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| Harry Whitmore puts the finishing touches on the celeriac inside a pigs bladder at Davies and Brook |
High end restaurants gain a lot of publicity based on their signature dishes, so it shouldn’t be a surprise that high end hotels are frequently known and judged by their signature restaurants.
In 2014, Claridge’s formed a special committee with outside specialists to come up with a celebrity chef to launch a new restaurant after the departure of Gordon Ramsay. Considerable time and money was spent tossing up the names of leading local and international chefs before they settled on Simon Rogan to launch Fera, as their flagship restaurant. He made his name at L’Enclume, his superb Cumbrian restaurant inspired by locavore and foraged food, but the concept didn’t work deep in the heart of Mayfair. It only lasted three years before the search was on for yet another high-profile replacement. Although I thought it first-rate whenever Simon was in the kitchen, it really wasn’t the type of cuisine that Claridge customers ate elsewhere.
Claridge’s has always attracted HNWIs (High Net Worth Individuals) or perhaps to be more accurate, couples or families, but their culinary tastes, while sophisticated, tend to be more in the conventional rather than avant-garde, mould.
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| Daniel Humm in Davies and Brook |
This time the task has fallen to Daniel Humm of Eleven Madison Park in Manhattan. He certainly appears to have the relevant qualifications – three Michelin stars, four from the New York Times and perhaps the icing on the cake, former Number One on the Worlds 50 Best Restaurant list. Eleven Madison Park serves classic cuisine with the odd innovative twist and is also renowned for its peerless friendly service. The entire group is autologically called Make it Nice. In the past few months, Humm has bought out Will Guidara, his long-term business partner and started a personal relationship with Laurene Powell, the billionaire widow of Steve Jobs, but it is not thought that these two events are necessarily related. (There is an excellent profile of Daniel Humm and Will Guidara in the New Yorker https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2012/09/10/check-please-4)
Davies and Brook (a play on the name of Claridge’s street corner) opened in December in the same room as Fera but stripped down with a welcoming bar at one end with the only decoration being a wraparound series of puzzling Icelandic landscape photographs by Roni Horn, of what look like conical mountains with nipples.
The last time I saw Daniel Humm was at a highly enjoyable but bizarre culinary event next to an Inca temple in Peru, where a handful of famous chefs cooked their interpretation of the sex life of an octopus. It was backlit with a photograph of Danny stretched naked on a beach while an octopus appeared to be ravishing him in that style so beloved of Japanese erotic print makers. So, hats off to Claridge’s for selecting a safe pair of hands, if not tentacles.
But of more importance, does Danny deliver in these spectacular kitchens in London – and will it find favour with the HNWIs HNWCs and HNWFs, not to mention the local and travelling enthusiasts who just come for the food? Well, I am happy to stick my neck (and stomach) out and say yes, on both counts.
For me, the real pleasure in eating Danny’s cuisine is his passion for letting all of the ingredients sing in harmony yet still project their innate flavours.
It started with a stunning amuse bouche, always a good indication of how a meal is going to progress. If you can’t get the opening act pitch perfect, there isn’t much chance that the overall performance will deliver.
This was a trio of taste sensations, starting with thinly sliced raw Orkney scallops with layers of pickled green apple. It was seasoned with lemon vinaigrette and grated fresh horseradish, which was captivating as all the flavours shone through with a laser like intensity.
Not only that, but it came along with a small cup of perfect scallop broth consommé and a whole meal laminated roll with butter the colour of a Van Gogh sunflower topped with scallop jelly and smoked seaweed seasoning. This was one of the most pleasurable starters I have had all year.
The caviar dish comprised my favourite strain of Ossetia from China (also used by Alain Ducasse and Eric Ripert) served in a partially hollowed-out butternut squash which spread easily on the accompanying naan and smoked shellfish infused cream.
The meal progressed with more luscious creations which still remained faithful to the product – Sea Bass ceviche topped with an avocado cap that looked perfect enough to be an art work – and yet had an intense avocado taste, helped by an avocado sauce. Here too, an element of subtlety was the tiny cucumber cubes interspersed within the ceviche along with some shrimp oil.
That was followed by a black cod roasted with a fragile Napa Cabbage with another sauce that really lifted it. I was not surprised to learn later that Daniel Humm is a great fan and friend of Yannick Alléno, the French chef who has made a speciality in creating sauces with attitude.
I am not a fan of wine pairings but thought it would be churlish not to see what was on offer and on this occasion, the choices were excellent and innovative – a superb English Chardonnay from Gusborne, more known for their Sparkling Wine
plus an earthy mineral backed Pinot Noir from Hirsch Vineyards on the Sonoma Coast of California.
Then there was the spectacle of a trolley being wheeled into sight with a Bunsen burner and a red-hot pair of tongs which were used to crack off the top of a bottle of 2013 Cote Rotie from Ogier. It was an entirely redundant performance but it seemed to rouse the interest of the other diners.
The accompanying dish was a perfectly cooked slice of dry-aged duck glazed with honey and lavender along with a delicate combination of beetroot and black pudding with a full flavoured civet sauce.
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When we later went into the kitchen, there was an entire wall full of leg-free ducks getting a fortnight of wind-dried treatment at source, because the chef was unhappy with the way it had been done at the farm.
For me, what was also impressive was when we moved onto a second bottle of this exquisite Northern Rhone, the sommelier brought out fresh glasses – showing that he understood that no two bottles of fine wine should be mixed as they are never identical.
When we later went into the kitchen, there was an entire wall full of leg-free ducks getting a fortnight of wind-dried treatment at source, because the chef was unhappy with the way it had been done at the farm.
For me, what was also impressive was when we moved onto a second bottle of this exquisite Northern Rhone, the sommelier brought out fresh glasses – showing that he understood that no two bottles of fine wine should be mixed as they are never identical.
Not every dish was absolute perfection, but no meal ever is. My only quibbles would be that for me, too much seasoning was used in some of the sauces, though overall, they were admirable.
The black truffle sauce on the celeriac baked inside a pig’s bladder overwhelmed it, and it was also marginally overcooked. Also, there were not many vegetables used, but given that it was mid-winter, perhaps this was understandable.
For cheese, there was a Camembert style one from Oxfordshire with lashings of black truffle which had more than enough decadence and viscosity to satisfy the most jaded of palates.
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The puddings were simple but successful – I have never yet eaten a donut (centre) that made me want another one but, on this occasion, it was a thing of beauty, stuffed with miniature pieces and a purée of Granny Smith Apple.
The Mandarin segments along with a Mandarin sorbet (left) stole the show though, helped perhaps with
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a perfectly mature 2002 Sauternes from Chateau Suduiraut. Again, for me this showed a fine appreciation of the wine as most high-end restaurants would go instead with the 2001, one of the Sauterne vintages of the century, yet nowhere near ready.
a perfectly mature 2002 Sauternes from Chateau Suduiraut. Again, for me this showed a fine appreciation of the wine as most high-end restaurants would go instead with the 2001, one of the Sauterne vintages of the century, yet nowhere near ready.
So, an impressive debut with food already approaching two-star Michelin level. The service was relaxed and conversational, with the only slip being one waiter saying the black truffle was from Alba. The prices are reasonable for this quality – a seven course tasting menu for £145 plus an amazing two course offering for an express lunch for a mere £38. Only a month after launch, this is potentially the most impressive haute cuisine restaurant currently in Mayfair, despite the presence of Ducasse, Roux and Darroze just around the corner.
Contact: www.daviesandbrook.co.uk
A shorter version of this story appears in Reaction Life
https://reaction.life/daniel-humms-davies-and-brook-mayfair-haute-cuisine-of-the-highest-standard/