Morgan M

It has been seven years since the young Morgan Meunier arrived from France to cook at Monsieur Max in the west London suburb of Twickenham. There, he helped chef Alex Bentley gain a Michelin star before, four years on, becoming head chef at the Admiralty restaurant in London's Somerset House, at that time part of the portfolio of contract catering giant Compass.

Now, Meunier has fulfilled a long-held ambition and gone independent with the opening of a 48-seat restaurant, Morgan M, on Islington's Liverpool Street. He has former Monsieur Max chef Sylvain Soulard on board and a brigade of four in the kitchen, and since its September 2003 launch, the restaurant has earned two stars from critic Fay Maschler, and 8.5 out of 10 from Matthew Norman. More importantly, it has had a full dining room most evenings.

"It's superb to have my own place - there's no comparison," Meunier says, "but it has been very intense. I'd like more of a chance to settle down, but the clientele has changed enormously since we moved in and the expectation has been extremely high. I've got to give a true culinary experience here. Everything has to be something that you don't get at home."

He offers an … la carte menu, but there's also a choice of two five-course set menus. The Menu costs £36 and includes dishes from the carte menu, while From the Garden, at £32, caters for vegetarians.

The food isn't so different from the menu at the Admiralty. Meunier's style remains classically French, but with a modern twist and some Italian influence. Essentially, his dishes involve a consistent opposition of flavours and textures.

Take the seared diver-caught scallops with white chicory tarte tatin and an onion soubise. "The scallops are fun to work with," Meunier explains, "and the tarte tatin is a dish with contrast in that the white chicory is bitter, while the onion soubise is sweet and goes well with the shellfish. It all makes sense and fits into place."

He is also excited by a starter of ravioli of snails in Chablis, poached garlic and red wine jus. The snails are poached in the wine to tenderise, then combined with anise, parsley and garlic and enclosed in ravioli. The garlic is poached three times, which makes it easy to digest, and delivers subtle flavour with the red wine jus.

It has already become one of the most popular items on the menu, despite its challenging ingredients. But then, that's the point of it, says Meunier. "The whole dish is designed around making people eat what they don't want to eat, and it just seems to work," he says. "I do think you need to invite people to eat your dishes. The whole dish is fun and it's very different."

The pot-roasted fillet of Iken Valley venison, ravioli of hare, glazed apple and chestnuts, sauce grand veneur is another dish of opposites. The mild-flavoured venison is cooked pink, leaving the hare ravioli by far the strongest element in the dish. The ingredients are combined with glazed apple and chestnuts, delivering sweet elements in contrast to the meat.

In desserts, Meunier's obsession with chocolate is evident, a dark chocolate moelleux with milk sorbet and Armagnac drink being his piŠce de r‚sistance.

The moelleux is made from dark chocolate, but customers can choose the intensity of the ganache inside - either 45% Cocoa Barry milk or 70% Valrhona Guanaja. Again, Meunier mixes different textures and flavours within the dish. The moelleux is intense, both biscuity and liquid, offset by the sorbet and Armagnac drink in a shot glass - a creation of milk, sugar, cream and infused Armagnac, with a pistachio rim. n

Morgan M
489 Liverpool Road
London N7
Tel: 020 7609 3560.