tough nut? - Henry Vigar at KP (kensington place)
There's a new chef on the posh lock at Kensington Place and he wantsto see
it back at the top.
It’s
something of an institution is Kensington Place, or KP as the Kognescenti
refer to
it.
Back
in the 80’s
and early 90’s,
when our hair was big and our shoulder pads even bigger, it rocked to the
noise of trust fund kids having fun and at lunch a certain Diana could
sometimes be spotted dishing the goss with favoured friends. Those were
glory days and days before restaurants had to ‘be’ anything
other than places to eat, drink and be reasonably merry. Those days went
though and a kind of rot set in.
Henry Vigar, now head chef at KP has emerged from his kitchen post-service
and is keen to talk about what’s changed on his watch. Impossibly young-looking;
chefs like policemen get younger as I get older, he sits by the massive glass
windows and peers suspiciously across the street as if being watched. He
is. Our photographer, lively with lunchtime wine, is out there looking back
at him through a zoom lens. Henry glances away, “yes it has had a mixed
history here,” he laughs. “Yes, you could say that.”
“
When I arrived back in January,” he explains, “it was a bit of
a mess. The food had gone off in quality and it was chaotic front and back.” Like
all incoming chefs, Henry made changes almost instantly. “I changed
the menu straightaway to make it my menu, simplified everything, with less
choice but everything done better.” All part of his personal style? “Yes
I changed the philosophy behind it. I come from a fine dining background
and bring a lot of integrity to the food through that, but at the same time
we take away a lot of the side stuff, like amuse bouches, so we can we be
a lot cheaper and a bit more user friendly.”
It’s certainly true that KP attracts a nice cross-section of diners.
I’ve been there when cool young Notting Hill couples are balanced by
people with their parents and people with their teenage kids, sometimes all
at once, and everyone seems comfortable. Henry agrees, “We’ve
definitely got a mixed clientele. It’s a local restaurant, after all
this is where people actually live and my style suits this being classically
led with a lean to modern European, as you can see on the menu with tabbouleh
for example.”
He admits that Modern European is a bit of a generalisation but doesn’t
dismiss it. “Yeh, I know mod euro is a bit of a catchall cliché,” he
says. “But it does best describe what I’m doing here.” At
the same time there is a focus on these islands, as he points out stabbing
a finger at the day’s lunch menu. “Sardine and mackerel? That’s
pretty English isn’t it? We get a lot of nice ingredients from Cornwall
via the fish shop next door and we tend to use what they have in each day
to lead the restaurant – what’s fresh, what’s seasonal.
That’s what goes on the menu.”
“
We like to make a point of using British ingredients and styles, “ he
elaborates, “but we don’t want to constrain ourselves on style.
If we had some nice langoustines we might do a pasta. We also want to introduce
people to new things as well, keep it interesting and fresh.”
He doesn’t pursue novelty for its own sake, but he does move with the
seasons. “We’re coming to the end of the summer season now and
the menu will change drastically through September. We have the first grouse
on tonight, as game is coming in, and obviously we start to lose the gazpachos
and start looking at squashes and all the lovely autumn things like that.”
Smooth menu evolution is what he practices at KP. “We always change
the menu daily, not completely in a big splash way it’s not worth it,
but two or three dishes. The regulars want variety, but consistency, so we
balance that out.” And like any decent chef, Henry respects regulars,
perhaps more than those who come for a one-off experience. “Oh yes,
people who have the same dish at the same time on the same day and even the
same wine, that’s great, “ he enthuses. “Regulars are what
any restaurant wants, it’s nice to be a local resource. And people
aren’t afraid to come in and ask us to cook things that aren’t
on the menu. It’s not encouraged mind you because you can lose consistency,
but you know we’re here to help, we’re a restaurant after all!”
Notting Hill is a long way from his roots in the shires as he explains, “I’m
from Lincoln originally and I went to college there and then after that I
moved to Auberge du Lac in Herts. Then I went to Leeds to Rascasse which
had a star, then Australia travelling, then London and The Greenhouse for
a good four years and La Noisette. All these people I’ve worked with,
and places I’ve been to, have influenced my cooking and definitely
Paul Merit who was at The Greenhouse during my time there.”
Henry’s inventiveness is particularly clear in desserts. The Pineapple
one we had earlier being a good example. “Well with that, “he
explains, “you take a pineapple, pack it with brown sugar and leave
it for two hours before baking in the oven with chilli. You treat it like
a bit of meat really, keep on basting it, take it out chill it down and slice
it really thin. Then you take some of the cooking liquor and drizzle it over
the top with some basil. The flavour’s fantastic. The sugar draws the
pineapples juice out and concentrates the flavour.”
Another great dessert was the Honeycomb and chocolate Crunchie. “Well
I’d been thinking about doing something with honeycomb and the idea
just came to me. It’s a fun playful sort of thing,” Henry smiles. “In
fact this sends us both off on a reverie of old sweets and we debate whether
Curly Wurlies have in fact got smaller as most of us think they have. “You
know Wispas are back?” Henry tells me excitedly, “and sales are
through the roof!”
I like a chef who is unpretentious enough to admit liking sweets and chocolate
and I like Henry’s new KP. “DAND are right behind me here,” he
says referring to the new owners. “The way they run the business is
that it’s very much the restaurant manager and the chef’s place.
They support us in every way but we’re left to do our own thing and
our own menus.” KP was a hard nut to crack, but Henry has done it.
This time next year we should see really great things.
Words : Nick Harman
Portrait. Graham Young
