St. John Restaurant, Smithfield. Vol. 2

1st October 2010, St. John Restaurant, Smithfield, London.

The main course menu gives you a lot to choose from. From grouse to pie. None of that for us though. Oh no. We were very much interested in seeing how good the less sought after meats can be when cooked by someone, or at an institution, committed to the cause.

Ox Heart with Beans

The ox heart was served thinly sliced. With beans, with the right amount of crunch. The heart strips were probably only momentarily sears on either side. They were still pink on the inside. When cooking something as lean as heart, or even liver for that matter, there is a very very fine line between getting it cooked just right and turning it into rubbery waste. I wouldn't be able to tell you what was in the marinade but I would think that thyme, red wine and maybe even some balsamic vinegar might have been involved. The green beans in this one have me quite confused. Their crunch takes away from the texture of the meat. Eat on different fork fulls I'd say, but it all still works wonderfully.

Chitterlings with Braised Turnips

Now for the pièce de résistance. The chitterlings were cooked in duck fat - golden to perfection. Super soft to cut into. A distinct layer of lean (ish) muscle lined with fat. Unlike the ox heart this was probably first slow cooked and then flash fried in fat to give it colour and a little bite. This is a real meaty piece of meat. Pungent even. Lovely if you are into that kind of stuff and I most certainly am. The softer braised turnips worked perfectly on the same fork, taking nothing away. In fact, the very slight spiciness of the turnip kept the pungency under good check. The sauce, was well seasoned and took on the flavours of both, the meat and the turnip, very well. Not quite sure what the sauce was though. A pan-sauce made by deglasing the pan the chitterlings were cooked in? Maybe based on the braising juices from the turnips? No idea, but I like. By the way, chitterlings are the intestines of a pig.


Platter of unpasteurised British cheeses

A cheese platter aided the process of contemplating what to have for dessert. All the cheeses were unpasteurised and from Neal's Yard Dairy - all British cheeses. 12 'O' clock, a goat's cheese. Smooth and creamy with a soft rind. Not too salty. Below that to the right, a sheep's cheese. Very much like Brie, I thought. My favourite, the one part hidden under the crisp bread, is a Stichelton. Stichelton is a unpasteurised blue cheese, very much like Stilton. Strong (but nothing compared to some of the other stuff I've had), pungent, salty. Not as crumbly as Stilton, creamier. Good stuff. The darkest one is a hard, mild cow cheese. Pointless and insignificant compared to the others on the board. Mostly because it was the last one I tried and anything that it had to offer failed to deliver through the strong after taste of the other cheeses. My mistake maybe.

When you have been looking forward to something so much, you need that one thing to happen, something to suddenly click, that makes you go, 'ah this is bloody brilliant'! As if all the food wasn't enough, at 11:30 pm a sous chef walked out of the walk-in fridge, in full view, with an entire pig carcass slung over his shoulder. Nose to tail indeed. He off-loaded it on the service station and fetched another one. This to me epitomises what St. John Restaurant is all about. Understated, wholesome and bold, rustic food. Home cooking with an unmatched level of precision and attention to detail. A carefully planned chaos.

I had set my eye's on the bakewell tart for dessert, again sold out.

Damson and Crème fraiche Ice cream

Bread and Butter Pudding

The ice cream had a tang, but not too much. Damsons have just come into season here in Britain so why not use them while they're there. There was definitely too much of it though. It was more sorbet than ice cream. A good palate cleanser. The bread and butter pudding was perfect - really! I often find the stuff way too sweet. But the candied orange peel and burnt sugar in this one kept the whole thing on track. The bread was a raisin loaf and the custard was warm with lashing of vanilla.

When I had made the 10 pm reservation, I had categorically asked if we would be rushed towards the end of the meal, and they promised we wouldn't be. Truth. We were left sitting in our corner with a couple of single malts while they closed the dining room down for the night.

The place is more canteen than restaurant

St. John has been called one of the best restaurants in the world. I haven't been around long enough to say something like that with any credibility. But, if I were to drop dead tomorrow, I would die a very happy man.