Japanese-born, French-trained chef Yu Sugimoto has taken over the kitchen at Mayfair dining temple The Square following its sale by founding chef Phil Howard earlier this year. Sugimoto spent nine years at Le Meurice in Paris, where he rose to head chef, after beginning his career at the Imperial Hotel in Tokyo. Restaurateur Marlon Abela, who […]
Chef Simon Rogan has created special “experimental and instinctive” lunch and dinner menus to be paired with Dom Pérignon vintage champagnes next month at Claridges, where his restaurant Fera is hailed for its “phenomenal” food by the Harden’s Survey. He says the menus will include “cylindra beetroot, roe deer, blackcurrant and hemp or meadowsweet cake, cherries, pine and sheep’s yoghurt. […]
A “Free Taste of Balham” is the theme of this year’s Balham Food Festival, which runs for a week from this Sunday, September 25, so local restaurants and bars will be offering complimentary treats in addition to special festival offers and discounts. These include an aperitif cocktail at The Exhibit; a free pastry with coffee from Escape the […]
How posh can you push the humble hot dog? We’ll find out on Monday October 10, when the Charlotte Street sausages-and-champagne bar Bubbledogs hosts its first ever Hot Dog Challenge, to celebrate its fourth anniversary and raise money for charity. A line-up of London’s hottest chefs will be taking part, including James Lowe of Lyle’s, José Pizarro, Tomos Parry from […]
Iraqi cuisine will get a rare and welcome showcase through the Juma Kitchen’s residency at Clapham pub The King and Co throughout October. This will be the first extended opportunity to sample the cooking of Philip Juma, a London-based Anglo-Irish-Iraqi chef who aims to present Iraqi cuisine in a new light. So far, Juma Kitchen has been restricted […]
Andrew Pern, chef-proprietor of the Star Inn at Harome on the North Yorkshire Moors, is to open the new Star Inn the Harbour at Whitby, his home town, early next year. He has run the original 14th-century Star for 20 years, earning praise from the Harden’s Survey for “tremendous local food, with the accent on game […]
⦿ Jay Rayner of The Observer sweated his way joyfully through a chilli-spiced dinner at Thai pop-up-turned-permanent Som Saa near Spitalfields Market, which he described as “an action movie full of crash, bang and wallop.” “The food wanders restlessly from north to south. It is a deliriously fearsome bash of fire and sour and salt and smoke.” ⦿ The Guardian’s […]
Sponsored post Cocktails designed to accompany food – instead of merely bookending a meal – were served to the winners, nominees and guests at the inaugural Harden’s London Restaurant Awards After Party at the Hippodrome Casino in Leicester Square this week. The endless variety of flavours available, and the bespoke nature of cocktails, make drinks based […]
Cerebral foodies will gather at the LRB Bookshop near the British Museum next Thursday, September 22, to discuss the gastronomic debt England owes to French cuisine. Speakers will include chefs Stephen Harris (pictured) of Whitstable gastropub superstar the Sportsman, hailed for his “phenomenal” cooking by the Harden’s Survey, and Alexis Gauthier — one of those debts in person […]
Fred Clapperton has been appointed head chef at Drake’s in Ripley, Surrey, in succession to founder Steve Drake, who has left following his divorce from Serina. The couple founded the restaurant in 2004, winning praise from the Harden’s Survey for “adventurous” and “memorable” modern British cuisine. Clapperton, 28, joined Drake’s four years ago and has taken charge […]
