef Winner and of Wahaca fame) arriving to take their places

The questions had been designed by Fay Maschler, one of the two key organizers of the London Restaurant Festival, and were actually quite difficult, with a number of them baffling the chefs, the critics and audience alike. There were some obscure music-related questions (one where the contestants had to name the composer of songs that ostensibly had something to do with food) and also a few image-based questions (one where they had to name what restaurant was being pictured).

Confound this newfangled technology, thinks Bamber

The most amusing part of the whole evening was the fact that the very posh and measured Gascoigne could not for the life of him figure out how to change the contestants’ scores correctly. He kept giving points to the wrong side and detracting them from the right one. The audience kept heckling him, but he just didn’t seem to understand how the heck to work the controls. The tech guy from the back of the room had to interject a number of times, coming up to the stage and changing the scores for him. Gascoigne did seem to keep correct scores by writing them down on a piece of paper (old school indeed ), and one of the organizers in the back of the room was paying attention to every detail and seemed to have the same score as Bamber. I’m not so sure they had it right, but it made for a lot of laughter and fun for the audience.

Giles Coren was licking his lips at something...however there was no food to be seen & can't we have a smile Toby?

The chefs got off to a bad start, but it was neck-to-neck at the finish – at least they had a good time (can't remember what Thomasina was laughing about)

Rowley Leigh seemed be by far the most knowledgeable of the chefs, while Richard Corrigan (of Corrigan's Mayfair and Bentley's) only seemed to know the answers to questions he wasn’t allowed to answer, continuously ringing his buzzer during the other side’s bonus questions, which was also quite comical

In the end, the hour-long quiz was extended by about another half-hour or so and was quite enjoyable for all, especially the audience. We were glad to have been able to see these two often hostile factions let down their hair and have a good time in the spirit of friendly competition.

After a very long day out, mostly spent within various parts of Vinopolis, and with probably a bit too much wine involved (we had complementary cocktails before the quiz show too ), we headed back towards London Bridge station to get some z’s.

Recent Winings: The B Festival at Bibendum

Bibendum's "B Festival"

Bibendum Wine is just one of those cool companies. The kind of place that you wished you work for, but you don’t – at least in my case.

Luckily, I’ve had the pleasure of being invited to their offices a few times now over the past few months in order to sample their wines. Besides learning more about my favorite beverage, it has been a great way of meeting other food and wine people in the flesh, cementing relationships formed virtually through our increasingly ever ‘connected’ worlds.

Most recently, I attended their cleverly titled and well organized annual event called the ‘B Festival’. Rhyming with the well-known ‘V Festival’ music event, the wine tasting adopted a very musical theme as well. Spread over two days, and taking up most of the non-desk space in their offices, there was a ‘Main Stage’ of wines which included some of Bibendum’s most popular labels, including Bodega Catena Zapata, Petaluma and Castello Banfi (which I recently had the pleasure of visiting in person, and of which more soon in an upcoming post on Italy). In addition, there were two other ‘stages’ each day. When I was there, there was a ‘Rock Stage’, which was all about the world’s most exciting terroirs, and the ‘Alternative Stage’, which offered wines a little off the beaten track that could make good and fresh alternatives to classic wine styles/regions such as Sancerre, white Burgundy or Chateauneuf-du-Pape.

I managed to taste most of the wines in the two specialist rooms, which were small and cozy, and was delighted by how far the music theme had been taken. For instance, in the ‘Rock Stage’ they had a Nirvana Unplugged music video playing on a flat screen TV…you get the picture (literally below).

The Rock Room, Complete with Cobain

Being somewhat of a novice, this was by far the most wines I had tasted in one go. I was literally like a kid in a candy shop as a number of wines that I’ve been reading about as of late (and dying to taste) were there for the drinking. I don’t know if it was my rookie taste buds, which may have been unaccustomed to so many different wines, but I think that after about the 20th wine I tasted, it became much more difficult to differentiate between wines that were even mildly similar. In any case, you can read a bit about some of the wines that stood out for me, and I have to say there were only one or two wines I didn’t like at all, which is quite a feat given the number I tasted.

Rock Stage

Top draw for me amongst the 12 wines on offer in this room were as follows, in ascending order of price:

• 2007 Savennieres Clos de la Coulaine, Chateau Pierre-Bise (Loire, France), 100% Chenin Blanc
  • Notes: A beautiful nose of stone fruits, apricot and nectarine. This is classic Chenin. Refreshing, fruity and dry, with a good dose of minerals and a dense richness. £13.26/bottle.
• 2005 Aglianico del Vulture, Gudarra Bisceglia (Basilicata, Italy), 100% Aglianico
  • Notes: Very nice rich and ripe red fruit and extremely well balanced. Good smooth texture in the mouth with some spiciness and pleasant, unobtrusive oak. £14.50/bottle.
• 2006 Calera Mills Vineyard Pinot Noir (Mount Harlan, California), 100% Pinot Noir
  • Notes: Absolutely stunning. Smooth, rich, luscious, slightly tannic. Pure pinot fruit (red fruit, black cherry, orange peel) and some subtle spice. Good length and just the right amount of sweetness. Quite a long and soft finish. Could drink quite a few glasses of this! Unfortunately not that cheap at £29.65/bottle.

Rock Star: 2006 Calera Mills Vineyard Pinot Noir (£29.65/bottle)

Alternative Stage

The ‘Alternative Stage’, Stacked with Stars

There were a lot of wines I really liked in this room, but again three or four stood out:

• 2007 Sangiovese di Romagna, Superiore Terragens (Emilia-Romagna, Italy), 100% Sangiovese – Alternative to Chianti Classico
  • Notes: Exceedingly good value. Slightly sharp at first but then lovely roundness with strong red fruit (cherry) and jam. Some vanilla in there too, and a very full wine all in all. £6.00/bottle.
• 2006 A to Z Pinot Noir (Oregon, USA), 100% Pinot Noir – Alternative to Red Burgundy
  • Notes: Wow, very nice, coats the mouth, round and smooth. A good dry finish which fades away slowly. Another glass please? My favorite so far. £15.26/bottle.
• 2007 Glenguin Estate, Protos Chardonnay (Hunter Valley, Australia), 100% Chardonnay – Alternative to White Burgundy
  • Notes: Nice…extremely fruity with a bit of oak. Very fresh and very light in color. This wine is nutty, creamy and has a lot of depth. The best chardonnay from Australia I’ve tasted recently (along with Katnook Estate’s 2005 Chardonnay). This really is a lovely alternative to white Burgundy, but maybe not that much cheaper than some at £15.50/bottle.
• 2005 Bodegas Catena Zapata, Nicolas Catena Zapata (Mendoza, Argentina), 78% Cabernet Sauvignon, 22% Malbec – Alternative to Icon Napa Cabernet Sauvignon
  • Notes: Beautiful nose with lots of raspberry. A deep red, ruby color. Sweet, rich red fruit flavor (again, raspberry and some cherry) plus dark chocolate squares, with lots and lots of length. This is a bold and classy wine which is probably pretty age-worthy. A winner, but not cheap at £44.98/bottle!

A Tremendous Trio

Main Stage

There were a lot of wines I enjoyed from this wide assortment of 100 bottles. However, I’ve selected a few below which really floated my boat:

The Main Acts Take the Stage

• 2006 Chablis Grand Cru Blanchots, Domaine Laroche (Burgundy, France), 100% Chardonnay
  • Notes: Excellent, very strong and crisp chardonnay with well integrated soft oak in the background. Notes of mucky leaves and truffles as well. I love this wine. It is important to note that with Laroche the wines from the business’s own land say ‘Domaine Laroche’ (like this one), but that the labels on the wines from grapes brought from other growers simply say ‘Laroche’. £33.50/bottle.
• 2006 Puligny-Montrachet  1er Cru La Garenne, Domaine Jean-Marc Boillot (Burgundy, France), 100% Chardonnay
  • Notes: Absolutely beautiful, so fruity, so oaky, they run into each other. But this sweetness and ripeness is kept in check with a streak of zesty minerality. Not sure of the price as it was substituted for another similar wine from the same domaine which was retailing at £29.18/bottle.
• 2003 Meursault, Domaine Matrot (Burgundy, France), 100% Chardonnay
  • Notes: One of my favorites for sure. Fruity, fat, oaky, crispy. Extremely good value at £18.63/bottle for this quality of wine.
• 2006 Cote Rotie, Domaine Jamet (Rhone, France), 100% Syrah
  • Notes: Wonderful classic Cote Rotie, with deep blackberry married with the hallmark burnt/roasty taste. Could probably age well, but that said, it is very drinkable now. £46.75/bottle.
• 2004 Brunello di Montalcino, Castello Banfi (Tuscany, Italy), 100% Sangiovese
  • Notes: Very deep red color. Red and black fruits on the nose (blackberry, cherry, raspberry). Full body, with a hint of spice, something mushroomy and a lot of chew and length. I actually tried this wine at Castello Banfi’s Taverna restaurant a few weeks ago and liked it even better. 2004 was a particularly good year for this wine in my view. £24.92/bottle.
• 2004 Brunello di Montalcino, Poggio Alle Mura, Catello Banfi (Tuscany, Italy), 100% Sangiovese
  • Notes: This was even better and more complex than the ‘normal’ Brunello from Banfi. A bit dryer in the mouth, extremely tannic. Lots of rich red fruit and note of cigar or tobacco and some spice. This is a food wine, but still interesting on its own. A bit more dear at £34.50/bottle.
• 2006 Catena Zapata, Malbec Argentino (Mendoza, Argentina), 100% Malbec
  • Notes: Out of all of the Catenas on hand, this was my favorite. Other nice ones were the 2007 Catena Malbec (much cheaper at £10.84/bottle and good value) and the 2004 Catena Alta Cabernet Sauvignon (£23.68/bottle). This wine was very complex and concentrated and had a nice balance and lingering freshness to it. You will have to fork out £36.50/bottle for the privilege though.

Great Values

I was lucky enough to get a peep into the ‘Media Tent’ to taste some of the more affordable wines that will be more readily available to the public in supermarkets and national wine store chains. At this point, my palate was a bit the worse for wear, but there were a couple of really good values which stood out for me:

• 2008 Bouchard Chablis (available at Sainsbury’s) at £9.99/bottle
  • Notes: A very pleasant and quaffable Chablis but not a knock-out. Fresh, citrusy, flinty. Very good value for the price point.
• 2006 Petaluma Chardonnay (available at Waitrose, Sainsbury’s and Majestic) at £14.99
  • Notes: Wow, this was a pleasant surprise. Nice strong fruit with some apples and peach, and then a good oaky finish. Very round and luscious wine and I think it’s not bad value for the price.
• 2008 Gewurztraminer Martin Zahn (available at First Quench) at £9.99
  • Notes: Extremely floral nose, sweet and with good acidity. Lots of interesting fruits in the mouth (pear, tropicals) and a very long dry apricot finish. A very good value indeed.

2008 Gewurztraminer Martin Zahn at £9.99

Last up was a very nice Vinsanto, which I thought represented really good value for the money. Very tangy and lots of sweet (candied?) almonds. You can see a picture of it below.

A Sticky Ending: 2003 Vinsanto del Chianti Rufina, Fattoria Di Basciano, good value at £11.99 per 375ml bottle

Well, not much else to say except a big thank you to Bibendum and happy drinking to you all out there.