Insta Stories

The London Restaurant Industry Marched Against Brexit

The People’s Vote march brought chefs, writers, and influencers out in force

by George Reynolds Mar 27, 2019, 9:21am GMT

Jamon, gammon: in reference to this gentleman’s preference for fine Spanish charcuterie over a particular brand of retrograde white male politician

Welcome back to Insta Stories, a column examining the London restaurant scene through the often-problematic medium of Instagram. This week’s filter is chronic.

News of the week

The link between London’s food and Westminster politics has surely never been shown as starkly as it has in the past few years, with practically the entire industry — minus a few notable exceptions — lamenting and raging against Brexit. Unsurprisingly, last weekend’s march saw chefs and food writers take to the streets to make an impassioned case for a people’s vote. Could it actually work? Will next weekend see a march for a People’s Indicative Vote instead? As ever with all things Brexit, it’s super-fun that all permutations for the nation’s future are still on the table!

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Such a great feeling to take part of the “Brexit march” and see and feel the positive energy of everyone around. One million joined Brexit protest yesterday in central London. #london #uk #home #europe #eu #weareunited #samitamimi @sami_tamimi

A post shared by 薩米·塔米米 SAMI TAMIMI (@sami_tamimi) on Mar 24, 2019 at 3:10am PDT

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One of the more flattering portrayals of the UK government today. What a mess (photo @greenshizzle)

A post shared by Dan Keeling (@noblerotmag) on Mar 23, 2019 at 10:06am PDT

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Good humoured but nonetheless passionately supported @peoples_vote march in London today. So many people feeling it’s utterly wrong for us to crash out without having another say. Not confident @theresamay or @jeremycorbyn will listen but they should. #brexit #peoplesvote

A post shared by Fiona Beckett (@food_writer) on Mar 23, 2019 at 8:40am PDT

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Liberal metropolitan fucking elite. But have marched till my joints gave up so #bollockstobrexit

A post shared by Marina O'Loughlin (@marinagpoloughlin) on Mar 23, 2019 at 9:08am PDT

Budding photographers of the week

After last week’s official confirmation that spring has sprung, it was only natural that the feed would be blessed with images of the coming season in all its glorious florescence. Think: green stuff; floral stuff; green and floral stuff. Batten down the hatches: this won’t be the last of it.

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A new addition to our @DominiqueAnselLondon menu: Rhubarb & Custard Soft Serve, with a swirl of homemade rhubarb sorbet and creamy custard soft serve inside a hand-rolled ginger honey tuile waffle cone, topped with a rhubarb chip to finish. Classic British flavors to start off spring, and served from 11am daily. #icecream #DominiqueAnselLondon #softserve

A post shared by dominiqueansel (@dominiqueansel) on Mar 22, 2019 at 10:05am PDT

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Gorgeous @fernverrow peach blossoms to celebrate the first day of Spring @johnson_sarita #SpringRestaurantLondon #FernVerrow #SpringEquinox #CoventGarden #Seasonal

A post shared by Spring (@spring_ldn) on Mar 20, 2019 at 1:53am PDT

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Spring equinox is the official signal spring has arrived and the dark days are over - yippppeeeeee! We’re celebrating with this banger of spinach tagliarini with nettles, nutmeg, parmesan and egg yolk

A post shared by Padella (@padella_pasta) on Mar 21, 2019 at 4:00am PDT

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New appetiser alert at Texture, London Pea mousse with crushed peas and mint snow. Spring really is on the doorstep! - - Photo credit: @texturerestaurant - . . . . #michelinrestaurants #tasty #cuisine #food #foodphotography #foodie #foodies #foodiegram #finedining #yum #instafood #foodpics #tasting #dish #plating #art #hungry #michelinstar #michelinstars #mystorywithmichelin #michelinguide #michelinguidefood #michelinguideuk

A post shared by MICHELIN guide (official) (@michelinguide) on Mar 20, 2019 at 4:04pm PDT

Disappointing pudding of the week

#Codless.

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#lofoten #foodofthecods #kitchenontheedgeoftheworld

A post shared by Tim Hayward (@timhayward) on Mar 23, 2019 at 12:46pm PDT

Advice of the week

Not…really?

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“If you hold two of them it’ll maybe look less phallic?” Solid Instagram advice from the Lyle’s kitchen.

A post shared by Freddie Janssen (@freddielookatme) on Mar 21, 2019 at 5:08am PDT

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White asparagus from the Angers area, via Terroir D’Avenir. On the lunch menu with mead butter & almonds.

A post shared by Lyle's (@lyleslondon) on Mar 21, 2019 at 4:00am PDT

Austerity-bucking trend of the week

Is the new alt-brunch… Luxe brunch? First, the usual dim sum blowout got a lick of gold paint at Imperial Treasure — now it’s the turn of Chiswick’s Hedone to elevate the weekend’s most blurry-eyed meal to soigné destination dining level, with surely the only menu in town that sees a burger share real estate with golden oscietra caviar and baby red mullet. Avocado toast this most certainly is not.

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Hedone, Mar 2019. Thoroughly enjoyed MJ’s new Sunday brunch menu. The menu is well priced, flowing smooth from one dish to the next, and ends up being a pretty sophisticated, grown-up lunch. Most importantly, it does give you that comfort feeling on a Sunday - being recharged for the week ahead. The champagne of the day was brilliant -Francis Boulard- , we had a couple of glasses each and wondered why we didn’t just buy a full bottle. If you have spare time on Sunday; well worth giving this a go. I included the full piccies in this gallery in case you wanted to see it all: —- 1. XL L’Etivaz gougeres. 2. House made rillettes from Tamworth pork belly and Swedish spices, with toasted Hedone sourdough. 3. Rolled watercress omelette, house juniper berry&branch smoked salmon, Creme fraiche and oscietra. 4. Beef and gruyere burger, with pomme pailles. 5. Vanilla millefueile, aka cloud waffle. (6. Pistachio nougat.) @hedonelondon #toplondonrestaurants #mikaeljonsson @lefooding #lefooding #eaterlondon

A post shared by My name is Kang. (@londoneater) on Mar 26, 2019 at 5:15am PDT

Existential threat to this column of the week

A bespoke food photography app, backed by none other than the Domestic Goddess™ herself? Look forward to an instalment of FOODIM Stories, coming soon.

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You don’t need me to tell you that nearly every photograph I take is of food. But I’m not sure whether you have noticed that various pictures I’ve been posting recently have had a stamp reading ‘FOODIM’ on them. It has always been vexing to me that there is no dedicated food photography app, and so many of the filters and so on that are meant to applied on general photography apps do food no favours. So, based on the principle that if something you want doesn’t exist, just go ahead and make it, I’ve been working for some time with my longtime cameraman to develop a food photography app with a built-in filter designed to optimise food and a back-of-shot blur dependent on the angle of the phone (as well as a draw-to-blur feature) to give depth of field. And I’m very excited to say that FOODIM is now available (just on iOS for now) in the UK, Australia and New Zealand. And it’s free! So you have nothing to lose by giving it a whirl, and you can get the link to download it by clicking on link in bio (if you tap on my name, it will take you to the page where said link is!) You can also look at the images on this app by going to @foodim #lAnd the link to app is also on bio of @Foodim page #foodim #recipeoftheday

A post shared by Nigella (@nigellalawson) on Mar 21, 2019 at 10:27am PDT

Envy-inducing holiday snap of the week

Need sunshine snaps to slake Instagram’s endless thirst for content? Send them to Belize.

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Found a guy grilling chicken at the side of the road in Punta Gorda and needed no encouragement. The marinade was heady with allspice and habanero so similar to jerk in that respect but so different in many others (no thyme, for a start). He added a sweet glaze at the end and served it with rice and beans (not ‘peas’ here) cooked in coconut milk. Those cucumbers are lightly pickled with jalapeño. That’s the Caribbean in the background (sorry) ☀️✨

A post shared by Helen Graves (@foodstories) on Mar 25, 2019 at 4:51am PDT

Dish of the week

Spring, sprung?

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Fried lamb sweetbread nettle Surinagashi. Is on special blackboard now. Koya soho.

A post shared by Koya Soho & City & Ko (@koyalondon) on Mar 25, 2019 at 2:19pm PDT

Shot of the week

Spring, sprung.

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Beautiful sunny, Spring day in London calls for a walk along the canal, cursing at the cyclists and a stop off on a whim at @ombrabar.restaurant for a glorious sun-soaked lunch. Buttery ravioli stuffed with burrata and draped with wild garlic (stole the snap off @juleshempstead cos he’s much better at than me), deep fried frilly Roman-style artichoke with fennel salt to pick at, tortellini stuffed with a robust fennel salami sausage and SWIMMING in delightful jersey cream, and gnocco fritto, big poofy airy pillows draped with mortadella. Ridiculously idyllic Sunday.

A post shared by Lizzie Mabbott (@hollow_legs) on Mar 24, 2019 at 10:08am PDT

Foursquare

Hedone

301-303 Chiswick High Road, London , W4 4HH Visit Website