12th April 2013
Autumn 2010: Holy orders
Autumn 2010: Holy orders
When Jeff Galvin collected the Craft Guild of Chefs’ New Restaurant of the Year Award in June, it was the culmination of months of hard work to put the latest Galvin brothers venture on the culinary map.
Described as a real destination restaurant, Galvin La Chapelle is the latest in their line up of award winning restaurants that includes Bistrot de Luxe and Galvin at Windows in the London Hilton Park Lane.
The newcomer is an elegant transformation from Grade ll listed Victorian church hall to a glamorous city restaurant in Spital Square, London, that opened in November 2009.
When the brothers acquired the site, formerly the St Botolph's Hall, they set their designer a specific brief to create “discreet, timeless glamour” in the stunning main hall, while the all day Café a Vin in the same building would reflect a more contemporary feel. Its Great Eastern Bar would serve a relaxed and broad menu including dishes from its wood fire oven.
The main hall caters for up to 90 covers, while the private area called The Gallery, situated on a half mezzanine in the main hall, is available for exclusive events for as many as 12 people, where diners can sample set menus with wine, served by their own personal waiter.
The café/bar has 30 covers, plus there is a further 70 covers outside running along the south and east sides of the building.
Chef owners Jeff and Chris Galvin have given the restaurant an imaginative menu that adds a modern twist to classic French cooking. But it’s Jeff Galvin that heads the kitchen.
When the Craft Guild’s judges paid their visit, they thought the food was “all unbelievably good”; one described their dessert of rice pudding with Alphonso mangoes as sublime.
“It’s just a simple rice pudding – it doesn’t need to be complex,” says Jeff Galvin, adding that it is something that triggers early memories, which people are going back to now. “We also try to be very seasonal. We only use Alphonso mangoes from India – there’s no mango in the world like it. But they are only around for a month to six weeks. It’s very important for us to use the very best when it’s available.
“Customers are much more knowledgeable and will see the Alphonso mango and know now when it is in season. It’s the same with English asparagus – they know that when it’s gone, it’s gone. If they see asparagus on a menu in September, they know it isn’t English.”
Explaining his menu, he says: “We move just slightly away from fine dining to make it less formal, which strikes a cord with our customers.”
Galvin has just produced his autumn menus for La Chapelle. “One dish we always have is lasagne of Dorset crab – a signature dish and by far the most important one here. An assiette of Cornish lamb will also remain. A Denham Estate venison dish is one I’m considering. Dessert wise, apple tart Tatin is another signature dish.”
He has also created a selection of set menus ranging from £45 to £60 per person, which can be matched with wine by the restaurant’s head sommelier Andrea Briccarello, as well as a fixed price menu of three courses for lunch at £24.50 and for dinner at £28.50.
He says it’s been an amazing start for the restaurant and he is very chuffed to have won the Craft Guild award. “The Craft Guild of Chefs set such a high standard, it was a genuine surprise to win, particularly in the company of so many other good nominees. There have been a lot of new restaurants starting up so to receive something like this was great recognition of the hard work put into the business.
“It sounds a bit corny but to turn something from rubble into this is very different and I’m proud we did it. We’ve never had so many chefs come here as customers in the last couple of months – we’ve had them all and they love it.”
So far this year it has been an exciting time for the restaurant on the award front. As well as the Craft Guild award, La Chapelle was voted the Restaurant of the Year in the Tatler Awards 2010; in September it received Zagat’s Top Newcomer Award; and it has just won the AA’s Newcomer Award.
He says it’s five years since the opening of Bistrot de Luxe in Baker Street so he knows the drill. “That was opened on a shoestring and it won awards. In the beginning at Bistrot, it was almost like Fawlty Towers in the kitchen.”
At Bistrot de Luxe there is a team of 61; at La Chapelle Galvin has a team of 75, which cover the café as well, catering for between 300 and 400 guests a day. “The café is busy for breakfast, lunch and dinner,” he explains, adding that the restaurant is also open seven days a week.
“This just developed,” he explains. “Often there is nowhere to go in London on Sundays, so we started to open for lunch and dinner. Now people realise we are open, we can do around 100 covers on Sunday evenings. It’s tricky when staff are off, but we manage.”
While he admits it’s been a long and stressful nine plus months, he says you can get a restaurant up to a high standard very quickly if you pour in a lot of energy. “I prefer the injection of energy in the first eight to nine months. I’m lucky to have run restaurants for other people before I owned a restaurant. I don’t think it’s any different with your own restaurant but it’s double personal when it doesn’t go right and that makes you draw even more energy. It’s great having Chris around when you need someone to chat to because we are like two peas in a pod.”
Good staff are a must as well, he says. “We only expand when there is a beautiful place to put a restaurant and where we have key personnel to do it justice. Each time that’s been achieved.”
But again it also comes down to using good seasonal ingredients, so come back next year for that rice pud with mango, he adds.
Words - Sheila Eggleston
Described as a real destination restaurant, Galvin La Chapelle is the latest in their line up of award winning restaurants that includes Bistrot de Luxe and Galvin at Windows in the London Hilton Park Lane.
The newcomer is an elegant transformation from Grade ll listed Victorian church hall to a glamorous city restaurant in Spital Square, London, that opened in November 2009.
When the brothers acquired the site, formerly the St Botolph's Hall, they set their designer a specific brief to create “discreet, timeless glamour” in the stunning main hall, while the all day Café a Vin in the same building would reflect a more contemporary feel. Its Great Eastern Bar would serve a relaxed and broad menu including dishes from its wood fire oven.
The main hall caters for up to 90 covers, while the private area called The Gallery, situated on a half mezzanine in the main hall, is available for exclusive events for as many as 12 people, where diners can sample set menus with wine, served by their own personal waiter.
The café/bar has 30 covers, plus there is a further 70 covers outside running along the south and east sides of the building.
Chef owners Jeff and Chris Galvin have given the restaurant an imaginative menu that adds a modern twist to classic French cooking. But it’s Jeff Galvin that heads the kitchen.
When the Craft Guild’s judges paid their visit, they thought the food was “all unbelievably good”; one described their dessert of rice pudding with Alphonso mangoes as sublime.
“It’s just a simple rice pudding – it doesn’t need to be complex,” says Jeff Galvin, adding that it is something that triggers early memories, which people are going back to now. “We also try to be very seasonal. We only use Alphonso mangoes from India – there’s no mango in the world like it. But they are only around for a month to six weeks. It’s very important for us to use the very best when it’s available.
“Customers are much more knowledgeable and will see the Alphonso mango and know now when it is in season. It’s the same with English asparagus – they know that when it’s gone, it’s gone. If they see asparagus on a menu in September, they know it isn’t English.”
Explaining his menu, he says: “We move just slightly away from fine dining to make it less formal, which strikes a cord with our customers.”
Galvin has just produced his autumn menus for La Chapelle. “One dish we always have is lasagne of Dorset crab – a signature dish and by far the most important one here. An assiette of Cornish lamb will also remain. A Denham Estate venison dish is one I’m considering. Dessert wise, apple tart Tatin is another signature dish.”
He has also created a selection of set menus ranging from £45 to £60 per person, which can be matched with wine by the restaurant’s head sommelier Andrea Briccarello, as well as a fixed price menu of three courses for lunch at £24.50 and for dinner at £28.50.
He says it’s been an amazing start for the restaurant and he is very chuffed to have won the Craft Guild award. “The Craft Guild of Chefs set such a high standard, it was a genuine surprise to win, particularly in the company of so many other good nominees. There have been a lot of new restaurants starting up so to receive something like this was great recognition of the hard work put into the business.
“It sounds a bit corny but to turn something from rubble into this is very different and I’m proud we did it. We’ve never had so many chefs come here as customers in the last couple of months – we’ve had them all and they love it.”
So far this year it has been an exciting time for the restaurant on the award front. As well as the Craft Guild award, La Chapelle was voted the Restaurant of the Year in the Tatler Awards 2010; in September it received Zagat’s Top Newcomer Award; and it has just won the AA’s Newcomer Award.
He says it’s five years since the opening of Bistrot de Luxe in Baker Street so he knows the drill. “That was opened on a shoestring and it won awards. In the beginning at Bistrot, it was almost like Fawlty Towers in the kitchen.”
At Bistrot de Luxe there is a team of 61; at La Chapelle Galvin has a team of 75, which cover the café as well, catering for between 300 and 400 guests a day. “The café is busy for breakfast, lunch and dinner,” he explains, adding that the restaurant is also open seven days a week.
“This just developed,” he explains. “Often there is nowhere to go in London on Sundays, so we started to open for lunch and dinner. Now people realise we are open, we can do around 100 covers on Sunday evenings. It’s tricky when staff are off, but we manage.”
While he admits it’s been a long and stressful nine plus months, he says you can get a restaurant up to a high standard very quickly if you pour in a lot of energy. “I prefer the injection of energy in the first eight to nine months. I’m lucky to have run restaurants for other people before I owned a restaurant. I don’t think it’s any different with your own restaurant but it’s double personal when it doesn’t go right and that makes you draw even more energy. It’s great having Chris around when you need someone to chat to because we are like two peas in a pod.”
Good staff are a must as well, he says. “We only expand when there is a beautiful place to put a restaurant and where we have key personnel to do it justice. Each time that’s been achieved.”
But again it also comes down to using good seasonal ingredients, so come back next year for that rice pud with mango, he adds.
Words - Sheila Eggleston