Justin De Souza
This autumn, Mauro Colagreco at Raffles London at The OWO – the first London fine dining restaurant from globally acclaimed chef Mauro Colagreco – will explore Britain’s autumnal landscape with a new, limited-edition Forest Menu.
From chef Mauro Colagreco – whose three Michelin-starred restaurant Mirazur was ranked No.1 at the World’s 50 Best Restaurants Awards in 2019 – the 6-course menu will be available from 24th September – 12th October, and is inspired by the seasonal ingredients found in and among the abundant forests of the British Isles during the autumn.
As UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador for Biodiversity, chef Colagreco is committed to championing this crucial environmental cause through his food. Forest landscapes are home to roughly 80 per cent of the world’s terrestrial biodiversity, providing a bountiful foundation for showcasing the breadth of edible species our planet has to offer.
Chef Mauro Colagreco’s passion for the study and history of botany has led him to create a menu at his Raffles London at The OWO restaurant that explores the incredible produce to be found in the trees, shrubs and bushes of Britain’s forests — from mushrooms to roots, leaves to berries, nuts to game — and the diverse palette of flavours these ecosystems offer up.
Diners will begin with a delicate selection of snacks, including a Walnut, propolis and chamomile tartlet; a Wood sorrel, venison tartare and bilberry ketchup taco; a Mushroom cracker, sauteed mushroom, horseradish cream and a Pine and perch tart.
The menu will then move onto starters of Cep with chicken liver cream, mustard fields, cumin, potato crisps and Lovage with pine nut and buckwheat risotto, smoked butter, wild mushroom. Diners will then enjoy dishes of Meadowsweet with roasted scallop, celeriac, meadowsweet sauce, and Blackberries with pigeon, roasted girolles and textures of blackberry. For dessert, a Burnet dish will showcase the native herb with chocolate cremeux, a burnet salad ice cream and a coffee gel.
The Forest Menu will be priced at £165 per person, and diners will also be able to enjoy a choice of wine pairings, including the Exploration Route Pairing for £125 and the Leisure Route Pairing for £375. Diners will also be able to choose a Temperance Pairing of non-alcoholic drinks, priced at £80.
As an extension of Colagreco’s passion for biodiversity, seasonality and sustainability, the menus at Mauro Colagreco at Raffles London at The OWO trace a path through the English countryside, exploring British terroir and more than 70 varieties of fruit and vegetables found across the British Isles.
The Forest Menu will be available at Mauro Colagreco at Raffles London at The OWO from 24th September to 12th October.
