Bruno Loubet unveils menu for imminent Gatwick launch

The first offshoot of chef Bruno Loubet's Grain Store Café & Bar, which opens at Gatwick airport next month, will offer a menu that focuses on speed of service, in line with the airport's promise to serve meals within 15 minutes.

Consequently, not all dishes from the critically acclaimed Grain Store in London's Kings Cross will feature, and a number of items such as innovative sandwiches and burgers will find their way onto the menu. In 2016 takeaway bento boxes will be introduced to enable passengers to eat in-flight.

Vegetables continue to take centre stage as they do at the original Grain Store, which won the Menu of the Year award at the 2014 Cateys, bringing seasonality to an airport café menu.

The lunch and dinner menu will offer specials such as vegetable paella with sea bream; wild mushroom risotto; and Vietnamese vermicelli and raw vegetables with spicy minced squid. In addition there will be old favourites adapted to the Grain Store style, such as chickpea and herb batter fried fish and chips; grilled vegetables and pulled pork lasagne; and Thai vegetable and chicken green curry.

A breakfast menu has been created exclusively for the Gatwick outlet. Loubet puts his name to ‘Bruno's Power Breakfast' which consists of Eggs Benedict, truffles, broccolini, grilled vegetable ratatouille with dukkah and avocado on toast.

The restaurant space has been designed by Russell Sage Studio, which is behind some of London's most iconic restaurants including the Savoy Grill, Quaglino's and the original Grain Store. A feature of the new café is a 5-metre long glass wall through which the kitchen can be viewed, the first of its kind at an airport. The space will be lit to highlight the movement and craftsmanship of the chefs.

The restaurant, for which Loubet, the Zetter Group and Airport Retail Enterprises (ARE) have joined forces, is intended to be a groundbreaking shift in airport dining.

Grain Store opened in King's Cross in 2013 with Loubet hailing vegetables as the hero ingredient. Although many dishes have a meat or fish element, the menu gives vegetables equal billing, if not the starring role. Overlooking the Granary Square fountains, Grain Store's bar and terrace offer an award-winning list of cocktails, original non-alcoholic cocktails and shakes created for Grain Store by drinks pioneer Tony Conigliaro.

Bruno Loubet to open Grain Store in Gatwick airport >>2014 Cateys Menu of the Year >>Are you looking for a new role? See all the current restaurant vacancies available with The Caterer Jobs >>

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