The new flesh pots of London

08/05/2008 

MEAT. Flesh. Unless you are a mung bean-munching proteindodger, it probably forms a large part of your diet. It is a traditional staple of a balanced British meal.

Chewing on a sausage, forking a square of bloody sirloin into your maw or cramming in a burger or a ’bab used to be de rigueur — who didn’t have a relative who declared that a meal without meat wasn’t eating? But for a while, it seemed that meat was out.

It was high in cholesterol, came from animals which had been pumped full of E-numbers and growth hormones and was shunned by the sort of pale and allegedly interesting skinnies who pass for stars.

THUGGISH FOODSTUFF

Meat — especially the red variety — became a frankly thuggish foodstuff. Chicken or fish threatened to overtake it as the flesh of choice for the diner who felt that if something hadn’t died for his dinner, then it was only half a meal. But things have changed again.

In the past few weeks, a number of meaty restaurants have opened in London. First, there was Maze Grill — the new little brother to Gordon Ramsay’s Maze in Grosvenor Square — where steaks are the only thing to eat. You can choose from grass-fed beef to Kobe, the meat which from pampered Japanese cows.

ABERDEEN ANGUS

Mark Hix, the former head chef at Richard Harding’s Le Caprice group, has opened the Hix Oyster & Chop House in Farringdon, where 28-day aged Aberdeen Angus beef features heavily on the menu.

The apogee of the fleshy trend is the soon-to-reopen Chicago Rib Shack, a version of a restaurant which flourished in the 1980s. So popular are its smoked baby back ribs, steaks and burgers that it says it has had 8,000 bookings since the lines opened at the start of March.

If you wantproof that the market is optimistic about the Rib Shack, how about this: Michael Sherwood, co-chief of Goldman Sachs International, is on the list of investors.

So, what’s it all about? Jon Yantin, one of the original founders of the Chicago Rib Shack who is back on board this time around, says it’s about people becoming more educated. “People have been influenced by quality and the idea of provenance,” he says. “The education of today’s consumer, in terms of sourcing, is massive compared to what it was even 10 years ago when the Shack closed down — in terms of sugar, fats and GM foods. The world’s moved on.”

The Shack will source most of its meat from Wiltshire and Hampshire farms, and will also offer organic meat. Yantin talksabout the “Jamie Oliver generation” of people who are aware of and care about such things as the animals’ happiness, what they ate and food miles.

YUMMY-MUMMY

“We’re not fine-dining, we are mainstream. We have got to ensure we give the yummy-mummy generation a relevant choice that they have in the supermarket,” he says. The daddy of all meaties is the St John restaurant in Smithfield, whose position right next to the meat market meant that founder Fergus Henderson was able to realise his dream of “nose-to-tail eating” — chomping not only on the nice clean bits but also the innards which are considered too yucky by precious eaters.

His signature dish is a bone marrow and parsley salad and other dishes include ox heart and squirrel. Henderson says the new meaty fashion is all about awareness. “The animal has a name in the sense that it’s a Tamworth pig, for example, and people are happier with that. Meat is more right-on than it was, which is not a bad thing,” he says.

FOOT-AND-MOUTH

The decline of meat was part of a hangover from the BSE and foot-and-mouth scares, he adds. We care more about the way meat is produced now, he says, because of “the shock of what can happen when you don’t”. But there are still limits, Henderson admits.

Tripe, for example, still makes people wrinkle their noses. But we should conquer our squeamishness and tuck in, he says. “If you eat meat and you have slaughtered an animal, then you ought to eat it all. It’s only polite.”

By Jeremy Hazlehurst

THREE GREAT MEAT DISHES

Roast bone marrow and parsley salad
(£6.60) followed by whole roast suckling
pig, which feeds 14-16 guests (£320.00.)
St John, 26 St John Street, London EC1M 4AY.
Tel: 020 7251 0848

Rabbit brawn with pea shoots and mustard
(£7.25), followed by 28-day aged
Aberdeen Angus fillet on the bone (£28),
or mutton chop curry (£12.75).
Hix Oyster and Chop House, 36-37 Greenhill
Rents, Cowcross Street EC1M 6BN.
Tel: 020 7017 1930

Pate de campagne, piccalilli, sourdough
bread (£10.50), followed by Wagyu
ninth grade gold style 10oz sirloin
or Creekstone prime corn-fed 12oz rib eye
steak (market price, varies daily), aged
35 days.
Maze Grill, 10 - 13 Grosvenor Square, W1K 6JP.
Tel: 020 7495 2211