Private connections
It was only a matter of time before Jamie Oliver was snapped up as a consultant chef - and, sure enough, private members' club Monte's, in London's Sloane Street, has signed him up to revamp its 76-seat restaurant.
He writes the menus with an old River Café colleague, Aussie chef Ben O'Donoghue, who heads the 14-strong brigade. And between takes (he's filming his second TV series and making more ads for Sainsbury's), Oliver works the floor, stopping at each table with his trademark: "How you doing, mate?"
O'Donoghue and Oliver go back a bit - to 1996, in fact, when they both started work at the River Café. More recently O'Donoghue helped to style the food for Oliver's cookery books, between shifts back at the River Café where he was sous chef. Then Oliver asked him to be head chef at Monte's.
Predictably, the River Café has had a huge influence on both chefs' styles of cooking. "They [Rose Gray and Ruth Rogers] taught me to understand flavour and texture, and about the integrity of ingredients and simplicity," O'Donoghue says.
The concise menu at Monte's reads like its W6 mentor, though a lower-priced version. Best-selling starters include a carpaccio of organic herb-crusted beef fillet with roasted baby beets with their leaves, aged balsamic vinegar and peppery olive oil (£7); a warm salad of charred squid, baked cannellini beans, fresh chilli, wild rocket and Puglian olive oil (£8); and a hand-made cappollaci filled with beaten Buffalo ricotta, crushed pine nuts, fresh herbs and a touch of lemon (£7). A separate pasta and risotto selection includes spaghetti with pangrattato, anchovies, chilli and lemon and thyme breadcrumbs (£6.50).
Popular mains include a fish special, "changing every day depending on what's looking good", reads the menu. "I sold 44 portions of halibut the other day in two-and-half services," boasts O'Donoghue.
Also selling well is a Scottish sirloin from the Buccleuch estate (also used in the carpaccio), grilled as you like, freshly grated horseradish, olive oil, potatoes, spring onions and summer savoury (£18.50). "Fantastic beef, that," O'Donoghue declares.
On the pub front, Oliver has devised a variation on the classic apple tarte tatin - made using apricots and served with home-made vanilla ice-cream (£6) - which goes down well. The two chefs use many of the same suppliers as the River Café, and like to credit some on the menu. "It helps build a better relationship with your suppliers," says O'Donoghue.
The Restaurant at Monte's, 164 Sloane Street, London SW1X 9QB. Tel: 020 7245 0896.
