Tom Parker Bowles & Olly Smith: The Wolseley and picnic bargains Fashion Beauty Celebrity Health Life Relationships Horoscopes Food Interiors Travel Sign in Welcome!Log into your account Forgot your password? Password recovery Recover your password Search Sign in Welcome! Log into your account Forgot your password? Get help Password recovery Recover your password A password will be e-mailed to you. YOU Magazine Fashion Beauty Celebrity Health Life Relationships Horoscopes Food Interiors Travel Home Food Tom Parker Bowles & Olly Smith lunch at The Wolseley and picnic bargains By You Magazine - June 13, 2021 Tom rejoices as he returns to indoor dining at one of the capital’s most atmospheric establishments. To walk into The Wolseley is to slide, seamlessly, into another world, a place where the irks and indignities of normal life are shaken away like raindrops from an umbrella. Because this is restaurant as pure theatre, a spectacle as much as a lunch, with its vast and ever-moving cast of doormen and greeters, maître d’s, waiters, barmen and boss. ‘While you don’t necessarily come to The Wolseley for the food alone, there’s always something you want… comfort as a class act.’ Image: David Loftus The boss being Jeremy King, one half of restaurateurs Corbin and King, tall and immaculately clad, effortlessly gliding through the tables. A nod here, a word there, but one eye eternally on the rest of the room – one of the most handsome in London, if not the world, with its soaring ceiling, thrusting columns and polished marble sheen. Nothing misses his gaze. There’s no place for snobbery here, and despite its starry reputation, The Wolseley is refreshingly democratic. You can wander in for morning porridge and coffee or stagger out at midnight after a beluga feast. That’s the joy of the place, along with the eternal buzz, hum, hubbub and clatter, fuelled by endless gossip and brokered deals, the whispered sweet nothings, clandestine affairs (nowhere more discreet than the least discreet place on Earth) and endless celebrations of every hue. It has an atmosphere so rich and thick you could spread it over their warm, crusty baguettes; and after that first icy martini, you fall easily into its warm embrace. And while you don’t necessarily come to The Wolseley for the food alone, there’s always something you want. I know its menu like the keyboard of my computer: a dozen quivering Colchester rocks, or a quarter pint of pink prawns. Smoked salmon, finely sliced, from Severn and Wye, or an intense chicken soup with bouncy, joyously bland mini matzo balls. Maybe a burger, or rarebit, schnitzel, choucroute or chateaubriand. Sometimes the food should not get in the way of the talk. Which is why we come here, Jo Elvin, Olly and me, for our first indoor lunch for five months. We eat sweet, tiny queenie scallops in the shell, smoked haddock Monte Carlo, schnitzel, chopped chicken salad and fistfuls of hot, salty fries. It is as it always is, comfort as a class act. All around us, bread is broken, wine slurped and old acquaintances renewed. London is alive once more. Drinks Olly’ s picnic bargains For picnics, save money by buying wine in a bigger format. You may feel you’re splashing out with my five-litre box rosé but the equivalent works out at around a tenner a bottle. It’s spot-on for a picnic and saves you clanking around heavy bottles. For reds, keep it light with Pinot Noir; feel free to chill it to focus fruitiness. And always pack a cider – with sausage rolls, pork pies and scotch eggs, nothing beats. Drink of the week FOUND FETEASCA REGALA 2020 (11.5%), £7, M&S. Unbeatable value for a white as scented as a rosé. Utterly divine. PULPT FLARE SUPERIOR SOUTH WEST CIDER (4.9%), £2.20, Tesco. Delicious cider with wholesome freshness and real appley bite. PAUL MAS RESERVE PINOT NOIR 2020 (13%), £8.75, Morrisons. Soft, light red that’s bafflingly brilliant for under a tenner. FITZ PRINCE CHARMAT (12%), £14.99, Majestic. Made in the same way as Prosecco, this vibrant British bubbly is ace. MÉDITERRANÉE ROSÉ FIGUIÈRE 2020 (12%), £65, laywheeler.com. Sumptuous, scrumptious, delicate: picnic perfection is this breezy rosé. RELATED ARTICLESMORE FROM AUTHOR Kids can eat for free at these restaurants during October half-term How to make the viral negroni sbagliato with prosecco at home 7 Halloween recipes with serious hex factor Popular in Food Gabriela Peacock 14-day plan Anytime baked eggs May 23, 2021 Joe Wicks’ maple-glazed chicken thighs with Asian slaw June 6, 2021 Mary Berry is returning to TV screens for a brand new June 15, 2021 Eleanor Maidment My summer taste notes July 4, 2021 Uyen Luu’ s sticky mustard marmalade ribs July 25, 2021 Annie Bell’ s white peach bellinis recipe August 8, 2021 M& S has launched a new crunchy Caramilk-inspired golden chocolate spread August 24, 2021 Deliciously preserved pickle and jam recipes September 19, 2021 Gordon Ramsay’ s bang bang cauliflower October 3, 2021 Wow right now Clodagh McKenna’ s speedy family dinners October 24, 2021 Popular CategoriesFood2704Life2496Fashion2240Beauty1738Celebrity1261Interiors684 Sign up for YOUMail Thanks for subscribing Please check your email to confirm (If you don't see the email, check the spam box) Fashion Beauty Celebrity Life Food Privacy & Cookies T&C Copyright 2022 - YOU Magazine. All Rights Reserved