LONDON—When restaurants closed after England entered a third lockdown last week, it didn’t mean kitchens went dark. Since the pandemic hit, chefs at Britain’s elite eateries have scrambled to shuttle high-end cuisine to the doorsteps of wealthy clients.
Now they have the challenge of creating Michelin-star restaurant experience that springs from a paper bag.
“It’s a whole new mind-set,” said Martyn Nail, executive chef at Claridge’s, a five-star hotel in Mayfair. Plate presentation is yesterday’s business. Now, “We’re thinking how we put things in boxes and travel them around London,” he said.
In Paris, you can now order from Guy Savoy’s Michelin-starred Le Chiberta. In Rome, Osteria Fernanda will deliver high-end cuisine direct to your dinner table. In Madrid, elite chefs Paco Roncero and Ramón Freixa launched Cuatro Manos on Uber Eats to serve up gastronomic excellence on the doorstep. Wherever you look quality food is on the road.
Over the holidays in London, Claridge’s shipped out 200 beef Wellingtons, a traditional British dish of beef tenderloin steak, coated with pâté and diced mushroom then wrapped in puff pastry and baked until gold and crisp. Alongside, a modern twist: lobster Wellington, priced at £75, or around $100. The kitchen became a bustling assembly line.
