Theo Randall (ex chef at the River Cafe) recently opened his restaurant at the newly refurbished Inter Continental Hotel at Hyde Park Corner (about time too). The restaurant has a Milanese chic with well spaced tables and Frette table linen.
The food? The simple dishes are done well - spinash with olives, pan
fried squid. Avoid the complicated ones - my Panna Cotta was a weird
grappa flavoured wobbly blob (which resembled a silicone breast
implant, though I have been told they don't wobble) with
not-sweet-enough Chestnut paste.
What was enjoyable? Spacious environment. Not hurried service and genuinely good natured staff. Good simple dishes.
What was not enjoyable? The more complicated dishes - Italian food is about simple dishes made with superb ingredients - it's astonishing how many English chefs try to jazz up La Cucina Italiana ... with weird concoction and tastes.
I did not think much of the last Eugene Onegin in the 90s - a bit too baren - too literal. The latest production which I saw tonight at the Royal Opera has improved quite a lot. For a start, we had Dmitri Hvorostovksy and Amanda Roocroft singing Onegin and Tatyana respectively - two strong well matched voices that sparked off a reasonable amount of passion between the two! The production was exciting too - with a believably real "river" running on stage. It's not often you get Tatyana jumping into the river and splashing about on stage. Then there was the frozen river with Moscow in the background - there was almost real ice skating on stage just before the Imperial Ball scene. Much fun. Very enjoyable.
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