Where else to go on Bastille Day but Soho’s French House? Chef Neil Borthwick provides, among other things, oysters, new-season garlic and goat’s curd on toast and rib eye steak with the best French fries on the planet. Santé. And also Sláinte. Bring on the revolution.
Birthday dinner at the incomparable Riva. A parade of dishes finishes with immersive zabaglione with candles letting me off a year.
After seeing the osteopath, piri piri chicken skewers with Cajun slaw and burnt lemon at 108 Brasserie in Marylebone, a very civilised place.
Ollie Dabbous is in the kitchen at Hide Ground. The Summer Vegetable Tartlet encapsulates his delicacy, dexterity, dynamism. A delightful reminder of how I admire his skills.
Negroni in the spacious garden then pork shoulder, girolles, borlotti beans and datterini tomatoes inside in the welcoming Drapers Arms.
