Menuwatch: Restaurant Richard Wilkins
Chef Richard Wilkins is championing classic French cuisine in the suburbs of Essex, reports Neil Gerrard
The main shopping parade, Buckhurst Hill in Essex, on the tail end of the Central Line, has so many Range Rovers parked along it that it looks like one extended luxury car dealership.
You can see why Richard Wilkins, director and chef of his eponymous restaurant, thought it might be a good place to set up shop. Opening late last year with the help of three shareholders, he has invested £100,000 to convert what was once a clothes shop to a miniature upscale eaterie with 26 seats and an ambition to turn the local population on to the delights of fine dining, making few concessions to the current trend towards more casual dining environments.
t just 29, Wilkins already has experience working in some of Britain and France's top kitchens, including for Gordon Ramsay at Pétrus, London and Trianon Palace in Versailles, the three-Michelin-starred Waterside Inn, Bray, Berkshire, and Maison Pic in Valence, France.
Restaurant Richard Wilkins is painted bright white, with few adornments other than some brightly coloured artwork. There is a compact open kitchen, but Wilkins has some nifty kit at his disposal, including the smallest type of Rational oven you can get, a custom-made range of induction hobs, a plancha, a Thermomix and a salamander grill.
"I am not trendy," Wilkins admits, unapologetically. "I like classical French food. I was trained classically French and I like eating in one-, two- and three-Michelin-starred restaurants. It's good to be able to sit down and have a bit of comfort and luxury, and I think chefs have forgotten about that a bit to be honest."
It's a compact menu (£35 for three courses at lunch, £45 for three courses at dinner), as befits the small kitchen run by Wilkins and just one other chef, but the quality of what it turns out is as high as you would expect from a chef with his CV. A simple starter of pan-fried Chalosse foie gras, Waldorf salad and banyuls vinaigrette relies on the quality of the produce, with the salad offering up a touch of acidity to cut through the fat.
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