l'ortolan

apologies for a lack of posts. with our wedding coming up very soon, there is plenty to sort out – from table plans to ensuring people get paid. between wedding stuff and work, there is just not enough hours in a day for me to blog consistently. . i have visited l’ortolan in the past. twice to be exact. on my previous visits, alanmurchisonwas in charge of the kitchen. both visits were 5 years apart. what i can remember from both meals was that the food was overworked and the pricing was very ambitious, for a 1* restaurant. on my more recent visit, i was also particularly annoyed with the wine service – we were presented with a dusty bottle and the waiter did not have a scooby how to handle the wine with a lot of sediment poured into the glass. there was strangely no sommelier around that night. perhaps it was an off night or perhaps it was because l’ortolan, then under murchison’s 10 in 8 group was heading towards liquidation.murchisoneventually left l’ortolan after 13 years and in his place is his former protege tom clarke.

l’ortolan is, as i’m sure readers of a food blog will know, a small bird that is both a delicacy and an illegal meal in france. the bird is drowned in armagnac plucked, oven cooked then eaten whole, bones and all, under a napkin. this 'under a napkin' lark is said to be either i) to fully capture the aromas, or ii) to hide your crime of eating a tinnyn songbird from the eyes of god (though personally i think if god is worth his name, he can probably see through napkins; just saying). it is said that francois mitterrand’s last meal was two of the birds, after which he didn’t eat again for 10 days before passing. l’ortolan is not on the menu at l’ortolan as far as i could see, though perhaps there’s a secret password that when uttered with a nod and a wink in the right direction... the restaurant today is under the direction of executive chef alanmurchisonwho will likely be familiar to great british menu fans having reached the finals this year where he demonstrated a meticulous attent