Words by George Reynolds I Illustrations by Edson Lovatto

Oral History

Noble Rot’s three decades of British in 30 dishes

42 Noble Rot Noble Rot 43 2017 marks 30 years since the opening of Marco 1 Pierre White’s , or 30 years since food in Harveys British started getting good. This is the Tagliatelle of Oysters story of how we got from grovelling in fealty to the with Caviar French to our enviable position today; it is a story of This is where we have to how we as -goers have changed (it is told start, obviously. But I’m still through the medium of specific dishes, because there a little hesitant to do so. is no more eloquent way of showing how our tastes Implicitly, it’s a choice that have evolved than by illustrating what we were once frames in willing to put into our mouths). It is not a ranking of terms of firsts – the three the 30 best dishes of the past 30 years, or a checklist/ Michelin stars, the rock star Buzzfeed-style quiz with which to challenge your PR – and originality. But friends (also: get better friends). It’s just an account of think how rooted in the past specific moments that changed the conversation, so much of this stuff was: the whether subtly or irreversibly – you should be able to in French; the clear trace almost anything you eat today all the way back fealty to Francophone to at least one of its antecedents here. If you can’t, mentors like Pierre please feel free to reach out via social media and tell Koffmann (not least in Noble Rot how this subjective list has failed and Marco’s other signature , insulted you; perhaps throw some deeply personal the iconic pig’s trotter). abuse in there too. It’s what Marco would want. Maybe this isn’t the start of something, but the beginning of the end. 2. River Café urban restaurant on a Ribollita Saturday night: this was Two clichés war to claim the the start of restaurants narrative about our benighted as entertainment. lives pre-River Café. One: you used to be able to buy olive oil 3 4 only at the pharmacy. Two: we Alastair Little Quaglino’s 5 as a nation were duped into Sweetbreads, Peas, Ashtray Wagamama believing pasta grew on trees. Fresh Mint OK, this is pushing the Edamame Beans Either way, this humble There is a through-line from definition of the word ‘dish’. Everyone eats the shell of peasant soup is the clearest the of the But really, people remember their first one, right? I did, articulation of how Ruth and underappreciated Little to Quaglino’s not for anything before I was shown the Rose changed the game. the homophonic duo of they ate there but for these, correct technique with a There’s no adornment, no Rowley Leigh and Jeremy or for its giant, exhaustively smirk. We are so fluent these safety net of heavy sauces or Lee: he is a , and this is a designed . days, so attuned to the geometric presentation. dish, representative of a Terence Conran created a differences between pho and There’s not even any meat. culinary London (specifically, landmark: a place where you ramen or soba and udon, that Just vegetables (shout out to for a while, a Soho) that was notionally came to eat but it feels like the racist ahead-of-its-time ‘cavolo thoughtful, clubby, ambitious, where food was in fact totally preconceptions of egg-flied nero’!), cooked well to bring simple and seasonal. Plus ça secondary. You have him to lice and stir-fried dog are a out their best qualities. And change: they say it wasn’t thank for every joyless bite million years old. But lots of good extra virgin, natch. cheap, either. you take in a buzzing, packed tracking back, the first step in

44 Noble Rot Noble Rot 45 the right direction was come and go, there will probably here, in the early always be a space in our 10 1990s, when the mass-market hearts for a certain sort of Zuma got its first taste of experience; there’s a reason Miso Black Cod ingredients, techniques and that remains The invention of a new novelty oversized everyone’s favourite restaurant category, even if implements so commonplace neighbourhood restaurant, credit for the dish belongs to today we barely notice them. even if it’s miles away from Nobu a few years earlier. The where they actually live. food of the -wealthy and ladies who don’t ; food 6 for people who can’t be Bibendum 8 bothered to eat – who’d Steamed Ginger Pudding Restaurant Gordon rather shuffle around some Along with Rowley Leigh’s Ramsay nicely presented low-calorie Kensington Place, Bibendum Lobster Raviolo slivers of fish with chopsticks represented another Classical French technique, until their date is tentative step away from high-end produce, artful ready to consummate this French convention, a presentation. Yawn! Gordon’s thing in the nearest five-star recognition that our own third star was both the hotel. Years later, calling a islands have plenty to offer pinnacle and the full stop in place like this Sexy Fish just – in their raw ingredients, the story of a certain type of made the transaction explicit. but also their history. Michelin-bothering British Anecdotally, this was also chef, a quest for perfection the dish on the pass the night that induced in a 11 Simon Hopkinson realised sort of madness, and in diners Ottolenghi he’d had enough: that being a glassy-eyed multi- Squash Salad a chef wasn’t the same as fatigue in the face of such All the usual lazy metaphors being a . It’s therefore placid perfection. Nothing about Yotam’s freewheeling 12 an inflection point, a was more important to flavour-tourism around The Wolseley still the urtext of the Nose- recognition that with the Gordon back then, or feels Western Europe and the Viennoiserie to-Tail movement, one of our professionalisation of London more dated now. Middle East are valid: this Getting this stuff to turn out greatest culinary statements. came the death of was a genuine ray of right takes discipline, and growing primacyof the St John is now so celebrated a certain romance, too. sunshine on a society that attention to detail – the end meeting, the – world-famous, beyond the 9 had been under dun clouds result belies the amount of concomitant decline of the cabal of chef-bros that fell for Carluccio’s for decades. Domestic spice work that has gone into it. A long lunch, as London got it in the first place – that you 7 Pappardelle ai Funghi racks – and, alas, dinner perfect icon, then, for this New York serious about life figure that it must have lost a Chez Bruce The Jamie Oliver of high- parties – would never be the most iconic and artlessly – or, more accurately, about step relative to its younger, Cheese Board : humble, Italian- same, but neither would effortful of London work. nimbler peers, but it’s still In the site formerly occupied inflected, a little cheesy. But restaurants. If you’re restaurants, which felt like an breathtaking: even today the by Harveys, Chez Bruce also a chain rolled out aggrieved that Honey & Co’s institution within weeks of room is shocking in its lack of offers a quieter, ‘less- nationally; the loose cheesecake or Berber&Q’s opening; felt, in fact, like 13 adornment, even today the ambitious’ form of appropriation of a national cauliflower aren’t more of an institution than St John flavours shine through with Francophile , but a far cuisine in the service of on this list, it’s not because the actual institutions proper. Bone Marrow and the same starkness. Real warmer form of hospitality, supersized returns for they aren’t great things to An unapologetic, big-dicked Parsley Salad talk: for a starter, this dish is generous to a fault – as the financial backers. This might eat: it’s just that they had Room Where It Happens; It’s not the best thing on the also absolutely vast, leaving groaning cheese board not be as thrilling as some of basically already happened, perfect service; food that’s menu (that would be the pig’s you totally unprepared for reflects. Its enduring success the dishes on this list, but it’s a decade before. better than you remember. head and potato pie, or the the rest of lunch or dinner. shows that, whatever trends every bit as important. And in the background, the divine Madeleines), but this is You’ll still eat it all anyway.

46 Noble Rot Noble Rot 47 14 (none of the pineapple or avocado you’d see at 18 19 Nitro Scrambled Egg and precursor GBK) that is Bar With No Name Morito Bacon Ice Cream recognisable in your burgers, Terroir Chicharrones de Cadiz This is Blumenthal at his Dirty and Honest, today: this Sure – it’s a . But the When it opened, Morito was purest, a blend of childlike was the seismic disruption thought, effort and skill that instantly my favourite delight (what is more illicitly that made the ensuing goes into a Tony Conigliaro restaurant in London: I fell fun than breakfast for tsunami possible. Moreover, cocktail – in this case, head-over-heels for its heady pudding?) and cutting-edge the brains of the operation distilling the flavour of mix of Moorish ingredients molecular gastronomy that provided the definitive fucking rocks, along with clay and no-frills Boqueria ends up both thought- blueprint for people and lichen – mark it out as straight-on-the-plancha provoking and goofily haute junk food and drinking worthy of study. Since 69 technique. For weeks after delicious. In its sheer craft beer in funky spaces, a Colebrook Row opened, there first tasting these steroidal bonkersness it’s also pitch-perfect irony-free blend have been other cerebral, pork scratchings I was undeniably arresting, which of the countercultural and adult bars, and more throwing salt, lemon and feels about right: along with rapaciously capitalist. celebrated ones too. But cumin on everything – the St John, this is the restaurant surely none this good, wide-ranging menu on which that really brought the UK to offering a drink as they appeared represented a the world’s notice at the start extraordinary as this: half a small but definite step away of the new millennium. decade on from my first one I from boring value-signalling still come back for more concerns about authenticity whenever I can. and towards something more 15 global and inclusive: L’Enclume somewhere gutsy, lively, Douglas Fir Milkshake boozy, fun. Ploughing his own furrow (I’m sure literally, at times) in one of the farthest-flung 20 parts of the country, away Polpo from the prying eyes of faddy 16 which a culinary outcast was Broad Bean, Pea, Southerners, Simon Rogan rehabilitated via a couple of Mint and Ricotta Bruschetta was almost totally unheard of Flamed Mackerel novel supporting actors and This is perhaps the easiest for the best part of a decade This is a serious fucking good old-fashioned technique. dish on this list to replicate at – until suddenly, he wasn’t. restaurant, and I get the home: just season after As his profile rose and he laid impression that Brett assembly. But the food was down roots in London, he Graham is a pretty serious never the point, really, and it would be much imitated, but guy, too; certainly, the stories 17 isn’t the point here; Russell those aping his approach emerging from his kitchen Byron Hamburgers Norman’s place gets in often took the ideology, but are of back-breaking work in Cheeseburger because the midmarket we forgot the execution: this dish the presence of a zealously It’s pretty good, actually. I recognise today started there. was interesting, putting focused leader. But, man, did haven’t had one for a while, No reservations; long queues. something intensely, you learn a lot – and did those but the last time I did, that’s When you finally got inside: hauntingly at the guys who’d learnt a lot (along what I remember thinking: distressed brick, tiny tables, heart of something sweet with those people who That’s actually a pretty good strong , , – but it would be a total waste actually ate on the other side burger. Subsequent sloppier, hyper-regionality. And then of time if it didn’t also deliver of the pass) go on to redefine dirtier takes would arguably the bill: my, that’s a lot more comfort and pure, how we approached our perfect the formula, but there than I was expecting. uncomplicated contentment. ingredients. As in this dish, in is an admirable restraint

48 Noble Rot Noble Rot 49 21 Bocca di Lupo around the world, even if that this is a dish symbolic of the Sanguinaccio meant contemplating things whole issue: it’s ‘witty’ in a Bocca came on like something we’d never even thought of as way that humourless out of Dante: blood and guts food before. billionaires can recognise as and fire and brimstone in the witty; it’s a piece of British open kitchen, before history larded with luxury something approaching 22 ingredients, served in a piece paradise on the plate. It was Dinner by Heston of stonkingly expensive real truly visceral (the fried lamb Blumenthal estate. So, yes: it’s iconic. But sweetbreads nearly got this Meat Fruit as anyone who’s eaten it will slot); it was truly gory (this is, Would the last great attest, it’s also so, so rich. don’t forget, a pudding made restaurant south of Hyde with literal blood) – it was, and Park please turn out the remains, a true original that whimsical jelly mould lights? 23 showed Londoners were If ballooning property prices Bo London ready for a whole new world did eventually force the Sex on the Beach of regional from exciting openings out East, From the Roux Brothers to

Raymond Blanc, there is a great tradition of master chefs 25 (and future MasterChef hosts) 24 Gymkhana creating something special in Dabbous Kid Goat Methi Keema, the UK after moving in from Mash and Gravy Salli, Pao another country. But as even a Dabbous was a mass of Within a couple of years you’d cook as talented as Iñaki contradictions: British but have bone marrow curries for Aizpitarte (remember him?) also international, rooted in lunch at Hoppers, or available knows, London does not classicism but unmistakably for delivery from Motu, and always offer fertile soil. This is modern, at once incredibly stone fungus flavouring the only dish on this list that is high-end and as studiedly, biryani at Dum. Turns out from a door-slamming failure, humourlessly casual as an that the best restaurant in rather than an institution: industrial club night in London didn’t have to serve self-proclaimed demon chef Berlin. Other openings would Western food, or Michelin- Alvin Leung’s London make things even less formal, friendly cubes of prime cut venture that folded in 2014 but you don’t get more marooned on vast plates with all the pomp and bistronomic than mashed gleaming white, or (in fact) to circumstance of premature potato and truffle. conform with any conventions ejaculation. Like the at all – that it could, in fact, restaurant itself, this was feature brains, and muntjac, gimmicky, and heavily reliant and flavours that packed a on artless PR hype. Bloody genuine punch. expensive, too. Good riddance.

50 Noble Rot Noble Rot 51 eye-opening xiaochi and some sometimes features something truly excellent . An called a deepthroater. It is so 30 unassuming Soho room that tempting to hate it. But then Tim Spedding, P Franco permanently disrupted the you eat former St John head Straciatella, Datterini, logic of when it was chef Lee Tiernan’s dayglo- Seaweed acceptable to start queuing, vibrant riffs on -house A bare hardwood table in a or how far into the afternoon fare, and you can’t help but wine shop in Clapton, a you could stretch the acknowledge that you’re Ledbury and Clove Club alum definition of ‘lunch’. Few eating the future. A future cooking for a few months on an places can make you feel so where the quality of the induction plate smaller than a optimistic about how ‘street’ ingredients and the care taken family-size pizza. A River can influence ‘food’ and in their preparation run up Café-esque assembly of ‘street food’ can against the trashily enjoyable shredded curds with some fundamentally alter dishes they appear in, erasing hyper-seasonal tomatoes, an ‘restaurant food’; few places forever the distinction incredibly savoury Japanese- drive home how we, as between high and low. A inflected seasoning of seaweed consumers, benefit from all future where the food is just a and toasted sesame. The wine these exchanges. part of the noisy fun you’re alongside is by-the-glass, having, but remains natural, funky, from of paramount importance. somewhere weird; you’re 29 A future rooted in London wearing a hoodie and jeans. Black Axe Mangal but content to range It’s a lot to put on Tim Lamb Offal Flatbread promiscuously across most Spedding’s shoulders to say There are dicks and vaginas of the world map. A future that it all leads here. But look on the floor, Metallica on the that’s bright, but that’s also at how unnecessary formality once a town hall but was now a would get its act together, sound system, and the menu dicks and vaginas. has been drained away like 26 different kind of civic space grow up a bit, move into a pus lanced from a boil; look at Clove Club entirely. Isaac McHale didn’t smarter part of town with how London has opened itself Buttermilk-fried Chicken care – and, increasingly, money it had raised via a up to influences from all over with Pine Salt neither did we. responsible crowdfunding the world at the same time. You’re not in Mayfair any campaign. But for a few Look at the places that have more. Along with the opening months it was the two of you, sprung up as chefs have of Lyle’s round the corner, this 27 and the sweat on your moved on from our city’s great marked the moment when the Som Saa forehead and down your back, kitchens, charted their own axis of London food shifted Pork Neck with Jaew and there was nothing you course. Look at the decisively East. In all senses, It felt like taking drugs. regretted less on earth. Until importance of seasonality, the this represented a major step Under a knackered railway the next morning, at least. elevation of plants from on the path away from formal arch in Hackney, you and to central player. At fine dining and towards some fellow tragics would the end of the day, just look at something more demotic: huddle round a low-slung 28 a bloody map. All roads lead crucially, you could experience table, and the nu-Thai would Bao here, for now: that’s how the hottest dish in London’s start and seemingly not stop The Classic retrospectives work. But we hottest restaurant while for hours. The heat, the noise, The Instagram-like that should still be very excited sitting at the bar nursing a the Gap Year beach party became a bricks and mortar about where they’ll go next. beer, or across the hall in the booze buckets – and the food, restaurant. The street-food- dining room proper with a the food, the food: such meets-Momofuku-clone that wine pairing, all under the intensity, such spice, such on closer inspection revealed eaves of a building that was delirious fun. A year later it a deep roster of careful,

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