Andrew's tour of London Feeling flash

Date Published:

31/10/2008

After visiting London's only Jelly mongers, I was looking for something else unique in the capital. I found it courtesy of food blogger, Douglas Blyde who joined me for a natter over lunch at pop-up restaurant, Flash

Flash is the second pop-up restaurant by Pablo Flack and David Waddington, with Tom Collins taking care of the cooking. Unlike the first restaurant, Reindeer, which existed for a fleeting six weeks in 2006, Flash is sticking around a bit longer – three months in fact - as it's part of the GSK exhibition at the Royal Academy (RA).

So what about the food? Well a starter of ham hock and smoked eel terrine for me and steak tartare for Douglas both hit the spot. Douglas stayed on cold dishes with the Flash fish taco, all very light and zingy. I went completely the other way and hunkered down in winter mode with a nice breast of roast guinea fowl with carrot and salsify. Obviously these opposing tastes, textures and even temperatures meant asking a lot of the wine, and in the end we met in no-man's-land and settled on a light Pinot Noir.

A word with the manager please

After lunch I had a chat with David about the highs and lows of temporary restaurateur-ing. Firstly, can food be art? "I don't like the idea of food as art," replies Davis. "It has a commercial end and its reason to exist is commercial, in that respect it's more akin to fashion. We have just arrived, we will disappear, we're an installation, but I don't think we're art." Unlike say, the cafe Tate Modern, however, Flash was conceived as an exhibit. "The curator of the show wanted something live in the space, with a cross over into performance art," says David.

Flash has taken over a year of planning, and the result is a pastiche of a grand dining room. The carpet was custom made and using packaging crates around the room provides a nod to the tradition of wooden wall panelling. The crockery was custom made by Wedgewood and decorated with designs by Will Broome and finally, from the ceiling, hangs a slowly revolving chandelier designed by Giles Deacon together with Swarovski.

Behind the pass

"The RA have been nothing but supportive of this project," David tells me. However there have been some constraints, what with the building suffering considerable damage after a major fire in 2006. This has presented some interesting challenges for chef, Tom Collins, who very kindly gave me a tour of his kitchen and showed me how, despite the ban on gas cookers, he's able to produce such amazing cuisine. You can watch my tour of the kitchen and chat with Tom below, and can try Flash for yourself until January 19, 2009.

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