Best of 2017

Tis the season yet again, to reflect on the best plates of food put in front of me this year. Links to write-ups are in the headers, so then without further ado…

17. Elystan Street
Cornish lobster, gazpacho dressing, Capezzana olive oil and avo

16. Lorne Restaurant
Spring lamb, black garlic, ratatouille, shavings of Le Caussenard and a tomato tart

15. Claude Bosi at Bibendum
Cornish turbot Grenobloise

14. Le Dame de Pic London
Breton wild abalone, lemon balm and geranium rosat, sage infused dashi

13. Dastaan, Ewell
Clockwise: Naan, chicken tikka biryani, Malabar prawns, spinach and raita,

12. Mountain and Sea House, Taipei
Suckling Pig, 3 ways

1st way: Crispy suckling pig – First plate: Crispy skin and various sauce

2nd way: Ribs

3rd plate: The rest stir-fried with pickled cabbage and in steamed bao, aka ‘gua-bao’

11. The Sportsman, Seasalter

Scallop carpaccio

Mushroom and celeriac tart

10. Asador Etxebarri, Axpe

Palamos prawns

Rubia Gallega Chuleton

9. L’Ambroisie, Paris

Escalopines de bar à l’émincé d’artichauts, nage réduite au caviar golden

Feuillete de truffe noire fraiche ‘bel humeur’ , salade frisee nicoise a la creme

8. Perilla

Provence tomato, sheep’s curd, black olive sauce, with a summer berry medley

40 day aged pork chop, sea kale, the effervescent pickled elderflower sauce and today with a grilled fresh gherkin

Sage and cobnut tart, with nut milk

Woodruff custard, cherries, fresh almonds

Perilla’s (amazing) set buttermilk with strawberries and mulberries, with grilled over lemon verbena.

7. Restaurant Cowarth Park, Ascot

Exmoor caviar tart, cornish crab, yuzu, cucumber and creme fraiche

Creme fraiche, caramelised almond, granny smith, calvados

6. Core by Clare Smyth

Crab royale, steamed Colchester, crab doughnut and consommé

Pear and verbena, poire Williams sorbet

5. The Greenhouse

Dorset Crab, mint, cauliflower, granny smith apple, curry

Carabineros Prawn, 2 ways, stacked plates

1st way: Cooked over charcoal, served with yuzushu and almond

2nd way: Carpaccio with cucumber, radish and black olive puree

Abalone, mooli, seaweed, dashi (link)

Veal, ossietra imperial caviar, hispi and dulce (link)

4. Bonhams Restaurant

Native Lobster poached in ox-ed 2005 Leflaive Batard-Montrachet. With coral sauce, Italian peas, grapefruit and endive (link)
drank with a bottle of 1995 DRC Richebourg

Slow cooked turbot, cuttlefish, smoked linzer potatoes, courgette with flower and Bouillabaisse

Yorkshire Mallard, white beetroot, charred endive, quince puree, game sausage and toast with foie and offal

Game Pithivier

Millefeuille with apricot and chamomile

3. Angler

Cornish turbot, line caught squid tagliatelle , Japanese mushrooms, bonito dashi

Roast wild seabass, cuttlefish, roscoff onions, ceps and ceps puree

Apricot souffle with chamomile ice cream

A post shared by My name is Kang. (@londoneater) on Jul 29, 2017 at 12:48pm PDT

2. L’Arpege, Paris

Carpaccio of langoustines with caviar

Roast leg of Mont St Michel Lamb, oyster emulsion, grand cru vegetables, and potato puree

1. The Ledbury

Roast scallop, blood orange, pine nuts and broccoli

Steamed cod perfectly timed, moist, glimmering and delicately flaky. Topped with skin-on and gelatinous hake jowl, served with purple artichoke, anchovy and green olive.

Middlewhite suckling pig rack, temple, belly, crackling. With hen of the woods, potato emulsion, charred onion.

Best suckling pork dish I’ve ever had. No question (Hedone included).

Pyrenean Milk-fed Lamb shoulder slow cooked overnight in miso, pulled, rolled, morels cooked in earl grey, luxurious puree of jersey royal, celery, wild garlic, gorgeous…..

Aged Belted Galloway fillet, slow braised shortrib, smoked marrow, salt baked turnip, padron puree, garlic cream and jus gras

Herdwick lamb rack and neck, padron sauce and white aubergine dusted with dried olives and black tea (link)

Brett Graham has been consistently on top form for at least the last five years, and most of his dishes have become quite iconic, and also rooted in his seasonal repertoire. But this year in 2017, I think he’s managed to find reinvention and further refinement in his cooking. Minor but significant tweaks to his perfect dishes, here and there, and all of it stacks up to something rather quite spectacular. For me, The Ledbury is the yardstick for Modern Gastronomy in London, fundamentals, handling of quality seasonal produce and the hallmark Front of House that walks the line of casual-slickness. For me, The Ledbury is the best of 2017.

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And that’s it. Next year will be a full decade which I been doing this. If you’re someone whose been with me since 2008, I thank you kindly for reading.

Happy Christmas folks, eat well, drink well, sleep well and see you in 2018.