Jan 27, 2015
Four Foodie Lovers Restaurants with Private Chefs Tables
It’s the best ‘wow’ factor there is. Have a private dining room in the kitchen so that guests can see their food cooked, chefs toiling over a hot stove, before presenting perfection on a plate. It’s great fun, it’s an ice-breaker and let’s admit, a bit like watching ice-skating, we’re all secretly hoping at some stage a chef might drop something or lose it – Gordon Ramsay style.
My favourite chefs’ tables in the capital are guaranteed to provide most of the above- just perhaps not the plate smashing or temper tantrums – as they’re all far too accomplished.
Richard Corrigan’s eponymously named restaurant in Mayfair, has not one but two more of these spectacular specimens. With décor suitably masculine for the environment, the Chefs Table at Corrigan’s (for 13) features dark wood, mid blue leather directors chairs, hunting pictures and memorabilia and a striking chandelier. The glass partition allows for intimate views of the kitchen while the heavy curtains provide the option to shut out the noise and smells. Similarly the floor to ceiling glass window of the Kitchen Library enables guests to enjoy the kitchen action while the back wall is stuffed with well-thumbed cookery books. The C-shaped polished wood table fits the oval space perfectly, allowing for intimate dinners of up to 6 guests.
Legendary Indian chef Atul Kochhar has not missed a trick at his Michelin-starred Berkeley Square restaurant Benares. With his chefs creating some of the finest Indian food in the UK, it’s fascinating to watch the magic being created from his Chef’s Table. Seating up to 6 guests in a spaciously elegant oriental environment, and with a huge glass window looking out onto the kitchen, it’s a great room for enjoying the ambience of the kitchen as a background to any intimate event, from corporate dinner to private party.
Hibiscus has another gem of a chef’s table, and “this time”, as the saying goes, “it’s personal”. Hidden away through the wine cellar, the room for up to six guests is on the lower ground floor. It is essentially the Michelin starred, chef-patron, Claude Bosi’s private development kitchen and events at this table are designed to reflect that, with functions here catered for by one of the senior chefs cooking all dishes in front of guests.
Finally, I must let the cat out of the bag and reveal Mark Hix’s best kept secret. His private kitchen and library at Tramshed in Shoreditch is not so much a chef’s table as a chef’s bar, where he and his team will create, teach or serve his trademark delights. The room is hired on an exclusive-only basis and is at the back of the restaurant, up a windy wrought iron staircase (although separate entrance is also available). It’s a real hidden gem, filled with 2000+ cookery books and decked out in Hix’s inimitable 70s retro chic style. Guests may easily imagine that they are in his actual home, and I’m sure they can’t be far off. Available for up to 14 guests (or 35 standing), it’s an uber chic, gourmet retreat not to be missed.
