Atlantic Bar gets Carter
When Stephen Carter arrived as executive chef at London's Atlantic Bar & Grill in May, he found that customers visited mostly for the bar. "The food was viewed as secondary and I wanted to change that," says Carter, who describes his customer base as "the 25- to 35-year-old ‘in' crowd with surplus cash".
His aim is to include British food on the 177-seat restaurant's menu whenever possible, served by a 40-strong front of house team led by restaurant manager Ibi Issolah. Carter laments the poor marketing of home produce but understands that many of the suppliers he visits around the country are too small and homespun to let everyone know effectively that they are there.
Carter's evolving menus, prepared by a brigade of 25, plus 15 kitchen porters, act as barometers of the season. The current version sports best-selling starters such as Rosary goats' cheese with pickled young vegetables (£7.50). The cheese hails from Rosary Farm in Wiltshire and is young and very creamy, while the vegetables are al dente.
One of Carter's favourite starters is the beetroot tarte tatin with crème fraîche and chives (£9.50). A plain-speaking Yorkshireman by origin, he says he can't be doing with fussiness on the plate and he prides himself on the simplicity of this beetroot dish, which offers caramelised beetroot and a pastry crust, nothing more.
Also a source of pride for Carter is his black pudding of sweetbreads with a poached free-range egg (£8.50). "I use oatmeal, cream and a herb and spice mix as well as frozen haemoglobin," he says. "It goes in a pot to thicken and then I make it into a terrine. I put the sweetbreads in and bake this for 20 minutes. It sets, I chill it, slice it and pan-fry it." The poached egg is a special blue-hued Old Cotswold Legbar egg, which he gets from Borough Market.
From the main courses, Carter picks out his salt and pepper squid with chilli and lime (£14.50) as his favourite. Once again, simplicity rules. "I throw it in a red hot pan and coat it with roasted salt and pepper," he says. For this and most of his fish and seafood supplies, Carter uses Severn & Wye Smokery in Bristol.
A very popular choice among the average 300 diners per day is a roast Glenarm salmon with fennel and green olive tapenade (£15). The fish is farmed in a tidal flow sea lough off the County Antrim coast and Carter says this gives it an exceptionally good flavour.
Meanwhile, from the dessert selection (all at £6.50) his top choice is the surprisingly light white chocolate cheesecake with blueberries with the pineapple and coconut crisp running a close second.
A selection from the menu at the Atlantic Bar & Grill
White fish soup with garlic croutons, £6.50
Salad of mixed endives with blue cheese and walnuts, £7
Woodalls Cumbrian air-dried ham with sourdough and vine tomatoes, £11.50
Risotto of Scottish girolle with Parmesan and peas, £12.50
Whole lemon sole with samphire, brown cap mushrooms and parsley, £18.50
Roast Trelough duck with sweet potato chips and green pepper dressing, £17.50
Iced strawberry ripple parfait, £6.50
Hot chocolate brownie mess, £6.50
Stocky toffee pudding, £6.50
Atlantic Bar & Grill, 20 Glasshouse Street, London W1B 5DJ. Tel: 020 7734 4888. Web site: www.gruppo.co.uk
