French evolution: Côte drafts in former Gordon Ramsay Group head chef
New executive chef Steve Allen, who headed up the kitchen at Ramsay’s restaurant when it was at the five star London hotel, has developed a menu that includes Côte’s popular French classics alongside regionally-inspired dishes and a wider range of vegetarian and vegan options.
New dishes include monkfish Normande (main image), inspired by traditional stews enjoyed in northern France, which combines pan-fried Cornish monkfish with mussels, French toast Américaine (pictured below) and espresso martini crêpes.
Other changes include its signature Côte de Boeuf, which is now aged for 30 days in a specially built Himalayan rock-salt ageing room housed in the Côte butchery.
The ‘evolved’ menu also showcases a focus on sourcing and provenance, with twists on established favourites.
“Côte is well known for offering its guests a quality dining experience, serving freshly prepared, authentic food that people come back for time and time again. With the new menu, I wanted to focus on these core principles. So, we’ve worked on adding new dishes that elevate the best ingredients through modern French cooking techniques to deliver a unique yet unmistakably French experience,” says Allen.
“We’ve also looked at our classics and thought about ways to offer regular guests an elevated take on their favourites. From the introduction of the Himalayan Salt Wall for our Côte de Boeuf to our super indulgent French Toast Américaine, the new menu will see flavour take centre-stage in every dish.”
The changes coincide with the start of a gradual roll-out of a new restaurant design that follows on from two new openings in the last year in Solihull and Henley on Thames. The updated restaurant design will ‘evolves Côte’s classic restaurant feel for today’s diner’, according to the company.
“It’s time for us to evolve the look and feel in our restaurants so, backed by our incredibly supportive owners, Partners Group, we are embarking on an ambitious programme to refresh all our restaurants,” says Jane Holbrook, executive chair at Côte.
The launch of Côte’s new menu will coincide with the introduction of calorie-labelled menus, in line with Government legislation that comes into force next month.
The new menu will see 38% of main dishes contain fewer than 700 calories and there will also always be a number of options to allow diners to choose a two-course or three-course meal for 1,000 calories.
The company will also be offering unlabelled menus, on request, to those who prefer not to see calorie information.
