Mini Patel joins Blueprint Cafe as chef patron
The chef, who left The Pointer in Brill in Buckinghamshire last year, has overhauled the menu to focus on small plates with a “playful, contemporary twist”.
The Blueprint Café opened in 1992 and sits on the first floor of what was once Terence Conran’s Design Museum, before it moved to new premises in Kensington in 2016.
The interior of the restaurant will undergo a “light refresh” later this year.
“This is a very exciting new role for me – British culture is the inspiration behind so much of my food and Blueprint Café, as an icon of the London dining scene, couldn’t be a more fitting location for me to explore this inspiration even further,” says Patel.
Dishes on the new menu include baked hispi cabbage, mustard, cheddar and crispy Cumbrian ham; Cornish lamb pie with crispy lamb nuggets, wild garlic pesto and lamb roasting juices; and burnt cream with rhubarb ‘Jammie Dodger’ biscuit.
Patel headed up the kitchen at The Pointer in Brill for two and a half years until 2017, and also cooked under Angela Hartnett at her Michelin-starred restaurant at The Connaught.
He represented the North East on Great British Menu in 2015 and 2016.
“This is a true milestone in Blueprint’s history – a favourite on the London landscape for nearly three decades, we believe Mini’s wealth of experience and playful, contemporary British menu can only drive Blueprint forward to new heights,” says Jean-Baptiste Requien, operations director at D&D.
Blueprint Café’s former head chefs include Jeremy Lee, who left to join Quo Vadis in 2011, and Mark Jarvis (2012-13).
