Pasta man: Phil Howard launched his pasta delivery service in lockdown three
(Picture: Andrew Hayes-Watkins )Top chef Phil Howard and his upcoming protege Thomas Straker are to bring Howard’s pasta delivery brand Otto to life with a two day pop-up at new Richmond restaurant Flour + Water.
Howard and Straker will be serving a £65, seven-course tasting menu on July 5 and 6, which will start with foccaccia with artichoke, olive and pepper tapenades, before ajoblanco – the traditional Spanish cold soup – is served, followed by seasonal Cornish crab with crushed tomatoes.
Howard will then cook up a dish made famous at his Michelin-starred restaurant Elystan Street: strozzapreti with black truffles, butter and aged Parmesan, before a main of pluma Iberico – a cut of pork taken from the neck end of the loin, prized for for its fat – served with sweet and sour peach, beans and almonds. To finish, guests will tuck into a raspberry mess, and then a chocolate and hazlenut brownie.
The pop-up marks the first time Howard and Straker have cooked the Otto offering for the public; the London-only pasta delivery service launched towards the end of the third lockdown with Howard telling Hot Dinners at the time: “Pasta’s capacity to deliver pleasure is without rival and when you’re in the business of giving pleasure, that makes for a pretty useful tool!”
Straker, who worked for Howard at Elystan Street in 2018, said of the upcoming pop-up: “This menu is full of peak summer flavours, light, vibrant and totally delicious. We have a very similar approach to food, and believe flavour always comes first, so you should be in for a treat.”
Howard added: “I cannot wait to cook together using summer's finest produce channelled through some of Otto's repertoire and Tom’s inimitable and utterly delicious cooking.”
For fans of Howard, the evening offers a more casual way to try his famous strozzapreti, which is only presently available at Elystan Street as part of a £105 tasting menu.
Interestingly, Craig Gordon and Rebecca Mascarenhas’s pasta and pizza restaurant Flour + Water itself was until recently a pop-up, having found its home on Lower Richmond Road after its recent success.
