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Welcome back to Insta Stories, a column examining the London restaurant scene through the often-problematic medium of Instagram. This week’s filter is so wrong it might actually be right.
News of the week
Take one long weekend layered over a religious ceremony celebrating a period of rebirth and renewal, add in gross-but-seasonally-sanctioned consumption of chocolate and carbohydrates, and top it all off with record-breaking warm weather verging on the ridiculous. The stage was set for a perfect storm of Insta-content this Easter, and boy did the feed deliver. #Blessed, indeed.
Serving suggestions of the week
Easter weekend also ushered in a plethora of alternative uses for the hot cross bun — noted Instagram icon of the past few weeks. For the overenthusiastic revellers with a stash of leftovers: here’s some #inspo.
Throwback of the week
St. John patron saint Jon Spiteri hopped all the way back to the era of grunge this week, sharing some choice snippets from a French House Dining Room / St. John scrapbook recently unearthed at his mother’s house. It’s a treasure trove in more ways than one: firstly, for emphasising the huge amount of shared DNA between the two restaurants, the French House Dining Room essentially a prelude to St. John; secondly, for showing how little has changed (in a good way) in the Henderson culinary universe; and thirdly, for underlining quite how much alcohol prices have increased in the intervening decade or two. A bottle of house wine for £7.95? Come back, weird curtain haircuts and BabyG watches, all is forgiven.
Menu of the week
This one-off Jura-inspired dinner would be sexy enough, but what really sells it is the commitment evident in translating the entire document into French. Written in English, poulet aux morilles à la crème would just lose a certain je ne sais quoi, non?
Theatrical catering of the week
Better than the usual £7 for a small bag of Wine Gums.
Week of the week
Seldom will this category’s sole criteria — spending the previous seven days going absolute beast mode — be more appropriate. This week’s incumbent, Martha de Lacey, occupied her Easter weekend by feeding 94 people an ungodly quantity of high-protein Japanese-inspired food, from chicken skin kimchi gyoza to slow-cooked pork belly liberally oozing fatty goodness. Enough to cause shortness of breath, even when mediated by a screen.
Fish / dish of the week
Sorry, Brat — there’s only one winner here.
Shot of the week
Green pasta is going to be this year’s katsu sando, isn’t it?