Welcome to our weekly round-up of all that’s happening in London’s food and drink scene.
Inside this week: mince pies, pancakes and a new Ramsay restaurant
Mince Pie Project
Friday sees the launch of the third annual Mince Pie Project, a Christmastime charity initiative that sees big-name chefs design and bake their own pies to be auctioned for charity. Funds will be split between Food Cycle, which serves meals to millions of people in Britain at risk of food poverty, and Kids Company, which provides practical, emotional and educational support for inner-city children. Last year the initiative raised over £30,000 with Duck & Waffle chef Dan Doherty raising £1,900 at auction for his box of gingerbread mince pies.
If you’re not in the market for spending quite that much, you can buy a raffle ticket for £2 with the chance of winning one of the chef’s pies and other foodie prizes. Those already announced as taking part this year include Clare Smyth of Gordon Ramsay’s Royal Hospital Road who’ll be using cranberries, apples, white chocolate and a crumble topping, and Anna Hansen from The Modern Pantry who’ll be incorporating almond and kumquat into her recipe.
Log onto the website here to bid, buy raffle tickets and find out more.
Pricey Pancakes
Just popped up in Covent Garden piazza this week is the Krug Kreperie experience, which runs until Sunday. Set inside three over-sized Champagne crates, you can pop-in mid Christmas shopping for a crepe created by French super-chef Pierre Koffmann (who previously popped up on Selfridges’s roof) accompanied by a glass of the namesake Champagne for £35. Pretty pricey for a pancake, though the cheapest Koffmann food you’re likely to find any time soon.
New Ramsay Restaurant
It was confirmed this week that Gordon Ramsay’s next restaurant will be London House, due to open this coming February in Battersea Square (a part of London the website refers to as Battersea Village, no less). At the more casual end of the Ramsay spectrum, the restaurant will feature a “modern European menu”. This will be Ramsay’s second south-of-the-river venue after Union Street Café in Southwark, and looks likely to be in a similar vein. The announcement comes following new openings Source and Augustine Kitchen not far away, giving Battersea’s restaurant scene a (much needed) breath of fresh air.
This Week’s Openings
In Soho this week the team behind Spanish and Italian restaurants Salt Yard, Dehesa and Opera Tavern have launched Ember Yard; there’s a focus on cooking over charcoal, with grilled and smoked foods (and cocktails) at the heart of the menu. In Covent Garden Augustus Harris is a new daytime wine shop and deli that morphs into a Venetian-style bacaro (like Polpo) serving small Mediterranean platefuls of an evening. Fulham boozer The Imperial Arms has been abbreviated to The Imperial and relaunched as a gastropub with a seasonal British menu. And Shoreditch is getting a taste of Peruvian food courtesy of Andina, a new opening from Martin Morales who runs Ceviche in Soho; included is a BBQ, a games room and a downstairs pisco bar. Tried or going to any? Let us know in the comments below.
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