hedone

the story behind hedone is a rare one, if not completely unique. swedish-born mikael jonsson pursued his “borderline obsession” for ingredients of the highestqualityby training as a chef in his early years. but his severe allergies to a variety of food put on hold any dreams of opening his own restaurant and instead, he forged a career as a lawyer.

during this time, jonsson authored a food blog, gastroville.com (now closed), demonstrating great understanding and in-depth analysis of food, whilst also advising chefs and restaurateurs where to find the best ingredients. at the age of 44, he discovered a paleolithic diet which did not aggravate his allergies, and was finally able to make the transition from food critic and blogger to restaurateur. it was the first time the self-taught chef had worked in a commercial kitchen and after just one year, it received a coveted michelin star.

jonsson’s brazen confidence to dare even hope for success as an amateur chef in a city that was just starting to then (hedone opened in 2011) - and is, still now - reeling from a culinary big bang, is enough to draw the curious alone. add to this almost instant recognition and his unfiltered passion for ingredients (but minus the somewhat awkward chiswick location), and you’re left with an offering that is difficult to ignore.

the menus at hedone are as fluid as the red the young sommelier poured into our glasses; based on the finest ingredients the kitchen is able to land, they can change from lunch to dinner, and even during service. because of this, there is no insight into what you might eat there on the website. the intention is to waste little and serve the very best - you see the menu for that service once you’re seated. i’ve always been drawn to a restaurant with the confidence to say ‘get settled, let us pour you some wine, and trust us to feed you well’.

presentation was sophisticated yet playful with contrasts of colour that hinted towards a fun kitchen; the baby-pink of the beetroot and rhubarb against a wide matt-black bowl rim, the azure background to the limpid green apple sauce on a parfait, the grey-blue macaron with vibrant green filling.

a delicate (in both form and flavour) crimson beetroot cornetto with foam-of-root piped on top of a little smoked eel was a down-in-one affair. delivered in a wooden box and supported by wild rice which filled it, we were tersely advised by the maitre’d - as i was taking a photo - that it needed to be eaten quickly. i understand the irritance of us bloody bloggers taking pictures of everything at the detriment of a dish that is going cold / melting / coagulating in the meantime, but please don’t dictate to me when to eat. i’m paying for this meal and i’ll enjoy it how i want (as long as it’s not hanging from a chandelier).

that small niggle aside, the rest of the dining experience was a series of small thrills. special mention to the gentleman with the glasses and silvering hair who i think was head waiter - he had a twinkle in his eye and a wonderful grin and made us laugh a good few times.

a savoury custard umami flan certainly had hints of japan about it, with a clear bread consommé and crunchy nuggets of bread crumb, the pairing of smooth and savoury on the tongue was very complimentary.

the yolk of a duck egg, slow-poached in a sous vide, was served at the precise moment before setting takes place; a sublime physical state of buttery viscosity. the whites whipped up into a ‘cream of’, firm almost crunchy peas, and a flourish of red pepper reduction. two cuts from a roasted guinea-fowl had tough exteriors, but pleasantly so, lubricated by a thick sauce (not a jus), with chard leaf separate from stem, and the newest of jersey royals - an entirely unfussed but well-executed plate.

and there was the bread, of which i’ve heard much about. mikael honed his bread-making skills whilst training at alex croquet boulangerie in wattignies, france - a school whose teacher is described as a ‘genius’ by michelin. mikael makes the batches each morning, some of which make their way to antidote. using the almost scientific techniques learnt from croquet, the result is a glorious chewy and full-flavoured crust to work the jaw, an open crumb, with smooth reflective qualities around the curves of the air gaps. it’s really very good, and served with unpasteurised butter and a little salt, is a dictionary definition of what simple pleasures should be.

both desserts were our favourite courses. the hazelnut and caramel parfait with kimono silk-thin wafers, tiny cubes of sharp apple with globules of its sauce was as well put together in its presentation as in its flavour combination. all things pink made up the second offering - rose, beetroot and rhubarb to form a floating island of sorbet atop a pearly and soft meringue base. really well balanced, although the rose was undetectable. probably a good thing as i’m not a great fan of floral smelling food.

a single additional cheese course we wished to share between two (£14.50) was helpfully split across plates - five unpasteurised, gloriously funky and generous offerings of wonderful claquebitou, tomme brulée, chablis, farmhouse camembert, and fourme d'ambert with extra slices of raisin bread at our request. a bonbon mound filled with liquid mango and a sesame macaron with a tangy lime and green tea filling rounded the meal off.

the double-fronted interiors give the impression of entering somewhere quite special, exclusive even. the threshold is marked by a heavy curtain once through the door, and windows are frosted to obscure the view out or in. if the intention is for clientèle to forget they’re on chiswick high street, it’s quite effective. once you’ve left, you’re on your own - back through that heavy material and onto an overwhelmingly ordinary high-street, a contrast from what was just experienced.

i do feel we missed out not sitting at the bar of the open kitchen. if it wasn’t for the impish head waiter, the place could have felt a little cold compared to other michelin restaurants. had i been able to converse with mikael himself, i expect i would have been directly privy to his - what is on paper - unquestionable passion. it also feels like the sort of place that needs more than one visit to draw an informed conclusion, with the expectation that each meal will be so different to the one before. the three-course lunch deal is a steal at £35 - i plan to return for it and do just that.

liked lots: bread, umami flan, interiors, head waiter, lunch-menu value, desserts
liked less: out-of-the-way location; being told what to do when i'm eating
good for: seasonal eating of the very best produce; surprise menus; counter-seating to observe the kitchen

my rating: 4/5

i had heard many good things about hedone from others.  in particular, how great thequalityof their ingredients was. ready to start, i arrayed my weapons for battle. my dining companion did the same with the tree and wine glass. we next had mushrooms on biscuits.  the delightful rawness of the mushrooms shone through without distractions of, you know, cooking. definitely something in keeping with the wilderness theme (trek and table ornament).

as expected hedone is an open kitchen restaurant, which runs like a “silent running” machine, perfectly calibrated and orchestrated by swede mikael jonsson. after changing his career to follow his passion for food, jonsson gained his first michelin star in 2013. the restaurant, due to its location is very local, with a modern bistro feel. food-wise, chef doesn’t disappoint, demonstrating some serious cooking technique and product understanding. the open kitchen, in a similar style to la scene, prince de galle in paris, doesn’t leave any space for error. cooking, plating, dressing, building, frying; everything is done on demand before you. a highlight (if available) is the simple, yet perfectly cooked turbot à la nacre. the fish is cooked so delicately that its flesh glistens with a mother of pearl effect. a classical french technique, mastered by this chef of a very high calibre. to accompany the fish is a sublime, smoked eel and black olive elixir and steamed brussels sprout leaves. the overall dish is balanced, clean, and thequalityof the buttery smooth turbot is apparent. the main also demonstrates the importance of the product quality. piglet from les pyrenees is cut across the saddle is served with crackling, roasted onions and pear. here again, sumptuous products, so there’s no surprise that the plate reaches perfection. the slow cooked meat is impeccable. the only slight let down is with the dessert, but this seems to be a trend in the united kingdom. dessert aren’t puddings, puddings aren’t gateaux. what you’ll get is something sweet. nothing bad overall, but such simplicity at the 1* level can lead to confusion sometimes. what would take hedone to the next stage? the menu would need to be more surprising. hedone would need to create, invent, renew, without hunting for star for the sake of it. while it figures that out, it is an exceptional west london local restaurant, and that is a very welcome thing. #gallery-1 { margin: auto; } #gallery-1 .gallery-item

i thought that thequalityof dishes had progressed since the last time i visited the restaurant. however, if i was to be slightly critical, i would say that the most complicated plates tended to be the more average ones. this was an excellent meal and hedone is probably one of the best destinations for long menus in london. the gfg score above seems to be well below that of my experiences of dining at the restaurant.

hedone is definitely one of the best meals you can get in london in my opinion. the tasting menu was of a superlativequalityall the way through. this was partly due to the highqualityof the ingredients, much discussed elsewhere, but also due to the supreme technical skill of the chefs in the kitchen (all a minimum of two michelin stars each apparently). their care and attention to detail has allowed for mikael jonsson's creativity and innovation to be showcased in its highest possible form. dishes that particularly impressed me were the rock oysters with granny smith foam, mediterranean tomatoes, roast duck with beetroot cooked five ways and the chocolate dessert. it's expensive, and a tad cold in atmosphere during the lunch hours, but as a pure temple of gastronomy it's certainly up there. read more at: http://bit.ly/1c6ffvx

hedone is definitely one of the best meals you can get in london in my opinion. the tasting menu was of a superlativequalityall the way through. this was partly due to the highqualityof the ingredients, much discussed elsewhere, but also due to the supreme technical skill of the chefs in the kitchen

we loved the décor and the kitchen staff and waitress were great. the food was all cooked well with precision and seasoned faultlessly; and the sourcing ofqualityingredients unquestionable but, for me, it lacked something…

to make great food, start with great ingredients. this may seem self-evident, yet it is something which seems to elude many high-end london restaurants, and why i head off to the continent if i want to eat really top of the range food. hedone is interesting in that its chef and owner, michael jonsson, is an ingredients expert rather than a chef by background. after training as a chef many years ago in sweden he switched career and became a lawyer, but always with a passionate interest in food. the gastroville blog that he writes is influential, and he has advised some michelin starred restaurants in europe on ingredient sourcing. 

now he has switched to the other side of the counter and is behind the stoves of his first restaurant, in modest premises at the unfashionable end of the chiswick high road that were previously a lebanese nightclub. michael spent over a year travelling the uk searching out artisan suppliers, from producers of flour to unpasteurised butter to shellfish, and supplements the best british ingredients he can find with produce from europe where necessary. the menu, which has no a la carte option, changes on a weekly basis, and often is adjusted daily in the light of what ingredients are best that day, a similar approach to that taken by astrance in paris. a ten course tasting menu is currently available at £70, four courses at £50. a three course lunch is £35 on thursday through saturdays. for the ultimate experience the carte blanche tasting menu at £95 uses the very finest produce that the kitchen can obtain. given the highqualityof the ingredients here this is actually good value - this price would not buy you a starter in some top paris restaurants, where similar and in a few cases identical ingredients are being used.

the dining room has exposed brick walls and an open kitchen, with a few seats at a bar looking into the kitchen in addition to the main dining area, and has carefully thought-out lighting illuminating the tables well. there is a downstairs with a private dining room, and this houses the wine cellar. the wine list had around 200 choices, with a lot of french wines but also selections from elsewhere, at fair mark-ups by london standards. example wines include crawford river riesling young vines 2009 at £39 for wine that will set you back £27 in the shops, the lovely ata rangi pinot noir 2008 at £70 for a wine that retails at £34, up to javillier corton-charlemagne 2007 at £179 for a wine that costs around £70 in the shops.   

i have now eaten 54 meals at hedone, and have not recorded every dish of every meal, though there is now an extensive photo gallery. what distinguishes hedone is the relentless focus on the highestqualityingredients. an example of this is the beef, supplied by darragh o’shea, probably the best butcher in london at the moment. the chef spends time at the butcher selecting just a few of the choicest cuts of beef with a high degree of marbling and has them individually aged to order. the beef that is served in the restaurant has been aged from between 55 and 80 days, and has the kind of texture that you encounter in japan.

another example is the bread, where the chef spent training time with perhaps the finest baker in france, alex croquet, in order to perfect his technique. now produced in specialist bread ovens, the sourdough, white and other loaves produced have now reached the stage where they are as good as you will find anywhere. mr croquet himself acknowledged that the bread is of a similar standard to his own. this is bread that any three star michelin restaurant would be pleased to serve. there are many further examples of the degree of effort made here: the puff pastry is made from scratch and not bought, and one particularly good sauce that i tried took the kitchen three days to make, incorporating four separate stages. i could go on, but suffice it to say that this is serious cooking using serious ingredients. the style is deceptively simple with few garnishes, the idea being to let the ingredients speak for themselves. 

it is now over two years since hedone opened. the meal i had today reflected continuity in the sense that the chef’s obsession with top-class ingredients continues unabated, and also development in that the dishes have become more polished since the opening. this is partly because, since gaining its michelin star, the restaurant has been able to attract more experienced staff.

ingredientqualitycould be seen in the stunning sea bass at the meal today, whose flavour was quite remarkable, flawlessly cooked; as good a piece of sea bass as i have eaten. another example was the peas served with the pigeon. the peas came from italy and were of exceptional quality, carefully selected pod by pod to be the very sweetest, up there with the best that can be found in the lovely markets of the mediterranean. no kitchen in london today pays quite such attention to ingredientqualityas hedone.

the technical skill can be seen in the ever-improving bread and the lovely chocolate dessert: chocolate ganache topped with a chocolate disk topped with raspberry powder, with passion fruit and also vanilla ice cream. the sweetness of the chocolate and vanilla had the acidity of the passion fruit and the raspberry as balance, the textures of each element exactly as they should be: a really accomplished dessert. the cooking continues to develop here, and over the dozens of meals that i have eaten here it has been fascinating to watch the progression, the dishes getting steadily better and better.

----- 03 may, 2013 -----

the 2011 opening of hedone was a significant event for the london food scene. the chef/owner, mikael jonsson, was a respected food blogger and ingredients expert, who then turned chef. he brought his vast knowledge of highqualityingredients to hedone, serving produce of aqualityrarely, if ever, seen in london. for example he uses london's top butcher (o'sheas), selects from the top 1% of beef that they have, then ages each piece of meat specifically based on its condition. scallops served as sashimi can be seen still moving on the counter of the open kitchen. the bread he makes is of a standard rarely seen in 3 star michelin restaurants.

even at the beginning it was clear this was going to be a special restaurant, but since it gained its first michelin star thequalitybar has raised even higher. in april 2013 it was one of only seven uk restaurants listed in the san pellegrino "top 100", a remarkable coup for such a new restaurant.

everything at hedone was flawless and spot on. the foodqualitygoes beyond the one michelin star it received recently to directly comparable to 2 stars like the ledbury . the dishes here have a strong focus, no irrelevant textures or confusing flavours. for example, the 55 days aged beef is the only star of the dish, beautifully cooked and so succulent that every bite just addictively leads to the next. that powerful richness reminded me of wagyu beef from japan and the only place i’ve tried something as good in london was at hawksmoor , who produces some of the best steaks in london. to let the beef take center stage, only a few vegetables were on the side to balance with light honey or acidic flavours, simple and gorgeous.  head chef mikael jonsson was formerly a blogger and lawyer who obsessively travelled to find the best artisan suppliers uk has to offer. everything is freshly delivered in the morning which then determines the menu. you can choose between the tasting menu or the

in many ways, swedish-born mikael jonsson (45 years old) is not your average chef and hedone in chiswick, london, is not your average restaurant. jonsson had been obsessed with food and ingredients since his youth and did some basic training as a chef before food allergies caused him to change careers and become a lawyer. his passion (he calls it an obsession) for produce and producequalitynever left him however and inspired him in 2005 to start the gastroville blog about restaurants, ingredients and cooking. in