AULIS, London – 6 chairs, 6 strangers & 2 chefs

Aulis is a development kitchen owned by my food crush – Simon Rogan. I know! I know!! I become a groupie when I talk about this man, but I can’t help it, to me, he is the food god! You might be wondering what is a development kitchen? Without wanting to emphasise the literal meaning of the word development, it is exactly that. Here, Simon and his team of chefs create what start out as experimental dishes based on seasonal ingredients from his farm in Cartmel. These dishes may or may not make it to the menu of any of his other 3 UK based restaurants – Lenclume, Rogan & Co and Roganic!

Typical of any of Simon’s restaurants, you are encouraged not to look at your menu and experience the dishes blind using your senses and no, you are not blindfolded people. The restaurant sits 6 people on a long concrete slab table. Guests are seated facing the head and sous chef. Your dishes are prepared right in front of you and whilst this is like Benihana (the Japanese restaurant where you have your chef prepare your meal whilst doing fancy knife moves), at Aulis, the experience is different. It’s the intimacy, the interaction with your chef (Chef Mel encouraged us to ask questions, talked you through the dishes as it is being prepared), the easy camaraderie with fellow diners that makes this special.

We had a total of 10 dishes which were just phenomenal. Our introductory dish was a beef tartare which took a week to prep and remains the best beef tartare we have sampled! Made with beef, pickled onion and sweet corn, simples! The strawberry rose and beet root soup, again, 3 seemingly simple ingredients that to the untrained eye like ours, have no business being combined or made into a mouth – watering soup dish. I particularly liked the play on names for the dishes too. For instance, the hispi, girolle, corn and truffle dish were sweet cabbage, cheese, corn and truffle with mushrooms thrown in. This was the general theme of the evening, simple ingredients that were transformed into mouth-watering delights that had you ohhing and ahhing in both awe and appreciation.

Since we were only 6 guests at the table, by the 3^rd dish, we were talking like old friends who had met up for dinner and not the initial strangers who came to enjoy a meal at a restaurant created by a renowned chef. And that, is why Aulis will always be special for us. We swapped stories of food adventures – the good, the bad and the ugly. We drank copious amounts of wine, Chef Mel and her Sous Chef encouraged us to be loud, dance and then joined in the wine drinking. We helped clear the dishes whilst finishing the last drudges of the wines and dancing to music. We got recommendations of where to go for a night out from our sous chef! As a youngin, he is in the know! What a Phenomenal evening! Bravo!

Addendum

The 6 strangers continued well into the night by going drinking in a bar together .. Me thinks test / development kitchens might have to be a regular feature on our food adventures, good idea yes?

Cheers

Ndidi

p.s Chef Mel working her magic