Open flame cooking restaurant to open at Como Metropolitan London hotel
Open flame cooking will be the focus of a new restaurant set to open at the 144-bedroom Como Metropolitan London hotel on Old Park Lane.
Gridiron by Como will launch on 30 October with chefs Richard H Turner and Colin McSherry overseeing the kitchen, mixologists Max and Noel Venning creating the cocktail list and food writer Fiona Beckett selecting the wines. It replaces what previously was the hotel's Met bar.
The restaurant will sit alongside the hotel's long-established Japanese-Peruvian restaurant Nobu on the first floor.
Gridiron, featuring 62 covers, is being designed by interior design firm Macaulay Sinclair as a contemporary British venue with dark woods, marble, and green and red leather. Antique black and white etchings of food and gridiron tools will adorn the walls.
The menu will include fire-cooked dishes such as wood roast scallops with bone marrow XO, smoked eel with braised shin of Highland beef, ash-baked turnip mimosa, burnt leeks with hazelnut aillard and brown butter, whole roast turbot with chicken salt and butter, roast red mullet with Gentleman's Relish, penny buns and sorrel; and salt-baked celeriac, wild mushrooms and brown butter crumb.
Turner is executive chef of Hawksmoor, a director at Pitt Cue and is one half of the independent butcher, Turner & George; while McSherry has worked at the Ledbury, the Fat Duck, Murano and the Clove Club, and has recently spent time learning the art of cooking over wood and charcoal with Mark Parr of the London Log Company.
The cocktail list from the Venning brothers of Dalston bar Three Sheets will feature an old fashioned with pandan, Woodford reserve and clear milk; the bloody Mary with vodka, mustard, butter, stock and tomato; and a white Russian with vodka, coffee, miso and milk.
Turner said: "With charcoal and live-fire cooking, every ingredient becomes a unique encounter. The way the meat, fish or vegetable responds to the flame. We are thrilled to be able to partner with Como Hotels and Resorts to showcase the techniques inherent in this simple yet flavourful way of cooking at Gridiron."
The Como Metropolitan is one of two Como hotels in London alongside the Como Halkin. With its headquarters in Singapore, Como Hotels and Resorts has a total of 13 properties worldwide.
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