At last – a serious culinary destination in Hampstead!
May, 2008
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SUMMARY: Stunning, unusual, inspired food from Northern Italy. Open for dinner Tuesday to Saturday. From June 2/08 it will be open Monday evenings and for lunch Tuesday to Friday . Expect to spend around £30 each for three courses, before drinks and service.
SORRY, THERE is no possibility of me being completely objective about this restaurant. I have known Renata and Rafaele Giacobazzi and their wonderful deli across the road for too many years to pretend that I am not a fan.
We spend far too much there on really excellent fresh pasta and sauces, grilled vegetables, charcuterie, cheese and focacia, and many is the time when we have been sorely tempted to tell guests that the perfect porcini lasagne, obtained from Giacobazzi’s, was all our own work.
We waited a long time for their new restaurant to open and I can now confidently report that it is far and away the best restaurant in Hampstead. The food is original, unusual, inspired and perfectly cooked.
They have taken what was a fairly dark and gloomy restaurant space and given it light and air with a large roof light upstairs, and a big picture window from where you can wink at the passengers getting off at the No 24 terminus. There may be one or two too many tables in the relatively small space, and getting to the loo can be quite an obstacle course when the place is full, but when you have food like this, you can forgive an awful lot.
As I wrote a few weeks ago, we were invited to one of their preview evenings, at which we realised that this was going to be something well out of the ordinary. Waiters were still learning their jobs, things were understandably a little disorganised, but the food was extraordinary.
We went back this week for a formal review, and again we were not disappointed. Admittedly I have absolutely no chance of going to Osteria Emilia anonymously (Madonna would have more chance), and the third owner, Carlo Soracchi, Renata’s brother, is a Matthew’s Table subscriber. Even with a false beard and sunglasses I wouldn’t have got more than three feet without being recognised.
But even if we did get special attention, that wouldn't affect the basic fact that what came out of the kitchen for everyone was simply five-star fare.
At the next table was a party including the distinguished cookery writer Frances Bissell and her husband Tom, who were also enthusiastic. “Wonderful, and utterly authentic,” was Frances’s verdict.
Another in their party described the delicate yellow ravioli filled with sea bass and mascarpone (in a simple but perfect butter, sage and fresh tomato sauce) as “the best pasta dish I have ever eaten”. My Chief Culinary Adviser had that dish too, and was equally impressed.
Most of the recipes and traditions come from Emilia-Romagna, one of the 20 administrative regions of Italy which stretches from the eastern border of Liguria right across to the Adriatic in the east. It comprises nine provinces, including Bologna, Ferrara, Modena, Parma, Ravenna, Reggio Emilia and Rimini.
But although it is considered a single region from a political and administrative point of view, it is really two separate regions (Emilia and Romagna), each with its own character, history, traditions and, most important for our purposes, the approach to food. It’s an area where food traditions are very strong, and very local. A pasta sauce common in one area might be almost unheard of just a hundred metres away across a river.
But, remember, Emilia is the home of salamis and of famous cured prosciutto ham from Parma and culatello ham, which some people think is even better than the Parma.
Do not expect to find any of the “old faithfuls” of London Italian restaurants on this menu. There is no minestrone, no spaghetti Bolognese, no carbonara, no whitebait, no veal escalopes (at the moment), no fried courgettes and, even more intriguing, no beef (apart from an utterly divine grilled calves liver served with wonderfully viscous balsamic vinegar, caramelised red onions, fresh spinach and a little sultana and pine nuts salad – the finest liver dish I have ever had).
Instead, you will find elegant and imaginative starters like the three little squares of grilled polenta that I had, which were each covered with a different and intriguing topping – a broad bean puree with a shaving of cured pork fat from Colonnata, a radicchio walnut and gorgonzola pate, and wild mushrooms on the third. Talk about original!
My Adviser went on to have the breast of guinea fowl cooked with lavender (which I tried at the preview) and agreed with me that it was superb. Lavender? Wow.
Other main courses include baked sea bass, pike with capers, rabbit escalope and oven-baked breaded aubergine.
The desserts, too, are excellent. I had a delectably light panna cotta with strawberries and – wait for it – balsamic vinegar (a touch of genius that brought out the sweetness of the fruit). My adviser was totally silent as she worked her way through a perfect wheat-free chocolate cake with a pistachio sauce.
And that might all change in a few weeks time, since this is going to be a seasonally led menu. Beef is due to appear soon, and possibly some veal. But whatever it is, you can be sure that chef Stefano Lodi-Rizzini, formerly of the Walnut Tree Inn and Antonio Carluccio’s Neal Street Café, will cook it with understanding, and with passion.
Our bill came to £33 each before drinks, which is not exactly in the budget category. But the food is excellent and the bill did not hurt very much.
You don’t really need my verdict. The eating-out public have already voted with their feet – and just four weeks after it opened it is already becoming necessary to book a table at Osteria Emilia.
Hampstead has a serious culinary destination at last.