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COURTESY OF FIFTEEN
RESTAURANT
Fifteen London— 15 Westland Place London N1 7LP, Tel +44 (0) 870-787-1515. www.fifteen.net
ON PAPER, FIFTEEN sounds horribly “worthy”: a charitable trust founded to help unemployed young people—often with drug and alcohol problems—train to become chefs of the highest quality, where the profits of the restaurant pay for the placement of 15 apprentices each year. As it’s the brainchild of yet another Celebrity Chef (and the subject of a reality TV show that drew huge weekly audiences), I confess I shrank away from such fare for a long time. Not least because it’s tucked away a short walk from Old Street Station and requires a spot of effort to find.
But Fifteen is no catering college. The product of Jamie Oliver, who is nicknamed “The Naked Chef” (and, I’ll give him his dues, he’s never taken a penny in wages from the project), has blossomed into something extraordinary. A restaurant of superb quality, serving incredible modern Italian food, it comprises the final part of that training, and it has a freshness and excitement about it that can only come from young people who have just realized that they have a life after all.
Everybody, from the head chef to the lowliest bus boy, comes across as truly excited to be part of this—and it’s infectious. I went for lunch. Its close proximity to The City ensured that most of the tables around me were filled with business-types, but not the stuffed suits city restaurants often see. These patrons were young—if not in age, in attitude. The place buzzed.
The area around Old Street has seen some tough times, but its nearnesss to super-trendy Hoxton, the city and ever-spreading Islington, not to mention some very convertible Victorian factories and warehouses, sees the area gentrifying at an alarming rate. Fifteen is housed in one of those old factories, scrubbed bare, both inside and out. Upstairs, in the rustic-style Trattoria, the atmosphere is informal. It’s open from early in the morning, and, like its downstairs sister, the menu changes daily according to whatever’s in season—and the whims of the chef.
Downstairs in the dining room, it’s a tiny, tiny bit more formal, but the emphasis is still on fresh, seasonal produce, cooked to the highest possible standards.
As I waited in the lobby area for my lunch-date, I sipped the most fabulous home-crushed ginger pressé I have ever tasted. I have been searching for a recipe ever since. We went for the set lunch menu—£25 for two courses, £30 for three. I started out simple, with a classic mozzarella and tomato salad, but my companion chose the Lancashire smoked eel with pancetta—quite an experience judging from the look on his face. The “wicked” Fisherman’s Stew was a bit of a challenge to eat, but every mouthful was worth the effort. Pete Gott’s rare-breed pork (they like to make sure we know the sources of the food) was a revelation, and the panacotta—well, panacotta is one of my many weak spots anyway.
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For me, though, the joy of this place is the atmosphere. I resisted it for a long time, for all those horrible “worthy” reasons, but this place stands up with the best of them and has inspired three more branches across the world. I will be surprised if it doesn’t receive a Michelin star in the near future. Discover Fifteen now, while it’s still a relative secret.
—Sandra Lawrence
WHETHER YOU KNOW HIM as the gentle giant Hagrid in the Harry Potter films or as the tough, disheveled psychologist in Cracker, Robbie Coltrane is a most memorable figure. The jovial, burly Scotsman has a terrific sense of humor, a wry, benevolent look at the world and a devil-may-care sense of wonder about him. Coltrane, in fact, would make a great travel companion on adventures to Britain. While we may not get him to join us, he has invited us along on his own adventures in Incredible Britain.
Coltrane hops into his classic Jaguar roadster and takes to the B-roads, following them in a meandering course that leads from London to his home city of Glasgow. Along the way he fulfills a quest for the quintessentially eccentric in British life. Coltrane’s narrative has that you-and-I quality that makes the viewer his personal companion on adventures ranging from a dock pudding-cooking contest to popping wheelies in a 20-ton firetruck. Over the scenic back roads of England, we purr in the open-top Jag from a villagewide rugby scrum with a beer keg to an annual scarecrow convention.
DVD
Robbie Coltrane: Incredible Britain
Acorn Media, Silver Spring, Md., 137 minutes, $39.95.
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There are three episodes to this one-of-a-kind British travelogue. For Coltrane fans, there is also a biography of the Scottish star. Yes, climb into the passenger’s seat and enjoy. It’s a wonderful ride.
THIS IS THE BOOK that inspired the World Wide Web. There is a recipe for plum pudding, instructions on extinguishing a chimney fire, cures for baldness and freckles, rules of speech and pronunciation, directions on making a will and on eliminating common garden pests. When they titled this book, now almost six-score years old, they weren’t being hyperbolic: Enquire Within Upon Everything is as comprehensive a one-volume guide to every element of daily life as the imagination can conceive.
First aid, employment and rental regulations, kitchen and household hints, rules of games and sports, how to dance, etiquette and personal conduct, picking produce at the market, gardening, cooking and food preservation, personal hygiene, epistolary forms and correct address, business law and needlework: Whatever the late Victorian wanted to know could be referenced in this book. More than a million copies of the book were sold in 1890.
BOOK
Enquire Within Upon Everything, 1890 Old House Books, Moretonhampstead, Devon, 416 pages, hardcover, £14.99.
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The story is that after seeing a copy of this book, Tim Berners-Lee was inspired to name early versions of the Web “Enquire” after it. One thing is sure—this book was as close to the single, quick, handy information source we take the Web to be as the Victorians could get.
It is not the sort of tome that anyone is apt to sit down and read cover to cover, but it is marvelous fun to poke around in. Amazingly enough, it is still a practical reference book, containing a wealth of household hints, food and cooking tips, medical applications and sundry that are lost in today’s prepackaged world. We hope, of course, not to need the 22 guidelines listed for the prevention of cholera.
Enquire Within is a reprint of Old House Books, down in Moretonhamp-stead, Devon. British Heritage readers might have a lot of fun rummaging around the Old House Books Web site at www.oldhousebooks.co.uk
IT ISN’T REALLY. A thousand things you need to know about England, that is. Admittedly, it is hard just off the top of the head to come up with a definitive list, but the origins of mummers’ plays, Oliver Postgate’s children’s TV shows and the names of rugby field positions probably wouldn’t make it. There is a bibliography of Beatrix Potter books, the origin of Bisto gravy powder, thumbnail biographies of the Saxon monarchs of Wessex and a compendium of England’s most expensive independent schools that could be regarded as optional knowledge as well.
BOOK
England: 1,000 Things You Need to Know by Nicholas Hobbes, Atlantic Books, London, 454 pages, hardcover, £9.99.
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This is a delightful book—a discombobulated encyclopedia, really, of English history, society, culture, sport and all manner of trivia. Author Nicholas Hobbes is charmingly idiosyncratic and eclectic in his choice of material, generally organized into broad topical chapters, with lots of lists. No one can possibly pretend that knowing tuna is England’s fifth most popular sandwich filling is in any way important, let alone something either native or visitor needs to know. But somehow it doesn’t matter. Those 1,000 things you need to know might actually be hidden somewhere in the book, amidst 10,000 other quirky tidbits of information.
As a practical reference, the book’s value is diminished by lack of an index or a usefully detailed table of contents. Nor is this a book to be read cover to cover as a unified narrative. It is to be dipped into, browsed through and picked up again and again. The result is always a delight, and produces something else fun, if not necessary, to know about England.
THEATER
Singing and Dancing in the Hot West End—As always, the hottest tickets and the longest runs belong to the musicals.
LONDON THEATER IS NEVER out of season. Here is a smattering of classic musicals and classics-to-be booking tickets into next summer. You can check them out on many theater Web sites, including www.londontheatre.co.uk.
Les Miserables
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Based on the novel by Victor Hugo, has lyrics by Herbert Kretzmer and music by Claude-Michel Schonberg.
Queen’s Theatre Shaftesbury Ave., W1V 8BA Tube: Piccadilly Circus Telephone: 0844 482 5160
It only seems as though Les Mis has been running forever. It began, though, at the Barbican on October 6, 1985. After many years at the Palace, it transferred to Queen’s in 2004, and it still proves the Energizer Bunny of West End musicals. Jean Valjean’s story of courage and many kinds of love during the bleak years of revolutionary France remains an epic musical equal to Victor Hugo’s epic novel.
Jersey Boys
Written by Marshall Brickman and Rick Elice, with music by Bob Gaudio and lyrics by Bob Crewe. Prince Edward Theatre Old Compton Street, W1V 6HS Tube: Leicester Sq. / Tottenham Ct. Rd. Telephone: 0844 482 5151
This is the story of Frankie Valli and The Four Seasons, blue-collar boys from the wrong side of the tracks, who became one of the biggest pop music sensations of all time. Writing their own songs, they sold 175 million records worldwide before they were 30. Their career hits included “Sherry,” “December, 1963 (Oh What a Night),” “Big Girls Don’t Cry,” “My Eyes Adored You,” “Can’t Take My Eyes Off You,” “Rag Doll” and “Who Loves You.” It’s the hottest.
Blood Brothers
by Willy Russell Phoenix Theatre Charing Cross Rd WC2H OJP Tube: Tottenham Ct. Rd. Telephone: 0870 060 6629
This Willy Russell classic celebrated its 20th anniversary this summer, having opened at the Albury Theatre on July 28, 1988. The story of Liverpool twins who are separated at birth is a musical tragedy, complete with Greek chorus. One grows up in working class slums, the other in upper middle class comfort. As their lives entwine, the injustices of society and of fate are ceremoniously unmasked. A most English of musicals.
Billy Elliot: The Musical
Book and lyrics by Lee Hall, music by Elton John. Victoria Palace Theatre Victoria Street, London, SW1E 5EA Tube: Victoria Telephone: 0870 895 5577
Fans of Elton John’s music especially will not want to miss this fetching musical. Billy Elliot is a motherless boy whose father wants him to take up boxing. Elliot, however, discovers a love for ballet that takes him from secret lessons to the Royal Ballet School. What’s not to love?
The Phantom of the Opera
Music by Andrew Lloyd Webber, lyrics by Charles Hart, based on Gaston Leroux’s gothic novel. Her Majesty’s Theatre Haymarket, SW1Y 4QL Tube: Piccadilly Circus Telephone: 0844 412 2707
This haunting musical has been playing since October 6, 1986. The story is wellknown, the tragic love of a beautiful opera singer and a young composer who is shamed by his physical appearance into a shadowy existence beneath the majestic Paris Opera House.
Mamma Mia!
Music and lyrics by Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus. Book by Catherine Johnson. And some songs by Stig Anderson. Prince of Wales Theatre Coventry Street, London, W1 Tube: Piccadilly Circus Telephone: 0870 850 0393
Mamma Mia is the upbeat, feel-good musical inspired by the songs of Abba. The original story is of a mother and daughter on a Greek island on the eve of the daughter’s wedding. Unbeknownst to the mother, daughter has invited three of her mother’s long-lost boyfriends—one of whom is the girl’s father. You can’t leave without singing the music.
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