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Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.
Scandinavian Roast at Ekstedt at The Yard, Westminster
Where: 3-5 Great Scotland Yard, London SW1A
Price: Two courses £49 per person; three courses £59 per person. Main dishes £35
Click: ekstedtattheyard.com
Most people will have had their fill of turkey by January but won’t forgo a traditional Sunday roast. This experience is a Nordic twist on the classic meal at the outpost of chef Niklas Ekstedt. Its chefs work over open flames to cook every dish, which is seasoned the Nordic way. Roasts include guinea fowl, sea bass or beef rib, and all main dishes are served with Yorkshire puddings, hasselback potatoes, and a fresh green salad with homemade fermented dressing. Save room for the wood-oven baked chocolate molten cake.
Pavyllon London x Boodles: Dinner & Diamonds Experience, Mayfair
Where: 6 Sloane Street, London SW1X and Four Seasons London, Hamilton Place, Park Lane, London W1J
Price: £2,996 for two people
Click: fourseasons.com
An experience that pairs cuisine by French chef Yannick Alléno with a private diamond viewing with a gemologist at the Boodles Sloane Street showroom. Guests will be gifted a Be Boodles gold diamond pendant, before a private chauffeur takes them to the Four Seasons Hotel at London Park Lane for dinner at Pavyllon. Expect dishes such as poached langoustine with sesame dressing; confit seabass with sobrasada; seared venison fillet with port wine jus; and a chocolate pecan tart.
Culinary and cocktail masterclasses at The Goring, Belgravia
Where: 15 Beeston Place, London SW1W
Price: £150 for two people
Click: thegoring.com
The hotel is introducing new culinary and cocktail masterclasses for the New Year. In the Lounge Bar, cocktail classes begin with a Thank You Your Majesty cocktail before guests make two drinks: one a signature cocktail, the other a bespoke drink, crafted under the eye of expert mixologists. Later in the year, from its newly renovated kitchen, executive chef Graham Squire will be hosting beef wellington masterclasses at his four-seater chef’s table, where guests will be guided through the makings of a Goring signature dish.
Cedric Grolet’s chef’s counter at The Berkeley, Knightsbridge
Where: Wilton Place, Knightsbridge, London SW1X
Price: £135 per person plus service charge
Click: the-berkeley.co.uk
The patisserie at The Berkeley by Grolet, described as the best pastry chef in the world, is always buzzing. His Chef’s Counter, however, offers a more intimate experience. Here, you’ll be served a tasting menu of six sweet and two savoury courses – while sipping champagne. There are sittings Friday to Sunday at 10.30am, 1.30pm and 4pm.
The Cinnamon Club’s Saturday Jazz Brunch, Westminster
Where: The Old Westminster Library, Great Smith Street, London SW1
Price: £45 per person
Click: cinnamonclub.com
Settle amongst the book-lined shelves of the Old Westminster Library for a lazy brunch and live jazz performed by a two-piece band. Executive chef Vivek Singh’s three-course menu is a spicy take on tradition. Dine on kedgeree with smoked haddock and poached egg; a Rajasthani-style curried venison mince with a fried egg and layered paratha; finished with pudding.
The World At Our Feet x Spring at Somerset House, Strand
Where: Somerset House, Strand, London WC2
Price: £70, including exhibition admission
Click: springrestaurant.co.uk
Skye Gyngell is celebrating Somerset House’s new Soil exhibition at her Spring restaurant on 3 February with a The World At Our Feet dinner, which will show how good soil quality is vital to the taste of produce. Guests will be given private access to the exhibition before a dinner introduced by Henrietta Courtauld and Bridget Elworthy of The Land Gardeners. Gyngell’s three-course menu will showcase biodynamic produce from Fern Verrow and Heckfield Home Farm, with Daylesford Organic providing the sustainably farmed meat.
The wine pairings come from Familia Torres, a vineyard involved in regenerative viticulture. The experience is priced £70 including entry to the exhibition. springrestaurant.co.uk
Claridge’s kitchen supper series, Mayfair
Where: Claridge’s, Brook Street, London W1K
Price: Varies; from about £295 per person
Click: claridges.co.uk
There’s something exhilarating, almost forbidden, about slipping through a service door at the back of the Claridge’s foyer and arriving in the kitchens where service is in full swing – around a chef’s table. The hotel’s kitchen supper series, which is organised for up to 14 people in collaboration with The Good Food Guide, was kicked off by the hotel’s culinary director Simon Attridge, and continues in 2025 with guest chefs from outside London. First up, on 20 January, with a modern take on a British menu, is Sam Carter of Cambridge’s Restaurant Twenty Two; he is followed on 10 March by Roberta Hall-McCarron of The Little Chartroom in Edinburgh, who is known for Scottish classics. On 12 May is Elly Wentworth of The Angel in Dartmouth, Devon, who was a MasterChef: The Professionals finalist in 2016; and 21 July will see Hrishikesh Desai of Farlam Hall, Cumbria, where his Cedar Tree restaurant has one Michelin star and three AA Rosettes. Tickets are available for individual guests or group bookings.
Dining Through the Decades supper club series at Number Sixteen hotel, South Kensington
Where: 16 Sumner Place, London SW7
Price: £85 per person with two glasses of paired wine, welcome drinks and canapés
Click: firmdalehotels.com
Take your seat in the hotel’s orangery for a meal hosted by food historian and author Eleanor Barnett with the hotel group’s executive chef Joe Fox. This is the last dinner event in a series of historically themed evenings: a groovy homage to the 1970s (on 20 March) where guests will find devilled eggs and a prawn cocktail, Orange en Surprise and a pink blancmange.Â
