GONE are the days when eating Italian- style took place
under fish-nets and straw- covered Chianti flasks in a trattoria staffed by swarthy waiters wielding macho pepper- grinders. Italian restaurants have become as style-conscious and sophisticated as any other restaurant — and so has their cook- ing. Indeed, the stage has now been reached where such is the level of finesse that one is sometimes left wondering whether the cooking was Italian at all.
I must confess that I slightly suffered from this reaction after eating at Stefano Cavalli- ni's ultra-chic, Giorgio Armani-designed restaurant in the Halkin Hotel in Belgravia. The ochre-coloured decor is totally cool; the waiters and waitresses are smart in their Annani uniforms; the clientele predomi- nantly wear suits; the restaurant is peppered with faces one feels one ought to recognise (even I managed to spot Raine Spencer); and the menu is written in Italian with help- ful English translations.
My first visit at lunchtime produced two fabulous dishes which will not be found on the new spring and summer menu — more's the pity. Both the plump duck- stuffed ravioli, accompanied by tiny escalopes of delicious foie gras and astrin- gent leaves of savoy cabbage, and the glori- ous, if improbable, marriage of mashed cod with potatoes and olive oil and slices of roasted quail, with radiccio and a broccoli sauce, represented the work of an artist in the kitchen and will live on in my memory.
Other dishes to have passed away include the stuffed monkfish with black truffles, red- pepper sauce, squid ink tagliolini and sautéed spring onions, gleefully polished off by the headhunter and gastronome Shama Cockburn, after a starter of the aforemen- tioned duck ravioli on the night of our visit, and the glazed sweetbreads with hazelnuts and tarte of tomato, aubergine and courgette chosen by myself. But a dish from the newly launched menu that I did try was an exquisite consommé of chicken with wafer-thin discs of scallops floating in it — superb.
I assume that desserts will remain con- stant. If so, I can certainly recommend Cav- allini's superb ice-creams and sorbets, the splendid tiramisu with two different sauces, and the exotic fruit salad in a banana leaf, with ginger syrup and mango sorbet. As for Shauna's remarkable plate of chocolate, two of its six sublime items had to be wrapped and taken home. None of this delicious and ambitious food comes cheap. There is a £25 three- course menu, with limited choice, at lunch- time, but in the evenings you must stick with the carte, where first courses cost between £13 and £17, fish and meat from £21 to £25, with two vegetarian dishes pos- sibly a snip at just £12. Desserts come at between £6.50 and £9, and our admirable red wine from the Alto Adige at £32 came from the 'budget' end of a compendious list. You should certainly allow for £75 a head, service included, for aperitifs, three courses, coffee, and a decent bottle of wine. Service, under the watchful but benign eyes of the restaurant director Mauro and the omniscient sommelier Bruno, glides on oiled wheels, and the Halkin experience, if not entirely Italian, is unquestionably both stimulating and satisfying.
Another Italian maverick experience is to be had in Pimlico, where the recently opened Marabel restaurant in a converted Victorian pub in St Barnabas Street off Pimlico Road has much to recommend it. The room is spacious and softly coloured, with decent-sized tables spaced well apart, good lighting, and the seating an attractive blend of wooden chairs and comfortable banquettes with colourful scatter cushions.
Open since last September, the cooking is by the young Frenchman Alexis Gauthier, who spent two years with Alain Ducasse at the great Louis XV restaurant at the Hotel de Paris in Monte Carlo, and the menu, although written in Italian, is in fact more Nicoise and Provencale, and unquestionably betrays the influence of the master Ducasse.
I was there on a Friday evening with the Eimer sisters: Nicola, a pianist, and Emily, an apprentice numismatist, and we all enjoyed an impressively cooked meal in relaxed and smoothly served surroundings. Nicola began with an interesting assembly of carrots, artichokes, radish and cour- gettes, cooked in a subtle balsamic vinegar dressing: tasty and light. Emily's choice was a delicate but intense green herb consom- me with wild mushrooms spiced with cumin, a dish whose clarity of flavours cer- tainly betrayed its Ducasse pedigree, as well as the chef Gauthier's skill.
My ginger risotto with sauteed scallops and baby octopus was superb. Nicola also plumped for risotto next — hers was a splen- did version with chanterelle mushrooms and an intensely flavoured chicken jus. Emily enjoyed roast sole with caramelised leeks and baby onions, and I was delighted with my veal chop (off the bone!), glazed in its own jus and served with a delicious assembly of sweet-and-sour vegetables. For dessert the sisters shared an impeccable wild apple tarte tatin with double cream, and I much enjoyed a cappuccino glace.
With a decent Montagny premier cru 1995 at a reasonable £17 from a well-judged list, our meal, including immaculate service, came to just over £110 — good value in what is an impressive and exciting, if not actually Italian, new restaurant. It is worth noting that Marabel also does a two-course lunch for £12.50, and £15 for three courses excellent value.
Stefano Cavallini restaurant at the Halkin: Halkin Hotel, Halkin Street, London SW1; tel: 0171 333 1234. Closed Saturday lunch and Sunday.
Marabel restaurant: 16 St Barnabas Street, London SW1; tel: 0171 730 5550. Closed Sunday and Monday.
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