Bosi’s Ballad Of The Bouillon
A gastronomic grandparent is often cited as a culinary North Star in many a cook’s trajectory. Here too, the fêted Lyon-born chef/restaurateur Claude Bosi and his wife Lucy have dedicated two London restaurants to his maternal grandmother in quick succession; with a menu and in a manner that would make any food-loving French grandparent burst with pride.
Their first incarnation, Joséphine Bouchon, a locals spot in Chelsea, garnered an ardent following when it opened last year, principally for it’s neighbourly feel and exemplary plates of meat-heavy Lyonnaise cooking by head chef Matteo de Degola. A mere 12 months later, Joséphine Marylebone, serves up the Bosi take on classic Parisian brasserie fare with a 92 seater that looks set to take root just as fast.
The menu reads less like a bill of fare and more like a bill of rights. A Gallic manifesto that could conceivably be nailed to the door of the Cordon Blue Culinary Institute or handed out to their students upon graduation. Bouncing from Gillardeau oysters - prized show ponies in the bivalve world - through to rillettes and terrines made by George Jephson, the world-conquering charcuterie champion. On it flows, Fruits de Mer featuring langoustine, crab, caviar and the less-seen whelk amongst other aquatic luminaries. There are plats à partager that could inspire still-life painters and of course there’s a section entitled PDT (pomme de terre) dedicated to the boundless butter-based magic a classically-trained chef can bestow upon the humble tuber.
This deeply-evocative trio of rooms decked out in wood panelling, antique bevelled mirrors, Art Deco lighting, Lautrec-style pastel tableaus and lipstick red banquettes are completely transporting. Summoning the spirit of Chartier, Terminus Nord, Bofinger and other iconic bouillons and brasseries across La Manche. It could well lure you into ordering the Escargots à l’Ail. As redolent as they are of a meal in the French capital, they are merely a chewy vehicle for the honk of the very fine garlic butter. A better place to start is with a dish that has migrated from their West London outpost. Here in W1, the soufflé is folded through with a punchy Camembert, in place of the alpine Saint-Félicien, but retains it’s cousin’s requisite diaphanous cloud-like airiness and sunset hue. Ably accompanied by a rich moppable cheese sauce that barely tethers it to the plate. This is a must-order. Elsewhere in the room, devilled eggs, jumbo white asparagus with Mousseline sauce and a heady Soupe de Poisson were being lapped up with gusto.
The entrées are another excuse for the kitchen to flex it’s Escoffier-honed muscles. The foundational ‘mother sauces’ and their descendant daughters are in full effect here. Bordelaise, Hollandaise and Charcutière sauces accompany the beef fillet, Cornish brill and pork belly respectively - all of remarkable quality. In the case of the Bordelaise, the sheen from the demi-glace base could well negate the need for a mirror. Equally, a butterflied Black Leg chicken is bathed in a glassy pool of morel-infused creaminess. The Marengo sauce too, here coating pork and spinach faggots fortified with ox heart, glistens with sticky tomato and fungi-flecked intent. It’s hard not to lick the plate with sauces of this stature, so bread will have to make do.
French tradition dictates that salad and or cheese should follow the main course and so protocol is kept. A seemingly straightforward-sounding endive salad with crumbled Roquefort is elevated in quality and scale. This Jenga tower of equally-sized crisp dressed leaves dotted with the cheek-sucking tang of this southern France cheese makes for an unexpected highlight.
To close, a veritable smörgåsbord of temptation for the sweet-toothed. A grand-looking chocolate mousse for two is doing brisk trade as is a retro Banana Split and Rum Baba. On our table, a slice of well-executed caramelised lemon tart finds perfect balance with a quenelle of crème fraiche.
This all feels like proper grown-up big-night-out cooking, but with a weekday lunchtime plat du jour at £16.50, the Menu Duval (named after butcher Adolphe-Baptiste Duval, an early proponent of the Parisian ‘bouillons’), a two-course prix fixe at £24.50 and a bottle of the house (Rhône) wine at £28; this is not necessarily the preserve of the deep-pocketed. Saying that, it would be easy to go large, lingering too long in the Fruit de Mer section alone could be ruinous, as could a trip to the business end of the exclusively French regional wine list, where even the gin and vodka are from the motherland.
Another notable duplication from Joséphine in Chelsea is the seamless service. Jérôme Caunday who ran the floor there crosses town to Marylebone and makes for one of the most gracious GMs in the city. Likewise, the esteemed Will Smith (ex-Arbutus/Wild Honey) floats in the background and drops by for table side chats while sommelier Paolo Tabacchi ensures a beat is not missed.
Claude and his wife Lucy have reached the heady heights in this industry with a brace of two Michelin-starred outfits - Bibendum and Brooklands. But it is here, with a more unbuttoned offer, that the Bosis seem to be in their element. On the strength of these two outings and without wishing to dilute the first two, it would seem plausible that another dedication to his beloved grandma could be on the cards in the not-to-distant future.