January, 2011

José Pizarro delivered a tantalising taste of his cooking talents at The Loft Project in preparation for the opening of José, his first London restaurant. The Loft Project is the creation of newly Michelin Star festooned chef Nuno Mendes, which sees chefs showcasing their skills to an intimate table of diners. Dalston has never had it so good.

The menu rattled along at a cracking pace, as José worked with a team of two chefs to produce eight courses. Highlights were as follows:

Pumpkin Soup, Rosemary, La Peral cheese - Delicate, earthy pumpkin with a haunting rosemary note, La Peral blue cheese nestling on a crisp of toast within. Comforting start.

Lentils, Foie gras, PX vinegar – Foie nestled on a bed of Puy lentils jazzed up by Pedro Ximenez vinegar. Naughty second course, obscenely textured seared Foie gras.

Sautéed artichokes and cockles – Couple of riffs on artichoke, purée, hearts, Serrano ham, cockle. Creamy purée sexed up with truffled salt, salty ham, sweet cockle. Cute, balanced dish.

Iberico Ham, Garlic prawn - Deep Sea Monster of a Madagascan prawn, simply fried, and placed like a lover alongside the best Iberico that he could find from Brindisa. Like a hallucinogenic take on Surf ‘n’ Turf.

Iberico Pork Fillet, Pimentón de La Vera, Confit potatoes, Piquillo Pepper - Fillet of the famed acorn munching black footed pig? A rare sight in the UK. Ruby red and looking like venison before it was cooked, this was one meaty fillet cooked perfectly (with some healthy pink, despite murmurs from the table) with José assuring all that pink pig is fine. Decadent confit potatoes strewn with caramalised onions a fine partner

Pears in Rioja, Saffron ice-cream - Saffron ice-cream, a genius haunting flavour to run through your machine. Ice-cream gold. Delicately poached pears too, but it’s the ice-cream that lingers.

Chocolate on toast, Arbequina olive oil, orange sorbet - Chocolate discs on toast, with a quite thrilling blood orange sorbet

Diners left happy around midnight, negotiating the badlands of Dalston on their way home. I’m sure I saw fear in some of those eyes.

Chef enjoyed a glass of  German Riesling on his wind-down, chatted to a couple of straggling diners, and talked about his impending exciting year. Oh, he’s working on a second book too.

The evening proved what everyone in the room already knew, that José will quickly be seen as one of the top Spanish tapas bars in London.

José told us that he hopes to be open by the end of March.

José - 184 Bermondsey Street, SE1 3UB (no website as yet)

Pizarro - Location to be confirmed, late summer.

José Pizarro, the man behind the success of the Tapas Brindisa kitchens as co-founder and executive chef, is due to land in London in April 2011 with his first of two openings this year.

Styled as a “sherry and tapas bar”, José will open on Bermondsey Street serving “traditional, simple Spanish food”, adding another frisson of excitement to a street that has become increasingly “scene” on the restaurant/bar front.

Menu is still being tweaked but we’re given nuggets on what to expect – Razor Clams “a la plancha”, top grade Jamón Ibérico. Champions League quality “Cinco Jotas 5J” we’re sure to see, to sate the Ibérico freaks, of which there are many.

Knowing José and his scrupulous attention to detail and authenticity, we expect anything he pumps out of the kitchen to be on a par with the best in London. Barrafina and Fino currently rule this particular roost, with relative newcomers Barrica and a host of others adding to a landscape of fine Spanish dining in London in recent years. Stalwart Moro in Farringdon continues with it’s own off-shoot Morito, and Camino of King’s Cross adds another “O” with its sherry bar Pepito. That’s a lot of “O’s”.

That José does not start with an “O” should not be taken as a negative. He’s as Spanish as Fernando Torres and calls us “amigo”. Oh, up pops another “O”. They love a good “O” session, the Spanish – they can’t help themselves.

Sherry will play a big role on the list, continuing the resurgence of the drink in the UK and its emergence as the educated drinkers choice. An exhilaratingly salty Manzanilla with some salted Marcona almonds, is now simply de rigeur daahhling….

The style and feel of the place is to be in the image of Barcelona’s Boqueria market, the bustling produce-laden former pig market, groaning with Pimientos de Padrôn and sweet fatted Ibérico. A noble vision.

Pizarro will be a more formal restaurant arriving soon after, expected in early Autumn 2011.

In preparation José will be appearing for two sell-out nights at The Loft Project on the 28th-29th January. We’ll catch up with him there and get a close-up at what he’s got planned.

Go amigo, go, go, go….

Iberico.

Egg.

Leeks.

White Truffle.

Black Truffle

Chicken Oyster.

These are the players in the Jason Atherton dream team. When he tells us that the key ingredients are like a greatest hits, or “like Real Madrid”, we smile, nod, and taste. He’s freakin’ right, simple stellar elements coming together in a very holy matrimony. Shards of Iberico placed like a mattress across a wobbling just set egg with luminous yolk, a couple of chicken oysters sheltering conspiratorially under a sliver of Perigord black truffle, a thin curl of grilled leek. The last spoonful is a quite perfect distillation of everything, brought together by chicken juice in hammy, eggy, leeky, truffly, chickeny glory. A devastating dish that unfurls itself and surprises, looks so simple, too simple, and yet has unexpected impact.

So this is how Atherton rolls.

It is one dish in a Truffle Menu dinner at bloggers The Critical Couple, who persuaded Atherton to cook for them at their apartment for ten guests – we were lucky enough to be invited.

Other cute dishes included a Back to Front Risotto of squid, tiny jewels of diced squid making the “risotto”, with Squid Ink Puffs scattered around. Oh yes, with black truffles. Tender jewels of squid reminiscent of the clever lattice of squid at Viajante.

Trip to Japan was an El Bulli inspired dish, after one of Ferran Adria’s trips to Japan, wickedly fatty Atoro Tuna, seared like a dream, ruby-like within and topped with Sevruga Caviar.

English Breakfast was a witty riff on the great Fry-Up, morsels of breakfast canapé style, Quail egg in one, teeny tomato in another, truffled mushroom with bacon shards in another.

That he managed to knock all this out from an unfamiliar kitchen added to the sense that there was some magic happening back there.

Pollen Street Social will be the realisation of a dream for Atherton of over twenty years – to own his own restaurant. In these brief exchanges of fire, Atherton was grooving to his own tune, shooting from the hip, and enjoying it.

This is one opening which is destined to become Primera Liga….

www.jasonatherton.co.uk

New  Year, New Cocktail Bar – and it’s set to be a beauty.

The winners of the BBC’s TV show The Restaurant in 2009, James Hopkins and JJ Goodman, will open London Cocktail Club in Goodge Street in early February, with Raymond Blanc involved as one of the partners.

Those plugged into the London cocktail scene will already know the original London Cocktail Club near Leicester Square, where head bar man Andy parades his talent – this guy is one of the finest cocktail mixers in London no doubt, not only for his skill, but for giving a very big toss about the people coming to sit in front of him. He’ll ask you what you’ve been doing today, and how your mum is. He really will, while mixing you a perfect Old Fashioned with mesmerising deftness.

The site is former wine bar Manouche, a sordid little den that lurked unnoticed for years at basement level, peddling poor wine and bad karma – the space has been given a loving make-over to recreate the era of  ”gin palaces of the 1800′s” with a “cool, kitsch, punk feel”. The fifty seat venue will serve “British fusion tapas dishes”, ham hock and potted shrimp, popcorn and Mr Whippy, which may strike a chord of fear into some, but when you hear Pied á Terre is involved, fears  are allayed. David Moore, owner of Pied á Terre, is also one of the backers, alongside Sarah Willingham – this is big boys stuff.

There is talk also of quirky contemporary touches mixed with the historic edge, such as an entrance through a phone box to get to the bar – another opening offering a stylistic nod to New York bar style and the brilliant PDT (Please Don’t Tell) with its entrance through the phone booth at Criff Dogs.

There will be plenty of experimentation and adventure on the cocktail list, alongside polished classics. We have heard murmurs of a Squid Ink Margarita, Bacon and Egg Martini and Oyster Bomb. Far out, man….

The original London Cocktail Club wowed us with a cheeky White Negroni (W’egroni), made with home distilled bitters, and the slantat the new venue will be to bring cocktails into the realm of being paired with food. This will be Rock ‘n’ Roll mixology.

The boys bring solid, successful coal-face experience with them, with the added bonus of big name backers – an enviable footing to begin with in the current climate. James Hopkins has been chiselling his already consummate front-of-house skills during the wait for a site, with stints at Pied á Terre, Fino, Barrafina and Quo Vadis. Now they are almost ready to be unleashed.

Gin has been surfing the wave of a remarkable rebirth in recent years, both in the number of brands emerging and the breadth of the offering in bars and pubs.

Another opening stabs a flag in the ground, smiles, and doffs its cap while raising a Martini to its lips.

www,londoncocktailclub.co.uk

Pollen Street Social. I like this name. Sounds fluffy, cosy, friendly. It’s just a street in Mayfair, though one with a flourish of pedigree.

In 1682 William Maddox bought thirty-five acres of land now known as the Pollen Estate, inherited and handed down through the Pollen family, and takes in eminent London addresses such as Hanover Square, Princes Street, St George Street, Maddox Street and Pollen Street.

The “May Fayre” that was held here is where Mayfair found its name – blimey.

Jason Atherton will be arriving in late March here, free from the shackles of his high profile stint at Maze Gordon Ramsay, where he wooed diners with intricate small plates of devilish design. He was the first British chef to stage at El Bulli, and has worked under some of the best, Pierre Koffman and Marco Pierre White included. The pedigree glitters.

We’re told to expect an “environment of low-key luxury conducive to a buzzing New York style atmosphere”, which chimes with us here. “Social” would appear to be a New York affectation. Stanton Social on the Lower East Side in NYC has been an über cool joint for a while now, all dark and boothed up, super slick throbbing sound-track, conspiratorial tables in the shadows.

One gauche move in this effortless arena of  ”slick” in NYC would immediately betray you as a tourist. That little stumble at the door will be noted. It won’t be this kind of gig at Pollen Street Social, but it’s yet another new opening that is looking to New York for influence and style. NY leads the dance right now.

The à la carte menu looks brutally simple: hot, cold, meat and fish. Daily meat and fish option will be prepared on a Josper grill. Jason describes the style as  “having one foot in the past and the other in the future”. We wait with interest.

The sneak preview alluded to is that we are at a dinner next week – and Jason is cooking.

We’ll see what’s the score, we’ll ask a few questions, we’ll get a firmer idea of what will be unveiled in February.

London bristles with murmurs of the first openings of the year. It’s starting, and the pace is picking up….

www.jasonatherton.co.uk