THE JOURNAL
Mushroom risotto at Kerridge’s Bar & Grill. Photograph by Mr Cristian Barnett, courtesy of Kerridge’s Bar & Grill
From duck liver parfait to French baguettes – here’s what the food experts enjoyed eating the most this year.
What makes a truly memorable plate of food? BBC’s MasterChef would have you believe that it should be painstakingly constructed, awash with brightly coloured swirls – straight from the school of Mr Massimo Bottura – and shrouded in a cloud of theatrical smoke. Ingredients are to be teased to within an inch of their life, or arranged in a tower of some description. To touch this perfect dish in the hope of eating some of it is to, momentarily at least, spoil it.
Of course, if what is on your plate tastes good, there is nothing wrong with Michelin-star-aspiring flourishes. And there is every chance that you have eaten such food and it has been singularly memorable. But we asked some of our favourite food critics for the best dish they ate this year, and their choices are not necessarily worthy of framing for Mr Gregg Wallace’s bathroom. Exceptional food is often about simplicity, flavour and pure enjoyment. And it is not always just the sum of well-executed parts. Special food experiences often rely on time, place and the mood we were in when we sat down to eat. The pioneering food writer Ms MFK Fisher was a master at describing why eating and cooking are about far more than just the ingredients. As she says in the preface to her 1943 memoir The Gastronomical Me, “There is a communion of more than our bodies when bread is broken and wine drunk.” Below, seven experts share their own best-of-2018 selections.
Roast pheasant at Oslo Court, London
**Ms Fay Maschler, restaurant critic, London Evening Standard **
Photograph by Mr Daniel Hambury/Stella Pictures
“Emotion can and probably should be an ingredient in a dish. In November I collected the ashes of my late husband Reg Gadney and went for lunch with his daughter Amy to Oslo Court, a restaurant in a block of flats in St John’s Wood that had been one of his favourites. He loved the time warp element, the courtly waiters, the soft, sound-muffling furnishings and the availability of duck Montmorency (with cherries) – available also at The Connaught, Reg would advise. But roast birds with bread sauce were another delight to him so I chose a dish of the day of roast pheasant. The whole bird presented at the table, carved to the side, was beautifully cooked, juicy, slightly pink, well-seasoned skin, a boat of gravy, one of bread sauce, an allotment of vegetables, potatoes any way you wanted them. Reg would have been so happy. Amy and I cried.”
Baguettes at Maison Mamy, Corrèze
Ms Marina O’Loughlin, food critic, The Sunday Times
Photograph by Ms Marina O’Loughlin
“Trying to choose a favourite dish from a year of good eating is like trying to knit fog. Perhaps the aged duck breast from The Grill in Manhattan, with its skin as rich and crisp as the topping on a crème brulée. Or the ‘nasse’ at Il Consiglio di Sicilia in Sicily, pasta shaped like the titular shrimping creels, stuffed with sweet, hardly-cooked prawn meat. Or the chicken liver pâté made by Mr Shaun Searley at London’s Quality Chop House, so silky, so luxurious I’m tempted to wear it like a face mask. But the food that has given me the most pure pleasure is bread from bakery Maison Mamy in Beaulieu, Corrèze, France, the finest baguette I’ve ever eaten, its crust light and crisp, its crumb airy and elastic. Just warm from the oven and slathered with too much of that delicious French butter studded with crystals of sea salt, it is the food of the gods. I’m unabashed at having scarfed a whole loaf in one sitting. Actual heaven.”
Claude’s mushroom risotto and Daniel’s crispy egg at Kerridge’s Bar & Grill, London
**Mr Jimi Famurewa, food critic, ES magazine **
Photograph by Mr Cristian Barnett, courtesy of Kerridge’s Bar and Grill
“One of the stranger things about the intensely jammy business of being a professional glutton is that you perhaps do not recall as much as you think you might. Perfectly good meals fade in the mind beneath the fog of afternoon wine and the propulsive urge to track down the next, breathlessly hyped thing. So if something makes it onto your hardware – if you basically can’t forget it – then it must be special. This starter – a melding of dishes by Kerridge’s friends Claude Bosi and Daniel Clifford – may not have been as slavishly photographed as Bar & Grill’s sexily blackened glazed lobster omelette, but it inspired a building joy I think about often. The spurt of golden yolk as my fork came down on potato-cocooned egg. The almost trippily rich (and riceless) aged Parmesan risotto. A little seeping hint of tarragon oil. Never has such an electrifyingly deft bit of cooking laboured under such a clumsy name.”
The special laksa at Sambal Shiok Laksa Bar, London
Ms Miranda York, founder, atthetable.co.uk
Photograph by @clerkenwellboyec1, courtesy of Sambal Shiok
“There are many different versions of this spicy noodle soup in Malaysia, but the signature curry laksa at Sambal Shiok is based on the campur style found in Malacca – a cross between Kuala Lumpur’s curry laksa and Penang’s fiery assam laksa. Chef-proprietor Mandy Yin and her team put an incredible amount of care into everything they cook – making all the fiery spice pastes and umami-rich broths from scratch. It’s the kind of casual dining I love; go solo (head bowed over a steaming bowl of noodles) or book a big table and celebrate with friends (starters such as the Malaysian fried chicken, achar pickles and gado gado salad are great for sharing). Bonus points for the carefully curated riesling-heavy wine list by sommelier Zeren Wilson, though the bright-pink rose milk is also essential; it cuts through the intense heat of the laksa and tastes joyfully akin to Turkish delight.”
Duck liver parfait with warm doughnuts at The Fordwich Arms, Kent
**Mr George Reynolds, food writer, The Sunday Times Style **
Photograph courtesy of The Fordwich Arms
“At its best, 2018 for me has been about the return of comfort – big, old-fashioned flavours with just a twist of modernity to keep your inner food nerd excited. I’ve had excellent pies at Portland, Levan and Clown Bar in Paris but I will go to my grave thinking about the medium plate chicken at Etles in Walthamstow. But perhaps the most surprising – and welcome – place to find this sort of food was at The Fordwich Arms near Canterbury, a converted pub run by Clove Club alumni. This dish in particular stood out because a plodding, predictable version of it has been a mainstay of gastropub menus for decades. And yet this one was an absolute revelation: the parfait flawless, its garnish of pickled shallots and berries cutting through the richness with surgical precision. And then, the doughnuts. Such a fun, unfussy touch, such a perfect vehicle for scooping up every last vestige.”
Papusa with cheese and beans at El Tamarindo, Washington DC
**Mr Adam Coghlan, editor, Eater London **
Photograph courtesy of El Tamarindo
“The hot-smoked salmon and (part-fermented) tomato consommé I had earlier this year at Lake Road Kitchen in Ambleside was a memorable triumph of freshness, salt, fat and acid by chef James Cross. But the thing I ate in 2018 that gave me an unusually intense craving was a single cheese and bean-filled papusa at El Tamarindo in Washington DC. My friend and New York City Eater colleague Ryan Sutton had not returned to DC since his college days. Papusas, a popular Salvadorian snack, held a special sort of nostalgia for him. He’d not eaten once since. I’d never eaten one, and was therefore uninitiated in the warm, savoury, textural thrill delivered by this corn tortilla case stuffed with refried pinto beans and melted cheese. The unplanned visit to El Tamarindo fell between meals at a genuinely outstanding Filipino restaurant, DC’s hottest Middle Eastern grill and a stellar Laotian neighbourhood joint. The papusa is the only thing I can remember eating.”
Foie gras and prune doughnut at Black Axe Mangal, London
Ms Lisa Markwell, editor, CODE hospitality
Photograph courtesy of Black Axe Mangal
“From the uncompromisingly raucous soundtrack to the thrillingly out-there menu, a night at London’s Black Axe Mangal is always memorable. Chef Lee Tiernan knows how to make explosively indulgent, often fiery dishes with perfect refinement – imagine an inky black squid-ink flatbread topped with a perfect oozy egg yolk and potent smoked cods roe, all covered in glitter. My favourite is his foie gras and prune doughnut, which, while not for the faint-hearted, is a sublime combination. Bite into the sugary, light-as-a-cloud carapace and meet no resistance from the creamy slab of foie, itself slathered in rich prune jam. These are the most Michelin-ish of ingredients, made into laugh-out-loud fun – it’s a three-napkin flavour bomb. Tiernan did take it off the menu recently to explore new dishes, but it’s back by public demand, so it’s not just me.”