Gourmand Gunno’s previous blog entry was penned just over 100 days ago, on 11 March, when the world was a very different place. Fortunately, my last meal pre-lockdown was at The Palomar, a perennial favourite. Modelled on the famous Machneyuda restaurant in Jerusalem, the Palomar concept works best when seated at the counter, cheek to jowl with fellow diners; the chefs opposite sculpting the dishes in real time. The past is perhaps now a foreign country. As LP Hartley famously wrote, “they do things differently there.” How the London (or indeed global) restaurant scene will evolve post-lockdown remains to be seen.
One of the most notable statistics from the last three very surreal months has been the idea that it takes 66 days, on average, to form a habit. This can, of course, vary widely (the cited range is 18 to 254 days; read more here) depending on the person, behaviour and circumstances. What we do know is that the global events of 2020 – which none of us could have foreseen – have forced people to adopt a new sets of habits very rapidly.
Might dining-in be the new dining-out? If you can’t go to restaurants, might they come to you? There are two ways of approaching this challenge: the easy-option – the take-away – and the more complicated one – cooking at home. Gourmand Gunno has done both since March and certainly derived more pleasure from the latter than the former. There is nothing like a good project: contemplating which recipes to prepare, sourcing the ingredients (I prefer this verb to stockpiling) and then executing the task – mostly, but not always, successfully. Restaurants tout their local, seasonal and artisanal credentials. Anyone can tick all these boxes in spades from the comfort of their own kitchen. Lockdown certainly wouldn’t have been half as much fun without recipes from the likes of Yotam Ottolenghi, Joshua McFadden, Sabrina Ghayour and Meera Sodha to have kept me occupied.
So if home-cooking ticks the ‘lockdown love’ box, where do takeaways/ home deliveries sit on the scale? The simple answer: it depends. Some have been truly superb, such as that from Hakkasan. My mouth waters still now when thinking of just how good the black truffle roasted duck or, say, the roasted silver cod in champagne and honey tasted. You get what you pay for. Give me the Hakkasan ‘Dragon Menu’ over the likes of the takeaway from one local Korean restaurant Gourmand Gunno sampled. The assorted kimchi had become mixed in transit, transforming into pickled sludge. Meanwhile, the beef bibimbap tasted predominantly of MSG. Note to self also made: if ever ordering a bibimbap at home again, fry the egg yourself, rather than dealing with the rubbery plastic after-thought I received. Don’t go to Gogi. At least takeaway pizza remains reliably good and fairly priced. There is a good reason Maida Vale’s Le Cochonnet has been operating for over 20 years. It is very good at what it does. Give me a Tornado (tuna, black olives and spinach topping) with a glass of rosé and Gourmand Gunno will be very happy.
However satisfying the stove at home or the take-away might be, you can’t quite recreate what it feels like to be in a restaurant. Different critics far more erudite than me have tried to describe that ineffable thing called ‘atmosphere’, ‘ambience’ or ‘buzz.’ You know effortlessly when it’s there and damn well notice when its absence. Even if restaurant dining may never be quite the same again – and today is not the forum for discussing such a topic – some of the old joy will still hopefully be there. The optimist in me says that the restaurant industry particularly in a city as diverse and energetic as London has shown a historic ability to reinvent itself. With venues beginning to re-open from 4 July, a new chapter in reinvention is surely just about to begin. Gourmand Gunno is certainly looking forward to a return to reviewing!
As a post-script and by way of (final) lamentation, it is sad to have learned that such luminary venues as The Ledbury, Texture, Indian Accent among many others have announced their intention to close permanently. The Ledbury in particular (last visited as recently as February) will be sadly missed, having occupied a place at London’s top table for 15 years. However, where old restaurants fall by the wayside, there is room for new ones to arise…
Spot the difference: home-made versus restaurant-prepared. Pictures (clockwise from top left): cherries steeped in amaretto served with whipped cream and yoghurt; spring salad quartet; tasty Chinese; and beetlabneh. Gourmand Gunno laboured to make the first two; Hakkasan provided the next and the last comes courtesy of the Palomar, my final meal out pre-lockdown. All photos and more on Instagram @gourmand_gunno