On my last weekend in London, I had the pleasure of dining at two Michelin starred restaurant The Ledbury with Owain, part of the Ōra King team here in the UK and his lovely sister Rosa. What a treat!
The Ledbury is a very small restaurant, with no bar or lounge, just focusing on the food – perfect! We had the ‘tasting menu’ which comprised of thirteen courses plus canapés and petit fours.
First up for the canapés was lightly smoked mackerel wrapped in pickled Granny Smith apples served on a salt block. This was a fresh little number; the fish was almost creamy with the sweet acidity of the apple cutting right through it. Then there were some brawn bon bons. Since they have pork jowls on the menu, making brawn is an excellent way to utilize the remainder of the pig’s head. The jowl is the piece from the bottom of the ear curving round to the chin. We also had steamed brioche dumplings with dehydrated bacon and onion in little savoury tartlet shells.
The first course was fresh almonds on a salad of green beans and white peaches. It was then finished with a generous amount of grated foie gras on the top. This was not a pretty dish, but it was a very tasty one! The foie gras had been blast chilled for grating and the hot/cold textures on the plate played nicely on your tongue.
The second starter was flame grilled mackerel with pickled cucumber, Celtic mustard and shiso. My photo doesn’t do justice to the dish which was visually stunning. The mackerel was only just cooked through with subtle but complimentary flavours. As a whole, the dish was so light, it was like eating a cloud!
Next came the egg course, and a classic one. You can find a dish similar to this one in almost any French influenced fine dining restaurant in London, it’s everywhere! The interpretation of a soft poached quail’s egg was simple and classic, which is very much The Ledbury’s style. It was served with Arbois, a white French wine grape variety planted primarily in the Loire region. Accompanying the dish was sautéed spears of seasonal asparagus and generous shavings of summer truffle. We all know these flavours work well together and you can’t beat a classic. This dish went down a bit too quickly!
I think my favourite thing about the dishes was that they weren’t plated too pretentiously. We have restaurants now who plate up some masterpieces, which is awesome, but the saying “looks too good to eat” really does come into play in these situations. So being here, where the meals are plated nicely but simply was a big invitation for me to not be too ‘precious’ about getting my fork in there.
Next the anticipated seafood course! Here we had roast lobster with a tomato butter emulsion and Chinese lettuce – which is really firm to bite into but a great carrier for the flavours on the plate. The lettuce is sprinkled with a basil powder and fresh basil was also used to garnish. I found the fresh basil a little dominating next to my subtle specimen of lobster. However the combination of lobster and the tomato butter was amazing. I could have had a whole bowl of just that! It wasn’t as rich as you’d think, but ridiculously creamy.
The next course was my favourite dish of the evening. Guinea fowl kebab, skewered onto a liquorice stick, with sweet corn and girolles. The sweet corn had been made into a purée for the base of the plate along with little square grids of the corn. Girolles are another thing you will see in almost every restaurant here, I have worked with them in every stage I have done in London. I couldn’t even tell you how many girolles I’ve peeled in the last three weeks!
The guinea fowl was cooked to perfection, and the corn and girolles were comforting accompaniments. The liquorice ‘skewer’ left a very subtle but pleasurable aniseed taste through the meat. I had already decided this dish was the winner and we still had three courses to go.
Next the main course was a chop of Herdwick lamb, a breed of domestic sheep native to the Lake District in Cumbria, North West England. The name ‘Herdwick’ is derived from the Old Norse ‘herdvyck’, meaning ‘sheep pasture’. This was served with young carrots, ewe’s milk, fig and olive oil. This dish was again very simple, but everything was cooked perfectly. There were also shavings of fresh fennel which really brought everything together, and fresh figs, a treat on any meal.
A pre-dessert was served; funnily enough everyone else at the table chose this as the best dish! It was a small bowl with a simple dollop of sweet clover custard and a pink grapefruit granité. The granité was perfectly balanced, not a hint of bitterness, and the combination of the two contrasting yet complimenting components made an exquisite little morsel.
Ah yes, finally the one we’ve all been waiting for, well my favourite part of every meal – dessert! Following the trend of simple and classic at its best, here we had a strawberry tartlet of English flowers and honey cream. Now I had a big complaint about this dish – there was not enough of it!!! It was simply stunning, and finished with a small quenelle of strawberry sorbet and violet sorbet delicately placed on top.
To conclude our meal, and very commonplace in London, we had complimentary petit fours. We received coconut ice-cream dipped in chocolate and desiccated coconut, juniper scrolls with caramel custard piped inside and ginger jellies! Getting very full by this point, but couldn’t bear the thought of being rude, so I greedily gobbled up my share.
Overall I’d say The Ledbury is simplicity done to perfection. The meal and the total dining experience were faultless. The waiters are trained to not have one arm behind their back when serving or pouring. The manager tries to have the “relaxed” yet still attentive style of service, which creates a very comfortable dining environment. Fantastic food, fantastic company, I couldn’t have asked for a better night!
Signing out #carlita abroad
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