Masks to be ditched – and no more QR codes to enter a pub: The prime minister will reveal plans this week to ditch many of the covid-19 rules that have plunged the hospitality industry into chaos. From 19 July, masks will become voluntary in all settings, including shops, hospitality and public transport. The requirement to scan a QR code when entering a bar, restaurant, hairdresser, gym, museum or other venue will be dropped. The government will scrap the regulations that require businesses to collect customers’ contact tracing details. The move, which is part of a series of measures to be introduced on “Freedom Day”, will cut red tape and curb the number of people forced to self-isolate for ten days after being “pinged” by the NHS Test and Trace app. In a news conference early this week, Boris Johnson is also expected to announce plans to drop social distancing rules and to reject proposals for a domestic covid-19 passport. Under the proposals: One-metre-plus social distancing will be dropped, meaning that table service will no longer be necessary in pubs and customers will be able to get served at the bar. House parties will no longer be outlawed and mass events, such as music festivals, will be allowed. A Downing Street source said: “We believe it is now time for the public to start learning to live with covid. All the data and scientific modelling suggests that the lifting of restrictions will lead to a rise in cases but – with the continued success of the vaccine rollout and the break in the link between hospitalisations and deaths – we are confident there will be no risk of it putting significant additional pressure on the NHS.” Whitehall officials believe that ending the mandatory collection of contact tracing details is “a step in the right direction”. The ultimate aim is for ministers to introduce a “test and release” system. This would allow anyone who has been in contact with an infected person to resume normal life immediately as long as they can produce a negative test. Official estimates suggest that infections will increase by as much as 26% under the plans, but the government is likely to accept the risk to avoid further disruption to businesses, schools and public services. (Sunday Times)

Sajid Javid goes full speed ahead towards lifting ALL lockdown restrictions to ‘make Britain the most open country in Europe’:New health secretary Sajid Javid today says the best way to protect the nation’s health is to lift the remaining coronavirus restrictions. Writing exclusively for The Mail on Sunday, the new Health Secretary says: “The economic arguments for opening up are well known, but for me, the health arguments are equally compelling.” His comments mark a sharp change in tone from that of his predecessor Matt Hancock, who was forced to resign last weekend after his affair with an aide was exposed. In his article, Javid says the UK is ‘on track’ to escape almost every vestige of lockdown on 19 July, adding: “We will have a country that is not just freer, but healthier, too.” But he makes no secret of the challenges he faces as Health Secretary, admitting that he has “the biggest in-tray I’ve had at any department – and I’ve run five”. Setting out his priorities, he writes: “The first is how we restore our freedoms and learn to live with covid-19. The second is to tackle the NHS backlog – something that we know is going to get far worse before it gets better. We are on track for 19 July and we have to be honest with people about the fact that we cannot eliminate covid. We also need to be clear that cases are going to rise significantly... But no date we choose will ever come without risk, so we have to take a broad and balanced view.” (Mail on Sunday)

Key hospitality figures reflect on life a year after the first lockdown lifted: 4 July; Independence Day. What a happy irony it seemed, last year, as restaurants, pubs and bars began to open up. Since then, a year has passed – a year that has felt, often, three or four times its usual length. Since then, many pub and restaurant groups have done whatever they can to keep their heads above water. “The low point was definitely November and December when the government changed policies relating to hospitality about eight times in ten weeks,” says Jonathan Neame, the chief executive of Shepherd Neame. “The government seemed both rudderless and confused at that time, and it caused immense stress and disruption for almost zero benefit.” Greene King boss Nick Mackenzie agrees: “It’s been tough on our teams – who by their very nature are sociable – having to go back into lockdowns, but their resilience has been incredible. It was also particularly upsetting not being able to welcome our customers at Christmas, knowing how much they were looking forward to being together in the pub with their family and friends.” Simon Emeny, chief executive of Fuller’s, said: “Hospitality has been overlooked for years and this has been a time for us to find our voice and be heard. We are job and wealth creators, so the inequalities that impact our business need addressing. We need a further business rates relief and the promised overhaul of the entire business rates system. We also need an extension to the VAT reduction – which, of course, has had no benefit during periods of closure. Let us get ourselves back up and running and hospitality will once again be a generator for the UK.” Patrick Dardis, chief executive, Young’s, said: “The old normal is what we all deserve. We need a forward-looking approach to getting our lives back – kids back in school, people back in every office. Let’s get the country off its knees, together. Make the VAT reduction permanent for UK hospitality and abolish business rates, so that all that money can be redirected to a higher minimum wage in the sector. This would help the economic bounce back enormously, and put more spending money in the pockets of the youngest staff.” (Evening Standard)

Restaurants urgently need 200,000 staff but bosses say Britain’s entitled young won’t roll up their sleeves and mop floors:Hospitality bosses have hit out at the lack of Britons willing to ‘roll up their sleeves’ and take jobs in restaurants after an exodus of European workers left almost 200,000 vacancies. David Moore, owner of the Michelin-starred Pied a Terre restaurant in Fitzrovia, central London, said Britain still had an ‘upstairs, downstairs’ mentality that did not see hospitality as a fulfilling career. He blamed the British education system for pushing school-leavers to go to university, producing ‘entitled’ young people not prepared to work their way up in hospitality. By contrast, he said young people who came over from Europe were ‘self-motivated and bright’ and keen to learn skills they could use to build a career in their home country. Moore, said of the UK: ‘I think young people leave education and have a sense of entitlement to a job as a supervisor. I see very few young people coming through the door willing to roll their sleeves up and do the basic jobs. The basic places to start when you’ve got no knowledge of somewhere is the cleaning, the sweeping, the mopping, the carrying, the bin-emptying – that sort of stuff. The problem goes back to education in the UK. Year-on-year, more people go to university than ever before. People are 21 or 22 when they are churned out into the big bad world and have big expectations for a career. In Europe, people are quite happy to leave school and become a head waiter and do that for the rest of their life but in the UK, I guess we’re an old-fashioned nation that’s very much upstairs, downstairs. We don’t have the sense that hospitality is a sensible career choice. I’ve got a couple of nice English boys we’ve employed this year, but I don’t often see young, bright UK workers coming through. The ones that tend to be more enthusiastic do tend to be European.’ European workers account for as many as eight in ten staff at some top London restaurants. (Mail on Sunday)

Wanted – 68 chefs for the Lakes. The tourists are going hungry: In the village of Grasmere – described by William Wordsworth as “the loveliest spot that man hath ever found” – the gingerbread shop, a local landmark for 167 years, has spent more than £5,000 on recruitment advertising. “In the last month we’ve had two applications,” said Joanne Hunter, the business’s co-director. “In all the time we’ve been here, this is the worst staffing challenge we’ve ever had.” None of the four job vacancies has been filled. Lake District businesses, enjoying a bumper summer influx of British tourists who cannot fly overseas, have been confounded by staff shortages. Many hotels, restaurants and visitor attractions have been forced to scale back their services, or shut down altogether. There are 68 vacancies for chefs in hotel restaurants alone, according to Ben Mayou, chairman of the Lake District Hotels Association. Overall, his members are short of 270 permanent staff, with 50 more needed for the summer season. “Never have we experienced such difficulties in recruiting staff,” he said. Robbed of a reliable source of migrant labour, smaller businesses on tight budgets are finding it hard to compete with rising wages and perks such as free food – and, crucially, live-in accommodation – on offer at bigger venues. Cumbria’s population is ageing, with younger workers tending to seek jobs elsewhere. A pandemic-fuelled boom in Lake District house prices, as city-dwellers sought refuge from covid-19, has also made the area less affordable for lower-paid employees. On top of all that, the hitherto hidden impact of Brexit is making itself felt. Workers who returned to the EU during lockdown are now confronted with post-Brexit UK visa rules and minimum-income thresholds, not to mention quarantine and its expensive covid-19 testing requirements. Cumbria Tourism is calling for government intervention to tackle the problem. The organisation has joined with the Lake District Hotels Association to lobby for a post-Brexit immigration exemption similar to that in agriculture; for chefs to be classed as skilled workers; and for the government to resource an industry-wide recruitment drive. Local business owners are backing calls for Priti Patel, the home secretary, to relax visa rules to allow EU staff to fill gaps in the short-term. (Sunday Times)

Cut congestion charge to lure diners: London Mayor Sadiq Khan is under increasing pressure from London’s hard-hit restaurants to reduce the £15 congestion charge. Jeremy King, chief executive of The Wolseley owner Corbin & King, asked Khan last month to scrap the charge after 6.30pm on weekday evenings and all day on weekends. He said changing the rules from Freedom Day on 19 July would help to ‘reignite London’ by encouraging customers to travel into the capital again. He added that hospitality staff will also need to use their cars to get home safely once late-night venues reopen. Five of Corbin & King’s London restaurants are within the congestion charge zone, including The Wolseley on Piccadilly, Fischer’s in Marylebone and The Delaunay in Covent Garden – and trading is still below 2019 levels. King said: “One of the major stumbling blocks in the Mayor’s desire to open up London again is the fact we still have inappropriate and damaging congestion charge hours. Why come into Central London when it’s going to cost you an extra £15 per day to do so?” The congestion charge hours were extended last June to between 7am and 10pm seven days a week as part of the first emergency funding deal for Transport for London. A spokesman for the Mayor said: “Sadiq had no choice but to agree to these terms in order to keep the transport network running, but he has repeatedly made clear his view that the temporary charges should be reviewed so as to ensure a strong economic recovery in London and one that is environmentally sustainable and fair to all. He expects TfL to review the options this summer to ensure we have the right arrangements in place as we move through the pandemic.” (Mail on Sunday)

Beer is flowing again, but Fuller’s glass still looks half-empty: Even before the pandemic struck, Fuller’s was a very different business from the one founded 176 years ago. In 2019, Japanese giant Asahi bought the brewing operation for £250m, including the Chiswick plant whose distinctive malty aroma is known to anyone driving west out of London on the A4. What remains is the pub and hotels business, comprising 212 directly managed pubs, 176 leased to tenants and 1,028 ‘boutique’ hotel rooms. Fuller’s ales still flow from the taps, thanks to a supply arrangement with the business it sold – or at least they do in normal times. But these still aren’t normal times, as Thursday’s full-year results will doubtless underline. At its last trading update, in March, the company said that its pubs had been open, on average, on just 27% of the 388 days between 20 March 2020 and 12 April this year. Covid-19 closures were expected to push revenues down to 80% below the pre-pandemic year, the company said, implying takings likely to come in at about £64m, down from £320m. The pub group, which focuses on London and the south-east, tapped investors for £54m in new equity as it warned that £5m of cash was going up in smoke every day. It’s small compared with pubcos that operate on a national, or even global, level. A lot of its venues are in London, where outside space is rarer. But with a market capitalisation of more than £500m, it has options, as evidenced by its ability to issue new equity and refinance debts. If things get really perilous, Fuller’s could still issue more debt – this has already risen to £216m during the pandemic, from £152m – or sell some of its freehold properties. At the last trading update, Fuller’s did not yet know that “Freedom Day” in England – originally slated for 21 June – was going to be pushed back to 19 July. The effects of that won’t show up in Thursday’s results, which cover the year to the end of March. But its impact on recent trading could well add to the company’s woes. Fuller’s will be far from alone in that respect. Even if things are looking a bit rosier in the beer garden, the pubs trade is a long way from being out of the woods. (The Guardian)

M&S urges customers to book a table at Dishoom after copying famous bacon naan dish: Marks & Spencer has urged its customers to book tables at Dishoom after the retailer was accused of “ripping off” one of the Indian restaurant chain’s most beloved dishes. Fans accused the grocer of copying Dishoom’s bacon naan, one of the hospitality group’s best-known menu items. They responded after M&S posted a photograph of its version of the recipe alongside a “how to” video and the caption, “Umm… did someone say chilli egg and bacon naan?” Customers immediately questioned the source of the inspiration for the dish, with some suggesting the supermarket had “ripped off” and “copied” Dishoom. The retailer later added credit on Instagram. On Friday, after Dishoom responded more formally on social media, M&S urged its customers to book a table at the restaurant via social media. A spokeswoman told i: “You may have seen some posts from us and Dishoom. We wanted to say we think you’re great at what you do and want to stay friends. We’re asking all of our followers to support the incredible work Dishoom does by booking a table at one of their restaurants or buying their delicious bacon naan kit. We highly respect the incredible work Dishoom does to support children’s meal charities, and we’ll be reaching out to Magic Breakfast.” (i news)

Get workers back to offices ‘to save cities’: Some of Britain’s biggest businesses have called on Boris Johnson to encourage a return to the office and reignite a “buzz” in cities when covid restrictions end. More than 50 business leaders have written to the prime minister to ask that working from home is “no longer the default” when covid-19 restrictions end, scheduled for 19 July. “Businesses need to know what the end of the lockdown restrictions will mean in practice before 19 July,” said the letter, organised by lobby group London First. “At this critical moment, we believe that it is essential that the government is unambiguous in its communications that when the ‘stage four’ restrictions lift, public transport is safe, offices are safe, and work-from-home is no longer the default,” it said. “Employers can then move forward with plans for new ways of working, considering the needs of their staff, clients and customers.” Signatories include BT boss Philip Jansen, Jon Lewis, chief executive of Capita, and Robin Mills, a managing director of Compass. “Employers, employees and businesses are counting the days until our city centres begin to buzz again,” the letter added. Cities have been hard hit by the restrictions. An analysis by the Resolution Foundation found that nine of the top ten local authorities for workers on furlough were north London boroughs. “It seems to be the case that this is driven predominantly by high numbers of residents of these boroughs working in industries that serve central London’s economy,” the think tank said. (Sunday Times)

Covid pushes Blumenthal’s restaurants into the red: Heston Blumenthal’s restaurant empire is facing further losses after swinging into the red in the year at the start of the pandemic. SL6, the parent company for Mr Blumenthal’s Michelin-starred Fat Duck and Hind’s Head restaurants, said forced closures during the past year had had an “immediate and significant impact” on the business and had caused losses to rack up. SL6, which is run by the celebrity chef’s father’s stepbrother Ronnie Lowenthal, said the economic and ­trading environment was “challenging for the group” and had been worsened by higher supply chain costs in the wake of Brexit. It came after the business swung to a £527,690 loss in the 12 months to the end of May 2020 compared with a £232,044 profit a year earlier. Revenue fell to £10m from £13.4m a year earlier. The group’s flagship Fat Duck restaurant is among a handful in the UK to have earned three Michelin stars, with guests paying between £250 and £375 for its tasting menu. SL6 said it had “managed the unexpected challenges of the pandemic and lockdown professionally”. It said it was well placed to recover from the pandemic as restrictions loosen and restaurants are allowed to serve customers inside again. However, auditors raised concerns over certain parts of Mr Blumenthal’s restaurant empire. In separate filings for the Tfor2 business, which runs The Perfectionists’ Cafe at London Heathrow Airport, Lawfords Consulting said the conditions for that specific business to reopen and trade profitably had not been met. The auditors said this may cast doubt on its ability to continue as a going concern. Blumenthal no longer acts as a director for SL6, but is still heavily involved with the businesses and is a figurehead for the restaurants, which also include Dinner by Heston Blumenthal at the Mandarin Oriental hotel in London. (Sunday Telegraph)

Tom Kitchin staff suspended amid bullying claims: Edinburgh chef Tom Kitchin has suspended two members of staff following allegations of “unacceptable behaviour”. In June, former workers made allegations of bullying, violence and sexual assault in his restaurants. One alleged a chef burned a woman’s arm with a hot tray from an oven, while another claimed staff were repeatedly punched if they were not fast enough. Kitchin Group said the claims would be “fully and independently” investigated. Managing director Peter Southcott added: “We will not hesitate to take whatever action may be necessary.” Mr Kitchin said top venues can be “high-pressure, frenetic and challenging” environments where “emotions often run high” – but said his company would “remedy” instances if they had “fallen short”. He said: “The exacting standards of our food and service must be matched by the standards of behaviour in our kitchens and wider operations. In the last few years, the feedback from our team members underlines the significant strides we’ve taken to improve what had often been a traditional culture in our kitchens, but we have more to do.” (BBC News)

Staff head back to offices on part-time basis: Fewer than two-thirds of staff are expected to return to the workplace when restrictions are lifted as a new era of hybrid working takes hold after the pandemic, an exclusive Telegraph poll shows. Prime Minister Boris Johnson will lay out plans for the final stage of Britain’s reopening in the coming days, with ­official guidance on working from home where possible likely to be lifted from 19 July. But a survey of more than 1,000 managers across the private and public sector found that most expect just 60% of staff on average would return to the workplace as organisations adopt permanent hybrid arrangements. While only 3% of managers said their organisation would remain entirely virtual, 22% said between half and three quarters of staff would return. Just 13% of managers said that all employees would come back to the office. Ann Francke, the Chartered Management Institute’s chief executive, said: “Hybrid and flexible working ­practices are here to stay. All the evidence suggests empowering employees to fit their work around their personal lives makes them more productive. We know that most people want to retain some form of flexible working in the years to come, so companies that fail to establish hybrid working policies risk haemorrhaging talented staff.” (Sunday Telegraph)

Deloitte to axe secretaries in shift to flexible working: More than 500 secretaries at Deloitte are at risk of losing their jobs as the group attempts to reduce the number of administrative staff as part of its shift to fully flexible working. The restructuring is expected to result in the loss of at least one third of secretarial staff, according to a source. It could save Deloitte around £4m annually in salary costs. It comes after the company told its 20,000 UK employees that they can work wherever they want when covid restrictions are fully lifted. The shift to remote working will speed up the digitisation of staff services, the company said, reducing the need for secretarial staff. (Sunday Telegraph)

Hiscox settles covid claims case for £18m: Insurer Hiscox has paid out more than £18 million to a group of 384 companies over losses suffered as a result of the pandemic, after stoking outrage over its initial refusal to honour policies. The FTSE 250 firm was among the insurers that had refused to pay out at the start of the pandemic, prompting a Supreme Court test case in January which found that insurers, including Hiscox, should pay out £1.2 billion. The case had been brought by the Financial Conduct Authority on behalf of policyholders, saying it could affect 370,000 policyholders and 60 insurers. Hiscox said last week that it had reached a settlement with the Hiscox Action Group of almost 400 policyholders, who had led a campaign against Hiscox after it refused to pay out on certain policies. But it did not disclose the terms of the deal. It can be revealed that Hiscox paid £18.8 million to settle 384 claims, brought by the group represented by law firm Mishcon de Reya. They received an average payout of £49,000 each. (Sunday Times)

Shortage of lorry drivers raises spectre of empty shelves: David Fraser, a cafe owner in central Glasgow, usually places an order for cheese, meat, milk and cakes with his supplier on Thursday to be delivered on Monday. Last month, however, his routine was derailed. “There was nothing on the webpage, no delivery available,” says the 45-year-old. “I kept hitting refresh during the day, and eventually something popped up. The calendar modified itself to 15 August.” Fraser was forced to get in touch with other wholesalers to help him plug the produce gap overnight. “It’s been pretty difficult in addition to the chaos that we’ve just had [from being shut],” he says. He is not alone. Corner shops across the country have put up signs in windows to warn customers that they are running low on stock. Gaps on shelves have also become more noticeable in supermarkets, with bottled water and fresh and dried fruit in short supply. Meanwhile, large food and drink manufacturers have been slow to dispatch top-ups. “Thousands of deliveries are not being completed every week at the moment across the food supply chain,” says Shane Brennan, the boss of the Cold Chain Federation. “Businesses are fighting fires. Drivers are the tip of the iceberg. They are the real pain points to focus on, but it’s indicative of what is happening with other roles as well. Firms are struggling with warehouse resources, manufacturers are struggling with labour on their production lines, and farmers with people to work the fields – it’s universal across the supply chain. The question that nobody knows the answers to is that is this heightened shortage temporary, based on everyone resetting after the pandemic, or is this more of an endemic problem? I don’t think we’ve got a genuinely clear view yet.” (Sunday Telegraph)

Vaulkhard Leisure adds seven Newcastle city centre pubs to growing portfolio: Newcastle leisure firm Vaulkhard Group has become one of the city’s biggest city centre operators after revealing how it has taken on seven new pubs during the pandemic. Directors Ollie and Harry Vaulkhard formed the group following the death of their father Nigel, who had owned and run bars since the 1970s, merging his property portfolio and bringing them together with their own venues. Late night venues and clubs have long been a speciality, especially in the ‘party city’ heyday of the 1990s and Noughties, but Ollie Vaulkhard says the last 18 months have made him – and others in the industry in the region – take stock of their businesses and reassess future priorities. As a result, a number of transactions have taken place over the last few months, leading to Vaulkhard Group now taking over ownership of seven other city centre venues: The Town Wall, The Bridge Tavern, Beeronomy, and the former Offshore 44, Bob Trollops and Redhouse building on the Quayside and the Beehive in the Bigg Market. The firm has also offloaded Perdu and MSA to new tenants. (Business Live)

Marina O’Loughlin reviews Cin Cin, Fitzrovia: This new restaurant has landed – via Brighton and Hove, where the original was opened by the former lawyer David Toscano – in a rather lovely corner of central London. It’s just the right size, neither sprawling nor poky, the scattering of outdoor tables perfect for that most engrossing of pastimes: people-watching. And the people-watching round these parts, thanks to proximity to the BBC, various fashion colleges and one of London’s garment districts, is absolutely primo. Very different from the Hove mothership, which is set around a large counter; this Cin Cin is more conventional, actual tables and chairs and a sprinkle of unobtrusive artworks. It’s not what you’d call overdesigned. But clearly buoyed by its seaside success – including a number of nods from mainstream guides and publications – it’s hitting the big city. And I do believe they’re going to pull it off. The menu is topically brief. I can see only one dish that could be described as a secondo: sea bass from the Chef’s Menu. Which gives us full licence to plunge into the pasta. And a few small plates: very fine lardo (perhaps cut a shade too thick) layered onto crisp pane carasau and a schmear of roasted garlic. Flawless Cuore di Vesuvio tomatoes flecked with mint in a just-sharp-enough dressing – Lambrusco vinegar, clever. And arancino, singular, a bruiser of a thing (just as they are in southern Sicily), bright emerald inside and laced with crabmeat. It sits on a silky basil emulsion with a very frilly little salad. (Just as they most certainly aren’t in southern Sicily. Cin Cin isn’t that bothered about authenticity, just deliciousness.) There are sneaky hints of the old “fine dining” here – the chef Jamie Halsall has a bit of form on the fancy-pants front, and it seeps out every now and then. That flourish of “giardiniera” salad, truffle sightings, the emulsions, the “hazelnut agrodolce” with the sea bass. Our tortelloni, stuffed with a delicate, almost liquid pea puree, is accessorised by petals of Tropea onion, fresh peas that pop happily in the mouth, pea shoots and the teeniest dice of mortadella. There’s a lot going on. This is not a complaint: basic pasta is good, elevated pasta is also good. (Sunday Times Magazine)

Jay Rayner reviews Humble Chicken, London: Faced by the menu at Humble Chicken, it’s difficult to remain fully adult. One item is listed as “Inner Thigh”. Would you like some inner thigh? Always, love. Always. It adds a special charge to the accompanying offer of breast, tail and soft knee. Would you like some soft knee to go with your inner thigh? Oh, behave. Well, I’m sorry. I can’t behave. I want it all. For while the menu brings out the sniggering schoolboy in me, it is also deadly serious. Seated at the counter of what was once the original outpost of tapas maestros Barrafina in London’s Soho, I watch head chef Angelo Sato tend his grill, hachimaki headband in place. I feel the heart-fluttering joy that comes with the insufferably smug knowledge that I am in exactly the right place. Yakitori is not new to the UK. Lots of restaurants have offered selections of small items, cooked on sticks over coal. I very much liked the burly nature of the London version of Bincho Yakitori (now in Brighton). But Humble Chicken takes it somewhere else: to a place where they speak fluent intensity, furrowed brow and pathological attention to detail. Humble Chicken is everything I adored about that humid night down a Tokyo back alley. It’s a huge amount of fun here, side by side at the fat-lipped counter, watching the smoke plume and Angelo Sato lean in over his grill, his face fixed in his version of “death or glory”. Then another dish pops over from the kitchen side and we hunker down into the serious business of dinner. We’ll see a few new openings in the coming months. I may even enjoy some of them. But I can’t quite imagine any of them making me swoon like I did at Humble Chicken. (The Observer Magazine)

Giles Coren reviews Thomas by Tom Simmons, Cardiff: Thomas by Tom Simmons was a place I had been pointed towards by many people, when touting for Welsh restaurant recommendations on Twitter. It’s on a leafy street in Cardiff’s super-boujee Pontcanna suburb. Beautiful menu. Tom Simmons has had his flagship restaurant, Tom Simmons, at Tower Bridge in London since 2017 and this place, opened last year, was his coming home. Or, rather, coming halfway home. For Tom, like the Corens that day, started out in Pembrokeshire, and the restaurant’s website tells us that his childhood there, “roaming the farmers’ markets” and “foraging in the countryside” is the “foundation of his cooking” and the “inspiration behind” this new venture. A single piece of A4 card with its classy font offered six little things “for the table” such as crispy pig skin with hummus or Gordal olives; six “starters” including diver-caught scallops with pork belly and celeriac velouté with truffle cream and chive; three “mains”; five items from the “grill” with named farms and breeds; and six “sides”. It was the sort of stuff of which you want to order loads, in three or four waves, plus a different bottle for each one. (The Times Magazine)

William Sitwell reviews Wild Tavern: Wild Tavern is on the gently buzzing Elystan Street. It has a smart terrace beneath a terracotta awning, boxed in by expensive-looking large potted bays and young olive trees. The menu is Italian-inspired, the closest I’ll get to that part of the world again this year I suspect, and I’ll revel in that shamelessly where I can. I’m lunching with Carlo, a nightclub owner and a clean and serene man, which I suspect is the only way you can be if you do that sort of job and want to remain alive. Covid having shut the night-time business for over a year now may have drained the patience of those in that business, but probably also extended their lives by at least 12 months. Years ago, in smart restaurants here or places abroad, I remember watching with fascination as Europeans on other tables talked to the waiter or waitress in a manner that suggested they were arguing over something serious; interest rates or the value of currency. It turns out they were just, if firm of manner and loud of voice, courteously ordering food. Their British counterparts would just say, ‘I’ll have the beef please.’ These guys wanted to know the wheres and whys and hows. Like Carlo. And here comes the result of that serious ordering, each dish brought to the table by the impeccable and dark-blue-suited Juliya. Tantalised first by fresh, crisp flatbreads and amazing Laudemio Frescobaldi olive oil, we ease down raw Sicilian red prawns. They are gentle, perfect in temperature, with a hint of the sea and a dance of lemon zest. A dish of fat, slightly charred white asparagus is grandly sweet, with a lush and firm Béarnaise. We share a plate of linguine with clams, perfectly proportioned, nicely al dente and on point with the seasoning. Then we dive into a glorious mess of charred and softly pink Galician rib-eye. We try every sauce with it: chimichurri, peppercorn, Béarnaise. It’s utterly marvellous. The tenderness of the flesh at one with great grilling and faultless sauces. A trad, rich and crunchy cannoli ricotta with espresso closes the feast. Wild Tavern is a beacon of excellence, a little pricey yes, but I’m not budgeting for flights to Italy this year and I make no excuses for being there with the fastidious Carlo. (The Telegraph)