There are many chefs in London who think they ought to be called ‘the don’, but one man stands primus inter pares and worthy of such a description: the Cambridge-educated chef, writer and general bon viveur Rowley Leigh. For many years, he was the proud genius at Kensington Place, the Notting Hill spot that not only hosted Harold Pinter and Antonia Fraser on an apparently weekly basis, but also saw Leigh come up with many of the city’s most iconic dishes, including his parmesan custard with anchovy toast and – invented apparently as a joke – chicken and goat’s cheese mousse.
His faithful punters lapped it up, and when Leigh decamped to Bayswater’s Le Café Anglais in 2007, he managed to make the inauspicious setting of a restaurant in Whiteley’s shopping centre come alive. When the restaurant closed a decade ago for redevelopment, Leigh, still only in his early sixties, spent his time and energies finding new worlds left to conquer.
There were consultancies aplenty, a brief period at the Design Museum’s restaurant and, most recently, a West London pop-up near his old stomping grounds, where he conquered the delighted denizens of the area with the appropriately named Chez Rowley.
But Leigh is not a man who likes sitting on his laurels, so it’s a particular delight that he has decided to head to the City to collaborate with executive head chef Madhi Chawki and head chef Simon Robinson on the menu at The Don, a stalwart of long, expense-laden lunches and one of London’s finest collections of port. It was not, by all accounts, a difficult decision for Leigh’s latest berth.
He commented that “I have always loved the Don. It will be a treat to come back to the City: my first head chef job was at Le Poulbot in Cheapside about a hundred yards away so it will be fun to come back. My cooking may have changed a bit but the old school principles still apply; do justice to the ingredients and keep it simple. The menu won’t be a greatest hits album but there might be a couple of old favourites lurking around.”
Well, all I can say, after a suitably lavish repast at The Don, is that this is an operation not just running on all cylinders, but serving up limitlessly excellent food with inordinate brio and style. What strikes you upon arrival is how charming, friendly and consummately professional all the staff are, whether it’s the peerlessly effervescent GM Benoit, the brilliant sommelier Julia – of whom more in a moment – or any of the other superb types that we encounter over the three hours or so that we spend dining here. We begin with a half-dozen Kentish oysters – superb, as ever – and then Julia offers us a daring suggestion: she will pair every single thing that we eat, not just each course, with its own individual wine. Are we game?
We most certainly are, and so what starts off as a jolly romp in a top-notch City restaurant swiftly develops into a culinary expedition laden with fun and intrigue in equal parts. Starters of poached eggs ‘en meurette’, bluefin tuna with dripping toast and horseradish and a special of king scallops are all ably matched with wines that include a fine pair of whites, a Chateau Lamothe-Bouscaut and a Louro Do Bolo, and a light but robust red, the Lalama Ribeira Sacra.
And this lasts into the mains, too. A very fine rib-eye steak bearnaise – something of a Leigh specialty – and superbly cooked lamb chops are served alongside a particularly excellent brace of reds, a Chianti Classico, Isola E Olena, and a truly delicious Château Moulin Riche from Saint-Julien, which we are assured by Julia is both her favourite of the wines by the glass and one of the finest clarets to be had anywhere. She is not wrong. It has a wonderfully moreish quality that accompanies the steak wonderfully and leaves us wanting more.
Desserts come like the relief of Mafeking, and a chocolate tart, paired with a fine Tokaji, and a delectable rum baba, this one accompanied by a Sandeman’s 20-year port, prove to be a fitting conclusion to the meal. As we sip exemplary espresso martinis with the air of people who have had the best and most exciting dinner that we’ve had all year, we raise a toast to the talented Rowley, whose influence and guidance here has lifted an acclaimed and popular restaurant up to another level altogether.
Julia, in a moment of levity, brings out all the wines together for me to photograph. It makes for a fine, cathartic moment, and it’s all I can do, sated and delighted, to joke about returning next week to try the others that I have yet to enjoy. It was fitting that we visited just before Christmas, but rest assured, this is a gift that will keep giving all year round.
The Don, For more information, and for bookings, please visit www.thedonlondon.com.
