Scratch menu at Spring Restaurant
I very rarely write a full blog post any more, because social media seems to have usurped the blog post AND I don’t often go somewhere worthy of more than just a few lines under a photo on Instagram AND who reads it anyway? Well, tonight’s marvellous dinner gave me a kick up the bum to write a full post with not a care in the world about whether anyone would read it or not.
I met Jenny Ridgwell through the Guild of Food Writers. I say met – we have shared emails and phone calls over the years but had never met in person until tonight. We both arrived wearing pink specs and statement coats which boded very well indeed. I did some developmental editing on Jenny’s last book, I Taught Them To Cook, which documents her life as a home economics teacher in an east London comprehensive in the 1970s. I’ve recently done an early read of her follow-up, Cream Horns and Vol Au Vents, and it’s brilliant. It has all the humour, nostalgia and historical detail of the first book, but flows even more effortlessly. Jenny weaves in so many interesting facts and details, and paints a colouful picture of her life in London in 1972, - complete with the bands, fashion and top restaurants of the day – oh, and her three (count ‘em) handsome suitors!
Jenny recommended the Scratch menu at Spring restaurant in Somerset House, which is served Tues-Sat between 5.30 – 6.15pm and is limited to 30 guests per evening. She has been many times, and said it’s always been excellent. The Scratch menu takes surplus ingredients and transforms them into a delicious, nutritious meal. It’s not designed to be fancy or complicated. Think soups made from beetroot tops or potato skins and bread pudding made with yesterday’s bread. Tasty meals made from food waste. They use what they have to hand, and the menu changes every day.
There was no written menu and no choices to be made – just three courses and a pre-starter brought to your table (for this reason, they don’t accommodate dietary requirements). It is excellent value at £40, and a great way to experience a top restaurant on the cheap!
The setting oozes pared-down chic, from the gorgeous posies on each table to the crisp French linen tablecloths and napkins and the swoon-worthy pink floor tiles in the ladies toilets. The staff wore some pretty adorable uniforms too – think deep indigo linen and stripes.
The service was attentive and friendly. Our waiter was impressively knowledgeable and was able to answer most of our MANY questions – and those he couldn’t, he went and found out the answer. I was pleased to hear that the staff taste the menu ahead of every service, which is exactly how it should be. The chefs obviously work hard and have buckets of creativity to create a new menu each day.
Here’s what we ate, accompanied by a lovely carafe of Chablis:
Pre-starter: A croquette made with charcuterie, served with a punchy chilli sauce
Starter: Spinach and potato soup served with crème fraiche
Main: Monkfish (and bonus salmon?) served with faro, tomato sauce, carrot and celery
Dessert: Brulee lemon tart with cream and roasted figs
The food was exquisite. Each dish had such attention to detail and used so many processes. Every mouthful was a flavour bomb. I’d describe it as elevated comfort food - all centred around the best seasonal ingredients (waste versions, trimmings, past-its-best, misshapen and all). We were brought chocolate truffles with the bill, and left with very happy tummies indeed.
Scratch at Spring was the full gamut of things that make up a wonderful dining experience – it has to be more than great food alone. It’s the produce, the setting, the ambience, the company, the service, the concept and the creativity. And dining with Jenny was as fun as I’d hoped. It was a great recommendation of hers which feeds my theory: always trust a food writer in pink spectacles.
