Core by Clare Smyth to open in Notting Hill this July
The 54-seat site at 92 Kensington Park Road is billed as a modern, relaxed and elegant fine dining restaurant with an 18-seat cocktail bar.
The menu will have a British ethos, and focus on a main tasting menu featuring 10 to 12 constantly-changing dishes. Guests will be able to order the full menu, or choose three or five dishes from it.
“With it being my first solo venture and very close to my heart, it wasn’t easy deciding what to call the restaurant, but ‘Core’ seemed right,” says Smyth. “It’s a seed of something new, with strong ties to nature.”
The restaurant will open Tuesday to Saturday for dinner, and Thursday to Saturday for lunch.
Smyth says she is to work closely with British farmers, fishermen and artisan producers to source her ingredients.
“[When you’re] brought up on a farm, you understand from an early age just how good our ingredients are and how important it is to support local producers," she says. "As chefs, we have access to some of the finest native produce in the world here in Britain, and I want to continue to celebrate that in every menu.”
Smyth and her sommelier team have curated the wine list, and there will be over 400 Champagnes and wines from across Burgundy, Bordeaux, northern Italy, California, and South Africa.
A selection of alcoholic and non-alcoholic cocktails will pair with dishes on the menu.
The restaurant’s British ethos will also extend to the crockery, which will come from the Royal Crown Derby manufacturers in the Midlands. It will incorporate some of Smyth’s own designs, including colours of copper and green to reflect the copper pans Smyth favours.
Silverware will continue the British-sourced theme, and come from Carrs of Sheffield in Yorkshire.
Décor will centre on natural colours and materials, including stem green, aubergine, almond milk, copper, and burnished gold. There will also be feature ‘living wall’.
Chef Smyth was previously chef patron at Restaurant Gordon Ramsay, where she became the first female chef in the UK to hold three Michelin stars. She started at the Chelsea restaurant in 2002 and was appointed head chef in 2007. She left in 2016. She is also a regular judge in culinary competitions such as National Chef of the Year, and has a growing media profile, regularly appearing on TV programmes such as BBC Saturday Kitchen.
