Simple food expertly cooked at Toklas will put you on a high – and that’s before you even get to the chips
Toklas, 1 Surrey Street, London WC2R 2ND (020 2930 8592). Starters £8-£16, mains £17-£27, desserts £5-£9, wines from £28
The Alice B Toklas Cook Book, first published in 1954, includes among its many recipes the instructions for making a hashish fudge. The confectionary, Toklas says, is easy to prepare, but she warns that it may encourage hysterical laughter and grandiose thoughts “on many simultaneous planes”. When the London restaurant that carries her name first opened late last year, the owners, who are also the founders of Frieze magazine and art fairs, said they were very much inspired by Toklas, writer and partner of Gertrude Stein. Together, Stein and Toklas staged many intricate dinner parties in Paris attended by some of the greatest artists of the early 20th century. However, the restaurant’s owners said, the new venture would not be using any of the recipes from the book. So that’s no hashish fudge then.
