1880
at The Bentley
Clifford
Mould was seriously impressed!
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The
Bentley Hotel
The
Bentley Hotel has recently
had an amazing refurbishment.
Six hundred tonnes of marble
to line the bathrooms, hand
laid mosaic floors, silk lined
bedroom walls, Louis XV furniture
and a full blown Turkish bath
and spa ensure that guests
remain pampered and cosseted
in this exclusive and discreet
palace.
The
art of
Andrew
Turner
Art
is all about choices. There
is a wonderful story about
Turner (William Mallord the
artist!) nonchalantly choosing
a particular red hue on his
palette, and planting a blob
of it with his thumb in just
the right place to create a
sublime sunset.
These
thoughts flitted through my
mind as I contemplated a beautiful
arrangement of lobster that
looked like a vividly coloured
miniature Koi swimming
across the plate. The dish
was uncluttered in its perfection
and I wondered what manner
of botch it would have looked
if I had attempted to place
exactly the same ingredients
myself. That's assuming I could
even have created them in the
first place. I quickly put
these thoughts out of my mind,
as I destroyed this ephemeral
work of art, combining it within
my very person through the
act of eating.
It
would be nice to think that one
becomes a better person through
eating better food. Perhaps we
should all try this particularly
pleasant way to reach a state
of higher consciousness. |
Andrew Turner is
one of a select band of chefs who have
recently been rehabilitating hotel dining
to the pinnacle of gastronomy that it
once occupied virtually unchallenged.
This is not to say that hotel dining
is entirely back in fashion; there will
always be some who feel uncomfortable
in such palatial surroundings. And the
Bentley Hotel, although located in an
out of the way residential Kensington
Square, is nothing short of palatial.
But don't be put off by the chandeliers
and gold ormolu, the waiting staff are
both friendly and charming and do everything
to put you at your ease whilst being
thoroughly proficient at what they do.
There's no haughty maitre d', or insufferable
sommelier here to put you off your foie
gras.
Turner
continues to develop his tasting
menus - he calls them grazing
menus in the evening and blazing
menus at lunchtime. At
dinner, these range from five courses,
starting at £40, going up by only £2
per course until you reach the amazing
ten course menu. Or, you can throw
yourselves on his mercy and take
pot luck - in a very superior kind
of way - and avail yourselves of
the chef's menu. Furthermore, Sommelier
Patrick Salles has many wines available
by the glass and he matches each
dish with a spectacular and often
unusual, wine. To make it all work,
everyone on the table has to eat
from the same menu, but if this isn't
possible, then there's the a la carte
menu to fall back on. We placed ourselves
in the maestro's hands.
We
began with a coffee cup of velvet
smooth velouté made from rabbit,
served with a perfectly formed samosa
of confit pork flavoured with
tarragon. The pork filling might
have been a little dry had it not
been for the soup which had a deliciously
delicate flavour of bunny. Sommelier
Patrick Salles came up with a glass
of Vouvray from Domaine Huet whose
lively mineral tang proved a great
combination. Next was one of Andrew's
most artistic creations, a lobster
and asparagus cocktail whose imaginative
arrangement in a tall sundae glass
demanded some ingenuity on the part
of the diner to deconstruct it elegantly.
The lobster was succulent and the
crunchy asparagus worked particularly
well.
After
a wee pause out came the foie gras
which had been cured in Port. This
was quite the best foie gras I think
I've ever had. The secret was in
the combination of flavour with a
close but melting texture. If heaven
is "foie gras and trumpets" then
I was almost there. With this, Patrick
came up with Aleatico, an
Italian sweetie from Salice Salento,
whose nutty, smoky style was even
more suitable than the more usual
Sauternes. This was a most impressive
combination of flavours.
Then
on to a couple of fish dishes, first
a seared plump scallop in the most
refined sauce, and then a square
of sea bass fillet on a miniature
plum tomato tart. Needless to say
the presentation of all the dishes
was immaculate without being needlessly
showy. This is where I lose count
of the wines, I think it was a rather
attractive white Burgundy.
By
now we're up to course number six.
Out comes Patrick with another unusual
treasure. This time it's an Argentine
version of my favourite Italian wine,
Amarone della Valpolicella. This
one is made from Malbec and Corvinia
grapes that have been partially dried
to concentrate the juices. I wondered
for a moment what this was to be
partnered with when along came a
huge glass topped cheese trolley
with about thirty different French
cheeses ranging from hard to soft,
from both goat's and cow's milk.
Luckily we still have a little bit
of room left, but I was worried about
saving room for the puds.
Yes,
there's a pre-pud pud, but of course!
It was a miniature (and grown up)
version of my schoolboy favourite, Knickerbocker
glory. There's something Olympian
about a Marathon feast like this
- but in spite of the precision of
culinary detail, Andrew Turner keeps
a light touch, without making each
plate look a throw back from Nouvelle
Cuisine. For serious diners who
want to linger over some beautifully
constructed dishes, not to mention
the refined choice of wines, this
is a place not to be missed.
Clifford
Mould August 2004
Dine
Online Accolade: Most Inventive
Menus of the Year
Restaurant
1880 at The Bentley
Harrington Gardens
Kensington
London SW7 4JX
Tel: +44 (0)20 7244 5555
www.thebentley-hotel.com
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