London viewpoints, Sunday baking and chicken galore

2 October 2023

Eleanor Steafel’s smashed potatoes with figs, goats cheese and prosciutto

This week

I made Eleanor Steafel’s smashed potatoes with figs, goats cheese and prosciutto from last week’s Telegraph which I’ve now done twice and is a firm favourite. I had it with green salad and the rest of the family had broccoli. I’m going to try one of the Observer’s 20 best autumn baking recipes, Tarunima Sinha’s autumn vegetable galettes and will save Helen Goh’s burnt honey cake with apple and ginger for when I next need a stand out cake. In fact, the whole article will give endless autumnal ideas. And for free monthly seasonal inspiration, read Judith Magee’s Substack, Scrumptious Seasons.

For those living in London or visiting sometime, I would recommend booking free tickets in advance to the new highest view point in London, Horizon 22. I’ve just booked for November which was the earliest available. As well as this, The Times also gave a list of other buildings in London with good views, including the Post Building, handy as it’s not in the City, and the Tower Viewing Gallery, in Westminster Cathedral. My favourites are the garden at 120 Fenchurch St, which is lower but has a really good view over Tower Bridge and a cleverly designed garden and more prosaically, the café on the top floor of Peter Jones in Chelsea where you can see over the rooftops to the museums in South Kensington. The John Lewis cafe in Edinburgh also has a good view over the city to the Firth of Forth. 

I feel like an Instagrammer seeking engagement as I ask ‘what are your favourite viewpoints in London? Do tell in the comments below. I love a good view.

View from the top of the Post Building to the British Museum

Recipes

There’s a lot of chicken around this week with Spatchcocked barbecued peri-peri chicken by Ravinder Bhogal in the FT, poulet à la mode de Charolles by Rowley Leigh and seven chicken recipes by Donal Skehan in the Times, curried fried chicken with sweet mango relish and celeriac slaw by Ottolenghi in the Guardian, tarragon roast chicken by Julius Roberts, and spice marinated chicken by Diana Henry in the Telegraph. Take your pick from the links below and sorry if you’re a vegetarian. You need the Sunday Times and Mark Emberton recipes for apple, and a celeriac and stilton soup with a hazelnut, seed and sage topping to add a bit of crunch. I really like the sound of this for when it gets colder. He serves the soup with apple scones with cheddar and thyme. And an apple tart with tarragon.

Rowley Leigh, currently having a residency at Laylow in Notting Hill, London, in the Times with an interview and four recipes including the famous Parmesan custard with anchovies, poulet à la mode de Charolles (creamy chicken casserole, ) escalavida (Catalan roasted veg) and seared mackerel with bread sauce and pickled gooseberries 

Diana Henry is celebrating one pot cooking in the Telegraph with recipes for cheddar crusted cod with layered potatoes and leeks, yoghurt and spice marinated chicken with peppers and chickpeas and sausages baked with squash, tomatoes and pasta  

Little blackberry sponges and cauliflower and kefir soup by Nigel Slater in the Observer as well as autumn baking recipes including Nigella Lawson’s plum and pecan crumble.

The Guardian did comfort food and the best of the recipes were Ottolenghi’s curried fried chicken with sweet mango relish and celeriac slaw, mackerel buns with harissa and chimichurri, and charred padron pepper salsa with a cheesy sweetcorn dip and Ravneet Gill’s chocolate fudge cake with custard. 

Books

Roast Figs, Sugar Snow by Diana Henry

with an interview and recipes for pumpkin tarts with spinach and gorgonzola, beef pie with wild mushrooms and red wine, and pecan and pear upside-down cake in the Independent.

The Farm Table by Julius Roberts

with an interview in the Telegraph and recipes for tarragon roast chicken, smoked haddock and leek rarebits, dark chocolate, oat and hazelnut cookies, and plum and fig leaf jam, which uses far less sugar than usual but you have to keep it in the fridge once opened.  He has 469k Instagram followers and left his job as a chef in London to be a first generation farmer and now lives in Dorset. I had never heard of him but his cookies were delicious although watch the cooking times as they needed less in my fiery oven.

Julius Roberts’ dark chocolate, oat and hazelnut cookies in a spot of Sunday afternoon baking

Home Kitchen: Everyday Cooking Made Simple and Delicious by Donal Skehan

in the Times with seven chicken recipes including bang bang poached chicken salad with lime, coriander and mint and grilled sticky pomegranate chicken with red onion and coriander salad

Restaurants 

In the FT, Tim Hayward went to 64 Goodge St in London W1 and thought ‘the French cuisine crafted here is nothing short of brilliant, and the attentive staff adds to the overall experience.’ 

In the Guardian, Grace Dent wrote about the joy of chain restaurants.

In the Observer, Jay Rayner was at Sam & Jak in Cirencester, Gloucestershire and loved it, writing ‘everyone at Sam & Jak knows exactly what they’re doing. The result is the kind of meal you always hope for and don’t always get.’

In the Standard, Jimi Famurewa went to a wine bar, Ken’s in Exmouth Market, London for a solo teetotal lunch that cost £80, and thought it was an ‘awkward middle ground between an ambitious, bistronomie kitchen and a wet-led bar where the focus is very much on decanting things from fancy packets and tins.’ 

In the Sunday Times, Charlotte Ivers is the new restaurant reviewer. You can imagine restaurant managers all over the UK putting her photo up in their kitchens. She’s not going to be anonymous like Marina O’Loughlin. For her first review, she remembered Cosmo, an all-you-can-eat buffet in Reading. 

In the Telegraph, William Sitwell travelled to Higher Ground in Manchester and thought it was ‘doing the necessary feeding, but tickling the taste buds all the way without unnecessary flotsam and jetsam. It’s no mean feat; so many chefs are unable to restrain their urges to litter a plate with supererogatory flourishes.’

In the Times, Giles Coren tried out Manzi’s, the new seafood restaurant owned by the Wolseley Group and said it was ‘a serious seafood joint.’

And a bonus from the Scottish edition of the Times, the Oyster Shed on the Isle of Islay worth noting if you are planning a tour of the Hebrides 

Travel

UK

The best pubs (and a wine bar) in London’s West End in the FT and the 45 best wine bars in Britain in the Times as chosen by the experts, 21 of which are in London. I counted. 

Walking the Seven Sisters in Sussex in the Telegraph and two places to eat, Saltmarsh Farmhouse and Sheppards Café.

Croyde in Devon in the Guardian for those wonderful wild beaches in the autumn.

Salisbury for the perfect weekend in the Telegraph as the Cathedral will soon shed the scaffolding that has kept it partially hidden for 37 years or alternatively, an arty weekend in Wakefield, West Yorkshire including the Yorkshire Sculpture Park to see Henry Moore sculptures and Hepworth Wakefield to see Barbara Hepworth. More art in Guernsey in the Times with a new Renoir show as he often painted there, being entranced by the light

Why Lancashire is better than Yorkshire in the Telegraph which seems to be a clickbaity headline.

Europe

Autumn sun on Italy’s Ligurian coast in Bordighera which is seven minutes by train from Ventimiglia in the Guardian

Views from the Shard