Oliver goes Italian; Emin goes to dinner

Bloomberg

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Jamie Oliver is planning to open two restaurants in London as the chef’s "Jamie’s Italian" chain is packing in diners in university cities around Britain. Oliver will add a branch in Covent Garden next year in addition to a previously announced location in Canary Wharf Ğ set for August Ğ and others in Guildford and Cardiff, his spokesman Peter Barry said.

If the London outlets are as good as the Jamie’s Italian, London diners should be happy. The eatery serves carefully sourced produce and great fresh pasta, and the staffers are friendly and efficient. 70 people are lined up outside before it opens for lunch.The plans for the Covent Garden branch, in St. Martin’s Courtyard, were earlier reported in the Daily Mail.

Trading art for dinner
The idea of all painters starving in their garrets hardly applies now that British artists sell pictures for thousands of pounds, but Tracey Emin and her colleagues may forever abandon any concerns about where their next meal is coming from.

Emin, Michael Landy, Caragh Thuring, Fiona Rae and Mat Collishaw are among those who have agreed to donate works to Mark Hix’s Albemarle restaurant in Brown’s Hotel in exchange for free meals. It’s a similar arrangement to one Hix made with his friends in 2006 when he opened Scott’s, which is home to a fine collection of contemporary British art.

"It’s an old-fashioned Parisian tradition, trading dinner for art," said the chef, who later quit Scott’s, which is owned by the entrepreneur Richard Caring. "Some of my friends asked if they should take back their paintings when I left, but I said no, let’s donate them to Richard Caring."

The art will be hung this month and shown at a party Emin plans for May 28, Hix said over lunch at Hix Oyster & Chop House. Albemarle Executive Chef Lee Streeton and Head Chef Marcus Verberne are preparing a menu for Emin that includes Heritage tomato salad with Laverstoke Park Buffalo Mozzarella and roast rib of Herefordshire beef with braised short ribs. No one should starve.

Michel Roux Jr. of Le Gavroche, is to open another London venue, in Parliament Square. The yet-to-be-named establishment, in the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors, is scheduled to open in September, Roux said in an interview.

The chef will be Daniel Cox, last year’s winner of the Roux Scholarship. As part of his prize, Cox worked at the three- Michelin-star El Raco de Can Fabes, north of Barcelona. I judged the scholarship this year, and visited Cox with Michel Roux Sr.

The new venue is a venture between the institution and Restaurant Associates, part of the U.K. and Ireland wing of Compass Group Plc, the world’s largest catering company. The plans were earlier reported at Caterersearch.com.

International influences
"I am very excited: Daniel is an exceptional talent and this is going to be the top address in London," Michel Jr. said. "The food is going to be French, but not as French as Le Gavroche. It will embrace Spanish influences and modern techniques, but it won’t be Ğ how shall I put this? Ğ El-Bullified. "This isn’t going to be another Gavroche. There can only ever be one Le Gavroche, but I am going to be very much involved in this one. It is very satisfying to be able to give a Roux Scholar his own kitchen and Daniel is going to go far."

Hix hosted a lunch at the Oyster & Chop House on April 29 to celebrate pea shoots, the leaves of the traditional garden pea plant. The menu was conventional: chilled pea-shoot and spring-leek soup; pea shoot, ham hock and asparagus salad; sea trout poached in oil with wilted pea shoots, wild garlic and cucumber. It was only after much wine and some Hix Oyster Ale that the chef asked his staff to create pea-shoot cocktails.

Rachel Jolly, behind the bar, came up with the Peatini, an alarmingly colored drink featuring Hendrick’s Gin and Gomme syrup. By the time I left, the restaurant’s specials blackboard also featured the Peashooter and Pea-Shoot Pimm’s. But the Peatini is the perfect spring cocktail.