An invitation for drinks and canapes at The Ritz isn't something we'd ever turn down, so Hot Dinners hotfooted it over to Piccadilly last night to meet the folk responsible for food and drink at the hotel.
We were at the Rivoli bar, which somehow in all our years of bar-hopping in this town, we'd managed never to visit before. It's a blingtastic, gilted, chocolate box of a room, all gold-leaf, Lalique glass and leopardskin chairs with white coated waiters gliding between tables serving up good strong cocktails.
Canapes were quite honestly among the best we've ever had and trust us, we've had a few in our time. Tiny logs of foie gras, cornets of smoked salmon Musovite (that means they were topped with caviar - hooray!) and other bite-sized wonders too numerous to mention.
The Ritz's executive chef John Williams MBE is pretty passionate when it comes to talking about the food he turns out. As he explained to us, while at heart theirs is still a dining room in thrall to Escoffier, they've lightened up the sauces, stopped reducing down the cream (which we hadn't realised was even an option) and generally modernised the dishes they serve up. But it's still a dining room with a lot of theatre - particularly when it comes to finishing off dishes at the table which we can't wait to try.
