I have a confession to make: a complete weakness for staionery of any kind. i find it really hard to enter a Paperchase or even a Rymans without coming out loaded up with bagfuls of stuff. But this paper opens up a whole new world. There are three reasons for going to this exhibition: the opportunity of seeing the basement in this iconic building, to able to drink the best coffee in London, and to see a product from a century old British company which has supported creativity worldwide steadfastly through fat and lean years. They are a great bunch, all enthusiasts, right down to the band of aproned women who carefully fold the paper into beautiful envelopes with just the right amount of stickiness.

There is a fascinating room smelling of spruce showing the process of paper making from 15 year old trees only about 1.5 metres high, to the wood chips, to the dyes, all set against vibrant colours of paper. All the processes used are as environmentally friendly as possible with the pulp sourced from well managed forests. Some of the machinery used has been in operation for decades, being completely fit for purpose. GF Smith’s Colorplan range, launched in 1972, has now become the cornerstone of their business. The combination of colours displayed were completely stunning and got me inspired with ideas for redecorating my flat. You can see them all on the simple, well designed website.

Apart from collaborating with the Espresso Room, they also worked with Bompass & Parr, London’s event people without equal. Which meant that you got tokens on entry in exchange for goodie bags on exit. And what goodie bags.

So what was the catering connection then? They supply Gordon Ramsay’s restaurants with paper for his menus.

For entry register your interest at:
www.gfsmith.com
Or visit the Espresso Room on Gt Ormond St to pick up an invitation.

Unmissable

More recently, Les Trois Garçons in Shoreditch, open for the last ten years, offers the same kind of experience in a much bigger space. One advantage of this concept is that the wow factor of the surroundings can mask any inadequacies on the food front. At Les Trois Garçons, the heftily priced three course menu at £47 involves many elaborate dishes with varying success, which combines with the decor to make a special occasion and party venue.

Jackson Boxer, grandson of the cookery writer Arabella Boxer, initially started out taking a space at the front of Brunswick House home to the architectural salvage company LASSCO, to run an espresso bar and lunch snack venue. He has now expanded to a bigger restaurant space at the back, which used to be a concert hall for a local trade union. A mixture of Moroccan and Victorian light fittings hang in abundance from the ceiling and the seating and tables are all part of the shop.

The big difference in Boxer’s venture is that the food is the opposite of mediocre (in fact exceptionally delicious), and it is reasonably priced. My starter of purple sprouting broccoli, anchovies and a freshly made romesco sauce (£5.20) was perfectly cooked and balanced, while my companion’s beetroot and goats curd salad was uplifted by shavings of raw white beetroot and hazelnuts (£5.60). We followed on with a juicy bavette steak, served with braised button onions and spinach (£13.20), and for me a wild bream fillet with potatoes, samphire, cucumber and a slightly over generous portion of horseradish (£12). The wines are intelligent, again well priced and gin from London-based Sippsmith features.

There was only one gripe with the whole experience last night. Two parties, one of 12 and the other 17, lined two sides of the room. The music which started off fittingly as cool versions of Tamla Motown, metamorposed into a harsh technobeat, and as the evening wore on, this, combined with shrieks from the partygoers, drove us out earlier than we would have liked. But not before consuming a modestly named set buttermilk pudding with caramelised oranges and shortbread (£5.00), which lingers deliciously and memorably still.

The decision about whether to take bookings for large parties (say over 6-8) is always a difficult one. They do change the atmosphere, and they can dominate the service. Other smaller tables are left in a hiatus while the main courses are served on the big tables. I understand how tempting it is when you are starting out to go for the big bills. However, for longevity, if the table size was limited to say eight, there would be no problem in filling them, judging by the number of hopefuls in the bar waiting for a table as we left.

Brunswick House Cafe
30 Wandsworth Road
London SW8 2LG
Tel: 020 7720 2920
www.brunswickhousecafe.co.uk

In Paris, however, where you would expect the standard of coffee to be high, being the French national drink, it is hard to find the same standard as in London. This is now changing, led by a small movement of roasters and baristas, who are showing the Parisians a better quality product.

At Coutume Cafe in the 7eme, co-owner Thomas Clark is Australian, while his French partner Antoine Netien spent time in Melbourne immersed in the coffee scene, particularly roasting the beans. The bar counter ressembles a chemistry laboratory, with glass receptacles all lined up on the tiled surface. All the serious elements are there, with different methods for the various beans, including the 24 hour cold water drip process.

Despite this, the courteous and dashing Antoine is trying to get away from the Australian label. “We are serving great coffee, but against a background of French gastronomy. That’s what makes us different.” He goes on: “Why can’t you just have the best of everything? We blind-tasted our teas, and chose Rishi, the American organic and fairtrade brand to be our supplier. And we want to be well known for our food too”.

The attention to detail on the menu persuaded me to stay for lunch: Jambon de Paris (from the last remaining Parisian producer), and a delicious sounding Legumes Masala, while I spied a vast 2 kg loaf from the artisan baker Gontran Cherrier being cut up for bread baskets. The tempting desserts come from the nearby Patisserie des Rèves. I agree with Antoine, if you choose your suppliers carefully, you can have the best of everything. The key is not too much cooking on the premises.

The atmosphere was convivial with a mix of American and British expats, and the chic French locals. The decor is light and airy and fashionably distressed with some bare plaster walls, indicating a focus on the products rather than the surroundings. Netien was the Melbourne 2007 Golden Bean roasting champion, and therefore a coffee roaster sits at the back of the premises. Like Caravan in Exmouth Market, London, Coutume wants to supply other local discerning cafés and restaurants too, with its roast coffee beans.

One the day I visited, it was Coutume’s first birthday, and all coffee drinks were being generously charged at only one euro. With a successful year behind them, and much ambition ahead, I can’t think it will be long before the opening of a second branch.

Coutume Cafe
47 Rue de Babylone
75007 Paris

Tel: 0033 1 45 51 50 47

The venue, Thyme at Southrop, needs a piece on its own. Caryn Hibbert has set up a food school in lovingly restored listed barns adjacent to Southrop Manor. This idyllic spot was a perfect partner for the day’s event.

This Foodie Bugle lecture day was termed a “networking” event, a slightly misleading description conjuring up as it does: suits, mediocre wine and indifferent canapés. However, it did indicate that it was aimed at foodies who had businesses or were trying to establish them. There were talks from experienced business owners who had succeeded, notably Chantal Coady, founder of the well known Rococo chocolate brand, Monika Linton of Brindisa, and Trevor Herbert of Hobbs House Bakery, whose sons Tom and Henry, also in the business, featured recently on Channel 4 as the Fabulous Baker Brothers. In addition to the interesting speakers, the attendees were a stimulating group on their own: an assortment of bloggers and bakers, cookery teachers, restaurant owners and designers. My only regret was that there was not enough down time to talk to more of them in the schedule.

We all agreed that Twitter was a vital tool in our sphere of life, both for self promotion, and keeping abreast with the latest trends. This topic was spearheaded by the journalist Thane Prince who also spoke controversially about enjoying supermarket shopping, and not always wanting to buy local (think of the bean-picking Kenyan women who rely on our custom for their livelihood).

At lunch I sat with Martin Yarnit, who specialises in all food matters related to Bologna, and writes a blog accordingly. Although now living in Worcester, he had been a customer of my Liverpool restaurant in the eighties. The foodie world is a small one. Later on, Rachel Demuth told me about her vegetarian cookery school in Bath, with Demuths, an award winning restaurant alongside. During the talks I sat next to Kate Fishenden who runs a design studio called Starch Green, with her husband. They create beautiful designs for enhancing life and everyday objects. Such was the camaraderie of the day she gave me a lift back to London.

The perfect weather helped, and the fact that the delicious lunch could be eaten outside in the suntrap of the courtyard adjacent to the teaching kitchen added to the magic. Daryll Taylor, a visionary chef from Sydney, and Marjorie Lang, a Masterchef winner, head the chefs’ team, and produced a display of simple but gorgeous tasting food, including a wild garlic frittata with nettle pesto, home cured coppa, and an exquisite orange cake, the flavours of which still resonate with me a week later.

www.thefoodiebugle.com
www.silvanadesoissons.com
www.thymeatsouthropmanor.co.uk

First things first. Gilbert and George are in fine fettle till May in a large exhibition spanning the three White Cubes. Over 6 years the artists stole nearly 4000 newspaper sellers’ posters, and made 292 works cataloguing the daily drama of London life. The large white Gallery walls are perfect for the monochrome displays with red highlights, and their films are compelling too.

After this artistic nourishment, it was straight into Zucca at 6 pm, a few doors up. It is a small restaurant, maybe 40-50 seats, dominated by the open kitchen which spans most of the length, from which the smells of serious cooking waft towards the entrance. Sam Harris, whose career has included 6 months at the River Cafe, first opened the Maltings Cafe close by in Tower Bridge Road, to cut his teeth, before opening this grown up venture in 2010.

This is serious Italian cooking, as far as Italian cooking ever is, and reminds us of the use of good vinegar. But not at the expense of good olive oil. The cubes of foccacia and other finely cut breads to dip into the delicious oil were almost a good enough reason on their own to be there. Quality and simplicity of all ingredients is the key. How many other restaurants claims to have this as their priority, but actually fail to deliver it? My daughter exclaimed at the first mouthful of the burrata with courgettes and wilted zingy greens, that it was like mozzarella but “just amazing”. It was. I also ate the freshest cod with its attendant creaminess, set on a perfectly balanced pink caponata. The tuna choices were the same: completely fresh and perfectly cooked. There were no pepper mills on the tables, none offered and none needed. For this quality the prices are reasonable. Most main courses are under £15 and the starters under £5. But the bill can get much larger if you explore their well researched and serious wine list. On this occasion, three of the party were post-Christmas alcohol-free till 1 April. But the Valpolicella was excellent.

The only missed trick I logged was the lack of a printed dessert menu. Perhaps I’m odd, but I like to see have the measure of the whole offering, before I decide on any of it. Different versions of the items were recited from memory by the waiting staff at the beginning and then after the main course, which didn’t inspire a great deal of confidence. The point about desserts is they should be tempting, and even if you’ve had enough, you might just fit one in if it looks delicious enough on paper. In the event, we finished the meal with just coffee and teas.

When the bill came, refreshingly, service was not added, and no empty line on the credit card slip either. I say, all credit to Sam for this brave move, which other restaurants would do well to follow. Leaving a cash tip, and knowing that it will go directly to staff encourages generosity, especially when the service has been very good, as it was here.

This is a restaurant where the tastes of the food stay in your memory. If it was on my local patch, I’d be a regular. But in any event I’ll be back when a new exhibition opens at the White Cube in May.

Zucca
184 Bermondsey Street
London SE1 3TQ
Tel: 020 7378 6809

White Cube Gallery
144-152 Bermondsey Street
London SE1 3TQ
Open Tues – Sat 10-6
Sun 12-6
Free admission

There are two branches: the original in the Rue de Paradis in the 10th arondissement; the second in the more trendy Rue de Charlot in the 3eme. The latter I visited first. It was 1.30, so lunch time peak, and there was a blockage at the narrow entrance which also held the takeaway counter. You had to be an habitué to know that the seating area was at the back, and therefore to push through down the narrow passage between the bar kitchen on one side and an unfortunate girl on the window side trying to do some baking in full view of passers-by.

The canteen-like layout of the restaurant is intentional. In most situations it would be drab and uniform: nothing on the walls save a long scrappily written menu. But this is where the scene is currently at, so the buzz of customers is constant and provides the atmosphere.

After five minutes of standing at the entrance to the seating section, I was seated by one of the harassed-looking staff with a nod in the direction of an empty table. At no time was a menu offered, and so I opted for a choice from the blackboard: a freshly squeezed carrot apple and ginger juice €5.50, a miso soup with petites legumes €6, and Onigri (a kind of giant sushi) with salmon and sun-dried tomatoes. Like the service, the soup was perfunctory: the “little vegetables” were a few cabbage leaves and some strands of rocket, presumably what was to hand by the overworked kitchen staff. But the unlikely combination in the Onigri worked surprisingly well, and the juice was, well, as that cocktail always is, fine. The bill was €14.

So why return for some more punishment? As a consultant, I am interested in why places don’t work, as well as those which do. In contrast, the layout at the rue de Paradis, is ideal: a broad rectangle in a new building. At 12.30, it was empty, but well prepared for the lunch rush, with menus laid out on the tables. A half litre of tap water complete with lemon was brought without asking. Un bon point.

I watched as the pace hotted up towards one o’clock. The 10eme in Paris is clearly an area for the working lunch hour, but is also rapidly becoming gentrified. This time the regimented layout was attractive, enlivened by the theatre produced by the kitchen, paper shades and wall decorations installed by Confetti System, with Clarisse Demory supervising the decor. The waiting staff had easy access to the food and drink orders and got happily powered up on adrenalin while the tables filled.

The most popular menu item is the bento, which looks like a kind of Japanese healthy TV dinner, the components of which are rectangular dishes on a tray. It works equally well to take out. The vegetarian bento I had was delicious: warm roast sweet potatoes with a tofu sauce and coriander pesto set on carefully flavoured quinoa, with a well dressed salad of interesting raw and cooked green vegetables alongside.

The Japanese, like the Indians, don’t seem to be able to master pastry*, which needs a calm cool place in which to relax during the making process. And the accomplished baking skills of the Rose Bakery were not in evidence here. The pastry base of the green tea cheesecake was tough, and inedible at €5.50. My half-eaten portion was unquestioned. The staff were only too pleased to see a table vacated for the waiting queue. The bill with un café was €21.

The energy at Nanashi is reminiscent of the early days of Wagamama in London but without enough capital investment spent in the right places. Alan Yau would never have allowed the scruffy toilets, and the inadequate ordering and payment systems. Nanashi is a combination of many elements making a whole which has hit the right nerve with the trendy Parisians and others who go to see what all the fuss is about. The concept is attractive, and there is clearly a need for a new alternative to the tired sandwich cafe format in the casual eating sector. A third branch would provide an opportunity to improve layout and systems for the staff who are trying their best to cope.

* with the exception of the Patisserie Sudaharu Aoki which is one of the best in Paris

Nanashi
31 Rue de Paradis
Paris 75010
0033 1 40 22 05 55

Check for exact opening hours
but most days lunch plus evenings Thurs to Sat
Closed lunch: Rue de Paradis (Sun)
Rue Charlot (Mon)
No bookings