Corrigan’s Mayfair
Met up with the affable Mark Wogan for lunch to talk about the London Restaurant Festival. He has some good ideas. Mark is a former chef who now acts as an agent for the likes of chefs Richard Corrigan and Mark Hix and also his father, Sir Terry. I’m a big fan of Richard Corrigan, not only as a chef but also as a bloke. He has an unguarded passion for food that was sown, as a young boy, on his family’s modest small holding in Ireland. The menu at Corrigan’s Mayfair is still one of the most exciting in town. The dishes, like the man himself, are a welcome affront to the senses. I started with the octopus carpaccio with baby squid, chorizo and feta and then went for the kebab a la Greque with Salt Marsh lamb kidney. The octopus was served as delicate slivers and the smoky zing of the chorizo released flavours in octopus that can be dormant if served lazily. The kebab was buxom and succulent. On other occasions I have tried the suckling pig sausage with oysters and duck tongue, linguine cooked in red wine with pecorino bone marrow and the crubeens beetroot horseradish. The prune and Armagnac ice-cream is stellar, as is the rhubarb soufflé. Richard joined us for a glass of red. He’s extremely enthusiastic about the London Restaurant Festival and will be taking part. I have persuaded him to sit on the London team for our ‘University Challenge’ quiz that will pitch four London chefs against four New York ones. All the questions are related to food, restaurants, recipes, wine and so on. We’re also looking at including one of Richard’s restaurants in the Gourmet Odyssey event.
Address: 28 Upper Grosvenor Street, London, W1K 7EH. Tel: 020 7499 9943

The Wonder Bar

To lunch with Ewan Venters, the inventive and genial food director for Selfridges. Fay also joined us. I never fail to be wowed by the enterprising approach to food at Selfridges. There are well over a dozen restaurants at the store and we met at one of the most ingenious. The sleek Wonder Bar sits alongside the wine department on the ground floor and has a wine ‘juke box’. This is a nifty machine that keeps wine in prime condition once opened thus allowing people to have fine wine by the glass. You can put money onto a card and then self serve if you wish. The food comes on boards and is aimed at those wishing to share. There’s fine Domecq Jamon Iberico Bellota and superb Frank Hederman Beech smoked salmon with capers and beetroot chutney. Ewan sits on the steering committee of the London Restaurant Festival and we are in talks for a very exciting project at Selfridges during the festival.

Selfridges & Co, 400 Oxford St, London, W1A 1AB.

Sanctum Soho

Sanctum Soho has just opened and I visited early on to get a feel for the restaurant. I must admit an interest here as A Private View Ltd, the consultancy company I have with Fay Maschler, helped find the chef and compile the menu. He’s a gifted young man called Gavin Austin who is passionate and lacks self-indulgence. He’s a talent to watch out for and cooks with a lot of integrity using simple, well-sourced ingredients. I had scallops with bacon and peas and it was neatly presented and full of distinct flavours. It was also nice and hot. The rib-eye steak was exceptional and the fries hot, crispy and tasting of potato. It will be a few weeks before the place is up to full speed but with the food already this accomplished it’s certainly one to watch.

20 Warwick St, London, W1B 5NF. Tel: 020 72926100

Zafferano

Fay and I had lunch with the owners of this popular Belgravia Italian. It’s part of London Fine Dining Group that also has Aubergine, L’Oranger, Allora and Memories of China in its stable, among others. Zafferano is an elegant place serving precise and authentic dishes. The food is always beautiful to look at and they are swift to get seasonal specials onto the menu. I started with some linguine and morels. They were earthy and nutty. The escalope Milanese was thankfully not hammered into the mean-spirited thin offering as is so often the case and is like eating a greasy bit of cardboard sprinkled with pebbledash. Instead it was succulent and the bread crumbs golden jewels. London Fine Dining Group are keen to be involved in the London Restaurant Festival.

15 Lowndes St, London, SW1X 9EY. Tel: 020 7235 5800

Tags: Corrigans Mayfair, Sanctum Soho, Selfridge's Wonder Bar, Zafferano

Tags: Corrigans Mayfair, Sanctum Soho, Selfridge's Wonder Bar, Zafferano
Posted in My Restaurant Week - Simon Davis, Reviews on April 23rd, 2009 by Simon Davis |