Having gained much respect—and a Michelin star—for L’enclume, his Cumbrian restaurant set in an 800-year-old former smithy, curiosity was instantly peaked when Simon Rogan announced the opening of his first restaurant in London. The playfully named
Having gained much respect—and a Michelin star—for L’enclume, his Cumbrian restaurant set in an 800-year-old former smithy, curiosity was instantly peaked when Simon Rogan announced the opening of his first restaurant in London. The playfully named Roganic, located in Marylebone, is unassumingly situated near the area’s high street – a celebrity shopping and pied-à-terre nexus in Central London. But the small, neutrally-decorated dining room isn’t necessarily there to stay. Though not really a pop up per se, Roganic’s doors are only set to be open for the next couple of years, a fact that has created a gentle sense of urgency amongst would-be-diners eager to try Rogan’s renowned tasting menus.
At Roganic, Rogan, who trained under Marco Pierre White, applies the best of French technique to the highest quality British produce. And while he is greatly inspired by traditional gastronomy, his dishes are decidedly lighter, with less emphasis on butter and sauces, and more on his ingredients’ base flavours. This light approach allows him to devise dazzlingly complex and imaginative tasting menus of multiple courses - the night we visited there was a six or ten course option (there’s no à la carte), while at L’Enclume, a tasting menu can feature up to 12 dishes or more. With deft technique and a refined sensitivity to texture, Rogan incorporates overlooked ingredients such as tongue and bone marrow in a way that makes them palatable to even the most hesitant of diners.
Roganic’s highly seasonal menu is constantly changing, influenced as it is not only by Rogan’s creativity, but another one of his primary passions: farm fresh produce. Having recently established his own farm in Cumbria, he is closer to his dream of self-sufficiency, with his fields yielding crops to be delivered to his restaurants within hours.
Our favourites: Heirloom tomato, poached lamb tongue and dill custard; braddock white, puff ball mushroom, barley flakes and marjoram with a duck egg and caraway butter; millet pudding with grains, burnt pear and Devon blue; and the Chapel Down Pinot Brut (British wine makers).
Other news: Young Turks at the Ten Bells (three month pop up), The Long Table night market in Dalston with Nuno Mendes (first one Friday, November 25, 6pm - midnight), the Meat Liquor restaurant (from the folks behind the legendary meat easy).
Text by Ananda Pellerin
Ananda and Neil visited Roganic on Tuesday October 4 at 7pm. Ananda Pellerin is a London-based writer and Neil Wissink is a visual artist also based in London. More from The Hunger here, and contact The Hunger here.
