Among the bristling larder of TV cookery competitions and next-best-chef shows filling our screens, it’s not often one gets to hear – let alone experience – what happens once the victor has been crowned. Do they go off to the heady heights of culinary stardom? Or start their own brand of baked goods? Or transform a cosy country pub into a Michelin-worthy kitchen putting a new destination on the map? Perhaps.
What doesn’t often happen, though, is they land a residential in one of the capital’s most prestigious hotels, headlining a new restaurant pop-up to sell-out covers and becoming one of the most talked about dining destinations of the season.
But that’s just what happened when chef Dom Taylor was crowned winner of Channel 4 and Netflix’s, ‘Five Star Kitchen’. Taylor has since launched The Good Front Room at The Langham London. Evidently, finding a venue to open a new restaurant helps when the show’s judge happens to be the hotel’s Culinary Director, two-star Michelin chef Michel Roux Jr, whose own residency The Landau recently announced its permanent closure.
Inspired by the focal point of his childhood home, where his mother would delight and dine guests in equal measure, The Good Front Room really is the front room. The Langham’s Palm Court is the hotel’s lounge, directly through the lobby as you walk in. But this is no front room you might expect; known more for sumptuous afternoon teas, as Larman and I enter we’re met by 50ft ceilings, ornate chandeliers, and towering floral displays; a world apart from that which you might expect in a Caribbean home.
It’s busy, and after jostling for a spot we’re sat at a small, circular table with low armchairs. So far, so lounge-like, and the intrigue sets in further as we’re presented with a colourful booklet for a menu. Our knowledge of Caribbean cuisine is limited, so it’s handy we’re given guidance, and as we sip a well-executed classic punch, fruity, tangy, ‘punchy’, with chef’s own choice of rum (Wray and Nephew), we’re already introduced to new flavours among the nibbles, including breadfruit and lotus flower.
Dinner with Larman is always a battle of wills over the choice of dish. We both want to try everything, agree on favourites, and can never simply pick one apiece. Food envy will always win over. Not this time. I favour the jackfruit and chickpea patty. Patty? Larman gives me a look that would tame thunder. “But it’s vegan, old boy?”
Fine. The ackee and salt fish cake, then. “At least we have the jerk chicken, it sounds amazing,” and it was, accompanied by a plantain jam. Larman ensures he takes the lion’s share. But the fish cake is no second fiddle. Given a crisp crumb, it’s more like a croquette, served with a pineapple and tomato chow, and it’s unlike any fish cake I’ve had. “Isn’t this something,” he quips, “like dining on Caribbean street food in a million-pound room…”
As with the starters, we can’t not go traditional with the mains. The goat curry comes on the bone, in plenty of sauce, but curiously lacks the Caribbean kick I might have been expecting. As does the scotch bonnet sauce with Larman’s rum and raisin pork belly, the more inventive dish on the menu. We exchange plates and I notice the small ewer untouched. I dip my little finger to taste, but the burn didn’t come, in favour of a sweetness with a subtle heat. I wonder if Dom is tempering the chili for a broader audience.
The highlight comes with the sides, however. The set menu includes them all, in a clutch of copper dishes, and it’s a panoply of surprises. The potato gratin turns out to be green banana. The ‘slaw is okra and fennel. It results in a collection of flavours and textures that had me scraping the plate.
Formerly a freelance chef, with a CV that’s certainly not shy of topflight experience, Dom Taylor clearly has something of his own to bring to the table; his mission, he says, is “to ignite a new lease of life into Caribbean cookery”. That blend of the traditional – rum, plantain, goat – moving into the experimental is never more evident than in the desserts.
Bun and Cheese sounds inventive, but comes to nothing more than cherries on toast with a blue cheese mousse. Accompanied by the Carrot Cake punch, something akin to a carrot milkshake with a crumble topping, it would certainly suit the curious. The Cocoa Bean is more traditional; a layered chocolate mousse cake in a moulded cocoa bean is a nice conclusion to the meal, and while too big for one, is a good sharer, particularly when accompanied by the Blood and Sand, an old fashioned embellished with sherry and port.
It’s been a genuine turn up for the books, and little wonder The Good Front Room is in demand. This is a culinary experience if ever there was one. “I feel like I’ve been on a rollercoaster, old boy,” Larman intones as we depart, “some very decent twists, and some oddly curious turns…” “I put it down to experience, old chap,” I reply, “it’s been a memorable one, for sure.”
The Good Front Room will be open for six months from Saturday 15 July 2023, Wednesday to Sunday, 6.30pm – 10pm, in the Langham’s Palm Court. £75 for three courses, and ALL the sides. For more information, bookings – and to watch Five Star Kitchen – please visit www.langhamhotels.com.
