Victor Garvey’s mad new MATER1A concept is a Willy Wonka-esque theatre of gastronomy
MATER1A, 115 Westbourne Grove, W2 4UP | ★★★★★ | Cuisine: Japanese, fine dining, tasting menu
A benefit of having written restaurant reviews for 15 years is that you begin to see the overarching warp and weft of the business, the trends that slowly emerge and dissipate, the way hospitality gradually evolves, holding up a mirror to society. How the maximalism of the pre financial crash days – the deep carpets and the starched table cloths – was ushered out in favour of something more austere, more exacting. Or the way restaurants adopted higher margin “sharing concepts” en masse as they attempted to stay afloat amid the ongoing economic gloom.
Victor Garvey’s new Japanese-ish restaurant flies in the face of all of that. Following an annus horribilis that saw his tenure at the vast Midland Grand end after six just months, the chef behind Michelin starred Sola in Soho returns with a Willy Wonka-esque theatre of gastronomy serving tasting menus – only tasting menus – that can encompass 20 or more courses.
Variously referred to as Materia (Latin for physical matter), Materia Prima (the formless substance from whence the universe was born) and the Google-friendly MATER1A (quite possibly chef’s licence plate), it’s a 10 minute walk from Notting Hill station, adding to the area’s credentials as a fine-dining powerhouse. Like Simon Rogan’s “development kitchen” Aulis, its facade is deliberately low-key, identified only by a triangular, Illuminati-esque logo above the door.
Once you find it – I walked back and forth outside Cafe Nero for a few minutes – you enter the Corridor of Ingredients, flanked on either side by plinths featuring the things you’ll be eating: ginger, cacao, yuzu, grapes, etcetera, etcetera, all displayed and captioned like religious artefacts. Here lies Golden Kombu from Hokkaido in Japan. Here is a sprig of Japanese Maple from Lewes. Here’s the preserved knuckle of Joan or Arc.
The corridor – and indeed the restaurant that lies below – is soundtracked by Hans Zimmer-esque drones and Nils Frahm synths, part ambient club setlist, part high-end spa, all played by a live DJ stationed in a corner.
“Outside doesn’t exist anymore,” says the waiter as I take my seat, one of just 16 in the tiny, dark-panelled space. On the table is an envelope with a wax seal bearing the MATER1A insignia (a combination of alchemical symbols, according to Garvey). Inside is the menu. Sort of. It’s more a series of cryptic crossword clues that hint towards what the food might be. One is listed as “February (In 5 bites)” and consists of five separate dishes. Another is simply referred to as “Sawara (Elderflower)”.
It makes little difference – there is exactly one choice to make when it comes to the food: 11 courses (£169) or 21 courses (£214). I go for the former, although I count at least 15. It begins with an ephemeral, transparent bowl of agar noodles in a consomme of Sicilian Marinda tomatoes (prized for being in season during the winter). It’s light as a cloud, subtle as a whisper, beguiling as a lover’s breath on your skin.
There’s a stunning little tower of vivid pink Mr Tanaka’s Tuna tartare (named after a Portugal-based, Japanese fisherman) with yuzu jelly and topped with olive oil pearl, which is the most beautiful thing I’ve eaten this year, the kind of dish you feel bad for grinding to a paste in front of its creator. It sits inside a hollow, sushi rice “macaron”, which is perched on a bed of brown seeds that live inside a hollow in a square of marble. Are these seeds edible? Let’s try. Oh no, definitely not. Oh well. No way to style that out as the waiter looked on, distraught.
Every dish is a minor wonder of physics and gastronomy. Slices of sardine are served inside a tiny cup made from other, pressed sardines: it’s a condensed hit of the ocean, not so much a taste but the essence of something alive that’s just been dragged from the icy depths.
MATER1A’s Victor Garvey is ‘like a kitchen dominatrix drip feeding pleasure throughout the evening’
Continuing the theme, vivid orange sea urchins – now at the end of the season so extra sweet and fatty – are served in a nori case moulded into the shape of a sea urchin shell (an absurd detail that you would miss if you weren’t paying attention) atop lobster and roasted chicken gel.
Suckling pig “oden” (a classic Japanese street food) is perhaps the dish of the evening: an exceptional sliver of pork belly topped with daikon and quail egg and drizzled with a broth that’s been simmering for 48 hours, giving it an impossibly rich, deep umami flavour. It’s served in a bowl with a teat on one side, designed to be chugged from like a child’s sippy-cup.
Smoked eel topped with grated foie gras is a brave, almost reckless combination of flavours. It comes in a “pastry” made using milk skin (it’s not actually a pastry, I’m using approximate terms because the terms either don’t exist or are so technical they might as well not). It comes at you from all angles: the smoky kick of the eel, the buttery slick of foie gras, a faint lactose taste from the milk skin.
It’s banger after banger: duck stuffed with “forbidden rice”, langoustine with toasted rice drizzled with the juice from its own head, salmon roe in sake jelly.
Devising a menu like this is like conducting an epic symphony. A good chef knows how to keep you right on the edge, a kitchen dominatrix drip feeding pleasure throughout the evening. Serve too much too fast and suddenly your diners are faced with earthly delights they no longer have any appetite for.
To continue the strained metaphor, I guess that makes dessert the climax. There are two: strawberries that have been crisped and moussed and made into sorbet and generally experimented upon in ways that probably contravene the Geneva convention, and a chocolate tarte souffle that, honestly I’ve run out of space to describe. It was nice.
MATER1A is what Garvey does best: being in the kitchen, creating mad, ambitious, complex dishes. There are probably two dozen chefs in the world cooking at this level, creating combinations of flavour and texture that feel genuinely new. MATER1A is a place to sample one of them.