It’s a tiny space, with just 26 covers spread across two kitchen counters and dining room tables on the first floor. You don’t need to do the required reading to recognise a sweet Scottish langoustine draped in silky lardo for the wondrous thing it is. Muse is Tom Aikens’ return to the fine dining game (his Chelsea restaurant closed five years ago) and the restaurant is set in a corner mews hose, which was previously a pizzeria. “Did you read all about the dish?” enquires the waiter. ‘Conquering the beech tree’ comes with a written blurb about the chef’s creativity. I’m more interested in the Laphroaig gummies that come with coffee (excellent espresso by Difference). A cereal milk dessert lapses into twee nostalgia. It’s a big-hearted dish I didn’t know he had in him. Aikens gives us extreme presentation (a bone is involved), all the textures (think dried beef shin threads and tendon ‘quavers’) and funky fermented flavours (like the grains in the stuffed onion, the stuffed onion to end all stuffed onions). It’s more than just a plate of Norfolk dairy cow sirloin with a single triple-cooked chip. ‘Playing with Fire’ is steak and chips the Aikens way. Aikens has any number of young chefs snapping at his heels. ‘The Essence’, more typically Aikens, is a celebration of beetroot in more ways than I knew possible: candied, raw, pickled, smoked, salt-baked, puréed etc. ‘Just Down The Road’ - don’t make me explain all the names - layers raw milk ricotta, burnt leek powder, olive oil and honey-kissed black truffle, and both soothes and surprises. But reformed ‘psycho’ Aikens - his word - takes our coats, stows our totes and welcomes us into his beautiful new restaurant, a trinket box space in a Belgravia mews, designed by Rebecca Körner. ‘Uh oh’ I thought on hearing that Aikens, never the easiest chap, was to attempt ‘experience-led’ dining, an intimate dining style advanced by Björn Frantzén at Frantzén and Nuno Mendes at Mãos. Aikens’ eponymous Chelsea flagship shut in 2014 and the last of his Tom’s Kitchens closed last month, but his new restaurant Muse marks his return to the kitchen. And the time he left his suppliers £900,000 out of pocket after a pre-pack administration in 2008. Like the time he allegedly burned a commis chef with a hot palate knife in 1999. Age 26, at Pied à Terre, Aikens became the youngest Brit ever to win two Michelin stars, an achievement eclipsed by other headline-grabbing stories. That’s why my new home, Muse, pays homage to all of these and more.Once enfant terrible, always enfant terrible? Time will tell for Tom Aikens Behind the scenes?īelated happy returns to Tom Aikens who turned 50 last week but still hasn’t quite shaken the ‘enfant terrible’ tag. “I still carry with me an inherent pride of my Norfolk provenance, alongside the many places that were considered a home-from-home in those early years. The menus at Muse have been inspired by nostalgia and the pivotal moments and key people from Tom’s personal life and career. Muse marks Tom Aikens’ return to experience-led fine dining in an intimate 25-cover converted mews house. Tom’s father was also one of the reasons he became a chef he was very successful in the wine business, which gave Tom a real view of the many delights of France and its great food heritage. Tom and his twin brother Robert always helped in the garden, picking fruits with their mother to make the most delicious jams and chutneys.ĭuring the beginning of Tom’s career as a chef, his father was always on hand to give advice as he began his first few steps in the kitchen at a very early age. Moreover, baking was Tom’s mother’s forte and from the age of eight Tom joined his mother making the finest cakes and home-baked bread. His mother Tania first opened his eyes to the infinite pleasures and absolute delights food can bring. Throughout his life, Tom has been inspired by many different people, places, times and travels.
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