London - If you’re ever tempted to eat dessert first, Rabot 1745 is the place for you.
With chocolate slathered over everything from root vegetables to red mullet, its menu looks set to keep slimmers awake at night.
As Britain’s first gourmet chocolate restaurant, it takes the sweet stuff very seriously – and at £55 (about R800) for a tasting menu “showcasing the pure notes of three very different rare and vintage cacaos”, it will set you back a bit more than a bar of Dairy Milk.
Rabot 1745, opening next month in London’s Borough Market, is run by Angus Thirlwell, one of the founders of the Hotel Chocolat retail chain.
Chef Jon Bentham’s menu has chocolate popping up in the most unlikely combinations. Diners can start with mullet and olive gnocchi with chocolate and mustard condiment for £10, or butternut squash dumplings with chocolate skin and cacao nib crumble, £8.
Cacao-marinated beef with white chocolate horseradish mash and cacao jus costs £26. Dover sole, also £26, comes with carrots in cacao butter and balsamic chocolate condiment.
And unsurprisingly, the puddings are something a bit special. The tasting menu offers pieces of milk chocolate from St Lucia with Cornish sea salt, dark chocolate from Vietnam with cherries and finally 85 percent dark Ecuadorian chocolate with almonds.
Chocolate-mad Mr Thirlwell, whose father started Mr Whippy ice-cream, says he won’t stop there.
So what’s next? “It could be anything from cocoa-themed spas to ready meals,” he said. - Daily Mail