The Kitchen Coop | London W1

London called this week.  Answering very willingly I had a full 12 hours down in the big smoke on Wednesday.  10 years have slipped by when I used to live in Battersea (seems like yesterday).  Single, living solo, a banker, those were the days of hopping to Paris for the weekend..

I was very kindly invited along to the official launch of new London catering company The Kitchen Cooperative held at the truly perfect headquarters of Nyetimber English Sparkling Wines in Mayfair, W1.  In association with London based high end fruit and vegetable supplier Natoora and the gorgeously stylish interior designer Lucy Freedman.

The Kitchen Coopertive are duo, Benjamin Benton, who was most recently Head Chef at LeCoq in Islington and Georgia Levy who worked at The River Café and was a food writer for Jamie Oliver
at Jamie Magazine.  Describing themselves at the perfect duo they look set to hit London by storm with their many contacts and already experience in the game of hospitality.

Having the launch at the stylish London headquarters of West Sussex Vineyard, Nyetimber parallelled with the fresh, clean image the Kitchen Cooperative portrayed.  Nyetimber’s offices were none other than striking.  Chunky wooden tables I’m told were made from trees on the vineyard’s estate, suspended naked bulbs under cute copper lampshades and office areas divided by perfectly crafted plywood screening displaying bottles of their sparkling wine as art. 

Nyetimber English sparkling wines are true class.  Grown in the Downs of West Sussex where the maritime climate and chalky soil lend themselves well to grape production.  They have much been compared to Champagne of similar terrior (the characteristic flavours of a certain wine taking factors such as the soil, topography, and climate into consideration) of the Champagne-Ardenne region in France. 

The evening started off with the Classic Cuvee 2009 which was pale in colour and had citrus and stone fruit notes.  Next out was the Blanc de Blancs 2007 which was rather different to the first (if you follow me on instagram you will have seen, I was drinking Nyetimber’s B de B at Christmas).  More yellow in colour, perfectly balanced, I tasted notes of citrus and green fruit and a hint of floral notes.  Finally the Rose 2009, beautifully crafted and tasting of red fruit, honey and for my nose a slight hint of herbaceous notes.

The Kitchen Cooperatives’s Cod, seasoned and marinated in Nyetimber Classic Cuvee and bergamot, topped with a sprinkle of dill.  Melt in your mouth delicious.  The Cod was so tender that when the canapes first come out, I tried some in dim light not knowing what it was, I couldn’t even place that I was eating was fish.  Simply stunning.

On route for a day of London.

The Kitchen Coopertive together with Natoora’s seriously beautiful vegetables laid on a traditional Northern Italian feast.  The above sauce known as Bagda Cauda, consists of reduced anchovies, butter and garlic.  Poured into little cups, guests dipped hand picked vegetables such as artichokes, purple carrots and leaves into it (all recipes can be found on The Kitchen Cooperative).  I’ve never come across this before.  It was a true culinary experience!  Matched with the Nyetimber wines there was only one word one could use to describe the combination.  Delicious.

Lemons from the Amalfi Coast in Italy.

To cleanse the palate of the vegetables and sauce, guests used the rather scary looking tool to literally ‘hack’ off a chunky of Parmesan and nibble away.  The flavours working so well, I found myself going back to square one to do the whole ritual again.  For the dipped vegetables, cheese and wine really was sensational.

Aside from the food and wine being a show stopper, I was thrilled to meet interior designer and fellow blogger Lucy from the fabulous blog LWSY.  She was also shortlisted in the same category as me for Best Luxury Blog at the Amara Interior Blog Awards back in November and won a highly commended.  Have a peek at her blog, it’s a must when coming to describe luxury interiors!

Good luck to The Kitchen Cooperative, their food and hospitality was 100% impeccable.  I love how they had thought about how to characterise themselves as a company by hosting an evening with the emphasis on sharing large platters of beautifully fresh produce matched with splendid made in England wines.

Thanks Nyetimber, what a wonderful evening it was!