Kingdom of flavours

Southern French food with an Indian connection, old-school dim sum, local sausage, wines that surprise. London’s dining-out scene is vibrant as ever

- VIR SANGHVI

I went to London for three days to attend a meeting. No matter what I did, I was never too far from India. I stayed at 51 Buckingham Gate, the apartments only hotel run by the Taj, next to the group’s St. James Court Hotel. I first stayed there in 1987, when it had just opened, which, I guess, makes me one of their oldest regulars. The complex has seen its ups and downs, but a string of very good general managers (Prabhat Verma, Digvijay Singh and now Mehrnavaz Avari) have turned it into my favourite place in London.

On my first night in London, I went to the recently opened Socca. This is a Southern French restaurant, where the chef is Claude Bosi, a culinary heavyweight who has two Michelin stars at Bibendum, his other restaurant. Socca is a sort of La Petite Maison for grown-ups who want good food, not just a Riviera vibe. And of course, Claude’s food (which I first tried many years ago at Hibiscus) is terrific. We had perfectly fried courgette flowers, the eponymous socca (a sort of besan chilla) the last of the season’s English asparagus, a tart lentil salad, oysters, carpaccio, snails and an intense beef cheek with golden shoe-string fries.