1 — marylebonefoodfestival.com 24-28 APRIL MARYLEBONE 2019 FOOD The Marylebone Food Festival is brought to you by The Howard de Walden Estate and FESTIVAL The Portman Estate. 2 — marylebonefoodfestival.com
The Marylebone Food Festival returns on 24-28 April 2019
Over the course of the festival, dozens of Marylebone’s food and drink establishments— from neighbourhood cafes and wine bars to Michelin- starred restaurants—will be hosting special dinners, tastings, masterclasses, collaborations, food tours and talks, and creating menus and offers that help throw a spotlight on the gastronomic wealth and diversity of the area.
In this special supplement, you will find full listings for the festival and a deep delve into the stories of the people and places involved. marylebonefoodfestival.com marylebonefoodfestival marylebonefoodfestival 3 — marylebonefoodfestival.com
“DON’T USE ANYTHING THAT 4-13 DOESN’T TASTE 26 54 WHAT’S ON GOOD. IT SOUNDS THE PETER PRINCIPLE RAISING SPIRITS OBVIOUS, BUT YOU’D BE A comprehensive guide to SURPRISED HOW MANY London’s chefs line up Johnny Neill, founder the events, activities and GUYS DON’T FOLLOW to explain why Peter of Marylebone Gin, special menus on offer THAT ADAGE” Gordon’s kitchen has on pleasure gardens, during the Marylebone SIMON ROGAN been such a conveyor botanicals and the perfect Food Festival belt for talent martini 14 32 56 SIMON SAYS LOCAL HERO WINE LIST Simon Rogan, owner Trishna co-founder Karam From premier cru of Roganic, on farming, Sethi on his efforts to champagne to a heritage the beauty of simplicity, recreate in Marylebone Italian grape, Marylebone’s and how he came to the energy and vibrancy wine experts pick out their embrace London of Indian food culture favourite wines
Brought to you by The Howard de Walden Estate 27 Baker Street, W1U 8EQ 020 7580 3163 hdwe.co.uk 15 36 58 [email protected] MELTING POT SOURCE MATERIALS METAL GURU
The Portman Estate Ravinder Bhogal, founder Chefs from some Corin Mellor of David Mellor 40 Portman Square, W1H 6LT and head chef of Jikoni, of Marylebone’s top on his design process, 020 7563 1400 portmanestate.co.uk on mixed heritage, female restaurants sing the his love of materials, and [email protected] chefs and the joys of praises of the ingredients the surge in demand for Marylebone Food Festival unexpected spiciness that inspire their cooking cake forks press contact Jess Harms [email protected] “YOU HAVE TO Publisher DO THE JOB— LSC Publishing YOU CAN’T BE A 13.2.1 The Leathermarket 17 42 Weston Street, SE1 3ER MAN OF THE WORLD FIRE IN THE BELLY SLACK-ARSE—BUT 020 7401 7297 WE’RE A FAMILY lscpublishing.com Carlo Scotto of Xier and Why the least interesting HERE. WE ALL MUCK XR on global influences, thing about Chiltern IN TOGETHER” Editor Mark Riddaway experimentation, Firehouse is all the PETER GORDON [email protected] Deputy editors and why he might well be famous people who Viel Richardson a bad Italian choose to eat there [email protected] Clare Finney [email protected] Ellie Costigan [email protected] Design and art direction 24 48 Em-Project Limited THE CHOCOLATIER’S ART NORTH STAR [email protected] Printing Chantal Coady, founder Aggi Sverrisson of Warwick of Rococo Chocolates, Texture on Icelandic food, on rococo art, packaging spurning the limelight, design and the pushing of and the importance of his boundaries Michelin star 4 — marylebonefoodfestival.com WHAT’S ON 24-28 APRIL 24 THE MARYLEBONE MENU St Mary’s Church London Wyndham Place, York Street W1H 1PQ marylebonefoodfestival.com
Like a convention-busting chef serving up a massive main course before the hors d’oeuvres, the Marylebone Food Festival kicks off its five-day tenure with its biggest and boldest event. For The Marylebone Menu, chefs from seven of the area’s finest restaurants—Michelin-starred restaurants Texture and Trishna, newcomer Xier and established local favourites The Providores and Tapa Room, Chiltern Firehouse, Roux at the Landau and Bernardi’s—will be serving up a multi-course menu that demonstrates the depth of talent and breadth of inspiration found within the local dining scene. The dinner—tickets for which sold out within hours of its launch—will be accompanied by bread from GAIL’s Bakery, concluded with cheese and port from La Fromagerie, chocolates from Rococo and coffee from The Montagu Kitchen, and washed down with drinks from The Coach Makers Arms, 108 Brasserie, Marylebone Gin, Philglas & Swiggot, Le Vieux Comptoir, Vinoteca and Daylesford. And all of this will happen not in some large, soulless purpose-built catering unit designed to accommodate such an undertaking, but in St Mary’s Church London, a beautiful Georgian church. In this atmospheric setting, guests will dine on long, elegantly-decorated communal tables, and their feasting will be soundtracked by live music from the Marylebone Music Festival brass quartet. 5 — marylebonefoodfestival.com 6 — marylebonefoodfestival.com 24 25 SECRET LONDON BOOK FOOD MATTERS SUPPERCLUB CHOCOLATE & WINE TASTING MEET THE NEIGHBOURS: SIGNING The London Clinic Philglas & Swiggot COFFEE WITH DINNY HALL The George Bar 20 Devonshire Place, 22 New Quebec Street, The George Bar Durrants Hotel, W1G 6BW W1H 7SB Durrants Hotel, 32 George Street, thelondonclinic.co.uk philglas-swiggot.com 32 George Street, W1H 5BJ W1H 5BJ durrantshotel.co.uk The London Clinic, one of the Over the past few years, food durrantshotel.co.uk country’s top private hospitals, is lovers have become ever more With its wood-panelled walls, hosting a series of supper clubs atuned to the nitty gritty of how Join neighbourhood jeweller plunging leather seats and club- themed around the nutritional food gets from our fields to Dinny Hall for a morning of like atmosphere (of the private benefits of food. Running over four our plates—and what’s done to good coffee and even better members’, rather than night, consecutive nights and priced make it delicious in the process. conversation at Durrants Hotel, variety), it’s little wonder the cosy at £30 (excluding drinks), these Chocolate is no exception: single as she talks about the creation George Bar at Durrants Hotel has intimate meals will be led by the estate, ‘craft’ chocolate makers of her eponymous jewellery featured in the newly-published hospital’s executive chef Paul have been displacing the familiar brand, the inspiration behind her Secret London—a guidebook to O’Brien, who, together with his nothing-but-fat-and-sugar designs, and what Marylebone the capital’s more unusual bars team, will introduce the dishes and confections with something means to her. Tickets cost £12.50 and restaurants. For the festival, offer his insights, both scientific wholly more creative—not least and the event begins at 11am. the book’s co-author Hannah and culinary. The food will be The Cocoa Runners chocolate Robinson will be at the hotel good for body and soul—look out club has scoured the world to SEYMOUR PLACE LUNCH signing copies beween 12:30— for white asparagus with Cornish bring us the best bars from these SAFARI 2pm and 6—7pm. goat’s cheese panna cotta and artisan prodcuers. Here, co- Marble Arch London mushroom duxelles, and founder Spencer Hyman joins marble-arch.london LEBANESE FOOD AND WINE pan-fried Atlantic hake served food and wine writer Francis MATCHING ramen-style. Percival in leading four sessions Marble Arch London leads an Levant that explore the work of 10 epicurean expedition visiting 76 Wigmore Street, chocolate makers, and pairs it three of Marylebone’s most loved W1U 2SJ with a selection of classic reds hotspots—all within your lunch levant.co.uk from Philglas and Swiggot. Each hour and for only £10: cheaper than session lasts 45 minutes and Pret and far tastier than any meal In a showcase of the restaurant’s costs £15 each, or £25 for a pair. deal. Kicking off at midday with a home-style Lebanese cuisine, starter at vegetarian restaurant Levant will transport you to EATS AND TREATS FOOD TOUR The Gate, the tour will proceed to the eastern shores of the Baker Street Quarter Bernardi’s for an Italian-inspired Mediterranean with a special Partnership main course, before heading back £40 menu, including Ksara wine bakerstreetq.co.uk up Seymour Place for dessert at pairing. Expect dishes such as The Portman. The meal (including moutabal (fried aubergine with Baker Street Quarter Partnership the short between-venue scurry) tahini, strained yoghurt and garlic); is leading a tour of the area’s should take 60 minutes. Places fattoush (parsley, mint, tomatoes, restaurants, offering participants are limited—visit the Marble Arch radishes, baby cucumber and a chance to sample plenty of food London website for details. spring onion, with a pomegranate while walking at least some of it and sumac dressing); and lamb off. Starting at 6pm and lasting sambousek (spiced minced lamb around two hours, the tour will and pine nuts-filled pastry parcels). visit several of the organisers’ The London Clinic favourite venues, covering everything from the south Indian fare of Ooty, to the authentic Italian pizzas Buongiorno e Buonasera, to the British staples of Bills. At each spot, attendees will get to try tasters of the food and drink and hear from the host. Booking in advance is required on the Baker Street Quarter Partnership website, and the booking fee of £5 will be donated to The Springboard Charity.
The George Bar Buongiorno e Buonasera Fucina 7 — marylebonefoodfestival.com 26 DROP-IN GIN SAMPLING COCKTAIL MASTERCLASS MIXOLOGY MASTERCLASS PISCO SOUR MASTERCLASS Philglas & Swiggot The Coach Makers Arms FEATURING MARYLEBONE GIN Pachamama 22 New Quebec Street, 88 Marylebone Lane, Marble Arch London 18 Thayer Street, W1H 7SB W1U 2PY marble-arch.london W1U 3JY philglas-swiggot.com thecoachmakersarms.co.uk pachamamalondon.com Marble Arch London hosts a You may well have seen gin- Brush up on your mixology skills cocktail-making masterclass Anybody who’s ventured into maker Johnny Neill’s copper and learn how to make a selection at The Pickled Hen on George the subterranean space that is still, sat squat and gleaming in of classic cocktails. Held in The Street. From 6-7pm, the bar’s Pachamama and perched atop 108 Bar, distilling Marylebone’s Coach Makers’ speakeasy-style expert bartenders will be a bar stool will know that these very own gin. You may also basement bar, tickets (at £60 per teaming up with Marylebone Gin guys know a thing or two about know that each of its iterations couple) include three cocktails, to help you master (and sip on) pisco sours. In an in-depth has been of exceptional quality. as well as enough bar snacks to some speciality cocktails. All masterclass, learn how to make Now’s your chance to give them keep you on your stool. attendees will also be offered a several versions of this classic all a try. Marylebone Gin’s global 20 per cent discount on dinner Peruvian cocktail—at its most brand ambassador Chris Dennis SOUFFLE DEMO CLASS that evening and there will be live basic, a combination of pisco will be stationed at Philglas & La Cucina Caldesi music in the bar from 6:30pm. liqueur, citrus and egg whites— Swiggot from 4-8pm, ready to 4 Cross Keys Close, Tickets for the class cost £25, to sup on alongside a feast of talk you through the range in an W1U 2DG with all proceeds going to the complementary dishes. Tickets impromptu tasting session. caledsi.com Springboard charity—visit the are £85 all-in. Marble Arch London website for SUPPER CLUB Souffle is perhaps not the dish details. FOOD MATTERS SUPPERCLUB 31 Below most readily associated with Italy, The London Clinic 31 Marylebone High Street, but the Italians do good things with DINNER WITH STRANGERS: 20 Devonshire Place, W1U 4PP eggs and they do good things with SEVEN-COURSE AUSTRALIAN W1G 6BW 31below.co.uk cheese, so under the tutelage of FUSION FEAST thelondonclinic.co.uk La Cucina Caldesi you’re sure to London from Scratch Curated by 31 Below’s chef- produce something bellissimo. londonfromscratch.co.uk A supper club themed around the director Chris O’Neil, this café- Learn to make both a savoury and nutritional benefits of food. For by-day, buzzing-bar-by-night sweet version, before sitting down Chef Michelle Francis opens details, see listing for 24 April. hosts a five-course supper club to enjoy them with a glass of wine her Marylebone apartment to for £50. Dishes include cured and a coffee. Runs from 6:30— 16 strangers for an evening of sea trout tartare with pickled 9pm and costs £60 per person. good food and conviviality. Guests cucumber, crème fraiche, fried will arrive to a welcome cocktail, duck egg, oyster mushrooms and CHEESE AND WINE TASTING enjoy seven courses of Australian truffles; and Galician octopus EVENING fusion food, and then leave at with piquillo peppers and smoked Boxcar Baker and Deli the end having made a few paprika mayo. The food will be 7A Wyndham Place, new friends. Guests will accompanied with a selection of W1H 1PN be seated across two FOR UPDATES, carefully chosen wines. boxcar.co.uk communal tables, TIMINGS AND HOW and the conversation TO BOOK, VISIT FIVE-COURSE SEAFOOD Boxcar Baker and Deli—sister will hopefully flow as marylebonefoodfestival.com & CHAMPAGNE BANQUET to the Butcher and Grill on New easily as the BYO wine. Fucina Quebec Street—opened its Tickets cost £40, 26 Paddington Street, doors last year, initially serving with no corkage fee. W1U 5QY the likes of house-made bread, fucina.co.uk cakes, pies and pastries. Now it’s launching a sit-down evening Jordan Sclare serves up a menu of small plates, including seafood-suffused five-course charcuterie and cheese boards— menu, featuring classic European which it’ll be celebrating with an dishes with an Italian twist: evening of cheese and wine. Four barbecued langoustine tails and La Fromagerie cheeses will be queen diver scallops with Amalfi paired with a selection of wine, in a lemon; lobster-stuffed tortelloni tasting led by Marc-Andrea Levy. with a rich seafood bisque; tuna belly tartare with mustard, FOOD MATTERS SUPPERCLUB pomegranate and crispy capers. The London Clinic For £90, guests will feast at 20 Devonshire Place, banquet-style tables (and for £130 W1G 6BW they will do so with free-flowing thelondonclinic.co.uk Lauren Perrier champagne). A group of 10 can also book a chef’s A supper club themed around the table experience at a discounted nutritional benefits of food. For price of £70 per head. details, see listing for 24 April. Pachamama Marble Arch London at The Pickled Hen 8 — marylebonefoodfestival.com 27 28 PASTA-MAKING WORKSHOP TACOCAKE BRUNCH FARMERS’ MARKET GIN AND TONIC SUNDAY Carousel The Cavendish Boxcar Butcher and Grill BRUNCH 71 Blandford Street, 35 New Cavendish Street, Aybrook Street, St Vincent Street The Montagu Kitchen W1U 8AB W1G 9TR and Moxon Street Hyatt Regency London—The carousel-london.com 35newcavendish.co.uk lfm.org.uk/markets/marylebone/ Churchill, 30 Portman Square, W1H 7BH Learn how to knead, roll and It is highly unlikely that anyone Between 10am and 2pm, around themontagurestaurant.co.uk shape pasta like a true Italian will leave the TacoCake brunch 40 food producers will be selling nonna. Priced at £55, in a at The Cavendish either hungry their wares on Marylebone’s For £75 per person, enjoy a two-hour class led by Carousel’s or thirsty. For £50, tuck into two streets. Try oysters for breakfast gin and tonic and a three-course expert chefs you’ll be taught starters and four tacos (including from Norfolk based Longshore, meal, chosen from a menu of how to make two types of classic a vegetarian, a fish, a meat and a or a mushroom sandwich from classic British dishes made with dough, egg and semolina, sweet taco), washed down with The Mushroom Table. Look out local, seasonal produce: think and turn them into tubes of bottomless margaritas. for raw milk from Hurdlebrook, Whitstable oysters, homemade garganellie and dinky cavatelli, meat and poultry from Flitteriss pork pies, and roast beef, as well as tips and tricks on SUPPERCLUB Farm, Galileo Farm and Layer followed by apple and walnut pairing each type of pasta with 31 Below Marney Produce and a huge range pie with clementine fool. The the perfect sauce—which you’ll 31 Marylebone High Street, of seasonal vegetables and fruit afternoon will also include live then make, before sitting down W1U 4PP from Manor Farm, Perry Court entertainment—watch this space. to enjoy the fruits of your labour 31below.co.uk Farm, Riverdale Organic Farm, with a glass of wine. Tutees will Chegworth Valley, Wild Country BASQUE CIDER AND take home a box of fresh pasta, Curated by 31 Below’s chef Organics and the ever popular PINTXO FESTIVAL a cavatelli board—and the ability director Chris O’Neil, this Potato Shop. Donostia to nail perfect pasta at home. café-by-day, buzzing bar by night 10 Seymour Place, hosts a five-course supperclub, W1H 7ND THE GRIT & THE GLAM: for £50. Dishes include cured donostia.co.uk MARYLEBONE FOOD TOUR sea trout tartare with pickled London from Scratch cucumber, crème fraiche, fried Cider seems to have fallen foul londonfromscratch.co.uk duck egg, oyster mushrooms and of the craft drink revolution on truffles; and Galician octopus these shores—but in Basque This three and a half hour food with piquillo peppers and smoked country, love of this straw- tour with chef Michelle Francis paprika mayo. Dishes will be coloured sustenance is as strong will explore the diversity of accompanied with a variety of as ever. The official season runs Marylebone’s food scene, from carefully selected wines. from January till April, and at artisan producers, hidden foodie Donostia it’s being celebrated gems and the cult of coffee to WINE PAIRING MASTERCLASS in true Basque style: with live authentic Syrian fare. Michelle Vinoteca music, and plenty of good food, will fill you in on the history, 15 Seymour Place, including the restaurant’s famed architecture and culture, while W1H 5BE aged beef steaks. Tickets cost your tastebuds enjoy their own vinoteca.co.uk £10 and come with two pintxos little adventure. Tickets cost (small plates), a bottle of cider £69, including all food and non- Pairing interesting wines with and a commemorative glass and alcoholic beverages. inventive dishes is what Vinoteca pourer. does best. Starting at 1pm, for £45 you’ll be talked through (and TXAKOLI FESTIVAL given the opportunity to guzzle) five Donostia Lurra dishes paired with wines, including 9 Seymour Place, asparagus, soft egg and parmesan W1H 5BA with IGP d’Oc chardonnay; confit lurra.co.uk pork belly, borlotti beans, walnuts and rosemary with a glass of Over at Donostia’s sister Argentinian Serbal pinot noir; and restaurant, you’ll find a Devon blue cheese with onion jam celebration of the Basque and oatcakes, washed down with Country’s other beloved tawny port. beverage: txakoli—a dry and often slightly sparkling white FOOD MATTERS SUPPERCLUB wine. Your £40 ticket gets you half The London Clinic a bottle per person (as well as a 20 Devonshire Place, glass and the traditional pourer), W1G 6BW plus sharing plates traditional thelondonclinic.co.uk Basque fare. Sample dishes include bonito tuna, boquerones A supper club themed around the (anchovies) or jamon Iberico, nutritional benefits of food. For and grilled hake with bilbaina details, see listing for 24 April. sauce (a garlicky chilli number). 31 Below Boxcar Butcher & Grill 9 — marylebonefoodfestival.com MENUS & OFFERS 24-28 APRIL
PALESTINIAN AND ISRAELI Bernardi’s Caffè Caldesi Carousel WINE TASTING 62 Seymour Street, 118 Marylebone Lane, 71 Blandford Street, Delamina W1H 5BN W1U 2QF W1U 8AB 56-58 Marylebone Lane, bernardis.co.uk caldesi.com carousel-london.com W1U 2NX delaminamarylebone.co.uk Elegant neighbourhood Italian Of all Europe’s cuisines, Italian Carousel might be famous for Bernardi’s is offering 20 per can make a reasonable claim its rotating roster of guest chefs, A tour of the world’s oldest wine cent off the food from its a la to be the most adept at creating but its in-house team—who region, the Middle East, with carte menu for the duration of wonderful food from its native knock up fresh and seasonal wines from Kishor, a boutique the festival. Highlights include vegetables, with plants often lunch offerings every day—are winery within a village for people creamy burrata cheese with used as the star of the show equally worthy of notice. For with special needs; Cremisan, blood orange, crisp heirloom rather than an afterthought. At the festival, they’ll be dishing a convent in Bethlehem that radicchio and pistachios; grilled Caffè Caldesi, a little corner of up a dish of pasta and a glass constitutes the only producer in yellowfin tuna with spring Italy at the top of Marylebone of wine for just £10, including Palestine; and Lahat, led by top asparagus, olives, and a datterini Lane, seasonal veg will be very bucatini with Aylesbury duck Israeli sommelier and oenophile (tomato) and caper dressing, and much front and centre for the ragu and pecorino, or agnolotti Itay Lahat. Tickets are £15 and roasted lamb loin with bagna festival, with a vegan set menu with grilled calçots (a Catalonian include nibbles. cauda (a hot dipping pot of garlic offering two courses for £18.50, veg reminiscent of a giant spring and anchovies), baby three courses for £22.50 onion) onion broth and wild garlic. artichoke, wild garlic, and four courses for Quote ‘Marylebone Food Festival’ THE SECRET VEGAN broad beans and £26. on arrival to bag the deal. SUPPERCLUB peas. Quote FOR UPDATES, The Gate ‘Marylebone TIMINGS AND HOW The Cavendish 22-24 Seymour Place, Food Festival’ TO BOOK, VISIT 35 New Cavendish Street, W1H 7NL when booking, or W1G 9TR thegaterestaurants.com simply mention marylebonefoodfestival.com 35newcavendish.co.uk the deal on Tuck into a five-course plant- arrival for walk- The downstairs of The Cavendish based menu at famed veggie ins. restaurant has become one of restaurant The Gate, featuring Marylebone’s most characterful finely sliced British asparagus Blandford Comptoir European-style bars. With and sauce vierge; courgette 1 Blandford Street, every first drink purchased flowers filled with ricotta, pesto W1U 3DA between 5pm and 8pm during and semi-dried tomatoes; and blandford-comptoir.co.uk the festival, guests will receive caramelised Yorkshire rhubarb complimentary aperitif bar tart served with crème patisserie. On Saturday 27th and Sunday snacks, designed to celebrate the Tickets cost £49.50, including a 28th April, Mediterranean culinary diversity of London. wine pairing with each course. restaurant and purveyor of fine wine Blandford Comptoir is BAA-ROLO EVENING OF SPRING offering two seasonal dishes for LAMB AND BAROLO TASTING £24—or £35, including an aperitif Boxcar Butcher and Grill and wine pairing. Expect the 23 New Quebec Street, likes of mackerel tartare with W1H 7SD horseradish yoghurt and rye boxcar.co.uk crisp breads or hake with lardo, artichoke barigoule (artichokes Carousel Priced at £55 per person, in braised in white wine broth, this celebration of spring you’ll Provencal-style), roasted quail, receive a glass of prosecco and truffled leeks, sweetcorn and snacks on arrival, followed by pickles. a tasting board of three cuts of north Yorkshire texel lamb— chargrilled rack, slow-cooked lamb shoulder, and pan-roasted neck—with Jersey royals, purple sprouting broccoli, homemade mint sauce and gravy alongside. Tickets include a taste of three biodynamic and organic barolos from Piedmont, each of a differing style.
Bernardi’s 10 — marylebonefoodfestival.com MENUS & OFFERS 24-28 APRIL
Chiltern Firehouse Daylesford Il Baretto Jikoni 1 Chiltern Street, 6-8 Blandford Street, 43 Blandford Street, 19-21 Blandford Street, W1U 7PA W1U 4AU W1U 7HF W1U 3DH chilternfirehouse.com daylesford.com ilbaretto.co.uk jikonilondon.com
It’s not often you can roll up to Celebrate the quality and At this popular neighbourhood Ravinder Bhogal’s Jikoni, whose Chiltern Firehouse—one of the provenance of high-welfare, Italian, for £48 a head diners inventive ‘mixed heritage’ menu swankiest establishments in pasture-raised organic meat will receive a cocktail and three plays with the flavours and town—and expect to chow down with a dining experience that courses from a set menu: to start, cultures of Asia, the Middle on three courses from head puts the art of the butcher front choose from tuna tartare with East, east Africa and Britain, is chef Andre Balazs for £35. We and centre. Female butcher avocado and salted shallots, or offering a two-course lunch for suggest you make the most Sammy will be preparing cuts to burrata with cherry tomatoes; £19.50 throughout the festival. of the opportunity and book in order, while sharing knowledge follow that with maccheroni with In the early evening, £27.50 fast. Choose from slow poached about Daylesford meat. Chefs black truffle, giant spaghetti with will buy you a Jikoni signature egg with wild garlic and spring will prepare the chosen cuts and pecorino and black pepper, or drink and a three-course menu, vegetables or halibut crudo with personally serve each table, and a tagliolini with lobster, tomato, featuring Franca’s chickpea chips gordal olive, apple and cucumber wine specialist will be on hand to sweet chilli, garlic and wine sauce and fenugreek Bengali tomato to start, followed by either short recommend wines from Château for a main (supplement £4)—or, chutney, followed by tiger prawn rib, asparagus and wild garlic Léoube, Daylesford’s organic the ‘pezzo di resistenza’, a whole khichdee, lemon rice, moilee chimichurri or hake and morel vineyard in France. Available baked sea bass in a salt and herb broth and coconut chutney. mushrooms with a seaweed between 12-4pm throughout the crust to share. If you’ve room hollandaise, topped off with festival, the menu is priced between for more, round things off with a chocolate and milk ice cream. £24-49. Walk-ins are welcome, but traditional tiramisu or petit fours. to guarantee a table email Cocoro [email protected] 31 Marylebone Lane, at least 24 hours ahead. W1U 2NH cocororestaurant.co.uk Fischer’s 50 Marylebone High Street, Marylebone Lane’s long- W1U 5HN established Cocoro restaurant fischers.co.uk specialises in sushi, Izakaya dishes and ramen. For the Lauren Kerr joined Fischer’s as festival, the restaurant will head chef in December last year. be offering a menu of special Aged just 23, what she lacks in Japanese sandwiches, including age she more than makes up salmon teriyaki, yakiniku (grilled for in ability—and for the food meat) and pork cutlet, costing £10 festival, she’ll be whipping up a each. In the evening, a premium special that makes the most of chiashi sushi menu will be the season’s offering: asparagus available for £28. with fried duck egg, wild garlic and girolles, priced at £15.25.
Hankies The Montcalm Hotel 61 Upper Berkeley Street, Daylesford Le Vieux Comptoir W1H 7PP hankies.london
Bringing the best of Delhi’s street food to London, the Montcalm’s Hankies restaurant serves Indian food tapas style: in the case of the Marylebone Food Festival, that means 15 dishes for £29.50, including the signature roomali roti (a classic Indian roti flatbread, hand spun till thin and folded into ‘hankies’); spicy chicken and spring onion mantu (ravioli) served with chilli oil, yoghurt and a lentil salsa; steamed mustard fish in banana leaf; and mutter choley (spiced, braised chickpeas with mango powder). Chiltern Firehouse Jikoni Il Baretto 11 — marylebonefoodfestival.com
Le Vieux Comptoir Opso The Portman Trishna 26-28 Moxon Street, 10 Paddington Street, 51 Upper Berkeley Street, 15-17 Blandford Street, W1U 4EU W1U 5QL W1H 7QW W1U 3DG levieuxcomptoir.co.uk opso.co.uk theportmanmarylebone.com trishnalondon.com
Le Vieux Comptoir’s wine cellar, Opso serves up modern Greek- The Portman, a characterful Every year, to mark the arrival deli and cafe, located in a quiet inspired small plates, based London pub with an attractive of spring, the skies of Basant Moxon Street townhouse, gets on high quality ingredients. Its upstairs dining room where chef Panchami are streaked with you as close to France as it’s festival menu offers four courses Ben Wood serves up seasonal flashes of colour: the sight of the possible to be without jumping on for £28, featuring favourites British dishes, is offering two annual kite festival. In homage, the Eurostar. Here, throughout such as Opso hummus with courses for £16 or three courses Trishna is running a special the festival, you will be able to pumpkin seeds and chilli oil, for £19, featuring heirloom tasting menu, celebrating the new sup on a flight of two extra brut and the souvlaki bun—grilled tomato salad with wild garlic season’s produce and flavours of grand cru champagnes—Assailly slow-cooked pork belly, tzatziki pesto and black olives, and a tart coastal India. Have three courses Grand Cru ‘Brut Nature’ and tomatoes, red onion in a mini pitta of king oyster mushrooms with for £28.50, or four for £35 with a Arnould Grand Cru ‘Extra Brut’— bun, served with hand-cut chips. rocket, pickled shallot and truffle. choice of beer, wine, or lassi. for just £20. Or for £10, try two gluten-free beers—a blonde and The Pickled Hen The Providores and Tapa Room Twist Kitchen a blanche—from the Brasserie The London Marriott Hotel, 109 Marylebone High Street, 42 Crawford Street, de Vezelay microbrewery, located 134 George Street, W1U 4RX W1H 1JW in the Morvan Regional Natural W1H 5DN theprovidores.co.uk twistkitchen.co.uk Park in the Bourgogne-Franche- marriott.com Comté region of central France. The Providores barman Established near Bordeaux 20 The Pickled Hen has teamed up Roberto has collaborated with years ago, Sturia has been a Ooty with Marylebone Gin and Marylebone Gin to create a pioneer of sustainable sturgeon 66 Baker Street, Rubies in the Rubble—a special Marylebone Food farming in France. Its exceptional W1U 7DJ sustainable food brand Festival cocktail. caviar is being showcased at ooty.co.uk that makes high Priced at £10, the Twist Kitchen throughout the quality relishes and FOR UPDATES, ‘MGR’, as it’s festival on a special menu that Ooty, Baker Street’s attractive jams out of surplus TIMINGS AND HOW been dubbed, features several of the producer’s new south Indian restaurant, produce that would TO BOOK, VISIT comprises caviar styles—10g of Classic named after an idyllic hill-station otherwise go to fresh and floral Baerii for £19, 10g of Classic marylebonefoodfestival.com in the state of Tamil Nadu, has waste—to offer a Marylebone Osciètre for £24, 10g of Vintage a three-course festival menu set menu for the London Dry Gin, for £27—as well as caviar-based for £40 (including a cocktail). festival. For £18, infused with the dishes such as bio egg yolk 62° Downstairs at Ooty Club, you will get to enjoy fruity flavours and aged Parmesan with Classic the luxurious Colonial-style a Marylebone Gin of rhubarb, Osciètre and Perigord truffle basement bar, festival-goers G&T and a choice of cointreau, cranberry essence, and Ora king salmon can enjoy three cocktails and signature dish: the Pickled and lemon juice, and tartare with pickled courgette and three accompanying bar snacks Hen burger with Rubies in the rhubarb tapioca. Vintage caviar £21. for £25. Rubble relish, garnish and fries; fish and chips with mushy peas Roganic Vinoteca and Rubies in the Rubble piccalilli; 5-7 Blandford Street, 15 Seymour Place, and Tom’s chicken pie with creamy W1U 3DB W1H 5BE mash, and gravy. roganic.uk vinoteca.co.uk
Any guests ordering Roganic’s Vintoeca Marylebone, wich long tasting menu during offers an expertly-compiled list the festival will be offered a of high-quality, characterful complimentary glass of the wines and pairs them with a exceptional Exton Park with selection of dishes that optimise Simon Rogan, a bespoke their impact, is staying true sparkling rosé, made from a to this ethos by preparing a blend of 70 per cent pinot noir special dish for the festival— and 30 per cent pinot beef ragu, panne carasau and meunier grapes, created gremolata—designed to couple by the Hampshire-based perfectly a glass of Egri Bikaver English wine estate Exton ‘Bull’s Blood’ 2015 from Eger Park in collaboration with in Hungary. The food and wine the restaurant’s chef. Quote together come for just £16. ‘Marylebone Food Festival’ when booking.
The Portman Twist Kitchen 12 — marylebonefoodfestival.com 24-28 Dozens of the area’s 1. 31 Below 15. The Gate 29. OPSO 31 Marylebone High Street, 22-24 Seymour Place, 10 Paddington Street, food and drink W1U 4PP W1H 7NL W1U 5QL establishments are 31below.co.uk thegaterestaurants.com opso.co.uk participating in the 2. Bernardi’s 16. The George Bar 30. Pachamama Marylebone Food 62 Seymour Street, Durrants Hotel, 18 Thayer Street, W1H 5BN 32 George Street, W1H 5BJ W1U 3JY Festival. This map bernardis.co.uk durrantshotel.co.uk pachamamalondon.com includes all those 3. Blandford Comptoir 17. Hankies 31. Philglas & Swiggot confirmed at the time of 1 Blandford Street, The Montcalm Hotel, 22 New Quebec Street, publication, but check W1U 3DA 61 Upper Berkeley Street, W1H 7SB the website for up-to- blandford-comptoir.co.uk W1H 7PP philglas-swiggot.com hankies.london the-minute listings and 4. Boxcar Butcher and Grill 32. The Pickled Hen 23 New Quebec Street, 18. Il Baretto The London Marriott Hotel, details of how to book W1H 7SD 43 Blandford Street, 134 George Street, if needed. boxcar.co.uk W1U 7HF W1H 5DN ilbaretto.co.uk marriott.com 5. Caffè Caldesi marylebonefoodfestival.com 118 Marylebone Lane, 19. Jikoni 33. The Portman marylebonefoodfestival W1U 2QF 19-21 Blandford Street, 51 Upper Berkeley Street, marylebonefoodfestival caldesi.com W1U 3DH W1H 7QW jikonilondon.com theportmanmarylebone.com 6. Carousel 71 Blandford Street, 20. Fischer’s 34. The Providores W1U 8AB 50 Marylebone High Street, and Tapa Room carousel-london.com W1U 5HN 109 Marylebone High Street, fischers.co.uk W1U 4RX 7. The Cavendish theprovidores.co.uk 35 New Cavendish Street, 21. La Cucina Caldesi W1G 9TR 4 Cross Keys Close, 35. Rococo Chocolates 35newcavendish.co.uk W1U 2DG 3 Moxon Street, caldesi.com W1U 4EW 8. Chiltern Firehouse rococochocolates.com 1 Chiltern Street, 22. La Fromagerie W1U 7PA 2-6 Moxon Street, 36. Roganic chilternfirehouse.com W1U 4EW 5-7 Blandford Street, lafromagerie.co.uk W1U 3DB 9. The Coach Makers Arms roganic.uk 88 Marylebone Lane, 23. Levant W1U 2PY 76 Wigmore Street, 37. Roux at the Landau thecoachmakersarms.co.uk W1U 2SJ 1C Portland Place, levant.co.uk W1B 1JA 10. Cocoro rouxatthelandau.com 31 Marylebone Lane, 24. Le Vieux Comptoir W1U 2NH 26-28 Moxon Street, 38. Texture cocororestaurant.co.uk W1U 4EU 34 Portman Street, levieuxcomptoir.co.uk W1H 7BY 11. Daylesford texture-restaurant.co.uk 6-8 Blandford Street, 25. The London Clinic W1U 4AU 20 Devonshire Place, 39. Trishna daylesford.com W1G 6BW 15-17 Blandford Street, thelondonclinic.co.uk W1U 3DG 12. Delamina trishnalondon.com 56-58 Marylebone Lane, 26. Lurra W1U 2NX 9 Seymour Place, 40. Twist Kitchen delaminamarylebone.co.uk W1H 5BA 42 Crawford Street, lurra.co.uk W1H 1JW 13. Fucina twistkitchen.co.uk 26 Paddington Street, 27. The Montagu Kitchen W1U 5QY Hyatt Regency London 41. Vinoteca fucina.co.uk —The Churchill, 15 Seymour Place, 30 Portman Square, W1H 5BE 14. GAIL’s Bakery W1H 7BH vinoteca.co.uk 4-6 Seymour Place, themontagurestaurant.co.uk W1H 7NA 42. Xier / XR gailsbread.co.uk 28. Ooty 13-14 Thayer Street, 66 Baker Street, W1U 3JR W1U 7DJ xierlondon.com ooty.co.uk 13 — marylebonefoodfestival.com
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REGENT’S PARK
GREAT PORTLAND STREET 25 REGENT’S PARK
PORTLAND PLACE
BAKER STREET
MARYLEBONE MARYLEBONE ROAD
BAKER STREET 20
33 GLOUCESTER PLACE 29 13
MARYLEBONE HIGH STREET 1 WEYMOUTH STREET 24 22 CRAWFORD STREET 35 40
EDGWARE ROAD CHILTERN STREET 28 7 DORSET STREET 34 NEW CAVENDISH STREET 8 19 11 18 39 6 36 3 5 21 16 37
MARYLEBONE LANE
42 30 9
GEORGE STREET EDGWARE ROAD 10 12 23
33 17 32 27 15 WIGMORE STREET 41 4 31 26 38 14 2 OXFORD CIRCUS
SEYMOUR STREET OXFORD STREET BOND STREET
MARBLE ARCH
HYDE PARK 14 — marylebonefoodfestival.com
FOOD PHILOSOPHY SIMON SAYS Simon Rogan, owner of Roganic, on farming, simplicity and embracing London
Interview: Clare Finney
“BEAUTY IS SIMPLICITY. BEAUTY IS ONE AMAZING INGREDIENT THAT 1. The farm YOU FOCUS ON, AND used medium That is the way I like to showed me there was is central to ONE OR TWO THINGS recently cook: I am not interested more to life—that I should TO SUPPORT IT” everything we and there in over-fussing, and when experience London and do. Everything are people ingredients are as amazing Paris. You go where the revolves around using stuff as we get from our farm, most amazing job is. You what it gives us. which to be quite there’s no need. find the chefs you admire honest doesn’t taste and you work with them, 2. We don’t use anything particularly nice. 4. In my early days as a no matter where they are that doesn’t taste good. chef, the idea of London or what it’s like. JC opened That sounds a bit obvious, 3. For me beauty is scared me. I had always my eyes as a restauranteur but you’d be surprised how simplicity. Beauty is one worked in the Home as well as a cook. many guys don’t follow that amazing ingredient that Counties or along the adage. We do forage, but it you focus on, and one or south coast. Working for 5. We are not a vegetarian has become a very over- two things to support it. Jean-Christophe Novelli restaurant, but vegetables 15 — marylebonefoodfestival.com
Q: You describe your menu as ‘mixed our hands dirty—from the age of four heritage’. What’s in the mix? or five I remember podding sacks A: My own heritage is so mixed: of peas for this matar masala mum east African, British, Indian—even used to make. She was director of Persian, because I am north Indian proceedings: petite to look at it, but and we share culinary heritage very disciplinary in the kitchen. She and cooking techniques. My father got the job done. was an aeronautical engineer, so we travelled a lot and from an early Is she your biggest culinary influence? QA: age I was exposed to many different Definitely. She just has such a flavours—and of course, we’re in command of Indian food and such MELTING POT London, so our menu is a nod to this intuition, too. She could just throw Ravinder Bhogal, founder and head diverse, multicultural city too. things in pots and make something chef of Jikoni, on mixed heritage, incredible—she never used a female chefs and the joys of Which of these influences were you recipe book. She never wrote unexpected spiciness most exposed to? anything down. She didn’t teach Interview: Clare Finney My mum cooked a lot of traditional me like that, either. It is gospel, the north Indian dishes, and the staple way these recipes are sung down that you have in every north Indian the generations from mother to house is dal. You have it at least once daughter. I try to encourage that here a week, but you don’t get bored of it in the kitchen. I have grown up with because there are so many different this very generous kitchen of women kinds. When we lived in Kenya, who always shared their wisdom, we lived in an extended family of and I’m glad to be replicating it. grandparents, uncles and aunts, all in the same big, beautiful house built The pale pink walls, plush patterned by my uncles. There’d be anything cushions and beautifully styled dishes from 15 to 25 people at the table for have led many people to describe lunch and dinner, so we all had to get Jikoni as ‘feminine’. Do you agree? I have a male business partner who, are the star of the show. A simple plate of food has when I said I wanted to paint the back The vegetables come first, a story to tell. The sauce wall pink, turned white. “Do you and the meat or fish is only might have been made with think this place is too feminine?” he ever an accompaniment. a rotary evaporator. The oil kept asking and I’d have to say, “Stop As for the vegetarian might have been spun on saying ‘feminine’ or ‘maternal’ like dishes, what I think makes a centrifuge. A lot of hard it’s a negative thing.” I don’t see them our restaurants special work goes into it—but we as negative. If this was an industrial is that you don’t miss the do things to help the flavour MICHAEL MCGRATH, restaurant with bare brick walls and RESTAURATEUR meat or fish. We are big rather than change it: to try filament lighting, it just wouldn’t be exponents of not eating a lot to keep it in its natural state. Eating in authentic. It wouldn’t be me. of animals, because of the The Ginger Pig would be a great place to impact on the environment. 8. One of the greatest go for a really nice How gendered is cooking these days? things I’ve been involved cut of meat. Or some I do think men and women cook 6. I will grow anything. with on the farm is our sausages. I really in different ways. I could be like their sausages. Anywhere I travel I find waste management wrong—that could be a massive seeds to bring back and system. It’s a closed circle Eating out generalisation—but from my try to grow. We don’t just system: the fruit, herbs For something experience, I find women cook very casual but tasty, grow indigenous plants on and vegetables are grown The Real Greek. We intuitively, whereas men are more our farm; we grow saffron, alongside the animals. went there having methodical and scientific. They sunflowers, wasabi, and The waste from the been turned away cook to show off a bit; women cook from everywhere we are looking at growing restaurant gets eaten by else, and we had to nourish and nurture. It’s neither vanilla and hemp. Funnily the pigs, chickens and such pleasant better nor worse. It’s just different. I enough, the hardest thing is ducks. They convert it to rustic food. The raise my eyebrows in disbelief when waiters were sweet, carrots. They always seem green waste, which goes the atmosphere they have specific awards for female to be eaten by something. back into compost. was human, it chefs, but I think that’s changing. wasn’t overpriced. I know so many amazing female I really liked it. 7. There is, of course, Roganic chefs at the fore: Angela Hartnett, 5-7 Blandford Street, For something a a lot that goes into the W1U 3DB bit more special Romy Gill. I think their names are three items on your plate. roganic.uk though, Fucina. becoming as common now as their 16 — marylebonefoodfestival.com
out there who we are losing when they become mothers because the lifestyles are incompatible. For me, if staff want to do part-time work, that is fine. I would far rather people have a work-life balance. If they come in exhausted, it will show in the food.
You have partnered with the Refugee Council to train women in the Jikoni kitchen. What prompted that project? When we arrived in this country, I was seven and my mother couldn’t speak English. She couldn’t write and had never been given an education. It was such a frightening and alien place for her. I feel very much like she was marginalised, and that if someone had only given her the chance, Jikoni would be hers today, so I feel the plight of these refugee women very personally. It’s about giving confidence, more than anything: they already know how to do many things in the kitchen, but when you show up in an unknown country you need someone to answer your questions and believe in you. One of the ladies we have in is an amazing baker, and she dreams of opening her own bakery or market stall. My dream is to be able to help someone like that. If those women were in kitchens, running their own restaurants and stalls, how great would the world of cooking be?
What is the hallmark of the “I HAVE GROWN UP WITH WOMEN Jikoni style of cooking? WHO ALWAYS I think the backbone male counterparts, and it brings me SHARED THEIR of my cooking is WISDOM, AND I’M absolute joy. GLAD TO BE spices—the use of REPLICATING spices in ways which And yet a restaurant kitchen is still THAT HERE” are interesting or widely perceived to be a place that unexpected. I like to demands a thick skin and a slightly cook something quite bullish nature—not traditional familiar, then subvert it with ‘feminine’ qualities... a pop of unexpected spice. Recently I understand that kitchens can be I did a rhubarb crumble recipe for tough, ‘masculine’ environments, in a magazine and I put in some pink which a woman can feel like she has peppercorns. It just gives it a little to behave like a man, but mine isn’t. something else. Without spices, I On the contrary, one thing I feel very sometimes think my cooking would strongly about is supporting those be the equivalent of lift music: women who have been part of the inoffensive, but a little bit boring. restaurant industry, left to become mothers and wish to return. We are Jikoni 19-21 Blandford Street, facing severe chef shortages, yet W1U 3DH there are some incredible chefs jikonilondon.com 17 — marylebonefoodfestival.com
a culinary experience. Downstairs at DOUGH XR, things are more informal, with an NUTS a la carte offering. The atmosphere Five of Marylebone’s most will be casual, the food will have intriguingly off-piste pasta dishes a more familiar feel, and you can combine the food as you wish.
You have mentioned the global influence in your cooking. Where QA: does that come from? Travels through Asia, Japan and MAN OF the US have been a big part of my THE WORLD culinary journey. Working in a high- Carlo Scotto, chef-patron of Xier quality restaurant kitchen gives you and XR, on global influences, the technique, but creativity comes from importance of experimentation, within and you find the place where and why he might be a bad Italian that comes from. For me that means travelling. You need to see what the Interview: Viel Richardson world has to offer.
1. Carousel Is travel about discovering new Put anything other than the prerequisite pecorino and black pepper atop pasta in Italy ingredients? and you’d be hard pressed to call it cacio e pepe Actually, for me it isn’t the ingredients without causing a major incident—thankfully, that make the cuisine, but the culture Carousel isn’t bound by the threat of familial excommunication, and can chuck in anything in which those ingredients are found. they like (so long as it’s delicious, of course). Once you begin to learn about a Here that means smoked eel, woven among culture then you begin to understand strands of bucatini. how people cook, which determines 2. Caffe Caldesi how their dishes have evolved and Ordinarily we’d be loathe to describe as pasta how they approach their ingredient anything that didn’t actually have, well, pasta in it. But given Giancarlo and Katie Caldesi are some choices. I try to bring that knowledge of the best in the business—and have made it back to my kitchen. I always say their mission to find gluten-free alternatives that the cultures of the world after Giancarlo was diagnosed with coeliac disease—we’re trusting them. Besides, buttered are the ingredients and the savoy cabbage ribbons topped with Tuscan beef “I DON’T DO world itself is the kitchen. and pork ragu is bound to be delicious. ITALIAN FOOD, The more I know about I DON’T EAT PASTA, 3. Fucina AND I DON’T different cultures and Homemade calamarata (thick tubes of LIKE FOOTBALL. how they eat, the deeper calamari-like pasta, hailing from Naples) MAYBE I’M A BAD my understanding of with a seabed’s worth of yellowtail, clams ITALIAN” and mussels. Dotted with Italian tomatoes the ingredients and the and small, Liguarian taggiasche olives Your restaurant is split more interesting the and sprinkled with basil, while perhaps not into two—Xier and XR. ways these influences traditional, it’s a dish that’ll brighten grey days. What’s the thinking? appear on my menu. 4. The Cavendish My vision with Xier and XR is to Having first made waves at acclaimed New tell the complete story of the food we Did you work in kitchens when you York restaurant Del Posto in 2010, we’ve been hoping the monster dish that is 100-layers serve to the customers. The dishes travelled? lasagne would turn up on this side of the pond. should represent the suppliers, I did some kitchen work, but mainly Enter The Cavendish, and endless layers of farmers, artisanal producers as well went as a traveller. Working in silken sheets of pasta, interspersed with meat, parmesan and bechamel. Because more is as me as a chef. Each one of us has different kitchens is important for a always more, when it comes to pasta. been involved in every plate of food, chef, but so is expanding your horizons and their hard work and skill needs as a person. Talk to people, watch the 5. Opso Most of us don’t associate Greece with pasta to be represented on each plate. If a sunsets, eat with new friends in their (save, perhaps, orzo), but they do it very well. customer understands this story, then homes. These experiences stay with We’re not entirely sure what ‘village pasta’ is, but we have done our job. you for life, they allow you to grow as a it looks a bit like chips and, topped with fried duck egg, brown butter and smoked metsovone— The two floors have the same person and a chef. Then they come out a semi-hard, aged cow’s milk cheese from concept, which is modern European in your cooking. northern Greece—that only makes us want to with global influences, but with eat it more. A bit like a deconstructed, Greek carbonara, sans pancetta. different presentations. Xier only So, are you still an ‘Italian’ chef? serves a tasting menu, designed to be Not at all. I think I am the only Italian 18 — marylebonefoodfestival.com chef in London who does not do Italian How do you approach creating a dish? food. I also don’t eat pasta, though I When I am in the kitchen, I will think love cooking it, and I don’t like football. about how I can combine something Maybe I’m a bad Italian. like an Asian citrus with European ingredients, because my instinct What do your Italian friends say? says that something is there to be They tell me that I should stick with discovered. Usually calamansi, a my roots and do Italian cuisine, but I Filipino citrus, and stracciatella, a don’t agree. There is nothing wrong soft fresh cheese from the heart with Italian cuisine, it is one of the best of a burrata, wouldn’t go together, in the world. But it is not who I am but often it is not the essence of or what I want to represent. If the ingredients that is the problem, you look around the world, “I WILL ALWAYS but the ratio. Combined in equal you see so many spices, BE GRATEFUL TO parts they do not work, but if you ANGELA HARTNETT— herbs, ingredients. Why WE CREATE OUR experiment with different ratios then define yourself by only one OWN LIMITATIONS, things start to become interesting. tradition? That is not for AND SHE SET ME New flavours and textures emerge. FREE FROM MINE” me. Cooking is also about Use a small amount of calamansi to pushing the boundaries. slightly raise the acidity in the creamy stracciatella and you taste something You come from Naples. interesting. It is about understanding What was the food you grew up on? why ingredients are seen as not Neapolitan food is not only pizza, even working together and using that though Neapolitan pizza is the best knowledge to see if you can blend in the world. I came from outside them in a harmonious way. Naples, by the coast, so eating seafood was a daily thing. I grew up eating Angela Hartnett was a real mentor. mussels, sea urchins, clams, fish, What did she see in you? octopus. My dad used to take me with I have no idea what she saw in me. him to gather mussels and clams. I simply asked if I could work in her So, you can say I was born in the sea. kitchen and she said yes. After a few months she moved me to the You lived with your grandmother meat and fish section, which is the for a while. What do you remember hardest in the kitchen, it is incredibly about her cooking? demanding. I was the youngest and The dish that stands out most was her least experienced in the kitchen. I ragu with meat and tomato sauce. even asked if she was sure when she I used to wake up to the smell of first told me. In the beginning it was coffee brewing and the ragu cooking. a real struggle and I was not really It was this very thick, bubbling tomato coping. One day when I was very sauce. I remember sneaking into place and I became withdrawn and behind on my preparation for the shift, the kitchen and dipping bread in the rebellious. I wanted some money she came over to help. After a while sauce, which was lovely. But the and heard that a restaurant needed she asked me what was wrong. I told real memories were not the food, help in the kitchen, so asked for a her I was finding it hard and wasn’t but the company. One thing in Italian job washing up. On my first day I sure if I could do it. I will never forget culture is that you never eat alone. saw people shouting, screaming, her next words: “If I didn’t think you Family and friends are always there. rushing around. There was this really were good enough, I would never Our family dinners could turn into 20 intense energy as they tried to achieve have put you in this section.” It was people around the table. For me, that something great. Other people can like something was set free inside is the best thing about the Italian food be intimidated by that intensity, but me. That vote of confidence changed tradition, the fact that the table is a for some reason I wasn’t. The first everything. From that shift onwards, very communal place. time I put on that chef’s jacket, those the mistakes fell away. I will always monsters in my mind that were be grateful to her—I really believe we You were washing up in a Michelin- driving me to be rebellious seemed to create our own limitations, and chef starred kitchen aged 13. How did that melt away. The kitchen felt like a safe Hartnett set me free from mine. happen? space from the beginning, and that The family suffered a tragic death has never changed. Apart from time Xier / XR 13-14 Thayer Street, when I was a child, which hit us all with my family, the kitchen is the place W1U 3JR very hard. Home became a difficult in the world where I feel most at ease. xierlondon.com 19 — marylebonefoodfestival.com
TOOLS OF THE TRADE “This is how I cook at home: healthily, THE but without compromising on taste TOP NOTES and texture,” says Limor Chen, one Aaron Ashmore, head chef at Clarette, PROMISED half of the wife and husband team on why a pencil is as important to a LAND behind Marylebone’s Delamina. Hers chef as any kitchen implement Limor and Amir Chen, the is an approach to food that draws Interview: Viel Richardson husband and wife team behind upon the wild diversity of culinary Marylebone’s vibrant new Delamina influences she shares with her other restaurant, on Tel Aviv, Ottolenghi half, Amir—Israeli, Iranian, eastern and the search for the perfect European, South American—and A pencil may not be the first thing people would olive oil the sights, smells and savour of the think of as an essential chef’s tool, but you will see one sitting behind my ear all the time and Words: Clare Finney Levant. The result is as close as you it comes in useful literally every hour of my can get to the sun-drenched shores working day. of the eastern Mediterranean without Whether I’m ordering produce, drawing up recipes for the chefs, planning schedules or leaving W1. writing down the mise en place at the start of a Limor and Amir are Israeli but, shift, I am always using it. When I think of a new first and foremost, they are people of idea for a dish, I write it down straight away. If I don’t, it disappears from my mind, which can Tel Aviv. The distinction matters, says be very frustrating. Recipe tweaks also get Limor: “Tel Aviv is different to Israel written down immediately. It just means those in the same way New York is different moments of inspiration that suddenly occur are retained rather than being lost. to the US, and Cape Town to South It is all about staying organised, staying Africa. It has a magnetic energy. It has focused, knowing what needs to be done. its own vibe.” Though Amir’s family Having things written down makes it easier to organise the staff, allocate the left when he was small, Limor spent jobs, keep on top of stock. If you make her childhood and early adulthood a note when you see that something is in this liberal university town, where running short, you are much more likely to top it up than if you just think, “I’ll sort “there is no sense of tomorrow, and that later.” life is one long party. It’s not a pretty Some chefs can get through shifts city,” she continues—unless you’re while juggling all that information in their heads, but to me that feels too a fan of Bauhaus architecture that chaotic and is definitely more stressful. is, of which there is plenty—“but it is You also see timings go awry, things creative and incredibly open-minded.” get done in the wrong order. I’ve been there myself and I hate it. If you are a Theirs is a cuisine bursting disorganised chef, you simply won’t with fresh, punchy herbs, be making the best of your talent. “THIS IS HOW I tingling spices and the Also, a badly organised kitchen can be COOK AT HOME: sweet and sour tang of incredibly wasteful, which is bad both HEALTHILY, financially and environmentally. BUT WITHOUT dried fruits, and freed There are always a few pencils COMPROMISING from some of the heavier floating around the kitchen, a couple ON TASTE AND weapons employed in on the order sheet for everyone TEXTURE” to use, one on the pass to take northern European notes about dietary requirements, kitchens. “Traditionally allergies, special requests, that kind of thing. Whenever a new trained chefs have a chef starts, I generally give them tendency to use as much a pencil. It is amazing how many butter as possible,” explains chefs don’t carry one and and ask to borrow yours. Amir. “We have worked hard to get Of course, you need talent and away from that mentality. We don’t fry passion to do well, but most great unless we have to, and we use good chefs have a bit of the control freak about them. My pencil olive oil in place of butter.” Delamina’s doesn’t make me a better chef, head chef, Cristiano, is Italian, so but it is a vital part to me being using olive oil is second nature to him. the best chef I can be. But to forswear frying? “It’s been an Clarette interesting journey,” Amir grins. 44 Blandford Street, “We have taught each other,” W1U 7HS clarettelondon.com says Limor. “Cristiano respected my passion and philosophy, I respected his knowledge. He knew which of my dishes could work and which we couldn’t do justice to,” says Limor. Did it matter that Cristiano isn’t 20 — marylebonefoodfestival.com
Israeli? “Not in the slightest. I knew them, and his restaurants, writing and what I wanted. I just needed an TV appearances have made us familiar WASTE experienced chef who was open- with their charms. His proteges have DISPERSAL minded enough to work with me!” spread the word still further: “With 24 April, day one of the Food The Chens took Cristiano to the exception of The Palomar guys, all Festival, is Stop Food Waste Day, an Israel, where they initiated him into the great Israeli chefs—Honey and Co, international day of action in the fight a very different approach to cooking Berber and Q, Bala Baya—hail from against food waste. Around 10 million from that of Italy. “Ours is a country Ottolenghi’s kitchen. He really has tonnes of food are wasted in the UK of immigrants,” says Amir, and each been at the forefront,” explains Limor. every year, which is both disastrous immigrant “brought with them the She herself never worked with him; in for the planet—estimated to produce dishes of their country. In Italy, if you fact, as she consistently reminds us, more than 25 million tonnes of don’t cook a recipe the right way, it she has no formal training and no prior greenhouse gas emissions—and, at is not because you’re creative, it’s restaurant experience. All she can a time when the use of food banks is because you don’t know how to do offer, she insists, is a taste of home. at an all-time high, deeply unfair. So, it. In Israel, there is no right way of But what a home. what are the people and businesses doing anything.” The country’s chefs of Marylebone doing to help limit are joyously creative; their dishes Delamina 56-58 Marylebone Lane, waste and, where it’s unavoidable, were liberated from the shackles of W1U 2NX ensure it goes to a worthy home? tradition the moment they left their delaminamarylebone.co.uk original countries. There’s no strict regionality in Romy Miller, GAIL’s Food waste is entirely contrary to our way of Israel. In Italy, a Neapolitan could be thinking about the world. At GAIL’s, everything shot at dawn for cooking a Roman is handmade: if we are wasting something, not pizza. In Israel, they’ve bigger fish only is it a shame because nobody’s eaten and enjoyed something delicious, it’s a waste of to fry—and, as Amir points out, the bakers’ time and skills. But like any shop, they’ve all intermarried. “My mum is some days we sell out completely, and other Bulgarian, my dad is South American, days we don’t. When there is surplus bread, we give it of Lithuanian extraction. Limor has all away. We have partnerships with more Russian, Iranian and Ukrainian roots. than 40 charities, which collect our food at Things have been mish-mashed.” the end of every day. Those people have the biggest hearts: it’s initiatives like those that The only common denominator, says really bring a community together. But there Limor, is the use of citrus, are a number of things we do in-house to olive oil, and local herbs reduce waste, too. Today’s croissants are “OURS IS A tomorrow’s filled croissants—we double bake and spices—which she COUNTRY OF them. We have great relationships with our took painstaking care IMMIGRANTS, suppliers: we work closely with Quicke’s dairy, over when it came to SAYS EACH for example, to make sure we use everything IMMIGRANT that they’re making. We get whole wheels of sourcing. The olive BROUGHT their clothbound cheddar and use slices of it oil took the longest. WITH THEM in our sandwiches, then any offcuts go in our “Good olive oil is the THE DISHES thyme and sea salt sourdough stick. We also OF THEIR use their butter, which is made from whey, a backbone of Israeli COUNTRY “ bi-product of cheesemaking—and absolutely cuisine,” explains Amir. beautiful. “And we needed one to go At GAIL’s, nothing goes in the bin. My team do this because we really believe it’s with a range of dishes.” Limor tried the right thing to do. Nobody wants food to go endless suppliers, from countries to waste. It’s the number one thing people in across the Fertile Crescent, until our bakeries are proud of: that the business really cares and makes a point of having she found The One, from Lebanon. relationships with charities. I think that’s Fortunately, when it came to sourcing awesome. the herbs and spices, her path to Gail’s Bakery punchy cooking had been cleared in 4-6 Seymour Place, recent years, thanks in no small part W1H 7NA to another of London’s ex-pat Israelis. gailsbread.co.uk “Yotam Ottolenghi’s role is not Kobus Maree, The Langham, London to be underestimated,” she says. There are many challenges that come “Prior to him, many of the spices we with providing the experience that our guests expect while doing what we can to reduce use every day had never even been food waste. As a five-star operation, you can’t heard of before in the UK.” Za’atar, run out of food—if it’s on the menu it must be sumac, tahini, tamarind: not only available, so inevitably there are products that don’t sell every day. But nothing ends up did Ottolenghi bring these into our in landfill. In the kitchen we have a very good consciousness, he physically imported 21 — marylebonefoodfestival.com system, the Orca. It works like your stomach, Ali Mulroy, FoodCycle Marylebone wrestle bowls off people because they want using microorganisms sprayed on little The volunteers who help us provide a weekly to help me clear the table, and I say, “You’re recycled plastic bio chips that mix with the dinner for residents of Lisson Green Estate our guests. We want you to have a restaurant food to digest it and turn it into water, which using surplus food are just incredible. We have experience!” And they just laugh and say, goes into the drains system. The things we a team who work nine-to-five jobs, then they “Yeah, yeah, whatever love,” and carry on can’t put in there, like shells or big bones, are come here at six o’clock and help set up for the regardless. I love that: that it’s not a case of taken away and turned into fertiliser. meal, cooking and laying the tables. them and us. We also partner with the Plan Zheroes, During the day, our volunteers go out This is about tackling food waste and which collects surplus food and distributes it and collect surplus food from shops and cafes poverty, but it’s also about tackling social to local charities. They take anything left over all over Marylebone: Tesco has been fantastic, isolation. It’s wonderful to be able to use in the restaurant at the end of the day, such as has Gail’s (whose cakes are amazing!), food that would’ve gone to waste to be able as our croissants and bread rolls. A lot of our Paul on Edgware Road, As Nature Intended to feed people, but also to be able to build conference guests pay for all the food, but they and M&S. City Harvest also has a big relationships through regular, week by week don’t eat all of it, so with Plan Zheroes we can warehouse of food we collect from, full of contact. And it’s not just the people who use donate it on their behalf to charity. produce that would have just gone to waste. the services that benefit. One of our volunteers We are audited every year by Earth Check Our chefs then work out what to cook. There’s told me they’d been going through a really and as the first hotel in Europe to achieve a so much ownership, everyone plays their part: hard time and being able to connect with gold mark, we are market leaders. And at the the shops, who text me to say what’s there, people and do something worthwhile had top of the market, you can afford to do things the volunteers, the people who cook the food. saved them. It’s not this cheesy charity feel- properly. Everyone’s looking out for the project and good thing—it’s real. that’s what I really like about it; it’s not based The Langham, London on any one person. FoodCycle Marylebone 1C Portland Place, We’ve also got people who come for a 5 Rossmore Road, W1B 1JA meal, but also insist on helping us to set up, NW1 6NJ langhamhotels.com which is amazing. Sometimes you have to foodcycle.org.uk
SYBIL KAPOOR, FOOD WRITER
Eating in Because I am a food writer, I am often recipe testing, which requires going to certain specialist shops. At Green Valley, you can buy proper spices, mooli, quality daal—things that are quite hard to get elsewhere. I also love the farmers’ market, where I find my wild herbs and seasonal greens, and La Fromagerie, where I get my cheese, eggs and cream. I buy my bread there, too, if I don’t have time to bake my own.
Eating out I love Locanda Locatelli. If it is a special occasion, I go there—and if I had a small request it would be that he re-did his pizza pop-up at Carousel, another favourite place of ours. For more casual meals with friends we tend to go to Fischer’s. I always have the same thing: veal escalope, and the apple strudel for dessert. 22 — marylebonefoodfestival.com
DEEP PURPLE Marylebone’s dining scene is a pretty diverse place, as attested by this snpashot of how an aubergine might be put to use in a handful of its restaurants
1. 5. 11. Levant Il Baretto Cocoro Moutabal: fried aubergine Melanzana alla Nasudengaku: grilled dip with tahina, strained parmigiana: baked aubergine with sweet yoghurt and garlic aubergine with miso paste mozzarella, parmesan, tomato and basil
2. 6. 9. 12. Blandford Comptoir Opso Jikoni Twist Kitchen Aubergine and parmesan Hunkiar begendi: melting Pressed shoulder of Wiltshire lamb chops, croquettes beef cheeks, aubergine Cornish lamb, home burnt aubergine, green puree, cinnamon and ground ras al hanout, harissa cumin tomato burnt aubergine, flatbread
3. 7. 10. The Gate The Pickled The Providores Miso glazed aubergine: Hen and Tapa Room half aubergine roasted Halloumi The Tapa Plate: grilled and glazed with miso moussaka chorizo, marinated sauce, topped with olives, grilled artichoke, toasted cashew nuts, aubergine sultana relish, ponzu sauce, micro Après-Soleil cheese, fig- coriander, sesame seeds orange preserve
4. 8. Delamina Pachamama Roasted mauve Caramelised aubergine, raw tahini, aubergine, peanuts, black grape molasses coriander oil 23 — marylebonefoodfestival.com
Husband and wife team Rachel DESSERT BOARD and Fraser are part of the new wave STORM REPORT of young British cheesemakers. Four of our favourite Marylebone Patricia Michelson of They came in to the industry through puddings La Fromagerie tells the story the back door really, giving up their behind the English goat’s jobs in the City to go the School of cheese on her Marylebone Artisan Food in Nottinghamshire. Menu cheese board There, they did an intensive course in cheesemaking and then worked at Neal’s Yard Dairy before starting their own cheesemaking facility alongside Nettlebed “HUSBAND AND Creamery, using the local WIFE TEAM goat’s milk. RACHEL AND FRASER ARE Now they finally PART OF THE have their own small NEW WAVE OF farm, with a herd of YOUNG BRITISH CHEESE Anglo Nubian goats, MAKERS” known as ‘the Jersey cows of the goat world’ 1. Bernardi’s due to the high fat content It is a truth universally acknowledge that an Italian meal of any authenticity must end with of their milk, and British a tiramisu. It is a truth locally acknowledged Toggenburg. It’s a beautiful area of that Bernardi’s serves one of the best: laced the world, South Oxfordshire, just with Patron XO Cafe, sweetened with agave and fortified with 202 espresso—meaning at the foothills of the North Wessex espresso beans roasted at 202 Fahrenheit. Downs—and the land and climate If more coffee is what you need, we’d suggest are very similar to that of France’s having one of the restaurant’s excellent espresso martinis alongside your tiramisu. Loire region. There are no extreme temperatures and the grass is 2. The Portman abundant, so it’s easier to kid all year Though a range of delectable-sounding desserts is on offer at The Portman pub, there I am in the business of celebrating round, unlike in the south of France is really only one sweet you need order: the cheese from all countries. When where no goat’s cheese is produced sticky toffee pudding with toffee sauce and I was asked to provide a cheese between December and spring. vanilla ice cream. It’s the pudding by which all self-respecting gastropubs should be weighed plate for The Marylebone Menu, the The ash is a very fine charcoal and measured—and it’s a rare thing to find one opening event of the Marylebone powder, which serves to draw out this sticky, and with such an extensive wine list Food Festival, I decided that rather some of the acidity from the cheese, to serve with it, too. than limit ourselves to one region we tempering it. It helps with the rind, 3. Twist Kitchen should showcase cheese from all over too: cheese ripens from the outside While all of Twist’s desserts sound intriguing Europe and Britain—proving that the to the centre, so the edge of the to the point of madness—pineapple, creme patissiere and chocolate soil; cheesecake, true British spirit is one of adventure, cheese can become quite dry and mango and black olive caramel—the flan- not division. Given everything that’s tough, but this rind remains soft and creme-caramel with salted popcorn flakes going on at the moment, it seemed the creamy. The mixture of the white rind and Amazonian cashew nut ice cream takes the biscuit. Or the flan, as it were. Twist is right thing to do. and the ash are very pretty together, impeccable in its sourcing, so you can rest Alongside port from the Duoro and the ash doesn’t give too much assured no Amazonian was harmed in the region of Portugal, we will be serving away in flavour beyond mellowing harvesting of those cashew nuts. This dessert is simply a flan-tastic realisation of the world’s a Beaufort from France, a cheese that the strong acidity that goat’s cheeses finest natural resources, and a chef’s wild we are well known for; a lovely washed can sometimes have. At most, it adds imagination. rind taleggio from Italy; Colston Basset a bit of interesting texture. 4. Il Barreto stilton; and Brightwell Ash, a goat’s The port we’re serving at the ‘Allow 12 minutes’ instructs the menu of Il cheese from Norton and Yarrow in dinner—Quinta De La Rosa Finest Baretto next to its tantalising translation of South Oxfordshire. This particular Reserve—is relatively light and not ‘fondente al cioccolato’—hot chocolate fondant with vanilla ice cream—and, while it will force goat’s cheese is new. The producers, too sweet, so it should go well with your fellow diners to wait desperately, spoons Fraser Norton and Rachel Yarrow, are it. If you prefer wine however, I’d poised, for whatever quicker dessert they best known for Sinodun Hill—a goat’s recommend a white—contrary to ordered, it’s worth their irritation. It arrives, trembling, the smart boule of gelato on the cheese in a truncated pyramid shape, popular belief. cusp of melting. One sharp spoonful, and the for which they’ve won national and fondant splits and oozes darkly into the cool international awards—but this latest La Fromagerie pools of vanilla. If you’re careful you’ll make it 2-6 Moxon Street, last five spoonfuls, but quite frankly, we could cheese is ash coated and round in W1U 4EW finish it off in sub-three. shape, much like selles-sur-cher. lafromagerie.co.uk 24 — marylebonefoodfestival.com
FOOD PHILOSOPHY 1— I was born in Canada, but my mother’s from Spain and my dad’s from west Africa. They were both YOU ARE good cooks: I grew up with paellas, African stews, okra and plantain, WHAT dry cod and tomato bread. They taught me the value of cooking YOU EAT for yourself, and the importance Mercedes Sieff, co-owner of food in terms of community, of Yeotown Kitchen, on the connectivity and family. close connection between 2— The biggest insult to our food food and wellbeing would be if somebody said, “It QA: tastes healthy.” We all know what Interview: Ellie Costigan that really means. What we want THE you to say is: “It tastes good.” If we didn’t tell you anything was CHOCOLATIER’S eliminated, you shouldn’t notice. ART Chantal Coady, founder of Rococo Chocolates, on rococo art, packaging design and the pushing of boundaries
Interview: Clare Finney
Rococo is the name of an art style. “THE BIGGEST What inspired you to use it? INSULT WOULD BE IF SOMEBODY SAID, The name came to me when I was ‘IT TASTES HEALTHY.’ doing a three-week business studies WE ALL KNOW WHAT course. I was being pressed to give a THAT REALLY MEANS” name to my business, and I couldn’t think of one. They said, “Just make something up then,” and Rococo just tripped off my tongue. It was only later that I looked it up, and discovered it was a French word How far have we come as a nation in their catalogue number. Even today meaning shell work or scroll work, our appreciation of chocolate? I’ll take elements from this—a dog or florid ornamentation. I thought, this I think we are pretty much leading a cat, say—and use them to create a is perfect; I can run with this. Art and the chocolate world to be honest. special chocolate figure or bar. The design is my background—I studied There are so many great chocolate handwriting you see on the bars and art at Camberwell College—so I was makers in this country. I don’t know boxes is mine. always going to bring it to anything I how sustainable it is—a lot of them did. A lot of my inspiration for Rococo are very tiny businesses—but we have Does the same artistry go into came from trips to Paris and Belgium: always been a bit out there when it creating new tastes and flavours? seeing the beautiful chocolate shops, comes to challenging tastebuds and I think so. Just as there is a palette and feeling there was nothing in pushing boundaries. It’s something of of colours, so there is a palette this country that had that kind of a national sport, in a way. of flavours in my head. There’s excitement or magic. something visual about it for me. It’s What was the source of Rococo’s hard to describe, but I can almost see Why do you think other European iconic blue and white pattern? if a particular combination is going to countries developed such different It was inspired by a 19th century work or not. chocolate cultures to ours? French catalogue of chocolate The difference between England figures, brought to me by an You were born in Iran. Have your and the rest of the continent is the antiquarian bookseller. “You have to Persian roots influenced you? industrial revolution, and its effect on buy this,” he told me. “I know you’ll do A lot. Even though I have not been our methods of food production—for something good with it.” It cost about back since I was a small child and a long time we were more concerned a month’s salary, but I bought it. I had have no conscious memory of Iran, I with feeding our population than the idea of photocopying the images, feel it in my bones. The blue skies, the with producing fine food, and the cutting them out and laying them out smells, the colours, the sounds—you continent, particularly the French, had as a random repeating design. If you can be very tiny and still absorb those the monopoly on gastronomy. Now of look closely at a Rococo wrapper you sorts of things. course we have come full circle and we can see the illustration of beautiful, have the most amazing cheesemakers, intricate chocolate fish or shells, next How significant has investing in your bakers, chocolate makers and so on. to their price in French cents, and own plantation in Granada been in 25 — marylebonefoodfestival.com
3— If you remember to have saying never eat those foods, your fresh-pressed green never have a cup of coffee or a juice or your salad for lunch, glass of wine, but we encourage why would you forget to look people to make a few small after your mind? Mindfulness is changes that are sustainable. important; wellbeing goes beyond Maybe they will feel better for it, the physical. maybe they won’t; everybody is different. 4— We all have character strengths—they’re not talents, 7— Eating well is so much about they’re virtues: courage, humour, habit—is one slice of pizza bad zest, the ability to love and be for you? No. A whole pizza every loved, resilience, perspective. day? That’s a problem. There’s Rather than calling a dish a no such thing as ‘good’ food or ‘lean green kale machine’, we’ve ‘bad’ food or ‘clean’ food—it’s the called them things like ‘gratitude quantity that’s consumed and bowl’. I wanted to inspire people. the attachment you have to it that The happiest people are those matters. who use their strengths on a regular basis. The menu is a 8— I have two young kids, so reminder of that. I try to balance out my busy working life—if we’re in Devon we 5— There’s more and more go to the beach, we go swimming, research into the link between we get out and about. When I’m the gut and mind. I absolutely here, I go to my own yoga classes, believe that the two are I do muay thai boxing, I love to completed connected. When you walk, meet my friends and make eat something that you know is sure I stay social. We travel a not great, how do you feel? Or lot—we go to Bali every summer. when you’re in a bad mood, what It’s very easy to get buried in do you go for, the kale or the ice work and caught up in your own cream? What you’re putting in thoughts. It’s important to your body is absolutely going to have fun. affect your overall wellbeing. Yeotown Kitchen 6— We don’t use refined sugars, 42 Chiltern Street, we don’t use dairy or meat. The W1U 7QT point is to take a break: we’re not yeotownkitchen.com
ensuring the ethical and qualitative value of your chocolate? It’s very important. It’s complicated and quite political, but I do think the big producers could do more in terms of fair trade. It is all about adding as much value as you can to where the cocoa is being grown. If you think about a high street bar of chocolate, the amount of cocoa in it is less than 10 per cent. There’s VAT, the retailer’s margin, and everyone else along the way, so the amount that gets to the cocoa farmer is very, very little. We try to ensure that more of the value of the bar stays within the local economy. Watching that happen in our estate in Granada has been fantastic: they are poor, but they have all the basic medical stuff, schools, infrastructure, and the chance for bright people to go to university. To “LIKE A PALETTE understand more about OF COLOURS, this side of chocolate is THERE IS A PALETTE OF FLAVOURS IN really important for me. MY HEAD. THERE’S SOMETHING VISUAL Rococo Chocolates ABOUT IT” 3 Moxon Street, W1U 4EW rococochocolates.com 26 — marylebonefoodfestival.com
“KITCHENS WERE RUN LIKE ARMIES: HUGE LINES OF CHEFS SAYING, ‘YES SIR, NO SIR.’ PETER NEVER OPERATED LIKE THAT” MICHAEL MCGRATH 27 — marylebonefoodfestival.com The Peter principle Over the years, chefs who learnt their craft alongside Peter Gordon have had a major impact on London’s dining scene. So, what is it that makes The Providores and Tapa Room’s kitchen such a popular staging post on the way to success? Words: Clare Finney 28 — marylebonefoodfestival.com
“They call him The Godfather… of Fusion,” says by a team of alumni. “We Anna Hansen. But while she does so with a cooked dinner with Selin, smile and a comic pause, her acknowledgement Miles, Brad, Peter—it was of Peter Gordon’s influence could not be more a huge reunion,” Anna genuine. As the executive chef of Clerkenwell’s remembers. Again, it felt acclaimed fusion restaurant The Modern Pantry like family. and a women who, alongside Peter, was one of One of the most the founding partners of The Providores and powerful testaments to Tapa Room, she knows better than most the the strength and inclusivity role her friend and former colleague played in of Peter’s kitchen is his making their shared style of food—a considered friendships: pretty much cacophony of techniques and ingredients from everyone who has worked across the globe—popular. “Peter reinvented at The Providores remains the wheel with his food,” she continues, “and in touch. “I remember in he believed in me. That is everything. Peter by the early days of Caravan, nature wanted the people he worked with to Miles, who was head thrive and to succeed.” chef here for eight years, And succeed they have. Look around ringing me up and saying, London’s food scene and it’s impossible not to ‘I just want to thank you see, taste and smell the impact of Peter Gordon. for the way you led your There’s the rising popularity of fusion generally kitchen and taught your (“though rarely in the way Peter does it,” says staff. I understand now,’” Anna, loyally)—but perhaps most importantly, Peter remembers. “We there’s the staggering list of alumni who have treat people well, whether passed through his kitchen: Hamish Brown of they are the head chef or Roka, Miles Kirby of Caravan, Moondog (yes, the dishwasher. I’ll help really) of Spiritland, Selin Kiazim of modern wash the floors if everyone Turkish-Cypriot joints Kyseri and Oklava—not else is busy. We work as a to mention Brad Farmerie of Public across the team.” pond in New York. In an industry known for “We’ve had some extraordinary people,” says its churn, The Providores’ Peter, failing, with characteristic modesty, to staff retention is unusual: acknowledge either his own role in contributing Miles, for example, worked towards this ‘extraordinariness’, or his knack there for eight years; their for attracting it. Fortunately, Michael McGrath, bookkeeper, JJ, has been another of the restaurant’s co-founders and its there for 16. “We don’t see long-standing manager, is there to compensate it as a constant stream of both for Peter’s lack of vanity, and the jet lag a cheap staff. It’s beneficial recent trip to New Zealand has landed him with. for businesses to keep “We have been a magnet for great people,” he people,” says Michael. JJ says, “and a lot of that is to do with Peter.” joined as a dishwasher back in 2003. When When The Providores and Tapa Room first asked what he wanted to opened in 2001, Gordon Ramsay’s Boiling Point do with his life, he said miniseries was still a talking point, exposing as accountancy, “so we helped it did the extraordinary pressure and macho him get training, and now he’s our bookkeeper.” Michael McGrath culture of high-end restaurant kitchens. “Hotel They aren’t the only restauranteurs to invest in (left) and Peter Gordon kitchens were such a strong force in the 20th their staff—indeed, conditions have improved century, and they were run like armies: huge considerably across the industry in the past few lines of chefs saying, ‘Yes sir, no sir.’ I think a lot years—but their sense of fairness and equality of of chefs came from that environment,” muses opportunity was certainly ahead of the game. Michael. “Peter never operated like that. Anna In part, it’s probably a New Zealand never operated like that.” thing—a thought I dismiss at first, wary as I “I’ve always viewed us as egalitarian—more am of subscribing to ideas around ‘national of a family restaurant, really,” says Peter. character’. Yet when Miles, Hamish and Anna “You have to do the job—you can’t be a slack- all ascribe The Providores’ collaborative, arse—but we’re a family here. We all muck in can-do spirit to Kiwiness, I can’t help but ask together.” In 2016, Peter and Michael celebrated Peter and Michael how their native country 15 years of The Providores with a dinner cooked has influenced their philosophy. “It’s that 29 — marylebonefoodfestival.com
“FUSION IS A DISCIPLINE. YOU CAN’T JUST SHOVE RANDOM THINGS TOGETHER ON A PLATE” PETER GORDON
slightly more relaxed approach, combined with brunching or avos were even a thing. the confidence of thinking, I can do that!” says The Providores has acted as what Peter calls Michael. “Entrepreneurial, but easy-going—with “a staging post” for aspiring chefs from New talent,” adds Peter. It’s not about where you’re Zealand looking to cook in London. “A lot of these from—after all, Selin is second generation young Kiwis coming to the UK wouldn’t have “THE FIRST Turkish-Cypriot, yet she’s one of Peter had the confidence to go into Michelin-starred THING I PUT IN Gordon’s proudest graduates—but kitchens.” Now, they’re going off into the world MY MOUTH AT THE PROVIDORES there’s a common consensus that armed with a solid understanding of Peter’s WAS A DAMASCENE New Zealand’s food scene is sociable, pioneering approach to cooking. “I have given CONVERSION” centred on quality and inclusive. Their them freedom of expression—but I think what SELIN KIAZIM food is by geographical and historical people learned when it came to our kitchen was necessity a combination of Asian and that fusion is a discipline. You can’t just shove western flavours. Famously, they were random things together on a plate.” brunching on avocadoes before either “Your combinations are instinctive,” says 30 — marylebonefoodfestival.com
Michael loyally. “Ultimately, when a chef puts different flavours together, they have to know if it is good or dreadful; when it works and when it doesn’t.” Peter Gordon’s protegees owe a great deal to Peter, but their styles and sensibilities are unique to them—as is their food, be it sushi, fusion or modern Turkish. “I think, when you started, people were determined to put a name to what you did—to put it into a box,” Michael says, turning to Peter. “But people care less about labels now. You can call it Pacific rim. You can call it fusion. But it is your food.”
SELIN KIAZIM Oklava and Kyseri I remember the first thing I put in my mouth at The Providores: a betel “I LOVED THE leaf with tender pork trim, shrimp UNAPOLOGETIC, UNRELENTING paste, tamarillo, crispy shallots PURSUIT OF and garlic. I thought, I want to FL AVOUR—HEAT, work here immediately. It was a SALT, ACIDIT Y” damascene conversion. This was MILES KIRBY the food I loved to eat. At the time, I’d just finished catering college. Peter asked me to come in for a trial and when I arrived, they sang out to me from downstairs in the kitchen. Peter and Michael are living proof that you don’t have to be nasty to be successful in this industry. The fact that they created a restaurant that was a wonderful place to work as well as eat still does not get the credit that it should. I wanted to work with Peter not just for his creativity, but for the support and advice he gives. He’s so nice, you want to please him, and that filters down through MOONDOG the whole kitchen. Spiritland Cooking with Peter taught me to be When I was at The Providores it was the dream completely fearless. Nothing sounds odd to me team: Hamish, Anna, Miles, Selin. I think that’s as a flavour combination—at The Providores why I stayed so long—I was there for nine years, I saw the impossible come to life. That makes eventually becoming head chef. It was a really your mind work in different ways, and even beautiful, encouraging place. You’d make though I draw upon a lot of traditional dishes something and Peter would taste it and say, “Add and methods in my restaurants, I think, what is this”—and he’d be right. You’d make something the thing that will make it different, that no one like smoked strawberries and it would go else has thought of before? terribly wrong, and he’d say, “Well, you tried. The other thing I learnt was how to balance That’s how we learn things.” He was an amazing a dish: to create levels and textures. There is a mentor: you could always catch a word with him dish that comes on and off the menu at Oklava and ask some advice. Peter is the person who that demonstrates this. The Turkish element discovered fusion food, basically, and he is the is the monkfish chargrilled over coals, with single biggest influence on me. Turkish urfa chilli. I add bitter orange caramel, At The Providores I learnt that while a “NO ONE CALLS honey, soy, olive oil and a hint of fish sauce. I kitchen can be stressful, it can also be EACH OTHER CHEF—WE HAVE serve it with a blood orange and coriander salad. fun. Running a restaurant is about being NAMES—AND I That is probably the epitome of the food I cooked firm but fair. You could have a laugh, but ENCOURAGE MY at The Providores meeting the food I cook today. at the end of the day Peter was the boss. STAFF TO BE CREATIVE” The Providores has been an incubator for Today, at Spiritland, that’s how I run good chefs because they created a good place things: no one calls each other chef—we MOONDOG to work—and they have never been afraid to do have names—and I encourage my staff to their own thing. be creative. There’s no divide between front 31 — marylebonefoodfestival.com
and back of house, no yelling or screaming. In Caravan I wanted some of the vibe of the The Providores instilled that in me. Tapa Room. I loved the sharing small plates. When I came to create the menu for We call ours ‘well-travelled cuisine’: anything Spiritland, I sat down with Peter. I wanted to goes, as long as it is a true representation of chat about the fact that there would be some something I’ve tried elsewhere in the world. I crossover, because I learned so much from him. wouldn’t say it’s fusion. I think Peter really owns He said, “That’s wonderful. Just as long as you that space and I don’t want to copy him. But in the don’t put Turkish eggs or scallops with crème pursuit of flavour, of excellent relationships with fraiche and sweet chilli on the menu.” suppliers and in terms of vibe inside and outside At the end of the day, Miles, Selin, Hamish the kitchen, we definitely have similarities. and I went to the same school. I helped Miles at Caravan. I helped Selin in her first pop-ups. ANNA HANSEN We laugh and talk and make food and bounce The Modern Pantry off each other. I know it’s hippy-ish—especially People think that fusion is having a restaurant coming from someone called Moondog who where you cook both Italian and Indian food, walks around barefoot—but I believe this sort of or where you do a classic French dish using unity comes through in the food. lemongrass. That’s not what it is for Peter. He doesn’t set out to cook an Indian dish ‘with a MILES KIRBY twist’—he reinvents the wheel. What I love, and Caravan what I think Peter loves, about fusion is that it is The moment I arrived at The Providores I knew it individual and creative. What he cooks and what I was the perfect fit for my personality. I’ve never cook will be completely different, even if we have tolerated people who are unreasonable, shouty, the same ingredients. We have our own styles. mean or bullying. That behaviour happens in Our way of being in The Providores kitchen certain kitchens, and I’ve done my darndest to was pioneering—but I don’t think I knew that at avoid them. What I didn’t know was how much the time. Peter was only the second chef I’d ever fun it would be. There was an expectation worked with in Britain and before that I was with that you would always do nothing but your Margot and Fergus Henderson who were equally “IT WASN’T ABOUT best, but there was also support to make cool, relaxed and friendly. They were part of KILLING YOURSELF sure you did. The whole team was built a small group of chefs heralding a new era of OVER MICHELIN STARS. IT WAS ABOUT around camaraderie and I thrived in running kitchens. For them, it wasn’t about MAKING GOOD, that environment. It was a step up from killing yourself over Michelin stars. It was about INTERESTING FOOD” anywhere I’d worked before in terms of working together to make food that was good ANNA HANSEN professionalism, and I loved it. and interesting. We did work ridiculous hours, I joined The Providores at the end of 2001 often—but we did so by choice, because we all as chef de partie, just after it opened. In wanted to thrive and succeed. my first week in Peter’s kitchen everything We had so much fun doing The Providores. I tasted—absolutely everything—blew me When it was time to work, it was time to work, away. Being from New Zealand there were a but we had a joke, listened to music, and we lot of ingredients I was familiar with, but I was worked together, although it wasn’t always still mesmerised. I loved the unapologetic, easy. It was the first time any of us had opened unrelenting pursuit of flavour—heat, salt, acidity. a restaurant before and it was a massive Though there’s a balance that needs to be undertaking. It was a good experience to have mastered, of course—there’s nothing worse than had when it came to opening The Modern someone saying, “Can you tone it down a bit?” Pantry—though that was a different challenge. I do think the culture of New Zealand is This time I was doing everything on my own. reflected in The Providores—multiculturalism, The time I spent with Peter was invaluable. humility, communication—and I’ve strived to He believes in people, and I think the effect you create that at Caravan. We have an open forum can see around London is because of that. He’s in which everyone can have their say on how a unique human being who has touched the lives we can improve. That’s very New Zealand. A of thousands of people, inside and outside the sense of collective responsibility is what makes world of food. He is also a very clever man. The kitchens great. only chef who can touch him for creativity and Setting up Caravan was never about leaving kindness is Yotam Ottolenghi—and he is good The Providores. It was about going back to friends with Peter, so he must be okay. my friends, Laura and Chris, who I’d met in Wellington 25 years ago. In 2009 we felt like we’d The Providores and Tapa Room 109 Marylebone High Street, all earned our stripes and could pursue our W1U 4RX dream of having our own restaurant. theprovidores.co.uk 32 — marylebonefoodfestival.com
LOCAL HERO Trishna co-founder Karam Sethi on how his desire to recreate the energy and vibrancy of Indian food culture shaped one of Marylebone’s favourite restaurants and led to his family-run business becoming a major force on the London restaurant scene
Words: Viel Richardson
“WITH TRISHNA, WE OPENED THE RESTAURANT THAT WE WANTED TO EAT IN OURSELVES. NO PRETENSIONS, NO STIFFNESS AND GOOD FOOD” KARAM SETHI 33 — marylebonefoodfestival.com 34 — marylebonefoodfestival.com
The world was a very different place in 2008. A little-known senator from Chicago named Barack Obama was named as the Democratic Party’s candidate for the presidency of the United States, the collapse of the Lehman Brothers bank led to the financial world almost literally running out of money, and just as importantly (for us, at least) a new Indian restaurant called Trishna opened its doors for the first time on Blandford Street. “You could say that it was a challenging time to open a restaurant,” says Karam Sethi, smiling, as he casts his mind back over a decade. He had taken this bold decision along with his sister Sunaina and brother Jyotin. “It was tough, but also a time of great food we have grown up eating both in London opportunity. Back then, the big hotel and and on our visits to our grandparents in India. expensive fine-dining restaurants were There, we would dine in clubs such as the dominating the scene. There seemed no space gymkhanas and golf clubs, where the food was for people to open on a smaller scale or try great and the atmosphere more relaxed. Those something new. The credit crunch changed dining experiences as children still very much everything, as people were suddenly looking inform the type of food and style of restaurants for new types of investments. Then Russell we like. With Trishna, we opened the type of Norman opened Polpo, which was a new style restaurant that we wanted to eat in ourselves. of restaurant, and his success showed what No pretensions, no stiffness and good food. For was possible. He was a real inspiration to a lot me, Indian food should be served in the middle of people, including us.” of the table and shared.” What Polpo demonstrated was that restaurants serving well-designed, beautifully That consuming food should be a sociable and cooked but keenly priced small plates was enjoyable experience is deeply important to not only viable but potentially profitable. It Karam. For him, the excitement and pleasure was a style of dining that spoke to Karam and that you revelled in when being taken out for his siblings. The Indian tradition of dining, a meal as a child should not disappear just the tradition with which he had been raised, because you are old enough to have children is based upon an informal family-centred yourself. However, everything had to start with experience, with everyone sharing communal the food. And that, he thought, had to be tasty, dishes of excellent food. Karam had always consistent and authentic. believed that informality and unimpeachable Quite how important authenticity would be quality did not have to be mutually exclusive and was something that Karam and his siblings thought that the approach to dining espoused perhaps underestimated at first. “From the by Russell Norman could be a perfect fit for the start, we were serving dishes based on the Indian food he loved. cuisine from the south-west coast of India. However, the British Indian dining scene We were confident that it was something that was not a promising landscape for such would be new to many diners and that they an idea. On the one hand you had the local would enjoy it as much as we did,” Karam restaurants where people went for a limited explains. “But while things were going alright, selection of cheap Anglicised dishes, washed the restaurant hadn’t really sparked into life. down by pints of lager. On the other were some Something was missing.” After two years, the expensive, starchy, overly-formal high-end Sethis decided that a change needed to be restaurants reserved for special occasions. made, and Karam himself went into the kitchen. Neither of these appealed to our budding “I decided to make just one major adjustment, restauranteurs. but to apply it to everything,” he says. “From “The vibe in high-end restaurants didn’t the start. we had adapted the spicing to what appeal to us. It was really stiff, there was no we thought the British palate preferred, and in character and the interior design felt sterile. hindsight this had been a mistake. I made the There was none of the energy, vibrancy and life spicing bolder, punchier and more complex, that I have always associated with India and its much more reminiscent of how these dishes food,” Karam explains. “The food we wanted to would be served in their native regions. It serve was food inspired by home cooking, the was not a case of making things hotter—too 35 — marylebonefoodfestival.com much chilli heat overwhelms the flavours, and the main that Karam, Sunaina and Jyotin are keen to continue ingredient still has to sing on the plate. You just need to exploring. “The cuisines in Goa and Delhi are as different use the spices with confidence. The dishes retained a as those in England and Portugal. There’s a huge amount modern twist, but at their core was the idea of honouring to discover. It is very much at the forefront of our minds the skills of those who had created this cuisine, and to continue to create a wide variety of authentic, complex trusting that our diners would appreciate the dishes they and flavourful dishes.” had created.” One sign of the change that Trishna’s success has That faith paid off—the following year Trishna was helped inspire is the diminishing of the ‘curry and a pint’ awarded Michelin’s Bib Gourmand, which recognises culture that had become the dominant form of Indian restaurants that serve outstanding food at affordable food. Now, the suggestion that Indian food and good prices. But there was more to come. In 2012 Trishna wine might be paired together is no longer met with became one of the few Indian restaurants in the country the scepticism of old. “They were definitely not seen to gain a coveted Michelin star. “I thought that it was a as a things that belonged together. We were working wind-up,” says Karam. “I first heard on the morning of against a culture that said Indian food was not fine my 28th birthday, due to the list being leaked early. When enough to warrant good wine, but we knew from our we realised it was true, there was a real sense of pride own experience that this was not true,” Karam recalls. as well as surprise. It was also a bit daunting, as with “This was a perception we really wanted to change and that star comes pressure. You are now in the spotlight, we put a lot of hard work into this from the beginning. We especially as an Indian restaurant. Suddenly, there was were sending out a message about the sophistication of a curiosity among the public to see what a Michelin- good Indian cuisine. I believe Trishna was the first Indian starred Indian restaurant has to offer. We started pushing restaurant to have every dish on the menu paired with a ourselves even harder to make sure we didn’t only keep carefully chosen wine. We also had a wine flight option it for a year. Everyone’s hard work means it is still on the for our tasting menu. Sunaina has to take a huge amount door today.” of credit for this. She took on the job of building the wine list and worked incredibly hard at finding the right wines That was seven years ago and much has changed. Trishna and working on the pairings—she was a real pioneer in has now grown into JKS Restaurants, the group taking this area. Funnily enough, we have now come full circle. its name from the first initial of each of the three siblings. At Brigadiers, the food is being matched with carefully What began as a risky punt at the start of a recession has chosen and interesting beers that we are brewing led to the Sethis being some of the most influential figures ourselves. Matching carefully great drinks with Indian on the London dining scene. The group is involved with 17 food no longer raises eyebrows.” restaurants across London, split into two distinct areas. Karam is still very much involved with the food side One is based around the cuisine of the Indian subcontinent of the business, though he has stepped back from the and is made up of Trishna, Gymkhana, Hoppers, a delivery daily grind of the restaurant kitchen. His time behind service called Motu, which focuses on Indian street food, the stove is now spent alongside the group’s other chefs and Brigadier. Then there are the ‘partner’ restaurants as they develop menus for new restaurants or work on including places such as Lyle’s, Bubbledogs and Bao. new recipes for the existing ones. “We will hire a chef “Jyotin, Sunaina and I actively run the Indian three to six months before the project opens and I am restaurants, whereas we are investors in the partner in the kitchen pretty much every day with them. During restaurants,” says Karam. “Throughout our expansion that time, we will be testing dishes, testing ingredients, of the Indian cuisine offerings, the ethos has remained creating the menu. We will very much go through the the same: punchy, bold flavours inspired by authentic whole process together. The great thing is that we can regional cooking. Along the way we have expanded the create much more creative and adventurous menus than variety of regions we cover. In Gymkhana, the food has a you once would,” Karam reveals. “I wouldn’t call myself a wider range but is more from the north of the country; chef anymore. While I still go into the kitchen during the in Hoppers, dishes are inspired by the food of Sri Lanka set-up phase, I have to take a holistic view of the whole and Tamil Nadu; and Brigadier is probably the most pan- restaurant concept. I look at layout, decoration, menu, Indian.” Karam explains. staff, uniforms. But my thinking on food is still very much That early lesson in authenticity has not been the same. I’m inspired by old, rare and classic recipes forgotten, and nor has a commitment to using the best and creating our takes on those recipes. We never ‘fancy produce available. “We import a lot of the spices and the them up’, but stay close to the roots of where the food chillies we use from India—Kashmiri chillies being a big originates. Bold, indulgent spicing with a sense of fun one. We also import some other things like alphonso and and a sense of occasion defines our food. It has to create Pakistani mangoes, and other produce we just cannot conversation, be convivial. That is what I think our food is source outside India. However, we buy in as much as we and should always be.” can from British producers,” Karam explains. Things are going well, but there is no resting on Trishna 15-17 Blandford Street, laurels being planned any time soon. The differences in W1U 3DG regional Indian cuisine can be huge, and this is an area trishnalondon.com 36 — marylebonefoodfestival.com 37 — marylebonefoodfestival.com SOURCE MATERIALS Even the most skilled of cooks are only as good as the produce at their disposal. Eight of Marylebone’s chefs tell the stories of the ingredients that inspire their best work Interviews: Ellie Costigan, Clare Finney, Viel Richardson 38 — marylebonefoodfestival.com
OLIVE OIL CEPS COPPA EDUARDO TUCCILLO COLIN KELLY DALMAINE BLIGNAUT TWIST KITCHEN PICTURE BOXCAR BAKER & DELI
In Italy, olive oil is like gold. It is very My favourite ingredient is the We use a company called Cobble important to me. It represents my mushroom. When I’m at home, it Lane Cured for all our charcuterie. childhood: my grandfather used to goes into almost everything and if They’re an amazing little producer: have a few olive trees on his little I could, I would put it in everything everything is made in Islington, piece of land and in September or here at the restaurant as well. I love and all of the produce they use is October, we would go and pick the the umami taste of mushrooms British. Here at the restaurant olives from the tree and make olive cooked in some butter and we try to get everything as oil. It felt like a festival. salt. In the restaurant, we locally as possibly, as much For my olive oil, I use a small farm make it a little more fancy. for the quality as for the in Calabria called Frantoio Baroni At the moment, we have a environmental factors. de Rosis Rossano, which is owned mushroom tart with slow Britain produces some of by a family friend and is one of the cooked duck egg, and it the best livestock in the oldest producers in Italy. They’re has five or six different world. still using the old methods of picking types of mushrooms: The coppa is probably and cold-pressing the olives, which roasted mushrooms, the one we use most and is done at 27C. Once the olives are sliced raw mushrooms, will come back to time picked, they are pressed and bottled mushroom powder, and again, because it’s within 12 hours—it’s really fresh. They mushroom sauce, so versatile. It’s made don’t produce much, only for a few mushroom ketchup, and with free-range pork restaurants in the area and for us. onion and mushroom shoulder, specifically It’s very, very good oil. The owner, marmalade—just a cut called the pork Roberto, is an expert on olive oil. He because I love it. I don’t collar. It’s rubbed has different kinds of olives on his think that’s ever going to with simple spices and frantoio: dulce de rossano, leccino, come off the menu. aromatics—black pepper, coratina, nocellara, pendolino We always have a cloves, nutmeg, ground and moraiolo. He makes me a few wild mushroom on the juniper, mace, garlic, salt— different blends. There’s one that is menu somewhere—we and hung for three months really top, which we use for finishing— use different mushrooms to mature. It’s great just on not aggressive, very low in acidity, depending on the time of its own, letting the delicious fruity, very Mediterranean. If we are year—but my favourite is the cep. meat speak for itself, or on our making a simple fillet of fish, we will It’s always a little celebration when charcuterie board we serve it with use just a little bit of this olive oil. Then they come in. The thing about the cep a lovely homemade olive and caper we have one for salads, which is a is that it’s quite meaty, so if you’re tapenade, freshly baked sourdough, little bit more acidic, but refreshing a vegetarian it’s a good substitute. a few gherkins and some pickle. We so that the salad still feels crisp when Also, the flavour is fantastic—even also make our own flatbreads: one of you eat it. It’s very well balanced. Then just from the trimmings. We pare it them is plain rosemary and salt, then we use one for cooking, which is still down to make it beautiful, but we don’t as it comes out of the oven we put very delicate and mild, with just the really waste any of the mushroom; the sliced coppa over the top so that right amount of fat. In my kitchen, we use the trimmings in sauces and the residual heat from the flatbread olive oil is one of the main stocks. If you make a meat- softens up the marbled fat and really ingredients that I use, so I based stock, you have brings out all that flavour. had to choose one of the to cook it for hours and best. I am very lucky to have hours, whereas I cook my Boxcar Baker & Deli 7A Wyndham Place, Roberto. mushroom stock for 10 W1H 1PN minutes boxcar.co.uk Twist Kitchen —no more, otherwise you cook 42 Crawford Street, W1H 1JW off that freshness and flavour. twistkitchen.co.uk Picture Marylebone 19 New Cavendish Street, W1G 9TZ picturerestaurant.co.uk 39 — marylebonefoodfestival.com
BEEF NEMANJA BORJANOVIC LURRA
The ingredient Lurra is best known for is our beef, seared over the grill. In the past we’ve used Galician blond beef, but in recent months we’ve been working with a farm to raise our own retired dairy cows, here in the UK. We take cows that have been through a four-year dairy cycle, after which they don’t produce enough milk to be economical. Normally at this point they would go to the abattoir to be turned into cheap mince for dog or cat food. Instead, we buy them for comparatively little, and for a year to 18 months these retired cows live out their days on a lovely farm in Thirsk, Yorkshire. It’s the best time of their life: just grazing and wandering. During this time, all milk production stops. The fat transfers from the udders, where their energy has gone into producing milk, to the rump and back. Fat is flavour—as is age, which is why old dairy cows are such a delicacy. Our cows are reared on grass—it is unnatural for cows to eat grain, and not great for the environment. In terms of sustainability, cows produce a lot of methane. The traditional model is to have dairy cows and beef cows, but this is dual purpose. One cow in its lifespan can produce both dairy and meat. Methane production is reduced by default— and the dairy farmers get better value from their livestock. It’s a win-win situation, not least for the customer, who gets this nutty, winey, intensely beefy steak.
Lurra 9 Seymour Place, W1H 5BA lurra.co.uk 40 — marylebonefoodfestival.com
WILD GARLIC LAUREN KERR FISCHER’S
The first time I came across wild garlic wasn’t at work but when I was wandering around Borough Market in my own time, looking for new and exciting ingredients. I’d never seen it before, so I bought some and started experimenting with it in the kitchen. Wild garlic is a leaf that smells exactly like regular garlic and has pretty much the same flavour, but it’s not as punchy—it’s quite subtle, quite delicate. It can be used as a herb or a vegetable—I think that’s why I like it so much, because it’s so versatile. It’s also native to this country and has a short season, so in the spring, when it does come in, I like to use it a lot at the restaurant. One of the dishes we’ve had on the menu recently is a wild garlic and asparagus soup. It has a similar base to leek and potato soup, then you throw in the asparagus at the last minute, so it doesn’t overcook. The wild garlic is blanched, then refreshed in ice so it stays a really bright, vibrant green, which bursts through when you blend it into the soup. You can also use wild garlic to make dressings, or my favourite thing to do with it is make a pesto. This is also white asparagus season, so I’m planning to put that on the specials along with wild garlic and a fried duck egg. Wild garlic is only here until June, so I plan to do at least a couple more dishes with it before it’s gone.
Fischer’s 50 Marylebone High Street, W1U 5HN fischers.co.uk 41 — marylebonefoodfestival.com
CHICKEN YELLOWFIN TUNA CHOCOLATE ANTONY ELY ROBERT CARMO ANDREW GRAVETT DAYLESFORD BERNARDI’S ROUX AT THE LANDAU
The chickens I get to cook with One of the most popular items we ‘Posh Dairy Milk’ probably isn’t quite are, I believe, the very best you can have at Bernardi’s is our tuna, which the right way to describe Valrhona’s get. Their meat has a wonderful we cook on the grill and Caramélia chocolate, but flavour, a beautiful texture and is serve rare with olives, the flavour is definitely exceptionally juicy. I am in control Sicilian datterini tomatoes one you will associate with of five Daylesford kitchens and the and Sardinian asparagus. childhood. As pastry chefs, popularity of the chicken dishes Salmon and sea bass we know that if you make on all of those menus is down to dishes are always popular, a dessert that reminds a combination of two things: the especially as we get into people of when they were skills of the great group of chefs the warmer months, but kids, you are onto a winner. we employ, and the quality of the tuna is the star of the The Caramélia chocolate animals raised on the Daylesford show. We use yellowfin is infused with real, dairy- family farm in Gloucestershire. tuna: pole caught, so based caramel, which is The breed doesn’t have a fancy it’s the most sustainable added to the cocoa beans ‘heritage’ name—our farm source of tuna, and at the time of conching. It’s managers just selected the sashimi-grade—that is, a milk chocolate, so it’s 36 breed best suited to produce of the highest quality per cent cocoa—but the outstanding poultry in there is, which means you can quality is second to none. London’s the conditions on eat it raw as well as cooked. As chocolate mafia will have you believe our farm. From the we get into summer, we’ll be the only good chocolate is dark beginning our owner serving tuna crudo, with just chocolate, but that is far from true— refused to compromise some lemon and good olive there are really good milk and white on standards of animal oil. chocolates out there. It is all about the welfare, sustainability or One of the reasons we love beans, but also the roasting process, husbandry, and that has working with yellowfin tuna is the grinding time and the conching never changed. We want that it’s such a versatile fish, time. chickens to lead healthy, as good grilled as it is raw All Valrhona, chocolate is ground happy lives under extremely or in pasta. In fact, any tuna to be below 17 microns, so you high welfare standards. In fact, trimmings left over from the simply don’t detect any texture. It’s we are one of only two places grilled dish or the crudo we use just pure smoothness. The conch is in the UK where chickens are in our pasta alla puttanesca a huge cement-mixer like machine, certified organic from birth. at lunch. Our puttanesca is which heats and mixes the ground We use natural remedies if they are made with fresh chilli oil, lemon, cocoa nibs so the bitter compounds ill, which keeps drugs out of our rosemary and capers—it’s delicious, evaporate off. The longer the conching food chain. They are free to roam in and it is brilliant to be able to create time, the more the real cocoa flavours a paddock the size of half a football it using fresh tuna rather than tuna develop. Valrhona conches for 72 pitch, and they have a shelter that from a jar, which is how it is usually hours, while most producers only can be moved around that field if it’s made. It also means we minimise the conch for 24 hours. The flavour lasts needed. I am in no doubt that you can waste from this beautiful fish. Our long after you’ve swallowed it. It really taste the result of all this effort on desire to avoid waste extends to all coats your mouth. It’s as good for the plate. While I could find cheaper dishes on the menu: it is right and eating as it is for cooking with. chickens elsewhere, in my opinion respectful to use the whole animal. The chocolate is sourced direct I could not find better ones. That is from plantations, so the owners get down to the owner’s commitment Bernardi’s a fixed salary regardless of whether 62 Seymour Street, and vision and the people who have W1H 5BN they have had a bad yield. The price been hired to bring that vision to life. bernardis.co.uk doesn’t fluctuate. The new wave of bean-to-bar companies suggest Daylesford responsible sourcing is a new 6-8 Blandford Street, W1U 4AU thing, but Valrhona has lived these daylesford.com principles for almost 100 years.
Roux at the Landau 1C Portland Place, W1B 1JA rouxatthelandau.com 42 — marylebonefoodfestival.com
“DON’T GET ME WRONG: I LIKE MICHELIN-STARRED RESTAURANTS. BUT LIFE IS HECTIC AND BUSY, SO WHEN YOU GET TIME OFF, YOU WANT TO HAVE FUN” NUNO MENDES 43 — marylebonefoodfestival.com Fire in the belly As soon as it opened, the Chiltern Firehouse restaurant became a magnet for the rich and famous, but the glamour of some of its diners is possibly the least interesting thing about it. Executive chef Nuno Mendes and head chef Richard Foster talk about the subjects that really matter: the food and the philosophy that underpins it Words: Clare Finney Images: Emma Lee, Orlando Smith, Tim Clinch, Peden And Munk 44 — marylebonefoodfestival.com
Forty-seven thousand. That’s how many portions of crab the neighbourhood. We’re a neighbourhood restaurant doughnuts the Chiltern Firehouse has sold since it opened that has become destination.” I’m having a flat white with its gates to international acclaim bordering on hysteria. Its Nuno and his right-hand man, head chef Richard Foster, in refusal to court publicity had, as someone in owner André one of the plush private dining rooms tucked away next to Balazs’s marketing department must have predicted, the restaurant. The pair shrug when I mention celebrities. somehow courted more publicity than any hotel restaurant “The clientele is the clientele. Our team is passionate about opening London had ever seen. The story was that getting hospitality, and we pride ourselves on looking after the a table had become instantly impossible. You had to be guests and giving them all a good time,” says Nuno. To be somebody, or know somebody, simply to get standing room dining or drinking here is to feel like the most important in the bar area. Yet while the media gorged themselves person in the room, regardless of whether you actually are. on snaps of celebrities approaching, entering, or—best The service, the environment, the menu—all are geared of all—stumbling out of the iconic black gates, within the toward your entertainment: and while a plate of the famous Firehouse walls a smart, understated and altogether more crab doughnuts would work beautifully in isolation, it’s this sophisticated crowd of regulars were quietly gathering. holy trinity that sets the Firehouse ablaze. They were the locals: Marylebone residents and The secret, it seems, is North America. Loathe though workers who, unphased by the famous faces, knew a we often are to acknowledge it, there are areas in which good thing when they saw one. Yes, you were as likely to the States’ huge bearing on our culture and food has bump into Kate Moss in there as your neighbour, but the proved positive. The Firehouse is one of them: a living, dining room was chic, the bar beautiful, the staff warm fire-breathing testimony to the merits of a restaurant in and inviting, and the kitchen—a gleaming, buzzing open which hospitality, taste and above all enjoyment are the plan affair with dining seats at the counter for front row primary concerns. Nuno is Portuguese by birth, but he action—overseen by none other than Michelin-starred cut his teeth in the Big Apple: home of quality brasseries chef Nuno Mendes. They loved his food—a bold and and busy, beautiful hotel restaurants. “I spent 15 years in enticing blend of cuisines and flavours with a North North America, and most of my experience was in those American thread running throughout—and they loved kinds of places: amazing for a good night out, loud and the drinks list, which had been created with just as much social—but with a cool and interesting menu. searing attention to detail. I never found that in London.” Times have changed “We are a destination restaurant, but from the start now, but if you think about it, not so long ago the choice our offer has been geared toward local people—to over here was really between a formal, fine-dining experience or TGI Friday’s. “THERE WERE “Don’t get me wrong: I like Michelin- 200 PEOPLE HERE starred restaurants. There’s definitely a ON A WEDNESDAY. AND THE BUZZ, place for them,” says Nuno. “But life is THE NOISE, MADE YOUR hectic, we are busy, and when you get time HAIR STAND ON END” off, you want a place to have fun in.” RICHARD FOSTER “I went for lunch at a reputed fine-dining restaurant a few months ago,” Richard interjects. “We were there for four hours, emptied our pockets—and had no fun at all. We couldn’t really chat because waiters were constantly interrupting us with more and more courses—and I’m just bored of that,” he exclaims. Richard has worked at some of the capital’s most acclaimed restaurants, but he’s found his home at the Firehouse. “There were 200 people in the restaurant last night. Two hundred. On a Wednesday in Marylebone. And the buzz, the noise, made your hair stand on end.” “It was the sound of happiness!” Nuno chips in proudly, unable to disguise his joy.
The Chiltern Firehouse pulls tourists, like anywhere associated with fame and celebrity—which makes its popularity with locals all the more remarkable. Almost everyone I’ve spoken to for this magazine over the last four years has mentioned the Firehouse as a haunt. Some people go daily. “We have many guests to whom we can just say, the usual? And I love that. It’s something we’ve been working toward since we opened,” says Nuno. “I also think people come back because they can have a 45 — marylebonefoodfestival.com
different experience every time. They can have a quick lunch in 20 minutes. They can relax in the afternoon in the courtyard with some oysters. They can rent the bar at night for a party or hire a private dining room for a big dinner,” adds Richard. “They can have a luxurious or a fairly economical experience.” Sun sweet melon comes with kelp and Piouet olive oil. Smoked eel comes with potato purée, yuzu and torched onion. The obligatory burrata is there of course—but instead of importing from Italy, the chefs source the cheese from the La Latteria dairy, here in London. “They make our burrata and stracciatella fresh every day in Acton. We love to work with producers like that,” says Nuno, who dresses the Firehouse burrata in chilli jam and heritage tomatoes. Local produce, Japanese sauces, Indian spices, southern US ingredients and European techniques are scattered throughout the menu, and there is certainly more than a hint of fusion flying around here—although Nuno is wary of what he calls “fusion confusion”. His approach, and Richard’s too, is very much that of a well-travelled, Michelin-starred Portuguese chef who has worked in the global cities of North America and the UK. Nuno calls it “the New York pantry”: “In a kitchen in New York or San Francisco, the product is the driver, but the way you dress it can be from all four corners. Somewhere like Gramercy Tavern will have French technique, Mexican ingredients, Japanese ingredients—and I like that. It’s a fun way to eat.” The produce is British (“at least 90 per cent”), but the pantry is cosmopolitan. It is here, Richard points out, 46 — marylebonefoodfestival.com that you can see Nuno’s Portuguese heritage. Everyone in the kitchen gets involved in “What struck me, when I was travelling, was how creating new dishes. “Though we’re a big easily the Portuguese cuisine fits in with others. restaurant, I like to keep that small restaurant Malaysia, Macau in China, the Philippines, Africa, feel, where the team feels like a family. There’s South America, parts of India—all were at some interaction with the menu and interaction point a part of the Portuguese empire, and you’ll with the suppliers. We have suppliers visit find that in the food.” every single day here, and if they turn up with Richard, who took six months out from something really cool, it’s nice to say we can working at the Firehouse to travel around work with it,” says Nuno. The chefs remain Asia and Africa, was struck by the extent of motivated (“If someone is working a 55-hour Portugal’s culinary influence. “I was in Goa in week in a demanding environment it’s really India, and they have this pork sausage made important they feel nurtured and engaged in the with loads of spices, which they serve in a curry. creative process,” observes Richard) and the Pork isn’t usually big in India, but where the diners can enjoy venison, new-season plums Portuguese travelled they used local ingredients and rich roasted partridge. to recreate their dishes. Seeing that gets your brain thinking about how you can fuse different Last year, the Firehouse’s famous oyster cart cuisines.” For Nuno, a culinary nod to Portugal was joined by two more stands: one of cheese is a point of pride as well as palate. “I’m not and the other of charcuterie. “It’s such visceral nationalistic, but I am very proud of what has produce. You want them on display, not hidden happened in my country. I think for a long time somewhere in a fridge,” says Nuno. Having toyed we hid our cuisine and served what we thought with the idea of having an all-British selection, tourists were looking for. Now we have started he decided there were plenty of places doing taking more pride in our produce and dishes, that already in London, and that they should also and there’s been a revolution in rural areas in showcase other countries: after all, you don’t Portugal, with young people rejuvenating old spend 20-odd years travelling the world working traditions in making wine and cheese.” in food without befriending a few artisans. “We In Lisbon and Porto, restaurants serving have some amazing friends doing amazing spag bol and pizza have been replaced with projects,” he enthuses. “I want to have some tascas and petisqueiras serving up traditional British cheese, of course, but we aren’t a British (and, increasingly, highly modern) Portuguese restaurant. Italy, Austria, Spain, Portugal, dishes. It’s come over to London too: Nuno Germany—they’re all doing interesting stuff, and himself opened Taberna de Mercado in we want to share their story.” Spitalfields, and you’ll find petiscos—the ‘Make it new’ was the maxim of 20th century Portuguese answer to tapas—all across London. writer Ezra Pound—but it could equally be “Spain, France and Italy have done a very good said of Nuno Mendes and his approach to job at marketing their cuisine. It is recognisable. restaurants. Soon after coming to London When you travel to those countries you want in 2007, he founded the Loft Project, the cult to try it. And I think we have made the step of pop-up for which the chef cooked at their own coming out and saying, this is Portuguese.” home and guests dined communally around Though he had “no idea they would be such their kitchen table, because nothing like it a hit; I just thought they’d be tasty”, Nuno’s existed. He opened Viajante, his first Michelin- crab doughnuts are a prime example of his starred restaurant, and Taberna do Mercado, innovative approach. “There is American, there’s for the same reason. “I enjoy doing projects Portuguese—there are references to all sorts that are new to London—not for the sake of it, of things in there,” he enthuses. Served with egg but because they add another layer to the food and wasabi, there is also a touch of another of scene. I keep lots of notes of ideas I want to Nuno’s favourite countries, one whose food also develop—in fact, I actually wrote that I wanted blends remarkably well with that of Portugal: to do a North American-style project years “I have a passion for Japanese cuisine. It before André asked me about this place...” marries really well with Portuguese, so there He smiles knowingly. is Japanese technique as well as ingredients I’m prepared to accept this prophetic throughout the menu.” For Richard chef’s foretelling of the Firehouse. But even he it is India—“the smells, the spices, the colours, cannot have predicted the popularity of crab the street food”—that gets his juices going. doughnuts with the denizens of Marylebone. “I love to try to match those to European techniques and ingredients.” As indeed he has CHILTERN FIREHOUSE 1 Chiltern Street, achieved in the Firehouse’s tandoori salmon and W1U 7PA lamb massaman curry. chilternfirehouse.com 47 — marylebonefoodfestival.com
“I ENJOY DOING PROJECTS THAT ARE NEW TO LONDON—NOT FOR THE SAKE OF IT, BUT BECAUSE THEY ADD ANOTHER LAYER TO THE FOOD SCENE” NUNO MENDES 48 — marylebonefoodfestival.com NORTH STAR
Texture’s chef-patron Aggi Sverrisson on his memories of Icelandic food, his spurning of the limelight and the importance of his Michelin star Words: Clare Finney 49 — marylebonefoodfestival.com
“THEY TAKE IT TOO FAR SOMETIMES, THAT ‘PICK SOME GRASS, COOK IT, PUT IT ON A PLATE’ THING. IT NEEDS TO TASTE GOOD A S W E L L” 50 — marylebonefoodfestival.com
of the television. I did too,” he shrugs, casually. “It was a luxury then, though it’s less popular nowadays.” Iceland is changing—and, like everywhere else, one of the most significant areas of development has been its food. It has gone gourmet. Once best known for its reindeer, Reykjavik is the latest city to join the culinary bandwagon, calling its fare ‘new Nordic’, and rolling out across Europe. First pioneered in 2004 by a group of Scandinavian chefs returning home from restaurant kitchens in France and Italy, this is an approach characterised by sustainability, seasonal cooking, vegetables and indigenous local ingredients. Texture opened in 2007. By this time Aggi had worked under Tom Aikens, Marcus Wareing, and most significantly Raymond Blanc at Le Manoir aux Quat’Saisons, where he spent three of his five years as the prestigious restaurant’s head chef. When Aggi arrived in Marylebone with his Norwegian king crab, Icelandic cod, and then-unknown cultured dairy product skyr and opened his first restaurant, it was many Londoners’ first experience of Scandinavian produce treated with the respect and delicacy you’d expect of haute cuisine.
Aggi is not of the ‘new Nordic’ school, though. Not that he disagrees with its principles—on “Now that isn’t very Icelandic, is it?” Aggi the contrary, his menu changes seasonally and Sverrisson grins triumphantly, as the tart his ingredients are impeccably sourced—but crunch of a radish brings a look of surprise “they take it too far sometimes,” he explains, to my unsuspecting face. What I’d assumed citing the current foraging trend as an example. was potato is in fact cubed mooki—a radish “That ‘pick some grass, cook it, put it on a plate’ more associated with China than it is that icy, thing. It needs to taste good as well, you know?” volcanic island near the North Pole—served with He takes a dim view, too, of tasting menus avocado, a smoky sliver of chorizo and a hunk comprising 30-plus courses, each one needing of milky-white cod. Its punch is one of several to be ‘introduced’. “It’s too much!” he exclaims reminders, dished out over four resplendent passionately. “The chef coming to the table courses, that Texture does not serve Icelandic each time, telling you how bloody good he is. food. It is a Michelin-starred restaurant serving You want to be left alone when you’re eating.” “modern European food with Scandinavian At which point a smart, broadly smiling waiter influences, and it focuses on combining and unwittingly approaches our table. Fortunately, emphasising different consistencies”. Beyond the dish—Norwegian king crab bathed in that, any assumptions you make are likely to be coconut milk, lemongrass and lime leaves— thoroughly shaken. needs little introduction. The hot, succulent Aggi Sverrisson is Icelandic, though. That pink frills in a luminous pool of fragrant herbs much is undeniable. Born and bred in Reykjavik, and creaminess speak for themselves about he came to cooking in spite of his heritage, the quality and provenance of Texture’s food. not because of it: “Boiled cod and potatoes. “I wouldn’t say it is strictly Scandinavian, let Boiled haddock and potatoes. Pan fried cod and alone Icelandic,” Aggi says of his restaurant, potatoes, if you were fancy,” is his salty synopsis “but it is perhaps my take on Scandinavian.” of Icelandic cuisine when he was a kid. If you His Norwegian king crab dish is a case in point. were lucky you’d get kaestur hákarl—that’s Caught in limited numbers, they are delivered the famous buried, fermented and dried shark, to the kitchen more or less as the fishermen which is considered a delicacy in Iceland and a find them: eight pounds of gnarly shell, spidery buried, fermented and dried shark everywhere arms and sweet meat apiece. The kitchen is else. “My parents used to snack on it, in front well versed in handling them—Aggi doesn’t 51 — marylebonefoodfestival.com
look like a man who’d shrink at the sight of a With constraint comes creativity. “You have crab shell—and they are the perfect vehicle a smaller frame than someone using cream to showcase his affinity with Asian cuisine. and butter, but I think it’s better,” Aggi says. “It works so well with fish and other seafood, Certainly, dishes like his signature anjou pigeon especially if you want something clean and with chargrilled sweetcorn, bacon popcorn light,” he enthuses, citing the food of Thailand, and red wine essence would suggest a mind Japan and Vietnam as key influences. “I eat a lot that looks beyond the obvious. Now in its tenth at restaurants like Hakkasan and The Araki and year on the menu, the pigeon dish is just one of so on.” Indeed, it’s this confidence with Asian many examples of how pioneering Texture was flavours that drove Aggi’s decision to eschew when it first opened its doors in 2007. In fact, cream and butter when he opened Texture: a some critics took exception. “We didn’t have any bold move for any chef, let alone one of Nordic tablecloths and people said that’s crazy, in a heritage and French training. fine dining restaurant! Now lots of places don’t At first, I think this a ‘clean eating’ decision: have tablecloths in London.” Likewise, Michelin- a sop to those poor souls shunning dairy, starred chefs cooking sans cream and butter, gluten and other deliciousness in their quest once unheard of, are increasingly commonplace for Instagrammable ‘perfection’. Yet a man as Japanese, Korean, Indian and other Asian- who starts a meal with a pile of warm, crusty inspired restaurants attract the praise of the sourdough complete with three types of olive illustrious awards scheme. oil is not a man concerned with assigning moral It’s been an interesting decade—for all of values to food groups. Far from being trend- us, but particularly for Texture, which opened led, the reason Aggi decided to cut the cream on the eve of the 2008 financial crisis and got its and butter was entertainingly simple—almost Michelin star just over a year later. Since then selfish. “I was always going out in fine dining Scandimania, health-conscious eating and the restaurants, and feeling too full after the impact of social media on all things ‘foodie’ tasting menus to go out and party,” he grins. have seen the restaurant’s defining features “I had to go home and lie on the sofa. So, I propelled to the status of major trends: relaxed decided to create a tasting menu which would fine dining, pickled vegetables, Scandinavian leave you feeling full, but good.” produce, Asian cuisine. “All the things we 52 — marylebonefoodfestival.com
“THIS IS MY FIRST were doing 10 years ago are now BABY AND I JUST mines for the vainglorious foodie. WANT TO BE HERE. popular,” Aggi laughs. “We were I DON’T WANT TO “I do it because it’s good PR, a bit ahead of our time, I have to BE OPENING when I have to.” Even the prospect say.” Yet while some restaurants PLACES ALL THE of opening a second restaurant TIME, BEING IN can live on ‘likes’ alone, for Aggi— THE NEWS” seems “attention-seeking. who wilfully possesses neither an This is my first baby and I just Instagram nor Twitter account—the want to be here. I don’t want to be most reliable signs of success are opening places all the time, being those that have always mattered: that in the news.” Michelin star, and whether or not his customers continue to return to his food. He knows what he likes, and what he likes is his “Some restaurants don’t need a star to restaurant: its food, and its design, in which he be successful, but places like this, trying to takes a strong interest. It’s amazing, really, do Michelin star food and charging Michelin that Aggi is so disdainful of Instagram: star prices—it matters.” Winning one in 2010 his cooling tomato gazpacho, served in a prompted “a massive turnaround” in Texture’s gleaming, green marbled seashell on a bed of fortunes, he says, and they’ve been working wild moss, is one of the most photogenic meals hard to retain it since. “People have become I’ve seen. He designed his crockery himself, with more and more conscious about where they a French ceramicist he’s known for decades, eat, so that is very satisfying.” More satisfying and it is beautiful: elegant, but with a rusticity still, though, has been loyalty shown by both perfectly befitting of the wild fish and seasonal local customers, and those coming from vegetables he uses. “If you are a chef, I think further afield. “I have customers who come you have this artist’s blood in you one way here for the first time and book to come again or another, and you know what will suit your before leaving. We have people who have restaurant. Rustic and elegant,” he smiles at been here over 100 times; one gentleman, my observation. “That is exactly how I would from Bray, has been over 200,” he smiles. describe our food.” Not unsurprisingly, many of these religiously Does it feel like he’s been here for over a regular customers have in time become Aggi’s decade, I ask? “Yes and no. We’ve had a love- firm friends. hate relationship during that time.” The financial One customer in particular stands out: crisis and the impacts of Brexit, both current a pilot from Newcastle, who saw Aggi on and impending, have made life hard for everyone Saturday Kitchen and decided to “prove him in the restaurant industry, and the future is hazy wrong” about cream and butter. “He came in terms of labour and the cost of food. Yet for here to prove my food was no good without all the downs, “there have been lots of ups,” he cream and butter—and he was blown away, smiles. His customers, his star, the “amazing” he said. Now we visit each other regularly. I’ve rise in the quality of British ingredients—and even flown in his plane!” In fact, to see Aggi on that sweet, sweet satisfaction we all get when Saturday Kitchen is a rarity in itself: in the age something we’ve always done becomes, in the of the celebrity chef, this taciturn Icelander is eyes of the world, ‘cool’. the exception, preferring the heat of the hob to the spotlight of publicity. “I have better things Texture 34 Portman Street, to do with my time,” he says disparagingly of W1H 7BY cookery programmes, social media, and other texture-restaurant.co.uk 53 — marylebonefoodfestival.com 54 — marylebonefoodfestival.com QA: RAISING SPIRITS Johnny Neill, founder of Marylebone Gin, on pleasure gardens, botanicals and the perfect martini
Interview: Viel Richardson 55 — marylebonefoodfestival.com
We understand your family has a bit of pleasure gardens. We “I WANTED GINS the flavours from the a gin history. looked at using floral YOU COULD DRINK botanicals as they pass NEAT AND NOT My father was a director of the botanicals that may HAVE TO HIDE IN through the basket. distillers G&J Greenall as well have been planted in A COCKTAIL. With our method, the as Greenall Whitley, a brewery pleasure gardens at the A GOOD GIN SHOULD flavours are a bit more HAVE EVERYTHING based in Warrington. His uncle, time, like lemon balm YOU WANT FROM intense because of the John D Whitley, was chairman and and lime flower. A DRINK” contact. my great-grandfather, JJ Whitley, was managing director. I am also What is the spirit you are trying What do you think has helped descended from the Thomas to invoke with Marylebone Gin? kick off the recent renaissance in gin- Greenall who founded Greenall’s I lived in Marylebone for about 15 making? back in 1762. My father left the years and loved the local area. I knew All drinks go through phases, it’s just company while I was quite young, about the Georgian pleasure gardens that gin had been forgotten for quite so I had no involvement with the and that there was a big gin craze a long time. I actually think one of the distillery at all. My initial jobs when the pleasure gardens were at things that helped the gin resurgence were in accountancy, going blind their height. I was trying to develop was the craft brewing renaissance. staring at spreadsheets. But I have a drink based around that Georgian Suddenly people were much more always been fascinated by gin, and period, but bring it up to date— interested in the provenance of what somewhere in the back of my mind I definitely not the rough, raw spirit they were drinking. They wanted always wanted to try making my own. that Hogarth knew. to know the stories behind what they were drinking and were also What made you decide to go for it? So what was the recipe you came more into trying drinks connected I sat in an office thinking I could up with? to the local area. I think gin was either do something that I’m really The base is a triple-distilled wheat particularly well suited to this passionate about, or I could continue grain spirit, which gives the drink new attitude. Gin makers can use staring at spreadsheets. So, I left a crisp, clean, pure feel. We then different base spirits, different the City and started to develop a started with the traditional London botanicals and different distilling gin brand called Whitley Neill. My dry gin botanicals—juniper, methods. It’s interesting for the wife is South African, so that first coriander, angelica—so in those distillers as well as the customers. gin was based around South African terms it is quite traditional. We You can have three or four different fruit flavours. We then launched then played around in the floral gins and go on three or four very Marylebone Gin in 2017. areas, using the botanical flavours I different journeys. mentioned. I also love citrus, so we What kind of drink did you want your added grapefruit peel, sweet orange What cocktails would you say that gins to be? peel and lemon peel, too. Marylebone Gin is good for? I wanted gins you could drink neat I’d say a nice dry martini. Pour your and not have to hide in a cocktail. Is the fact that it’s a London dry gin gin in a classic martini glass, add A good gin should have all the significant? some dry vermouth—as little as you characteristics you want from a It is a mark of quality—there are can get away with—then add a little drink; it should be flavourful, have regulations controlling how you bit of grapefruit zest just to lift the depth and be well balanced. One make it. To produce a London dry gin, coriander and the citrus notes in the of the most exciting things is that juniper has to be the predominant gin. you can use many different kinds flavour. You also have to start with a of botanical—berries, fruits seeds, basic spirit of agricultural origin, so As well as the original Marylebone roots, herbs—to flavour your gin. no synthetic spirits. You have to distil Gin, you seem to have recently it in what we call a pot still, it has to expanded the range. So, is making gin a more personal come out at over 70 per cent ABV and We have another gin that we wanted process than distilling other drinks? there are a few other restrictions. to really focus on the pleasure I would say so. You see more of the You can make a London dry gin garden, so the main botanicals in personality of the distiller in the gin anywhere in the world, as long as it that are sweet orange and geranium. because they can choose whatever meets these stipulations. This a much simpler recipe, with only botanicals they like. The stories eight botanicals as opposed to 13 in behind each gin—how the distiller How do you add the botanicals? the original. It is a lot more floral and developed their recipe and why All our botanicals physically sit in citrusy. The third one in the range they chose certain botanicals—are the base spirit in the still, which is a cask-aged gin. Gin historically something I love. For me, creating is how the fragrance and flavours would have been held in casks, which these gins has been an adventure. are infused. Some makers sit their of course would have imparted some With Marylebone Gin, I based the botanicals in a basket above the flavour. Once this gin is distilled, approach on the famous 18th century spirit, and the vapours pick up we are storing it in West Indian rum 56 — marylebonefoodfestival.com barrels for exactly six weeks. This extracts some the rum flavours such MIX THE WINE as cinnamon spice, vanilla and oak MASTERS LIST from the cask. It is very round and Four of our favourite Marylebone Marylebone’s wine experts pick smooth with hints of spice. cocktails out their favourite wines You have a small still sitting by Interviews: Viel Richardson the bar in the 108 Brasserie at the Marylebone Hotel. What are you making in there? As well as making Marylebone Gin, we’ve been using that beautiful copper distilling pot, which we call Isabella, to make small batches of 108 Gin, which we developed in a partnership with the Marylebone Hotel. I worked closely with the team there to develop the final recipe. It is a proper London dry gin, but alongside the usual botanicals we are using cardamom, basil and prune. 1. Grind espresso martini LAURENT FAURE, This energising cocktail from 31 Below is made with a simple, effective and very London-centric Le Vieux Comptoir Are you working on any other recipes? triumvirate of ingredients: the creamy mouthfeel CUVÉE LA MARQUISE BLANC DE The nature of gin means the basic and faint anise aftertaste of East London Liquor BLANCS, PAUL BERTHELOT, DIZY, Company vodka—made in Bow with 100 per recipe is very versatile. Recently cent British wheat—brought to life with a shot CHAMPAGNE, FRANCE we did a small batch of January of Grind espresso, which is roasted and ground seasonal gin for the hotel. Moving in Shoreditch, with a splash of gomme (sugar This is a beautiful, top quality syrup) added to sweeten it up a touch. ahead, we will continue to develop premier cru champagne, made by and experiment, especially with 2. Gimlet Paul Berthelot, a winery founded in botanicals. It is going to be an Possibly named after Sir Thomas Gimlette, the late 19th century in Dizy, a village a naval medical officer credited with adding exciting process. scurvy-preventing lime juice to his sailors’ near Epernay in the Champagne gin rations, but possibly not (cocktail name region. It is what we call a blanc How do you drink it? derivations are often fiercely contested), the de blancs champagne, meaning gimlet is among the simplest of the bartender’s Neat. I keep it in the fridge and sip it as repertoire, meaning that quality ingredients are that it is made using 100 per cent it is—it’s a delightful spirit. key. At The Coach Makers Arms, the drink is a chardonnay grapes. It is also a ‘brut 50:50 mix of Duck & Crutch gin, a small batch zéro’ which means there is zero spirit made in a shed in Kensington, and the Marylebone Gin sugar in it. Traditionally, sugar has marylebonegin.com bar’s own homemade lime cordial—a perfect blend of spicy, aromatic, sharp and sweet. been added to champagne to cover excess levels of acidity. The fact that 3. 5 Senses The Churchill Bar’s 5 Senses is not so this wine requires no sugar to be “ALL DRINKS GO much a single cocktail as a series of added indicates a very high quality THROUGH PHASES. events. Comprising of five different of grapes. Another thing that sets SUDDENLY PEOPLE drinks, all of which must be sampled ARE MUCH MORE in order to appreciate the whole, it this particular wine apart is that all INTERESTED IN celebrates Scotland’s national drink the grapes for a particular vintage THE PROVENANCE by linking a different malt whisky to are picked in a single parcel within OF WHAT THEY ARE each of the five senses. while taking DRINKING” you on a journey through five different the vineyard, giving a real purity of Scottish landscapes. flavours. This champagne has then been aged for four years, as opposed 4. RAKE’S PROGRESS There is a series of William Hogarth paintings to the usual 18 to 24 months. Ageing called The Rake’s Progress, in which Tom develops the layers of complexity Rakewell descends into licentiousness, frame and has given this a very minerally by frame. At Seymour’s Parlour, the cocktail of the same name alludes to Rakewell lavishly profile, with delicate flavours of kissing the cheeks of scarlet ladies—the almonds and pear and a beautiful combination of white colourant and the black long finish. dot created by juniper oil looks like their painted faces adorned with beauty spots. A spritz of perfumed oil, reminiscent of heavily perfumed Le Vieux Comptoir brothels, finishes this gin cocktail off: short but Moxon Street, punchy, and far more delicious than its spurious associations suggest. W1U 4EU levieuxcomptoir.co.uk 57 — marylebonefoodfestival.com
ANNE MCHALE, ANGELIQUE VAN BOMMEL NICOLE TRYTELL 108 Brasserie Philglas & Swiggot Vinoteca ‘NOBODY’S PERFECT’ SÉMILLON/ RECANTINA, SERANI & VIDOTTO, PINOT NOIR RESERVE, OLIVER MUSCADELLE, CHÂTEAU DE VENETO, ITALY, 2017 ZETER, PFALZ, GERMANY, 2016 MONFAUCON, BORDEAUX, FRANCE, 2017 Recantina is a grape variety that has Oliver Zeter is a bit of a maverick been grown in the Veneto region of in his approach to winemaking. I love the story behind this wine. The Italy for thousands of years but it He does his own thing and is vineyard is owned by an English lady had fallen out of favour and totally dedicated to making called Dawn Jones-Cooper. She had was in danger of being “AFTER FALLING absolutely the best wine worked as a hairdresser in London for lost altogether, so when IN LOVE WITH THE he can. His pinot noir is PLACE, SHE STARTED many years when she and her husband I first read about this A DEGREE much more full-bodied bought a farm in Bordeaux with a wine, it really intrigued IN VITICULTURE; than you would expect vineyard attached. After falling in love me. The moment I SEVEN YEARS LATER, from this variety. It is SHE IS THE MAKER with the place, she started a degree in poured some into the OF THIS DELICIOUS really vibrant with red viticulture; fast-forward seven years glass, I knew I was going WHITE.” berry and floral notes and she is the maker of this delicious to like it. It had this deep, that combine with really white. Her vineyard is fully organic, rich, ruby red colour, but also smooth, almost silky tannins which is quite hard to achieve in a transparency when you held it up to to make a wonderfully elegant wine. Bordeaux, where the humid conditions the light. It had a lovely flowery, spicy After I first tasted it at the vineyard, mean that most growers use aroma, with cherries and old berries, I told the guys here at Vinoteca as fungicides to combat mildew—it takes which promised a good wine. And soon as I got back that they had to get hard work and constant vigilance. when I drank it, I wasn’t disappointed. It a sample to try. I loved it from that Nobody’s Perfect is a sémillon / is fruity but well-balanced, with tons of first taste and still do. muscadelle blend. The sémillon adds a personality. Treviso, where it is made, This is definitely a wine that is lovely mouthfeel and texture, while the is known for its powerful, complex great to drink on its own—I certainly muscadelle is delicate and aromatic. wines, like amarone and merlot. The do—but it also pairs nicely with meat The wine has those familiar apple recantina grape, while having the dishes. This again is a bit unusual for and grapefruit notes, but also a zingy, recognisable terroir of the region, a pinot noir, which would usually be lip-smacking, ‘have another’ quality. has very different, very distinctive paired with lighter dishes like pasta, Normally as a professional you spit properties—it is a bit like if a syrah and but the tannins here mean it works. out wines during tastings to keep your a malbec had a baby. It shows there Oliver wants to show that great red head clear, but at a recent tasting I are still some treasures waiting to be wines can come from Germany—and drank the whole glass! discovered if you take the time to look. this beauty is definitely proof of that.
108 Brasserie Philglas & Swiggot Vinoteca 108 Marylebone Lane, 22 New Quebec Street, 15 Seymour Place, W1U 2QE W1H 7SB W1H 5BE 108brasserie.com philglas-swiggot.com vinoteca.co.uk 58 — marylebonefoodfestival.com
the Sheffield Twist Drill Company fashion, but I think you do have to and he was a toolmaker—a take it with a pinch of salt. I’m not craftsmen, really. I love materials, I unaware of what is happening, but love finding out about processes and it’s important not to get caught up how things are made. I love going in it—if you do, ultimately, you’re round workshops and big factories. going to end up creating a product I think to be a good designer, you that will date quite quickly. We’ve really need to know how things are always focused on purity of form; made. That’s why my dad set up his making beautiful simple shapes that QA: own cutlery manufacturer, so he are not flashy, that’s our trademark. could have that total control: start Hopefully you end up with something METAL off with the design and oversee its that still looks good in 10 years’ time. GURU development and manufacture. Corin Mellor, creative director of Is there a point at which striving for the David Mellor cutlery brand Have you carried on that approach? a certain aesthetic can impinge on and son of its eponymous founder, I’m involved in everything, yes. I practicality? on his design process, his love of have an amazing factory manager It’s inevitable. I wouldn’t criticise materials, and the surge in demand who’s been with us for 40 years, so anyone for it, we’ve all fallen for it for cake forks I liaise with him on production and at different times in our lives—and help him with any issues—and I am I think there’s a valid place for Interview: Ellie Costigan totally involved in the design side. it. Without fashion, the economy Portrait: Joseph Fox The design department is me and would stop—but I also think my assistant. It’s tiny. I like that: if there’s a really good argument for I had 20 designers, I wouldn’t be buying something that’s beautifully able to keep tabs on what’s coming designed, beautifully made, high out. I also oversee the direction of quality, and will last a long time. It the company, manage all our staff, can work out more economical— and do all of the display work in the you’re not buying rubbish that only shops. I’m in London a couple of lasts a year. It depends on your times a week. mindset—some people quite like to change things. On the other hand, David Mellor is known for its if you’ve got something you have an timelessness. Is it challenging to affection for and you’ve bonded with, maintain that while bringing in new you want to keep it. And you can products? only do that if it’s well-made. I think it’s quite simple—you just have to not over-design things You mentioned the importance and really understand of knowing how things materials. I’m not anti- “I THINK IT’S are made. What did you QUITE SIMPLE—YOU mean by that? JUST HAVE Have you always been a designer? TO NOT We were known for I studied a mix of furniture and OVER-DESIGN making knives and product design at Kingston University, THINGS AND REALLY forks, that got our UNDERSTAND which I really enjoyed. After that I was MATERIALS.” reputation going, lucky enough to go and work for a but since I took over, London architects’ firm—it was the I’ve become involved nineties, everybody got a job back in designing other things, then—but I found it a bit frustrating, but finding someone else to make because I couldn’t actually make them: fine bone china, glassware, anything. I retreated back to the Peak woodware, cast iron. If you’re District and got involved in the family designing an object to be made business. I worked alongside my with hand-blown glass, you need to father for many years, then took over understand how hand-blown glass about 10, 15 years ago. is made to be able to design it. I normally do it that way round; make It would seem design is in the sure I understand the process—if blood… it’s cast iron, how iron is cast—and I suppose it is really. My grandfather then design something. Otherwise used to work for something called you might have designed something 59 — marylebonefoodfestival.com
the makers are not very comfortable my design assistant James will with, so won’t do a very good job. You transfer what I’ve mocked up into end up not achieving what you want. the computer. From that we’ll do a 3D printed prototype, then move on What is your design process? to tooling. It’s a similar process with It might sound mad, but I design the hand-blown glass, but we’ll go things in my head first. Then I’ll go straight to the workshop and they’ll to the sketch pad—I’m really old do the mould and prototype. fashioned, I do it by hand. It helps me think, and I can adjust as I go. David Mellor has been around 60 The next step changes depending years. How much has changed? on what it is I’m designing. If it’s a The way we manufacture hasn’t knife, normally I would go into the changed at all. Bar the odd workshop and make a very rough machine, it’s pretty much the same prototype—‘knock it up’, as I call as it would’ve been 100 years ago. it, with bits of stainless steel: weld You could mechanise it more, but them together, file them and shape because we do such small volumes them and polish them to get what of so many different designs, it’s not I’ve sketched in rough 3D. Then feasible. We’re absolutely people- 60 — marylebonefoodfestival.com
1. led, which has its advantages: if Marbled stone dust bottle opener a customer comes in and says, HEAVEN’S Oliver Bonas, £14 “I’d like that range of cutlery but 2. KITCHEN Linear face patterned side plate shinier,” we can do that. If they Kitchenware from around The Conran Shop, £12 want a certain knife but they want 3. Marylebone Oiva Sääpäiväkirja plate by Marimekko different serration, we can do that. Skandium, £26 It gives us that flexibility. PAUL COSTELLOE, DESIGNER How much have changes in lifestyle affected what you do? Eating in If you went back 150, 200 years, the The things I love most are good olive place set was enormous: now some oil and salad. I really 1. people really only need a spoon and a enjoy making a fork. Other people love the showiness homemade salad with an oil, mustard of the dinner party, where they’ll likely and vinegar dressing. be doing quite a few courses and Our friends the 2. 5. therefore need quite a few different Bamfords have a cafe and shop called tools. Our oldest range is Pride from Daylesford, and they 1953, and we’ve realised it’s not big do a good job. It feels enough. There are, more recently, authentic. We go in sometimes and customers who want a cake fork— buy nice tomatoes, that’s been a bit of a ‘thing’—and a new potatoes or butter knife. We’ve never sold one fresh cream. in that range. I think part of that’s Eating out because people are taking food more Il Blandford’s serves seriously. If you’d asked me the same the best Italian food in the whole question five years ago, I’d say people of London—and I are paring back, but now there are have lived in Italy. people who like to have these special The second best is around the corner tools. To accommodate that, we’ve from there: Anacapri. always sold our cutlery in individual Fucina on 3. 6. pieces. You can, in effect, buy the Paddington Street. tools to do the job you need—if you JO GOOD, TV AND only eat cereal all day, you can just RADIO PRESENTER buy a spoon. Eating in I have to say, I have What with the shops, your never turned my workshop and factory, it’d seem oven on: I am single, I live in a tiny studio you live and breathe David Mellor… flat and I simply love My work and home life have always living in Marylebone. overlapped, which has advantages I’ll eat out, or I’ll get something from and disadvantages. I live on site, the salad bar at the which is great, because at night Natural Kitchen. when everyone’s gone I can go into Eating out the factory and make something— Fischer’s. I think fiddle on the lathe, play with the Corbin & King have 4. wheels. The disadvantage is when done something remarkable with that. something goes wrong, there’s It looks like it has someone knocking at my door at six been there for years! o’clock. My father started that, on a much smaller scale, so I just took it for granted. I’ve been making things since I was a little boy and I love doing it. My life and my work merge into one, really.
David Mellor 14 New Cavendish Street, W1G 8UW davidmellordesign.com 61 — marylebonefoodfestival.com
4. 9. 10. 13. Zalto universal glass Crane cookware C3 frying pan Philglas and Swiggot, £34.95 Another Country, £125 5. 11. Another Country pottery series pitcher Chopping board, round Another Country, £58 Skandium, £78 6. 12. Zalto No 75 carafe Kobenstyle 2-Quart casserole dish Philglas and Swiggot, £43.95 The Conran Shop, £99 7. 13. Copper pineapple ice bucket Age de Fer serving set Oliver Bonas, £40 Caravane, £41.86 8. 14. Siirtolapuutarha teapot by Marimekko Ecume glazed earthenware serving dish Skandium, £75 Caravane, £24.42 9. 15. Alfredo carafe by Georg Jensen Arran St East large pitcher Skandium, £45 Toast, £75
7. 11. 14.
12.
8. 10. 15. 62 — marylebonefoodfestival.com
A CUT ABOVE Jay Patel of the Japanese Knife Company on buying and caring for knives
“TAGADASHI SHARPENING IS THE ULTIMATE. IF I WERE TO USE THAT AND YOU WERE TO THEN CUT YOURSELF, YOU WOULDN’T KNOW IT A good knife will do most of the quality of the knife and amount will slice them. If UNTIL YOU SAW requires that you work for you—and one knife it’s used. If you do this, you will you bring that onion THE BLOOD” use eight stones on will do most of the work in the only need to use a sharpener to up to your eye, you a blade. If I were to kitchen. If I had a budget of £100 re-establish the edge every now won’t feel a thing—there use that and you were to for all my knives, I would certainly and then. will be no tears. There will then cut yourself, you would look to be spending £70-80 be more acid in the onion, more not know it until you saw the pounds on the one knife I use all The best kind of chopping sugar, it’ll caramelise at a lower blood. It’s used for cutting things the time. board is made with wood from temperature and it’ll taste a lot like live eels so they don’t feel the handkerchief tree. It’s very sweeter. anything. The most common cause of light—if you pick it up and blow damage to a knife is using force it hard it’ll blow away from Knives should always be cold Avoid any kind of storage that to try to cut something very hard. you—and very enduring. The when you sharpen them. There requires you to pull the knife in The mistake people often make is best synthetic boards are Asahi are three basic ways of doing it: a and out of a block at an angle. using a knife like a cleaver. rubber. The material is almost water sharpener, a steel rod, or a The blade is cutting the wood like a feather. They are amazing to water stone. each time. If you’re going to use If you take a newspaper or a use. You want to avoid very hard a knife block like that, turn your piece of leather and put it flat on things like oak—and do not ever ‘Stainless’ means just that—it blades upside down. The ideal a surface, stroke the blade over use glass or marble. It’s insane. stains less. It isn’t stain-proof. way to store it is to have a block it backwards and forwards—a Even stainless steel will rust if or a strip on the wall that is process called ‘stropping’—it Whatever a cutter can do to a left in water. It’s better to wash magnetic. The other way is to buy will realign the edge and bring it knife, we can undo it. There’s very and wipe the blade dry straight some kind of pouch or sleeve you back to full sharpness. It takes little we can’t repair. away. can put your knife into, then you 15 to 20 seconds and should be can put it into a drawer. done as often as every three If I cut an onion with a very sharp Tagadashi sharpening, which to four days, depending on the knife, it won’t tear the cells, it is the ultimate sharpening, A knife is the only tool that most people use every single day of their lives. It’s also the last thing that people think about. I always equate it with an iron: if you have one that doesn’t work very well, you keep rubbing it across your fabric and it creases, it’s frustrating. A knife’s exactly the same—if you can remove that frustration, your life will be so much more pleasant.
When buying a knife, insist that you hold it in your hand. It’s like buying a pair of shoes: unless you know the make, model, and size exactly, you’ve got to try the shoes on! Otherwise how are you going to know whether they fit you or not? It’s the same with a knife.
I would never recommend putting your knife in the dishwasher. If you’ve ever seen knives that have splits or bits broken off around the rivets of the handle, 99 times out of 100, that’s the result of putting it in the dishwasher.
Always buy a knife that’s easy to sharpen, rather than one that stays sharp for longer. It’s better to have a knife you can bring back to sharpness yourself.
Japanese Knife Company 36 Baker Street, W1U 3EU japaneseknifecompany.com 63 — marylebonefoodfestival.com
The Howard de Walden The Portman Estate Estate portmanestate.co.uk THE hdwe.co.uk The heart of The Portman MARYLEBONE The Howard de Walden Estate is 110 acres of Estate is the freehold owner prime property in the FOOD FESTIVAL of most of the buildings in vibrant and cosmopolitan 24-28 APRIL 92 acres of Marylebone, area of Marylebone, The Marylebone Food Festival is brought to central London. The Estate central London—a mix you by The Howard de Walden Estate and is owned by the Howard of residential, retail and The Portman Estate, supported by Baker Street de Walden family, whose office space that delivers Quarter Partnership, Marble Arch London and deep historic connections a sense of community. Marylebone Journal. Its charity partner is to Marylebone date back to As a family business, it is The Springboard Charity around 1710. With its entire able to strike a pragmatic operation based on Queen balance between short and Anne Street, the business long-term investments is firmly rooted in the local across the area. Over community and is fully recent years, the Estate committed to a long-term has worked especially hard investment strategy, with to restore many Georgian an equal focus on each of its buildings to today’s high main sectors: residential, standards and create office, medical and retail. contemporary homes and offices that reflect their historical context.
Baker Street Quarter Marble Arch London Marylebone Journal The Springboard Charity Partnership marble-arch.london marylebonejournal.com charity.springboard.uk.net bakerstreetq.co.uk Marble Arch London BID The Marylebone Journal The Springboard Baker Street was established in April magazine offers a window Charity helps young Quarter Partnership 2016 following a successful onto life in one of central people achieve their (BakerStreetQ) is a ballot of local businesses. London’s most attractive, potential and nurtures Business Improvement The BID delivers vibrant and culturally unemployed people of District (BID) covering a services to improve the rich neighbourhoods. any age into work. It geographical area which operating environment Since 2005, it has sought helps alleviate poverty by is roughly a quarter of for approximately to capture Marylebone’s supporting disadvantaged Marylebone, in which the 200 businesses and unique character through and underprivileged larger business occupiers organisations from a intelligent writing and people into sustainable and property owners range of sectors, including stunning photography. The employment within invest collectively to offices, hotels, shops, Journal is jointly supported hospitality, leisure improve their environment. restaurants, cafes, venues, by The Howard de Walden and tourism. Its work The Partnership came schools and community Estate and The Portman encourages and motivates into existence in April 2013 organisations. Together Estate, Marylebone’s two its beneficiaries, builds and represents circa 175 they provide a strong, historic estates. Published their confidence, develops businesses and seven collective voice for the every two months by LSC the skills they require and property owners. The Edgware Road and Marble Publishing, its 30,000 mentors them to succeed. Partnership’s vision is to Arch district—the world’s copies are delivered free to ensure the Quarter is the threshold to London. The residents and businesses West End’s commercial area’s celebrated dining, around the area. district choice by fostering leisure and cultural district a ‘Place For People’ and a is a premier destination for ‘Place for Business’ socialising, relaxing and eating out.. 64 — marylebonefoodfestival.com
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The Marylebone Food Festival is brought to you by The Howard de Walden Estate and The Portman Estate.