The golden pair of London’s restaurant scene have done it again. The Corbin-King partnership, spanning 30 years, that is responsible for iconic culinary institutions such as The Ivy, Le Caprice, J. Sheekey (these ones they sold) and later The Wolseley and Delaunay, now has another behemoth to their name. Brasserie Zedel, having opened just earlier this year, is nothing short of spectacular. One doesn’t quite know the beast that lies below the streets when walking into what seems like a small french brasserie. I certainly was confused as to where to go, thinking the restaurant was upstairs and that I should take the lift, instead of going down to where the bar is. Even whilst walking down the stairs, the place seems eerie. Then of course, one reaches the main concourse of Zedel with passages to the bar, the performance room and the restaurant.
Brasserie Zedel, London
Hélène Darroze at the Connaught
My first memory of the Connaught was of wheeling a very noisy trolley full of ice cream and sorbet mixes from the Claridges to the Connaught to be churned at 4am. I was working the night shift at Gordon Ramsay Claridges and our ice cream machine had broken down, and the closest ally was Angela Hartnett’s kitchen at the Connaught. Nothing makes more noise than a metal trolley full of metal containers rattling down the West End at an ungodly hour – even the police found it rather amusing. Since then, the Ramsay empire has crumbled, Angela has found other avenues on her own and the Connaught is now under its new queen, Hélène Darroze, running her second 2 star Michelin restaurant. Whilst London may not be the food capital of the world, it does have some of the best lunch deals and on this occassion, £60 for 4 courses and 2 glasses of wine seemed to fit the bill quite nicely.
Bistrot Bruno Loubet
It truly is a shame when restaurants open to great fanfare and critical acclaim and then slowly become complacent; in this particular occasion, the restaurant fitting the bill was Bistrot Bruno Loubet. Having just finished watching a performance of the San Francisco Ballet and being blown away by the poetry of movement, we eagerly trotted to the nearby Zetter hotel with high hopes and eager anticipations …
Martin Wishart, Edinburgh
Once a run down and undesirable part of Edinburgh, Leith now boasts some of the cities best dining with The Kitchin and Martin Wishart, Edinburgh’s best known Michelin restaurants, holding shop on its canals. Having been suitably impressed by our dinner at Tom Kitchin, expectations were equally high at Martin Wishart. Whilst his food veers more towards French than British, Martin’s execution, I found, a little more gimmicky and much less attention paid to menu planning, and sadly, was many steps below our experience at The Kitchin.
