Yahoo Sports Why chicken and chips now top the menu at Britain’s newest restaurants
Recently, I was at a pub for Sunday lunch. We had a few pints and everyone was merry, until it was time to order. Roast beef. Roast pork. Nut Wellington. I opted for chicken, setting off a stream of mild abuse previously reserved for the vegan among us. How could I – a food writer no less – choose the most boring option?
Long considered the philistine’s choice, the humble bird has been transformed into the star dish at a flock of new restaurants. Casa do Frango, a Portuguese-inspired piri piri chicken restaurant, is about to open its fourth site in the capital and hopes to expand nationwide. Grilled chicken is its only main course. In Manchester, Firehouse has earned plaudits for its “charred peri chicken”, while at Edinburgh’s The Palmerston there’s a seasonally changing roast chicken dish that “usually sells out instantly,” according to co-founder James Snowdon.
French-influenced rotisserie joints are blossoming, from Cocotte and Pique-Nique in London to Empire Café in Leeds. Tom Sellers is the head chef and owner of Restaurant Story, a two-Michelin-starred spot in London Bridge where the 10-course tasting menu costs £225. This year he opened a second restaurant with a completely different focus: chicken and chips. At Story Cellar the birds are brined, poached and then grilled on the rotisserie, a 48-hour process. They are delicious: the flesh tender, buttery almost, utterly comforting alongside perfect French fries. Half a chicken, salad and chips costs £32.
“Roast chicken was always something my mother would make,” says Sellers. “I find chicken very comforting; that was the driver behind me wanting to make it a focus at the new restaurant. It’s one of the most universal meats in the world.”
Indeed, among meat eaters you’ll be hard-pressed to find a soul who dislikes this bird. In fact, from Selfridges on Oxford Street (which has a rotisserie chicken stall) to Harrods in Knightsbridge (home to two rotisserie chicken sites, including at The Grill restaurant) you’ll notice that Mayfair and South Kensington elites aren’t splurging on caviar but on chicken. At private members’ club The George Club half a rotisserie chicken costs £36 and you can devour it alongside original David Hockneys. Both The Ritz and Bibendum have elaborate poulet de Bresse dishes at eye-watering prices. Covent Garden’s new NoMad Hotel restaurant serves a roast chicken breast stuffed with foie gras and black truffle.
Restaurants majoring on chicken are nothing new. Near where I grew up in north London I can think of a handful of brilliant spots. Perfectly grilled jerk chicken at The Tastebox in Finsbury Park, just down the road from a flutter of Algerian rotisserie chicken shops on Blackstock Road. There was kosher rotisserie chicken at Habiba’s in Golders Green and broasted chicken – a Syrian speciality – at The Best Broasted in Willesden. There were about 10 Nando’s.
Now, more high-end spots want a piece of the action. When the hip wine-bar-restaurant Noble Rot opened a second site in 2020, its owners were set on one particular dish: roast chicken. “I was really happy,” says head chef Alex Jackson. “It’s the kind of food I like to eat, and I didn’t have to come up with a fancy signature dish, just a classic done really well.” A whole roast chicken in a rich sauce of cream, morels and vin jaune has featured on the menu ever since, with around 15-20 sold per day. At £80 it’s punchy, but includes the whole bird and serves up to three people. Noble Rot’s roast chicken has proved inspirational. The Midland Grand Dining Room in the St Pancras Renaissance Hotel opened this year to critical acclaim, with a star main of whole roast chicken with vin jaune, morels and wild garlic, at £70 for two people.
At Nord, a new restaurant in Liverpool, a show-stopping chicken dish has taken the city by storm. A whole bird is broken down and served several ways, the crown grilled over charcoal and served with garlic oil and chives, the legs and thighs deep-fried. “It’s a real crowdpleaser,” says Nord’s executive chef Daniel Heffy. “A lot of our food is challenging, like whole fish on the bone, but this dish is comfortable. Lots of families with children go for it.”
The dish, with salad, costs £35, and easily feeds two. In a tough financial climate – for both restaurants and customers – it’s no surprise chicken is flourishing. Even though most new spots emphasise their high-welfare, free-range suppliers, “chicken is definitely cheaper,” admits Heffy. “You can buy the best quality and it’s still not as expensive [as other meats]. We have a lot of clientele who are happy to spend, but we’re trying to make our restaurant inclusive. A piece of turbot can be £40-£60, but chicken is definitely on the menu as a way of being accessible.”
Perhaps it’s no surprise that, since the pandemic and subsequent financial uncertainties, chicken is having a moment. “At Noble Rot, I want our food to be nostalgic and satisfying, I don’t care if it’s simple. I think roast chicken is an easy way to do that,” says Jackson. And it’s certainly no longer boring, not something to avoid because you could make it better at home. “Chicken’s a delicious thing to eat,” says Jackson. “And chefs can probably cook it better than you.”
Next time you find yourself at a fancy restaurant expecting fillet steak and caviar, your eyes may gravitate towards a little corner of the menu advertising chicken and chips. Don’t resist, it may well be the best thing on the menu. At the very least, unlike roast beef or pork, it’s the hardest to get wrong. Next time I’m out for a Sunday lunch, I won’t hesitate in ordering it again.
