When restaurateur and wine lover Trevor Gulliver and chef Fergus Henderson opened St John in 1994, London’s dining scene was a world away from what it is today.
Haute cuisine was still in the throes of foam and frippery, edible gold leaf was the height of glamour and the bill at the end of the meal was gilded to match.
Meanwhile, London’s more affordable restaurants were not known for the quality of their food. The wines that accompanied dinner were also unlikely to inspire raptures.
“In the 1980s and 90s, Chardonnay was either a grape or a Chelsea footballer’s daughter’s name,” says Gulliver with a chuckle, as we meet at St John in London’s Smithfield ahead of the restaurant’s two-day residency at 181 at Fortnum & Mason Hong Kong from March 11 to 12.
“There was a restaurateur here in London, he’s dead now but who I used to be good friends with, let’s call him Mr Corret – I won’t use his real name. He had an Italian restaurant, which he called Corretti; an Italian-Portuguese restaurant called Correto; and a French restaurant called Corette. The wine he served at these restaurants all came from the same tanker.