We are, according to Marks & Spencer, in ‘picky bits’ season. I cannot bear the tweeness of it all. M&S is surely mere days away from launching a ‘Paddington Bear picky bits picnic range’. In search for an antidote to such horrors, I go on my annual pilgrimage to Bouchon Racine, which starts on Westbourne Park Road at midday, sipping Beamish Irish stout in The Cow. It is reputed to be David Beckham’s favourite London pub and is one of an increasing number of English pubs piggybacking on the phenomenal appetite for Guinness by serving alternatives to the Black Stuff. Beamish and Murphy’s are popping up on taps across the capital and we are the better for it.
We raise a glass to the dear old hereditary peers being booted out of the Lords
From there, the short Tube ride to lunch. Just over the road from Farringdon station, above the Three Compasses pub, is Bouchon Racine. Henry Harris opened in this new venue in 2022, having sold up his original Racine restaurant in Knightsbridge in 2015, and it quickly became renowned for its Lyon-inspired cooking and a short, unpretentious wine list. Simon Hopkinson, who first hired Harris to work with him in Hilaire on Old Brompton Road in the 1980s and subsequently brought him to Bibendum to be his sous-chef, described the original Racine as ‘very French, not only in the food, but in the entire atmosphere of the restaurant’. Its new incarnation lives up to the legacy, with traditional, generous and non-fussy food to make the soul sing.
Proceedings open with a French negroni. Having blind-tested Armagnac, cognac and French grape brandies when experimenting with ingredients for this concoction, Harris and his team eventually settled on cognac – specifically the Couprie VS Sélection. In place of the traditional Italian red vermouth is St Raphael Le Quina Rouge. Equal parts of these two, combined with Campari, produce a delightfully refreshing opener to any meal, but here it particularly complements the Lyonnais fare. Soon, thick country pâté, Bayonne ham with celeriac remoulade and cured herring begin to arrive. For mains we indulge in pork jowl, tête de veau and canard with morels, all rich and moreish. Alongside this we enjoy three fabulous offerings from Bordeaux.
One is the 2005 Chateau La Croix de Gay. We open it on arrival to allow it to breathe for an hour or so to bring it to its best. Before tucking into that we have another Pomerol, the 2017 Chateau Feytit-Guillot. It’s a younger, more understated wine, still fresh on the nose, and it eased us into the heavy delights, before it was time to turn back to the La Croix de Gay. Bouchon Racine is a place that celebrates the best of French heritage and, since our country appears to have forgotten how to celebrate ours, we raise a glass to the dear old hereditary peers being booted out of the Lords in a shabby bit of constitutional vandalism.
The star of the show is the 2016 Chateau Cantemerle. With hints of both red and black fruits, this vintage is like the restaurant itself: elegant and full of flavour. It is medium bodied and, relative to the food, surprisingly light. The lunch finishes with a magnificent glass of La Vieille Prune from the House of Louis Roque. For those who can’t make the pilgrimage themselves, the good news is that Henry Harris has distilled much of his experience and wisdom on how to produce this food into a very useful new book called The Racine Effect, which offers the recipes for the classic dishes from both iterations of his bouchon. It’s a world away from the summer of ‘picky bits’, and that is worth celebrating.
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