London-eaten. Latest reviews and new openings
Restaurants reviewed last month
Some old, some new, some borrowed and some blue
Cercle Sloane Square. French tapas that major on taste
Westerly Reigate. Well worth leaving London for
Foliage Knightsbridge. Fine dining doesn't get much finer.
Elephant Walk West Hampsteadt. Sick of Indian? Then support your local Sri Lankan
The Queens Arms. Hammersmith. A new gastro that's going places
May we as usual take this opportunity to remind you that if a restaurant really gives you a bad time, please talk to them and allow them a chance to explain/ buy you off/ make amends before you trash them on the website!
Gaucho Grill in Richmond. we Taste the difference
Argentinian wine is going from strength to strength and those in the know say that it will soon eclipse Chilean wine, especially as the crafty Chileans still keep the best stuff for themselves.
Mind you, Argentina is the world’s fifth largest producer of wine but only exports about 25 per cent of it. Tonight Gaucho Grill restaurant, the leading promoter of Argentinian wines through their popular steak-based restaurants, is showing us the best of the best from the Familia Zuccardi winery in Mendoza. Phil Crozier, Gaucho’s head wine buyer is matching four reds with four cuts of steak expertly prepared and grilled by Daniel Veron Excecutive Grill Chef of the group who has come over specially to show us his skills.
After a masterclass demo of cutting and trimming all sorts of steaks using a knife that is so sharp it seems to fall through the meat, not cut it, he takes us 
indoors at the spanking new river side Gaucho in Richmond to show us how to grill. A few pointers for the next barbecue you have are – only turn the steak once to get better caramelisation and seared crust, don’t prod or push the meat as it will lose juice and flavour, salt one side only and don’t give it 50:50 a side, more like 60:50. Daniel reckons he can tell when a steak is done by nose and ear, and as he delivers cubes of rump, fillet, ribeye and fillet for us to sample with the matched wine you can’t argue with his skills. Phil, as always, is that rare expert who can enthuse and educate his audience without patronising or confusing them. The wines are as good as the steaks and Phil’s reasoning for what wine goes with which is spot on and proven in the tasting. The new Gaucho Grill has a superb location with plenty of outdoor seating with patio heaters to make it comfortable all year round. I'm going back for steak and a bottle soon, there's even a little golf cart to carru you back to your car if you overdo the meat feast. Perfect.
Great taste awards- let the judging begin
In Olympia’s Pillar Hall, tables groaning with produce stretch as far as the eye can see. There are tables with nothing but pies, others have cold meats, and one has almost nothing but saucers of crisps. Welcome to the Great Taste Awards 2007 and some of the meanest, most knowledgeable judges in the land. And me.
One of the main goals for the Great Taste Awards is to establish the Great Taste Awards as the Michelin to fine food; a recognised mark of excellence that consumers can trust and rely on.
The awards were started fourteen years ago in order to recognise and reward the UK’s skilled producers of fine foods. Today, as supermarkets drive honest farmers to the financial wall, forcing them to produce inferior food at giveaway prices, the Awards are more important than ever, It’s the UK’s largest independent evaluation for fine food and drink and over 4500 foods are individually blind tasted by three separate teams of experts before the gold awards are made. The final judging takes place in London where the ‘Supreme Champion’ is announced at a ceremony in September.
Just about anyone can enter their product and so there is an awful lot of judging to be done. Today’s is the first day and the idea is to eliminate the worst so that the next round of judging can be more focused. Each team of judges is give a table to concentrate on and together with Allan Picket, Head Chef at the Orrery, I roll up my tasting sleeves. We seem to have got a nice mix of foods; Tom Parker-Bowles next door is looking rather dolefully at a table of nothing but fruit cake, whereas we have chutneys, smoked fishes, oils and crisps. The first real debate begins as we try to decide what order to taste in. Crisps first or fish? Oil or chutney? It’s not an easy choice.
With nothing to go on for clues- no packaging to seduce or repel – every item stands or falls on its pure merits. Mostly we agree, only differing on how much or how little we like something. Each producer deserves good feedback so each that we eliminate from the next round gets a proper written explanation by the judging group as to why. The idea is not to be snobbish and off-putting, but to encourage each failed entrant to do better. That said, some things really are very 
bad and you get the idea that the maker thinks that a fancy package and a poncy shop to stock it will get sales and, truth to tell, they may be right. Those little ‘farm shops’ you bump into across the UK are full of attractive jars of oils and pickles that taste revolting once opened back in London.
There were some fantastic things though, ones which had the fruit cake boys sneaking over to blag bits and enthuse. I can’t say which because judging is still going on, but the very reassuring thing is that there are small, and not so small, producers out there creating superb products that we should be proud of and should buy whenever possible and happily pay the small premium they may cost on top.
RETAKE THE FALKLANDS
The launch of ‘Natural Ingredients: Taste of the Falklands’ at Falkland House in Westminster was an informal gathering. It brought together a range of people, some of whom had a personal or professional connection with the islands and whose pride and passion for the islands came through very strongly. Others, like ourselves were invited to be introduced to a taste of the Falklands, both the book and some of its tasty recipes. 
The book is a glossy publication, with a foreword by none other than Margaret Thatcher, containing some 50 of Alex Olmedo’s recipes, set off well by Julie Bellhouse’s ravishing pictures skillfully mixing images of the stark beauty of the islands with those of Alex’s sumptuous food. Recipes range from gutsy and rustic, to the sophisticated and glamorously presented. Alex told us that he developed his recipes with the intention of making the best use of locally sourced produce, so there are plenty of fish and lamb dishes! There are also some terrific looking desserts. Some ingredients might be difficult to obtain in the UK, diddle-dee berries, anyone? However, most of the recipes could be reproduced, with some smart substitution, even diddle-dee (apparently sharp, cranberry like berry) ravioli with orange sauce might inspire the reader.
We sampled a small selection of snacks from the book, including: frittata, a kind of Spanish omelette with a punchy fish edge; lamb, red onion and red pepper kebabs, which were both tender and juicy, and smoked salmon on rye bread with a dab of crème fraiche. All tasty and rather moreish. Taste of the Falklands is the sort of cook book that you flick through and suddenly find something different to either copy of adapt. Available from www.atasteofthefalklands.com it would be a talking point on any coffee table.
BbQ inna babylon - the sun actually shines
Now that summer is fitfully here, blending scorching days with days of almost biblical downpour, Babylon Roof Gardens has wheeled out the barby once more. Last year it was decidedly chilly the night we went and the food dod nothing to warm our cockles. This year the sun shone and the food was far better too, making this place a definite destination for those summer evenings out.
Fine oysters lacking only a little of their juices, which seemed to have escaped, gave way to calves liver cooked almost perfectly (no little band of pink inside, but still fine) with Hand dived Scottish Scallop. Baby leeks, green beans, red peppers & caper berries. The scallop was a bit superfluous but still rather tasty in a 'one bite and it's gone' sort of way and the wife's Fillet of Organic Sea Trout with Hollandaise sauce, asparagus spears, baby spinach, new potatoes and cherry tomatoes was an equal success. All of the BBQ selections or shellfish bar selections can be ordered, along with the standard a la carte, to eat inside or out.
There aren't many places in London where you can eat al fresco without being choked by taxi fumes or harrassed by passing gentlemen of the road and the views here are something to base your conversation around. Pop up and see them sometime.
