Fidel Gastro’s

I went to the Savoy Grill on Thursday and ate at the Chef’s table. This is a small private room in the kitchen area with one wall being a glassed view into the main kitchen.

Served 9 courses with a different wine matched; each chef came into the room and introduced each course (“Beans on toast. Heinz. White. I’m drunk so that’s all I can be bothered to make. Enjoy”) When the main course arrived (a nice bit of fillet from an extremely happy cow) the master chef came in and had a bit of a chat.

No - not him. The acting head chef was 26, missing a front tooth, looked a bit like Gordon and seemed somewhat of a bruiser. A prize pan fighter and pastry chef beater.
Anyway the service was so good, we had a personal hostess for the evening to lay out knives and cut cheese, I had an idea for a new TV show - ‘Changing Spoons’. Take two restaurants and swap the staff.

Episode 1: Special Fried Rice Claridges Style

Take the entire waiter staff from notoriously rude Chinese eaterie ‘Wong Kei’s’ and donate to Mr Ramsey’s fine dining experience for a week…

Wong Kei’s at Claridges

I picture extremely wealthy americans greeted with a vacant stare, a ten minute wait and then the customary

‘How many? Four? Wait. Wait. Ok upstairs. You sit there, you share table’.

Amuse bouche is brought over with ‘you drink soup, it free’ and 2 menu’s are plonked to share with half the items in Chinese and the other half with numbers next to them.

‘What you want?’

‘Um my wife will be having number 14: the chilled Charentais melon soup with a Cornish crab vinaigrette and I’ll have number 49: Fillet of monkfish wrapped in Parma ham on a bed of herb risotto”

“You have that before? You don’t want that’

“Excuse me?”

“No nice. You have 16. Ok thanks.”

Epsiode 2 will center around classically trained Ritz tea staff having to prepare doner kebab’s at FCKF on Old Street (’Will sir be wanting chili sauce with that?’) and the following week the American burger boys from Ed’s Easy Diner will be sorting the kitchen out for the greater good of the patrons at the Afghan Kitchen on Upper Street.