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New Moon is nothing if not an international advertisement for the hungry virtues of virginity and young people can’t get enough of it
The Twilight Saga: New Moon
Theatre
A smart, prickly and rewarding view of sexual and emotional confusion
Cock
Restaurants
Kitchen W8 is a bargain for this area, if such sophistication is what you crave
Kitchen W8
Too long and drawn out but very entertaining with excellent special effects
This is a peculiar play and does not work for me. Some of it is very funny but there are real flaws
Alex has a strong powerful voice and was faultless, she is far better now than she was on the X-Factor
London,
Fay Maschler's rating
Reader rating
Description: Recipient of three Michelin stars, Gordon Ramsay is a world renowned chef and owner of several restaurants. Styled on New York's grill restaurants and inspired by a modern townhouse kitchen, Maze Grill combines contemporary architectural sensibility with a warm and relaxed atmosphere.
Phone: 020 7495 2211
Website: http://www.gordonramsay.com
Open: Lunch Monday-Friday noon-2.30pm, Saturday and Sunday noon-4pm
Meat master: Jason Atherton came to Maze with a fine pedigree
Should you hold a knife to my throat and force me to say which one of the chefs in the Gordon Ramsay group I thought was the best, my answer would be Jason Atherton. Actually, I’d admit it without any coercion.
I first knowingly tasted Jason Atherton’s cooking about eight years ago when he was chef at L’Anis, owned by Claudio Pulze. Since Skegness-born Atherton had previously worked for Pierre Koffmann, Nico Ladenis and Marco Pierre White I had doubtless consumed something prepared by him before then, but it was at L’Anis — an address that has seen many incarnations including that of a bank and is now Zaika — that I thought I had spotted a singular talent.
It was a view obviously shared by Gordon Ramsay because before you could say … (insert any stream of expletives you like), Atherton and L’Anis were gone from Kensington and he was working for Ramsay at Verre at The Hilton Dubai Creek in Dubai.
He returned to London to open Maze in 2005 (also for Ramsay, as the display of Ramsay’s many books at the restaurant entrance attests) and it was there that his experience of a stage at Ferran Adrià’s experimental El Bulli — the first British chef to do that — was most obviously, but tenderly, incorporated into the array of small, playful dishes that make up the Maze meal format.
Maze Grill, which opened opposite last week aiming to emulate New York steak houses such as Peter Luger and — perhaps more to the point — Laurent Tourondel’s BLT Steak and BLT Prime, might seem an odd progression. But Atherton loves meat, New York, getting things right and the efficiency of line cooking, a system he brought into Maze. For Maze Grill he has imported a high-powered (650C) broiler, the only one in the UK, to finish the steaks after they have been grilled over coals. It is what gives the meat that desirable “crust”.
Beef offered ranges from English Casterbridge grain-fed aged 21 days to Wagyu “9th grade” Gold style by way of British grass-fed aged 25-28 days and American corn-fed aged 35 days, served in various cuts. Hunks of the different beasts are wrapped in white napkins and paraded in front of the customers. My male companions showed differing degrees of interest in this display, one making mention of the marbling of fat. I looked away. Swaddled in that fashion, the meat looked like particularly ruddy newborns. I liked them better in their glass-fronted cabinet in the kitchen which is on view from the big butcher’s block table at the back.
Both Jon, who chose Aberdeen Angus sirloin (10oz for £23.50), and Reg, who opted for Hereford bone-in rib-eye (12oz for £23.50), said the steaks they received were the best they could remember eating. Since they are well-travelled chaps it was praise indeed.
Sauces are £2 each and the ones tried were boiled egg béarnaise and three mustards. Side dishes add another £3.50 to the basic steak price but Maze Grill is launching at a time when food prices are soaring and when eating beef should be a rare treat.
Atherton’s fondness for travelling, particularly to Asia, informs some of the Small Plates and first courses.
Sushi-grade tuna tartar with avocado and caviar and a ponzu dressing was exceptional. Cornish crab and harissa soup with sweetcorn was an inspired combination of flavours, all the better for the component parts being brought together at the moment of service.
Only the salt and pepper squid disappointed by being too salty. I asked what pigs on toast described and a plate of chopped boned trotters seasoned with grated Parmesan on croutons were brought for us to look at — and eat.
One of the party chose a mostly English meal starting with carefully peeled English asparagus served with egg mimosa, prosciutto and a mushroom vinaigrette and following that with half a Label Anglaise chicken perfectly roasted so that the skin and flesh were equally delicious. Faggots of herbs and whole roasted heads of garlic accompanied the steaks and chicken, a touch of rusticity that had a point.
Because I associate braised short ribs with American cooking, I chose those. Slow cooking had tenderised the meat to the point where it falls gracefully from the bone. The flavour of carrots used in the braising were represented by a swirl of carrot purée.
Three-mustard sauce was included in the price (£15.50). Cheeses are British. Desserts apart from apple trifle and Eton Mess are suitably American. The waiter who brought red fruit Eton Mess suggested that its recipient smash the meringue into the cream and fruit, which is an undeniably pleasurable pastime. Bitter chocolate brownie was on the dry side. It’s disproportionate amounts of sugar that give brownies desirable stickiness.
The 10 readers who have won through to be part of our Gourmet Gallop, which takes place on 28 April, will have their main course at Maze Grill. Lucky them. And I will be accompanying them. Lucky me.
Jason Atherton’s Maze: The Cookbook has just been published by Quadrille at £25
Details are correct at the time of publication - please check with venue before booking.
