Chef's Tables: Best seats in the house
For the smells, sights and noise of a kitchen, pull up a chair at the pass. Mark Sansom guides you round the UK’s best
Benares Mayfair
Although there are many pretenders to the throne, Atul Kochhar was the first UK chef to give Indian food a Michelin makeover. His Berkeley Square restaurant won a star in 2007 and has held it ever since. It has two chef’s tables: one a ‘sommelier’s table’, in the wine room, and the other with a vantage point looking down into the kitchen, almost like a gallery on a squash court. Guests watch the sport play out above the grilling station, as chefs put the finishing touches to dishes such as the trademark tandoori chicken tikka pie and salmon, cooked in a tandoor. The restaurant is one of the few to have an authentic charcoal tandoor (as opposed to most restaurants’ gas), and the smoky flavour really sings.
Travel Details
SEATS 10
PRICES FROM: £600
MINIMUM SPEND
The Kitchen Table Bloomsbury
One of the best-kept secrets in London, The Kitchen Table is secreted at the back of Bubbledogs, a restaurant that pairs hotdogs to champagne with mixed success. Chef James Knappett and his wife Sandia Chang met while working in New York at the three-star Per Se (Chang runs front of house), and the chef ’s table here is their magnum opus. Knappett has been head chef at Marcus Wareing ’s two- star and also at Copenhagen’s Noma. His cooking shows influences of both, with the pared-back plating of Wareing and the technical nouse of René Redzepi. The 12-14 course menu changes daily, but excellent dishes include ‘pig ’ (crispy ears on bitter leaves, anchovy and parsley) and ‘cauliflower’ (with an almond and yoghurt dressing).
Travel Details
SEATS 20
PRICES FROM: £125PP
Social Eating House Soho
While it may not be the best known or most decorated of Jason Atherton’s 17 restaurants, Social Eating House encapsulates Soho’s eating scene. Buzzy, it’s packed day and night with media types and party people. The basement leads to the hidden Employees Only chef’s table, with a private bar that overlooks head chef Paul Hood’s kitchen. It serves a nine-course tasting menu that the chefs hand you as the plates are ready. Classic French cooking is the deal here. Kentish salt marsh lamb rump, confit neck, pale aubergine and mint yoghurt shows Hood’s respect for produce. Ironbark pumpkin risotto with truffled egg, girolles and cavolo nero is delicious. Finish your evening in secret bar The Blind Pig.
Travel Details
SEATS 8
PRICES FROM: £80PP
L'Ortolan Reading
Reading’s only Michelin-
starred restaurant, L’Ortolan
was once the stage for John
Burton-Race in his debut TV
series. His staff dodged flying
pots and pans in the early
Nineties in his quest for
stardom, though we’re reliably
informed Tom Clarke’s kitchen
is an altogether calmer affair.
It’s a good job too, as the chef ’s
table would be right in the
firing line. The food served is intricate French cuisine,
well executed. There is no set
menu for the chef ’s table and
you don’t have to order from
what’s on in the restaurant
that night. Just tell Clarke’s
team what you fancy and the
chefs will create a string of
plates from seasonal
ingredients.
Travel Details
SEATS 4
PRICES FROM: £100PP
Dinner by Heston Kensington
The godfather of British molecular gastronomy’s London outpost is devoted to food through the ages. Each dish served has its genesis plotted from recipes Blumenthal has researched and can be traced to a period in time. Head chef Ashley Palmer-Watts is only too happy to chat through the heritage and techniques that went into their reincarnation. Meat fruit (c1500) – an arty take on a chicken parfait – wins the accolades, alongside his delicious tipsy cake (c1810), which introduced London to the delights of a smoky spit-roast pineapple.
Travel Details
SEATS 6
PRICES FROM: £165PP
dinnerbyheston.comManchester House Manchester
Aiden Byrne, chef-patron of Manchester House, is not shy of hard work. The time, effort and technique he bestows on dishes shows Da Vinci-grade attention to detail. For his frogs’ legs, for example, he half bones out the leg and then back-fills it with garlic butter. For a duck dish, leg meat is braised and then reformed around the bone and daintily stacked on the plate. The concrete chef’s table itself sits perpendicular to the pass, allowing diners to view each of the kitchen’s stations in action. Should you have a penchant for pastry or see the sex appeal in sauce, just call the relevant chef over and ask about the labour-intensive processes that no doubt went into it. It’s a culinary, educational experience and perfect for special-occasion dinners with close friends.
Travel Details
SEATS 6
PRICES FROM: £60PP
The Three Chimneys Isle of Skye
This restaurant is very much
a family affair. Owners Eddie
and Shirley Spear opened the
remote Scottish restaurant in 1984 as a place that serves
stellar local produce in a
relaxed environment, and
nothing has changed in 33
years. It’s racked up a string of
awards, the most recent being
the number one restaurant in
the Good Food Guide. The
chef ’s table is just that: the
same spot where the chefs eat
staff meals, in the thick of it.
You’ll be party to all the noise,
aroma and pace of kitchen life
as you watch and ask
questions of the dishes you
receive. Sconser scallops,
langoustine, local crab and
Iron Age pork (a hybrid of
wild boar and a domestic pig) are not to be missed.
Travel Details
SEATS 8
PRICES FROM: £110PP
The Gilbert Scott Kings Cross
This beautifully restored train station restaurant harks back to the golden age of trackside dining. Its vaulted ceilings and arches create an excellent atmosphere and the chef’s table is no exception. Decked out in the same polished chrome and brass as the restaurant, you’ve got sterling views of the chefs at work from a horseshoe table overlooking the main prep station. It’s one of the best- value menus on our list: some sample dishes include the likes of pigeon and pistachio terrine on sourdough toast, a sharing beef board of rib, flank steak, bone marrow and artichoke purée, and prune and Armagnac tart with clotted cream. A sommelier is on hand to advise on wine pairings for the night.
Travel Details
SEATS 10
PRICES FROM: £59PP
Sosharu Farringdon
The second Jason Atherton
restaurant on our list, Sosharu
is the Skegness chef’s first
foray into Japanese cuisine.
His extensive travels in the
region alongside head chef
Alex Craciun brought back
countless ideas and spawned
his plan for a Japanese
izakaya that features premium
ingredients and techniques.
The chef ’s table gives you
a front-row seat to witness the
masters at work, intricately
rolling sushi and finely slicing
sashimi before topping with
carefully concocted sauces
and pastes made from
ingredients you’re unlikely to
be familiar with. After dinner,
do head down to Japanese-
inspired, neon-fringed
cocktail bar 7 Tales. It’s as
close as you’ll find to Tokyo’s
vibrant nightlife in London.
Travel Details
SEATS 10
PRICES FROM: £85PP
Northcote Langho
Nigel Haworth’s passion for his native Lancastrian cuisine has seen him develop a loyal following, winning a place at the banquet on Great British Menu and Lancashire’s only Michelin star, retained for over a decade. Lisa Goodwin-Allen is now head chef, but Haworth is ever-present, checking dishes such as his signature hotpot are up to scratch. The chef ’s table has floor-to-ceiling windows into the kitchen as well as a video screen that can be trained on a particular section of the kitchen. The English veal rossini with autumnal mushrooms, aged Madeira and an intriguing frozen liver using dry ice shows the blend of traditional and modern techniques that guests come from far and wide to sample.
Travel Details
SEATS 14
PRICES FROM: £75PP
Aulis Cartmel
Cumbria’s two-star Michelin restaurant L’Enclume also plays host to the most advanced test kitchen in the country. Aulis is chef Simon Rogan’s pet project and contains equipment more akin to a science lab than a traditional kitchen. A seat at the chef ’s table here offers diners a first-look at dishes that will feature in the main restaurant. Rogan’s respect for nature and use of foraged produce made his name as a chef. Plates such as turbot, courgettes and nasturtium sound simple until they arrive, when it is clear they’re anything but.
Travel Details
SEATS 6
PRICES FROM: £150PP
Corrigan's Mayfair
Prince of produce Richard Corrigan’s W1 outpost serves up British Isles classics in traditional surrounds. His approach to sourcing ingredients is second to none and on the menu you’ll find his takes on comforting seasonal classics such as beef Wellington, venison and suckling pig. The suppliers he uses come from 30 years’ industry experience, with many of the ingredients from his Irish country estate, Virginia Park Lodge (see more on p73), which sends a van once a week. The chef’s table looks into the kitchen from sumptuous surrounds, cast in hues of racing green, navy blue and dark mahogany. Sit down for lunch and you won’t want to leave until dinner.
Travel Details
SEATS 14
PRICES FROM: £2,000
MINIMUM SPEND
Swinton Park Ripon
A superb setting for birthdays
and marquee celebrations,
Swinton Park has some of the
most beautiful grounds of any
country estate in the UK.
Start an afternoon with a walk
in the 200 acres of gardens
and rippling ponds, before
taking a seat at Kevin
Hughes’s chef’s table. The
kitchen here is private and
Hughes focuses his attention
on your group, answering
questions and giving tips and
tricks for cooking at home.
Dishes include pan-fried
halibut with onion bhaji,
cauliflower and cumin purée
and rhubarb and chilli
chutney. Most ingredients are
sourced locally in Yorkshire
and seasonal in their entirety.
Travel Details
SEATS 12
PRICES FROM: £58PP
Nucleus at Restaurant Sat Bains Nottingham
A big man, both in size and
personality, Sat Bains’s
intricate, delicate cooking
belies his stature. His two-star
restaurant serves some of the
most innovative cuisine in the
country, and his development
kitchen, Nucleus, is at the
heart of it. Designed by Bains
and head chef John Freeman
as a space to conceptualise
plates outside of the bustle of
the kitchen, visitors can expect
thought-provoking cooking,
with flavour at its core. Scallop
with brawn, dashi and
katsuobushi is typical of their
love for exotic ingredients.
Travel Details
SEATS 6
PRICES FROM: £95PP
Marcus Knightsbridge
A long-time Food and Travel
favourite, Marcus Wareing’s
cookery chimes perfectly with
our principles, being seasonal,
beautiful and always delicious.
At his flagship site in The
Berkeley hotel, which was
redesigned in 2015, Wareing
has built a chef’s table that
looks right into the heart of
the kitchen. The raised
entertaining space provides
front-row seats to some of the
best food-theatre in London
as his chefs cook and construct
the two Michelin-starred
restaurant menus for small
groups. A bespoke five-course
lunch menu or eight-course
dinner menu allows guests to
enjoy all of the chef’s favourite
dishes, hand-picked and
prepared by Wareing and co.
Celebratory plates you can
expect to receive will include
72-hour short rib, yoghurt and
vindaloo spices; Rhug Estate
pork belly, heritage carrot,
rose and scratchings; and
toffee and peanut, with milk
chocolate nougat. A canapé
reception and full kitchen
tour can be added on at
£15 per guest. Wareing’s
executive sommelier,
Michael Deschamps, will
be on hand to ensure your
wines are perfectly matched.
Bookings need to be made
at least a month in advance.
Travel Details
SEATS 11
PRICES FROM: £105PP
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