To my surprise just a week after eating at Roganic I managed to get two seats at Simon Rogan’s 8 seater “chef’s table and development kitchen” Aulis in London. For understandable reasons you pay in full at the time of booking; £195 per person, which includes a multi-course tasing menu, prepared in front of you by two chefs, paired wine, water and coffee or tea and service.  While it’s an odd experience to have to pay up front, leaving at the end of the meal without worrying about the bill is an experience I could easily get used to!  When I booked I received an email confirmation which said I would be told the restaurant’s location the day before the meal, which sounded intriguing. As it happened, I didn’t get that email and I had to call them on the day of the dinner to remind them to send it to me.  I found this all rather exciting and reminiscent of the nights in the late ’80s when we waited to discover the location of a ‘Sunrise’ party.  But instead of an aircraft hangar in Berkshire we were told to go to a small pedestrian street in SoHo called St. Anne’s Court.

We were greeted at the door by Harry and Mel, our chefs for the evening, and invited to sit on a high stool around a large stone counter with a hotplate/plancha and an induction hob at its centre.  The counter is strewn with several part-ready dishes at the beginning, because most time in a kitchen is spent doing ‘prep’ (they start work just after 8am) and what our chefs did during the evening was only a little bit of hot cooking and a lot of ‘assemblage’, so you never actually see them prepare a dish from start to finish.  That’s not a criticism, just a fact, so don’t come expecting to see how they make a smoked egg puree or how they make the interesting preserves and pickles on the shelves behind you, like ‘pickled marigold petals’.

First Harry and Mel finished off and presented us with some snacks (it’s too informal here to call them ‘amuse bouches’), the first of which was “Plum Cornet”, a small cone containing zingy pickled rose gel and creme fraiche (the cone had been painstakingly made by dehydrating a plum jam to make a tuille), which was lovely, if a little sweet to start a meal 7.5/10 but I would score 9/10 if it were a dessert;

 

 

 

 

 

 

Next came a scallop shell containing raw Mull scallop in a light dill and fennel cream and served with Granny Smith apple and caviar, which was fabulously fresh and flavoursome. This was paired with the most delicate of bric pastry tartlets containing more apple and a light and aerated smoked scallop roe mousse. Truly lovely, with a gentle seductive smokiness 10/10

As the only dish so far not eaten with fingers, the scallop dish appeared mark the transition from snacks to the start of ‘proper plates’.  The next of which was a tartare of Cornish beef bound with rapeseed oil and topped with a disc of dill pickle jelly, on which was smoked egg yolk puree, pickled shallots and nasturtium leaves.  This was a beautiful interpretation of a French classic, which showed off several technical aspects.  The beef was very tender, despite it being ‘only’ bavette (I usually use fillet at home); I would have liked more. 9/10

Our next dish, described on the copy of the menu everyone’s given as, “Crab, tomato, horseradish, chicken” seemed to mark a transition from cold to hot dishes. Even if I’d got this photo in focus it would be a challenge to recognise this pretty dish’s constituents.  There was white crab meat in a horseradish emulsion (quite hot), some lovely “lemon salt cherry tomatoes” partially dehydrated, and a large pice of crispy chicken skin which was entirely non-greasy. Everything bonded beautifully to deliver a fantastic taste experience. 10/10

We were served still hot sourdough and cultured butter. Chef Harry told us he didn’t want to make the butter too cultured (acidic) and he whipped it to ensure it was very light.

 

 

 

 

For the next dish sections of hispi cabbage were griddled on the plancha in front of us, along with splashes of beer vinegar. It was them served up with charred sweetcorn, sautéed girolles, sweetcorn puree and a burnt chive oil.  Each element was individually awesome, but all together it was greater than the sum of the individual parts. This was a truly magnificent vegetarian dish. 10/10

Our main hot fish course featured a piece of halibut, charred and then brown butter-poached in a water bath. It was perfectly cooked to deliver brilliant texture and flavour and was accompanied by several different ways of preparing courgette and a kombu butter sauce.  The flavours were outstanding. 10/10 This was served with a cup of sake instead of wine, which was nice and smooth, but that’s all I can say as I’m not a fan of sake with food.

The meat main course was another beautiful and tasty dish: an incredibly lean 28 day hung saddle of Cornish lamb had been cooked sous vide and then seared off on the plancha in front of us for just 1 minute, with garlic and rosemary. There was also a sweet roasted shallot stuffed with slow cooked lamb shoulder, a turnip puree and a twirled strip of lightly pickled raw turnip and a big sticky lamb jus. Everything was perfect. 10/10

Chefs Harry and Mel the set about preparing our first dessert of “Strawberry, buttermilk, sorrel” by making a buttermilk “snow” in front of us with liquid nitrogen.

On the plate, the “snow” covered some fresh strawberries with a strawberry reduction, and on top was laid a “whey crisp”, the dehydrated skin which forms on top of whey.  I didn’t know where the sorrel was supposed to be, but the dish was absolutely delicious, and as it wasn’t laden with sugar, this was a star dessert as far as a diabetic is concerned. 10/10

The final dish, our second dessert, was titled “cherry, woodruff, raisin, oats”.  I had to check Wikipedia to learn that Woodruff is a small spreading plant native to all of Europe, with scented foliage and tiny white flowers. It made a delicious ice cream which was topped with British cherries, a yummy raisin puree, broken flapjack for texture and an apple marigold oil. So fresh, such interesting flavours, and once again so little added sugar. 10/10

Everyone was then offered a choice of Colombian Veracruz coffee or a Black Sun black tea from Japan. I chose the latter and it tasted of cabbage. A beetroot and blackcurrant meringue and a fermented gooseberry financier were served as petit fours, or “treats” as the menu called them. Each were delicious and novel 10/10

Mr. A and I thoroughly enjoyed our meal at Aulis London; most of the dishes served scored top marks and were truly novel and delicious I’m such a fan of the current trend championed by Simon Rogan, of giving vegetables and plants the star billing, as it results in lovely new taste experiences, it’s light and oh-so fresh and appears to be very healthy and good for you.

We both love to sit at ‘the pass’ or counter when it’s available in restaurants, so we already know that most of the kitchen action to be seen during service is around plate assembly rather than cooking.  Our two chefs Harry and Mel were very nice and answered every question asked of them, though they didn’t give a detailed speech about the development or evolution of any of the dishes, which might disappoint some people.  So my overall score is 9.75/10 and I commend you to eat Simon Rogan’s exceptional food wherever you might get the chance to (here, Roganic or L’Enclume).  We left the restaurant at 22:10. I think the 2 hours 40 minutes was just right, and more detailed briefing from the chefs might have made things too long.