Review of the year: ‘I was privileged to eat stupidly well in 2022’ | Food
W.Wouldn’t it be nice to be able to look back on a year of restaurants and immediately get stuck on the good stuff? If I can? But to think about the hospitality business in 2022, we must start by recognizing that restaurants face brutal and wing-stripping economic headwinds. Since restaurants serve as a substitute for home, it makes sense that everything that affects us at home also affects restaurants. Rising costs of energy and materials are simply being punished. Management also had to deal with wage inflation. Even if we were able to pay increased salaries, staff were not always available. As a result, business hours have been significantly reduced. Many ambitious places have ditched their a la carte menus to sample their menus, with no body to carry out.
Consideration Reissue at Piccadilly in London. When I reviewed it in March, I loved the classic brasserie menu of shrimp cocktail and steak frites and tarte tatin. Oh, the difference is 6 months. Onion soup was £6.95. It’s now £10.50. The salmon a la plancha was £15.95. Now he’s 22.95 pounds. The tarte tatin was £7.95. Now £12.95. It’s still not shockingly expensive given its prime location, but it’s certainly not the great value it was in the beginning. But that is tough. If you can still afford to eat out, it can really help the hospitality sector navigate one of the most difficult times in history.
Enough. Let’s get down to good things. In 2022 I traveled from Aberdeen in the north to Worthing in the south, from Swansea in the west to Norwich in the east. I was honored to eat ridiculously well the whole time. Sometimes it was just the culinary element that stuck in my mind. moonfish cafe On our trip to Aberdeen, we made umami clams of hispi cabbage with frazzle and fried scampi. XO kitchen at Norwich.and Jiji Gao’s Favorite Authentic Chinese In Swansea, it was not just slap-cheek Sichuan cuisine, but also Jiji Gao’s own sequined creations. A restaurant is more than just tables, chairs and plates. There are many more. In this case, the major interiors that place Cor include his designs. for decoration.
Last year saw a reassuringly robust show of classic cuisine designed to nourish rather than stifle originality. Augustus Taunton served me a deep, porky faggot of gravy and a beautifully crafted chocolate eclair.and Lexagon In Norwich it was impeccable steak tartare and creme brulee. (My sympathies to his Thomas Aubrit at L’Hexagone, who suffered a grievous injury in the kitchen shortly after the review was published, forcing it to close for several weeks.) Les 2 Garcons Crouch End in London, a late-career passion project by industry veterans Robert Reed and Jean-Christophe Slowwick, serves up perfect garlic snails, crisp-skinned duck confit and impeccable scallops. No Ram Baba kind of made me stupidly emotional.
London produced more teeth-grinding duds than anywhere else, Il Borowith your catheter-shaped wine carafe and clumsy peasant food at plutocratic prices, I look at you – it also created joy. Manteca At Shoreditch, a brave take on the Italian repertoire from nose to tail that kept me coming back again and again for the brown crabmeat cacio e pepe and the size-scratching puffy and wonderfully flavored pork skin ragu . A dinner plate served hot from a deep fryer.
And to some awards. Best service really must go to Gigi Gao. Require all waiters you meet to wear a veil with silver tassels and comfortable trainers. . Sargasso at Margate. Thinking 8 lbs was just too much. Best Platter goes to Roasted Cod Head with Sriracha Butter Sauce. fallowIt was bold and clever, and showed what could be done with the bits that others discarded. , must go for the beautiful chocolate creations surrounding the gorgeous riff of rhubarb that was served to me. fletchers At Grantley Hall near Rippon. An otherwise uninspiring experience, but its dessert menu shined.
The Passion Project Award is definitely Yokouchi, a small café in Stirchley, Birmingham, where James Kirk Gould served up his most favorite dishes from his trip to China. Another bowl of that chili-soaked fried chicken, please. Who is my Restaurant of the Year? I stay true to what I said in October. Kushiya In Nottingham, an intense young man with a beard serves up great Japanese-inspired food at great prices. We loved the Reverse Shrimp Toast, Wild Mushroom with Brown Butter Ponzu, Duck Heart Skewers and the Shrimp Sandwich. Oh I loved everything Lucky Nottingham.
What about worst case? It wasn’t reviewed. In May I found myself near Mirazur, three Michelin stars in Menton, Southern France. Great gourmets talk about it with bated breath as chef Mauro Colagreco cooks in the phases of the moon. I wish my beloved Moon would only help him cook better food, but it doesn’t. was too many. When they’re still serving foie gras, I can’t take speech enough about caring deeply for the bounty of the earth.
It was honestly the most unpleasant thing I have tasted in 2022. With a €340 head menu and a few glasses of wine, the bill came to over €1,000 for two. In 2017, I wrote a controversial and less than positive review of his 3 Michelin stars. Le Cinque in Paris. I will never again be the man who wrote unkind things about the great sacred cow of France. So he decided not to write anything. Stay away from this.
So my New Year’s resolution for 2023 is to avoid making stupid mistakes like that.
Email Jay at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter. @jayrayner1