Eat & Drink
Originally published on Tuesday, 6th March 2007
Simply The Best
It's always so heartening when one of your favourite chefs or maitre d's re-emerges somewhere else: Former E&O'er Ian Pengelly's pan-Asian menu is definitely the best thing about Gilgamesh; the lovely Marco, former head waiter at E&O, now looks after the ladies who lunch at Daphne's; and Dariush, another of Ricker's boys, keeps the riff raff at bay at Bumpkin.
More curiously the super-smooth Franco, who once glided around Drones Club, now dodges the cocktail shakers and mini umbrellas at Mahiki - sometimes you can't predict where they'll move to.
It's even better when two of them team up and open their own place. Chef Marco Torri, formerly of Locanda Locatelli and The Greyhound in Battersea, has got together with Giovanni Baldino, the adept former manager of Locanda, to create chic new osteria, Semplice, where the emphasis is on exceptional ingredients - the mozzarella is flown in fresh every day from Caserta near Naples and the chicken, cooked 'sous-vide' (in a vacuum), is free range and from Italy too.
As the name suggests, simple but excellent food is the name of the game, but it might just as well be referring to the fact that putting two restaurateurs at the top of their game together, isn't just heart-warming for their regulars, it can often be the key to success. Speriamo!
Ristorante Semplice - opens Wed March 7
10 Blenheim Street, W1
020 7495 1509
