My Dining Hell: Twenty Ways to Have a Lousy Night Out by Jay Rayner

Author:Jay Rayner [Rayner, Jay]
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Publisher: Penguin Group
Published: 2012-05-31T16:00:00+00:00

Since this review was published I have run into Brian Turner on a number of occasions. He has not once complained about what I said, and has been unfailingly polite. He closed Brian Turner Mayfair in 2008.

May 2003

Petrus, the Berkeley Hotel, Wilton Place, London SW1. Telephone: 020 7235 1200. Dinner for two, including wine and service, £150.

It is a curious fish dish that encourages the maître d’, on hearing you order it, to announce: ‘I am Belgian and in Belgium this is not how we cook turbot.’ My dear, this is not how they cook turbot anywhere. The menu description said: ‘Braised turbot with Welsh rarebit glaze, smoked cod roe with aubergine caviar and sautéed baby gem lettuce, lemon-grass velouté’. The maître d’ described the dish to me, just as it was written. He said something like: ‘I wanted you to know how complex it is,’ and wandered away. My wife, Pat, watched him go and said: ‘That sounded like he was trying to dissuade you from ordering it.’

Perhaps he was nervous. The reopening of Marcus Wareing’s flagship restaurant Petrus at the Berkeley Hotel in London’s Knightsbridge is a big deal, most of all for Marcus Wareing. It is no secret that the chef, a protégé of Gordon Ramsay, was dismayed not to be upgraded from one to two Michelin stars at the old site in St James’s. The new premises are supposed to provide him with a launch pad from which to reach those stars.

I should say that I, too, was surprised the old Petrus didn’t get upgraded. Wareing is a gifted and unashamedly bourgeois chef, who is not scared of big flavours. I still have taste memories of his dishes: of seared scallops in a lobster bisque tasting ripely of the sea, for example, or his sweet, glazed round of pork belly. More recently, at the Savoy Grill, he showed an understanding of classy simplicity. Here, though, simplicity has gone out of the over-gilded window. It’s not just bells and whistles. It’s the whole damn percussion section of the London Symphony Orchestra. And not all the instruments are playing the same tune.

First though, the good things. The new room, until recently La Tante Claire, is a huge improvement on the old Petrus, which felt like a place you went to be interred rather than fed. The walls have been padded in a warm shade of claret and the old formal service, which made it feel as if there were a party of bishops on table seven, has given way to something brisk, light and jolly. The giddy, theatrical turn of the many trolleys – for champagne and wine, for cheese and sweets – adds to the drama.

Top marks must also go to the sommelier, Alan Holmes, for creating a truly democratic list. Yes, there are some of the most expensive wines known to humanity. A 1928 Chateau Petrus, perhaps? Yours for £11,600. But the list also starts with a ‘Sommelier’s selection’ of twenty-four wines. All are under £20 and the cheapest costs £14.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.