Hell's Kitchen may be grabbing the headlines but this culinary concert offers a more benign take on the drama of the kitchen. It is not heaven, but it is certainly a different night out and there are small pleasures to be had along the way - if not always tasty ones.
Mind you, Gordon Ramsay would no doubt turn the air blue if he saw the laid-back approach of these chefs, who think nothing of playing the double bass, drums, saxophone, wooden spoons and chopping board while whipping up a three course meal for the audience in under an hour. Enter Riverside's Studio Two and it looks as if the place has been done over by a tipsy designer from the Wagamama's chain.
Shared refectory style tables slope alarmingly down to a central stage or kitchen. The audience perches on stools made from old 33rpm records and - if they have the stomach for it - sip pea liquor as the making of the meal unfolds in front of them. Essentially this a fun piece of concept theatre (think Stomp! with less percussion and more calories) in which the enjoyment is in watching the movements of the performers as they squeeze, chop, stir, flambé and even wash up in rhythm to a bluesy, jazzy score they create themselves, using whatever kitchen implements are at hand as well as their voices and traditional instruments.
It is undoubtedly an evening more for the musically than the gastronomically inclined. When the meal does arrive you wish the chefs had spent more time cooking and less showing off their musical skills. I haven't seen slops like this since my student days, although pork with sesame seeds and pea puree are identifiable. What the piece lacks is a real sense of drama. Kitchens - as the Ramsay series has demonstrated and as we all know from childhood - are natural theatres, and places where the emotions often boil over along with the potatoes. Patatboem refuses to stir things up; it is infused with an almost zen-like calm. It doesn't take risks with the food or the emotions, and the result is a meal not a feast - and one that feeds the body but not the soul.
· Until June 19. Box office: 020-8237 1111.
