Dinner at The Petersham
Saturday 13th August 2022
I would have gone for another walk this weekend, but alas plans were scuppered by rail strikes, so instead I stayed close to home. Spent the morning and early afternoon at home, some of that time editing the video from yesterday. Around 4pm I thought I'd pop down to the Pineapple to get me out of the house, but was surprised to find they'd had to close for a few days after an accident. I was given a free beer outside as a consolation prize though, so that was nice. As it was now approaching two weeks of mostly cooking for myself I fancied a bit of a change this evening, and decided to go out for a swanky meal at a restaurant. I chose the Petersham in Covent Garden, which had a very Italian leaning vegetarian tasting menu. Although the atmosphere was a bit banal, the food was mostly very good.
London August 2022
John's Pictures

16:18:58
Owing to an accident at the Pineapple (fortunately nobody was hurt) it had to close for a few days for essential maintenance.

20:05:42
On my way to dinner.

20:27:40
I chose my own wine pairings for the tasting menu at The Petersham: Gevrey Chambertin with every course.

20:45:53
This was actually my second course - I wish I had taken a photo of the first (deep fried courgettes and a courgette flower). This course was also deep fried, this course being aubergine, but with a different style of batter - possibly involving polenta? These first two courses were very good.

21:16:25
Course number four - I also neglected to take a photo of my third course, a simple garden salad, but a rather delicious one of pristine vegetables, I believe grown by The Petersham themselves. Anyway, fourth course a risotto, with some burrata and a few more courgette flowers. Very good.

21:31:35
I sparred a bit with the sommelier, who considered my wine tastes a bit "traditional" (a polite way of saying "old fashioned" or "unadventurous" perhaps) for having spurned the the suggested wine pairings, and instead ordered a bottle of GevCham. She said she wasn't particularly keen on Pinot Noir as a grape, and I asked what her favourite grape was, but actually stopped her before she answered and said I'd guess. "It's Riesling isn't it?". Yes of course it was Riesling, which seems to be all the rage with wine industry types, and to me just tastes faintly of petrol. Anyway, she proposed a try a tiny glass of this, which was actually quite nice - delicate, fragrant and interesting - and probably a good middle ground.

21:34:39
Where are we now? Fifth course I think, a classic Genovese pesto with linguine or similar. This was very nice, and took me back to Genoa.

22:02:50
Didn't bother with a photo of the sixth course, a kohlrabi "steak", which was a bit naff to be honest, and I didn't finish it... but prior to that having five hits in a row on a tasting menu is pretty much unprecedented in my experience. This was dessert, which was some sort of interpretation of Eton Mess, involving peaches rather than the usual strawberries or similar. I wasn't particularly blown away by this either, but I'm not really much of a dessert person anyway, so that's fine.