Tom Aikens Finds His Muse

Saturday, February 01st , 2020

This week I went to Muse (pictured), the new Belgravia fine dining venture from Tom Aikens. This is a tiny restaurant and very much aimed at the fine dining end of things, serving a no-choice tasting menu with evocative names. The good thing is that Tom Aikens has always been a fine chef, even if in recent years he has been distracted by running a small group of more casual restaurants. Now he is back behind the stoves and serving up some excellent dishes. Although there was a touch of inconsistency, there were some impressive dishes on display. This is certainly one of the best new openings in London for quite some time.   

The 2020 Michelin guide to France was announced. There was a high profile demotion for Paul Bocuse, but three new three star places in the form of Kei in Paris, Chistopher Coutancea in La Rochelle and l’Oustea de Baumanaire in Provence. There were no less than 11 new two star places, and here was also a major shake up at the one star level. There were 37 new one stars and, interestingly, 52 demotions at the one star level. I cannot recall a guide that had more demotions than promotions.