In trying to use only UK produce, there's a ban on citrus... but that means creativity flourishes at the London location of Simon Rogan's Cartmel restaurant, says Maria Mellor
There's no hiding for head chef Charlie Tayler at Aulis. Guests are so close to the action they can feel the heat of the charcoal barbecuing scallops and charring cuts of lamb. Everything happens in the main restaurant at a counter for 12 guests.
"No pressure," he jokes as his guests finish a course of Orkney scallops, fermented borage honey, squash and seaweed and hungrily eye up the next dish being prepared.
The restaurant is part of Simon Rogan's Umbel restaurant group and one of four Aulis restaurants across the globe. This iteration in London's Soho, with executive chef Oli Marlow, opened in 2017 as a minute and secretive chef's table before taking over the site next door, which was refurbished and reopened in May 2023. Even the Soho public get a glimpse of the chefs at work with the restaurant's wide, uncovered windows – a huge turnaround for a site that at one time didn't even have its name on the door.
It won its first Michelin star in 2024 – "Aulis was the first restaurant I've worked in that didn't have that accolade," says Tayler. "I wanted to make it my mission to rectify that."
The 15 courses follow Rogan's doctrines of seasonal and local, with many ingredients coming from the farm – lovingly referred to as "Our Farm" – in the Cartmel Valley in Cumbria. It means that the chefs can request what they might need ahead of the seasons. Tayler has just asked for strawberries to be planted for a dish he plans to put on the menu in the summer.
On today's menu there's the farm's first harvest of Oscar peas on top of a seaweed custard and beef tendons, covered in beef broth. The peas are lightly cooked on the barbecue so they maintain the sweet flavour granted to them by their freshness, and the rich custard and broth are cut through with elderflower vinegar, made with flowers from last year. There are many different types of vinegar or choices of acidity, as one of the key pillars of the restaurant is to avoid the use of citrus fruits.
"We make our own vinegars and use products we can source from the UK that carry that similar flavour, such as gooseberries and rhubarb," says Tayler.
This can be seen in the truffle pudding starter – a savoury bread and butter pudding made with croissants baked in-house the day before. More richness is added with a Cora Lynn cheese topping and birch syrup, made from the group's silver birch trees in the Lake District, balanced with a pine gel made from Douglas fir vinegar.
"Lots of acidity is very important," says Tayler. "Especially when you have a tasting menu the size of ours – it's important to keep things light and fresh throughout."
Each item on the drinks menu – crafted by head sommelier Charles Carron Brown – looks like a potion, none more so than the ‘Sunshine & Blackberries', made with a Japanese tea called Black Sun, which is cooked for 45 minutes with unfermented red grape juice, freeze-dried blackcurrants, beetroot juice, cocoa nibs and a dash of red wine vinegar.
"The alcohol-free pairings are made with byproducts of the dishes where possible, and ingredients from the farm too," says Tayler. It's paired with the dish of dry-aged Herdwick lamb loin with variegated kales, Otter Vale mustard and a sauce infused with elderflower vinegar.
The menu culminates in two petits fours: a Kendal mint cake – a nod to the Northern roots of Simon Rogan's group – is formed into the shape of a pebble and hidden in a bowl of real pebbles as a last bit of fun. A tartlet looks to be topped with strawberry preserve, but actually has the more complex flavour of perilla, which is in the same family as Japanese shiso. It sits on top of a juniper fudge so soft and gooey it has to be contained within a thin pastry.
"I always think it's a bit more luxurious when you have those sort of textures," says Tayler.
It's clear to see the environmental efforts made throughout, and looking at the plates confirms it, with their chips and cracks patched up with golden kintsugi. Turn your plate over, and you might see that it has been made by Tayler himself, his initials carved into the base, putting his stamp on Aulis in more ways than one.
From the menu
- Gooseberry tart, raw sea bream in coal oil, radish, nasturtium, spring shoots and flowers
- Large White pork and Devonshire eel doughnut, cured pork fast and Our blend of caviar
- Herdwick lamb belly with fermented beans and black garlic
- Orkney scallops cooked over embers, fermented borage honey, Hunter F1 squash and seaweed
- Yukon Golden potatoes cooked in chicken fat, Newlyn Market crab, wild garlic and horseradish
- Steamed west coast cod with fermented white asparagus, wild thyme and whey onions
- Bee pollen cake, Champagne rhubarb, pineapple weed cream and preserved roses
- Aulis – fig leaf mousse, compressed conference pears, juices infused with fig leaf
- Roasted juniper fudge tartlet with preserved perilla
16 St Anne's Court, London W1F 0BF
