The all-female senior team at the Pem have created a playful restaurant with an element of 1970s nostalgia. Here's a taste of Sally Abe's fun-filled menu
There is a starter at the Pem so popular that a customer once ordered a second helping for dessert. ‘Knife and fork bacon' consists of a chunk of Saddleback pork so thick that it must be eaten with cutlery rather than sandwiched between two slices of bread, and served with prune jam and a thick dollop of cream.
Created by head chef Laetizia Keating during lockdown, it's comforting, nostalgic and playful – much like the rest of the Pem's menu. For consultant chef Sally Abé, who oversees the restaurant, serving the dish was a no-brainer. "It does seem a bit of a weird thing to serve because you hear bacon and think breakfast, but Laetizia made it for me and it was delicious," she explains. The bacon is one of only two dishes to last from the opening menu and remains a best-seller.
The Pem is the first major project for Abé since her 2021 departure from the Harwood Arms, where she retained its title as London's only Michelin-starred pub. The Pem is located within the Conrad London St James hotel in Westminster and named after suffragette Emily Wilding Davison, who was nicknamed ‘Pem' by her close family. It boasts an all-female senior team rounded out by general manager Emma Underwood.
Abé and Keating collaborate on the menu, each bringing their own contrasting experiences. Keating cut her teeth in the kitchens at three-Michelin-starred fine dining restaurants Benu in San Francisco and Mirazur in France, while Abé majored in modern British cooking at London's two-Michelin-starred the Ledbury and the Harwood Arms. "One of the nicest things is Laetizia's worked in completely different restaurants to me, so we can bounce ideas off each other," says Abé.
The Pem's menu changes seasonally, with Abé preferring to keep things simple. A standout on the spring menu has been roasted white asparagus with hollandaise and a green herb salad. "My favourite thing is to put three things on a plate and for all of them to be amazing," explains Abé. "The older I get as a chef the less complicated I try and make my food. I'm more about taking things off than adding them."
There is a playful element that runs through many of the Pem's dishes; a guinea fowl breast main course is topped with crispy chicken skin, served with asparagus, morels stuffed with chicken mousse, and a chicken velouté that comes in an espresso cup and is left on the table to drink. "My sommelier James suggested it, so I thought OK, we'll serve a little cup of chicken soup, no one is going to complain," laughs Abé.
On the summer menu is a Winchester cheese rarebit with a tomato and peach salad. It is similar to a panzanella salad and will be served with an acidic tomato ‘water'.
Abé believes having a sense of fun in food is important. "Obviously I'm serious about what I do, but I wouldn't want anyone to come in and think the food is so over-developed they can't touch it with a knife and fork."
She is interested in old British dishes and draws inspiration from classic recipes and 1970s cookbook authors, such as Margaret Costa. "For me, it's really important to keep those dishes alive," she explains. "I want to use what's true to my heritage. I'm from a little town in the Midlands, where we used to have a cockle and pea stand, so one of the first dishes I put on was pollock with cockle and peas as a nod to that. That nostalgia element can stir emotions in people without them realising it sometimes."
This shines through in the dessert menu, which Abé says has "proper puddings" and includes nods to familiar, classic and modern flavours. A frozen strawberry shortcake is served with camomile jelly and mint, while the malted peanut and chocolate bar tastes like a gourmet version of a well-known treat.
A lemon meringue with lemon sorbet, caramelised white chocolate and hazelnut is a nod to the lemon meringue pie Abé used to make with her mother, and at the end of the meal coffees are served with chocolates flavoured with espresso martini – one of the chef's favourite cocktails.
It's a characterful end to a menu that is steeped in personal touches. As Abé explains: "All those memories and nostalgic elements are what brings the heart and soul into the food – it's not just about putting things on a plate."
From the menu
Starters
- Knife and fork bacon, pickled pearl onions, treacle, soured cream £18
- Salad of confit duck, roasted garlic vinaigrette, lamb's lettuce, toasted hazelnut £18
Mains
- Steamed Cornish pollock, Brandade cream, buttered bobby beans, lemon £32
- Roast Herdwick lamb, confit sweetbreads, tropea onion, gentleman's relish £47
- Tamarind glazed guinea fowl breast, charred Hispi, new season garlic spiced raisin dressing £38
Desserts
- Malt chocolate and peanut bar, popcorn ice-cream, opaline tuille £14
- Frozen strawberry shortcake, camomile jelly, mint £14
The Pem, 22-28 Broadway, London SW1H 0BH
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