Hedone – London | Starfood Scout

I have a couple of great dinners that I would like to share on blog and more will come. Unfortunately I do not have the time to write proper reviews. Instead of publishing half year old reviews I will post some very summarized reviews. This, the first post, will be about an amazing dinner at Hedone. Posts about Daniel Berlin Krog in Skåne Tranås and Nook will hopefully follow soon.

Caviar, bone marrow and brioche

I assume that readers of this blog already know the story about Hedone and its chef proprietor Mikael Jönsson. I will therefore skip the background info this time. This was my second dinner at Hedone. I first visited Hedone back 2011, just a couple of months after its opening day. That dinner was stunning and a real eye-opener on how food can taste. The only restaurant that I had been to at the time (including some Michelin three star and 50 Best top ten restaurants) that served produce of the same high quality was Etxebarri in Atxondo. The scallops I had that night was beyond everything that I had had up until that day. Even today I always compare scallops with the ones at Hedone. I have had some good ones but non as good as Hedone’s.

Poached oyster and granny smith apple

Hedone was very good in 2011. Now it is amazing. When it comes to ingredients quality I would say that Hedone is a benchmark restaurant. Of course you get good produce at several restaurants but at very few do the ingredients shine in the way they do at Hedone. Everything just burst of flavour. The highlight this evening was a green asparagus from, if I remember correctly, Luberon in France. I do not completely agree with Mikael Jönsson when he says that food in Sweden doesn’t taste anything. There are some excellent produce, especially at two of my favorite restaurants in Sweden Gastrologik and Daniel Berlin Krog . But when it comes to asparagus Sweden doesn’t really seem to come close. The asparagus at Hedone was astonishing. Even better than the extremely good asparagus I had at Astrance last year.

Asparagus and pistachio

Since my first visit the food at Hedone has become more elaborate and complex. In 2011 the plates were fairly ”simple” (in a very good way) with just a few ingredients on each plate. Normally I prefer that kind of ”simple” food to overly complicated dishes consisting on many components. Now there seem to be more labour put into every dish. There are still just a few ingredients on each plate and the produce shines as much as before but now there is more complexity. In my opinion this is three Michelin star food beating most high ranked restaurants that I have been to.

Scallop

Other highlights this evening were (1) a Liquid parmesan ravioli with onion consommé, pancetta and horseradish, (2) Turbot with cauliflower, broccoli and a sauce made of smoked fish stock and (3) Millefeuille with crème pâtissière, grapefruit and saffron. The texture of the millefeuille was just unbelievable, so feathery light yet not dry at all. A true masterpiece texture wise. Though I was not equally fond of the grapefruit and saffron combination. Unfortunately the scallop was not as good as last time, which Mikael admitted, and I found it slightly over cooked. The truffles didn’t really impressed me but besides that, it was a stunning dinner. I will definitely return. In fact if I could only eat at one restaurant for the rest of my life it would probably be Hedone (not counting my two favorite restaurants Gastrologik and Speceriet which sort of have become my second home) .

Turbot, cauliflower and broccoli

Follow me on Instagram or Twitter for updates. This week I will have canard à la press for dinner at Operakällaren in Stockholm, which regained its Michelin star this year and next week I will go to Barcelona.

For more pictures, with higher resolution, from this dinner go to my Flickr-account.

Liquid parmesan ravioli, onion consommé, pancetta and horseradish