“Trends are a tragedy in food – they condemn the sublime to the realm of the temporary, or they elevate the flimsy beyond its merit. Good things should be a constant, and cooked with conviction. When we first opened St. JOHN we were accused of being 200 years out of date. I took it as a great compliment.”
— Fergus Henderson
Offal is perhaps in want of a fetching innuendo—a fig leaf for the sweetbreads, if you will . . .
Wise in such matters, the Romans of yesteryear settled on Quinto Quarto (the fifth quarter), thus securing unwanted animal innards their long-term respectability.
And then there was Nose to Tail. It has the sort of nursery rhyme friendliness that lends itself to steady work. For once, we’re not anglicizing, but rather restoring the voice of a native cuisine that swallowed it’s tongue long ago.
It’s birthplace, St. JOHN Smithfield, is not merely an institution, but a principle—one which co-founder Fergus Henderson illuminates for us rather splendidly.
St John ‘gets it’. It was never really about the offal: good food is good food. Simplicity mustn’t be mistaken for carelessness, and that which pleases us with neither grace nor guile may inspire all the more affection.
For our first supper, we founding members must lie down where the culinary ladders have tended to start.
We must dine at St. JOHN.