The
Grill at The Dorchester
Grand
Hotel dining at its British
Best
The
Grill at The Dorchester is one
of the grandest culinary and dining
institutions The room itself is
very flamboyant, with rich red
drapes and hangings and gold leaf
in the Spanish barrocco style.
The lights gleamed on the silverware
and the fine glasses, but I rather
hoped that, as the evening wore
on, they would gradually dim a
little! Living out in the country,
I now tend to dine early, so for
a while the patrons were well outnumbered
by the staff, who were charmingly
welcoming and didn't hover awkwardly.
I
went as a guest of business associates
last January 2001, and very much
enjoyed the special game menu,
but didn't feel I was able, in
the circumstances, to give the
cooking the attention it clearly
deserved. When we go out to review
a restaurant, I like to be able
to concentrate fully on the food
and wine. This time I took with
me as my guest, Chef-Professor
Fran McFadden, of Drexel University's
Hotel and Restaurant School in
Philadelphia.
There
has been a great tradition of German
speaking chefs at the Dorchester.
Within recent memory there was
the then youthful Anton Mosimann,
whose appointment in 1975 caused
quite a stir, but he stayed twelve
years. Then Willi Elsener had
a distinguished 13 year reign,
and last year with a new century
it was time for another change
with the promotion of Henry
Brosi to head chef des cuisines.
Brosi is a great Anglophile, certainly
where food and ingredients are
concerned; (he's lived here for
10 years so he must like us just
a bit!)
Brosi uses
a well trained independent eye
(and palate) to get to the heart
of traditional English cooking.
Often we take our own traditions
for granted, and it takes an unbiased
outsider to see the wood for the
trees. So, for instance, his soups
like pea and ham, or broad bean
were very essences of fresh green
vegetable, with no daft attempt
to render them as lurid espressos.
Potted shrimp hadn't been messed
up with wasabi dressing or served
on a tower of wilted bok choy.
It came plainly served in a little
ramekin dish topped with melted
butter that tasted as though it
had just been fished out of Neptune's
larder. But there are also plenty
of examples of haute cuisine on
the menu, and Fran was very pleased
with his medley of grilled South
Coast scallops and Dublin Bay prawns,
which nestled on a bed of the most
delicate creamed salted cod whose
texture was miraculously soft.
I tried making a brandade de morue
last week, but I now know that
mine was coarse grained by comparison.
We
decided to stick to the very traditional
for our main courses. After agonising
over various steaks from the grill,,
or traditional Shepherd's Pie or
Dover Sole (it's always intriguing
to see what top professionals do
with classics) we plumped for Oxtail
and Roast Beef. There is no shortage
of trolleys in the dining room.
A vast selection of home baked
breads was trundled over by a sweet
but serious girl who looked astonished
when I asked her if she had baked
it herself! The next trolley to
arrive was a great mobile silver
chafing dish which opened to reveal
a huge rib of beef from which perfect
thick pink slices were carved.
The Yorkshire pudding was crisp
and good, the roast potatoes fair
(almost impossible to get them a
la Delia in a restaurant) but
the mashed spuds were creamy-dreamy.
Fran
had the oxtail, which is harder
to get in the States, given the
prejudice there against anything
that might remind you of meat's
natural origins. The meat had been
taken off the bone, slow cooked
and reassembled in a ring around
yet another delicate stuffing.
Carefully turned vegetables in
a glossy reduction completed a
picture that was both elegant and
unfussy.
The
next trolley to arrive was that
of the cheese - no fromage here,
but some of the best English cheeses
I've tried. Apart from the good
but ubiquitous Cropwell Bishop
Stilton, there was the excellent
Swaledale, and Golden Cross goat's
as good as any French affineur
could achieve; and Rooks Nest,
a barrel shaped cheese from Sussex
with a dark hue and smoky flavour.
The cheeses are served beautifully
with grapes and nuts. This didn't
leave much space for trolley number
four.
Dessert
trolleys are now regarded as so
naff, that they are back in fashion
again - as long as they are
not bearing dodgy Tiramisu and
soggy caramelised oranges in some
Italian Tratt with dusty raffia
covered Chianti bottles. Much depends
on the kind of puddings you put
on them. At the Dorchester, puddings
like warm bitter chocolate fondant
with kumquat marmalade ice cream,
or plums roasted in muscat layered
with blackcurrant sabayon and tamarillo
sorbet must be ordered from the
menu. But it's nice to be able
to look at things, and so I tried
a couple of mini portions of classics:
a crème brulée which was still
crisp on top, and some bread and
butter pudding which was nice and
light and whose fruit was properly
buried, not burnt on top. Fran's
raspberry charlotte was much admired,
but we wondered whether this graceful
concoction was a bit far removed
from what our grandmothers would
recognise: "It's Charlotte
dear, but not as you know it!" (See note
below).
As
you might imagine, there's a vast
wine list with many of those wines
that you and I could only dream
of. But there are some very nice
affordable ones too, and a very
good selection by the glass. We
greatly enjoyed a glass of New
Zealand Chardonnay from Red Wood
Valley, which became even more
attractive as it thawed out, the
Pinot Gris from Schlumberger was
opulent, and the Wolf Blass President's
selection Shiraz was a perfect
partner for the beefy dishes. There's
probably a trolley number five,
clinking with bottles of brandy
and port, but I had to rush off
to catch my train home. If you
fancy a treat, and would like to
experience an expert and faithful
rendering of English Cuisine but
which is free from the extremes
of being fuddy-duddy or trendy,
then as they say look no further...
Clifford
Mould April 2001
The
Dorchester Grill Room - The
Facts
The
Grill Room, The Dorchester Hotel,
Park Lane, London W1
Reservations: 020 7629 8888
Lunch
12.30 - 2.00pm (Daily set menu £29.50
three courses)
Dinner 6.00-7.30 pre-theatre Monday - Friday 2 courses: £20.00
Daily Set Dinner Menu £39.50 6.00pm - 11.00pm
Typical a la carte dinner including drinks from about £55.00
Charlotte: According
to Larousse Gastronomique, there
are two kinds of Charlotte - the
traditional kind that Grandma knew
is typified by the apple charlotte, "a
confection of fruit [in a pudding
mould], lined with thin slices
of buttered bread and usually served
hot". The other kind, of which
I believe our raspberry charlotte
was an example, was invented by
the French patissier royale, Careme,
and is an example of Charlotte
Russe. It is prepared as a Bavarois
(Bavarian cream) in a ring mould
with a base of sponge fingers.
Careme sent the dessert out as
a take-out for the benefit of foreign
emissaries who had entertaining
to do. Presumably it was popular
with Russian diplomats as the chef
had originally called it Charlotte
Parisienne. Who the Charlotte was
we can only guess...
