Jamie Oliver Fan Seduced at his Covent Garden in London

by Nancy Benson

Toasted bread crumbs wait to be stirred into Wild Rabbit pasta with mascarpone and lemon. 

          I’m a Texan.  I learned of Jamie Oliver several years ago watching his show “Jamie at Home” on The Cooking channel. As an obsessed gardener and amateur cook I loved hearing Jamie talk about growing his own "veg" in his garden and was tickled to see him cook up meals over a small fire in his yard.  I even collected five of his cookbooks.

          Our country has so many Italian chain restaurants pushing over spiced, over-sized portions of over-sauced pasta. Since Jamie is an industry now – I knew he had 38 restaurants – I feared I'd find the same   shabby shortcuts in London.  All these years I might have been romanticizing his recipes and his image.

          We arrived at the glass-enclosed bar entrance to Jamie’s Italian – Covent Garden with a view of all the tourist action. The bartender started our evening off right by warning us that Jamie's signature wines in  the cartons.....would not be our favorite.  We loved that honesty.

          The hostess seated us downstairs in a lively wine cellar room filled with both couples and families many enjoying Jamie's ultimate antipasto planks. Our waiter was fun too and very sincere, I thought, giving us great  suggestions especially for my dear friend, Dana who is vegetarian. We started the meal with a grilled asparagus bruschetta with lemony dressed  mozzarella and smashed mint and pea puree. It was the perfect mix of cool  mash on delightful crunchy bread.  It was so good we thought about ordering a second. 

          The Wild Rabbit Casarecce, our main course, was a rabbit ragu' with  garlic, herbs, mascarpone and lemon.  The dish is served with a large tablespoon filled with breadcrumbs resting on the top of the dish so the crumbs keep their  crunch until sprinkled on the dish. 

Jamie Oliver’s cannelloni three ways is perfect for vegetarian niece Dana on her first trip to London.

          Dana had honeycomb cannelloni 3 ways:  Aubergine with sun-dried tomato, pumpkin and ricotta with spinach.  Dessert was a warm brownie with salted caramel ice cream, hot fudge and  popcorn. Dana thought the popcorn wasn't unnecessary and that they were trying to copy ABC Kitchen.

          We walked out with “did you eat your greens today" buttons and two copies of the Jamie Magazine.  We fear he may be getting too big for his britches as the souvenirs were overwhelming. I even found myself purchasing an antipasto plank to take home, though I haven’t figured out how to fit a three-foot board into my suitcase.

11 Upper St Martin's Lane London WC2H 9FB