Expensive shades of beige

As blasphemous as it sounds, I don't know an awful lot about Pierre Koffmann. I was still an impoverished student when La Tante Claire closed down in 2003, when he almost disappeared from the London restaurant scene. But he is now back (to quite a lot of fanfare which I don't quite understand), in where the Boxwood Cafe used to be at the Berkeley Hotel.

I must say, the sign outside announcing Koffmann's is a bit retro for me. I know he's going for the hearty and simple fare, but it looks a bit rustic for the smart Knightsbridge location. Inside, the space is still a bit awkward, with the dining room divided by a tiny bar in the middle; I had wanted a little drink before I sat at the table, but alas, no room for little me.

The impeccable service started before I had even walked in the door. When I called up to book, I wanted to hire their reservations girl immediately. She did all she needed to do, but so much more: asked about allergies, any special requests, do I need information about the hotel, all done efficiently and politely. Exactly what you want.

And inside, the only fault I can give to the service is that it is at times a little overattentive. Our waitress (who used to be at the Connaught and then at Petrus it turns out) was faultless. She not only knew the dishes inside out, but seemed to be very enthused with the food, something that is so rare in this country unfortunately. I will as a result excuse her rather twee mentions of Chef Koffmann "this is a special Chef Koffmann thought of during his break today". Hmm...

The menu is exceedingly boring, loads of French classics you would expect, with only one or two really interesting sounding dishes. Unfortunately, I had had a big lunch, and the famed pig's trotters just sounded too heavy. I started with one of the specials, a salmon tartare with cucumbers and chive cream:

Fraser went for the mackerel terrine - which turned out to be a very clever dish actually, layers of vinegared mackerel wrapped in wafer-thin slices of cucumber:

Fraser went for the braised beef cheeks as his main:

With skate with morels pour moi:

Chips and vegetables were served with all main courses for free (extra points for not trying to charge for sides); the chips charming presented in yesterday's French newspaper:

Overall, the savoury dishes were all impeccably done. The flavours were very clean, ingredients very fresh, I thoroughly enjoyed my rather boring dishes. The only small fault was that my skate was a little raw in the middle, but it was one of the best skate dishes I've eaten in a restaurant.

Fraser somehow talked me into dessert, and the only thing I really fancied was the pistachio souffle, the price of which made me a choke a little at £12 a portion! It was enormous, swimming pool sized, way way too much. I didn't think the souffle itself was that amazing, a bit too sweet and repetitive for me, but the pistachio ice cream it came with was gorgeously smooth, not too sweet, very nutty:

Fraser went for his usual chocolate mousse and tried to be artistic when he was taking the picture. He loved it:

There was a good selection of wines by the carafe (good given it was a school night), and the bill came to £120 for two. Toilets were confusing as there were too many mirrors, beige carpets. Pierre Koffmann could be seen through the glass panel looking into the kitchen!

It is one of those restaurants when if you ask me whether I would go again, I would hesitate to say yes, even though the food was thoroughly excellent, served by one of the best waitresses I've had in a long time. Maybe it is just the location: I'm rarely in Knightsbridge and it always seems like a long trek even though it's only really round the corner from one of my workplaces. Fraser made a fair comment that it is just a bit weird going to restaurants in hotels. The menu and/or the decor always seems a bit compromised, and you are always surrounded by some odd mix of people. But you should definitely go once, if only to steal their rather cute pig cloakroom tickets.

Let's start again

It has been an age since I blogged, there is a huge backlog of photos I've collected over the last few months, but I have been a thoroughly busy bee.

So busy that I can't remember the last time I really cooked at home. So when on Monday I found myself heading home at 9:30pm, even though it's late, I decided to attempt something not particularly complicated but still a little new. I was visiting Cerys and her lovely new baby Eira in Cardiff and was reading Jamie's Italy whilst playing with baby, and found a nice recipe which you can do in the time it takes to boil the pasta. Always my kind of recipe.

Spaghetti with kind of pesto (or spaghetti alla Trapanese according to JO) (serves 1)

125g of spaghetti or linguine

Handful of whole almonds

2 handfuls of fresh basil, leaves picked

1/2 clove garlic

Extra virgin olive oil

Coarse sea salt

Freshly ground pepper

Handful of cherry tomatoes

Handful of freshly grated parmesan

1. Put the pasta on the boil

2. Dry roast the almonds until it is just coloured. Meanwhile, in a pestle and mortar, smash up the garlic with a little salt, and slowly grind in the basil. Once the almonds are roasted, put in the basil mix and smash up until pretty fine.

3. Lug enough olive oil in the mortar to make it wet enough to coat all of the pasta. Add in the parmesan and mix well.

4. Cut the cherry tomatoes in half and squish a little with your hands.

5. Drain the pasta. Using the same pan, add in the tomatoes, pesto, and spaghetti, mix well.

6. Scoff in front of the telly.