Canned Eats by
Mario Wyn-Jones
Parkes Restaurant in Beauchamp Place, Knightsbridge was famed throughout the 60s and well into the 70s as the most innovative and fashionable of London’s restaurants. Mario Wyn-Jones looks back on a totally different food philosophy…
It was The Ivy and Restaurant Gordon Ramsay rolled into one. Diners included the A-list royals and celebs of the day – Princess Anne, King Constantine, Goldie Hawn, Tony Curtis, David Bowie, John Lennon, Paul McCartney, Mick Jagger – and the cooking won multi-starred recognition in the main restaurant guides. Flowers were everywhere, blending in with the intimate candlelit atmosphere, polished pine tables, glossy vinyl seating and the stunning collection of spot-lit contemporary artwork.
The food, too, played its part: adorned with flowers, starters were flamboyant with rhododendron leaves liberally studded with gaudy dahlias and chrysanthemums; sweets came with a mass of pretty roses, lilies, anemones or tulips, depending on availability – the flower bill was astronomical!
...He successfully juxtaposed flavours and textures previously unheard of....
To accompany all this Ray Parkes, a contemporary of George Perry-Smith (Hole in the Wall, Bath), Kenneth Bell (Thornbury Castle), Francis Coulson and Brian Sack (Sharrow Bay Hotel), had created his own unique, unconventional repertoire of dishes. He successfully juxtaposed flavours and textures previously unheard of, introducing them on his weekly-changing five-course fixed-price menus with names like Utter Bliss; Some Like It Hot; Ugly, Ugly Duckling; Banana Rumble; and Chocolate Sludge.
Generally, no expense was spared in obtaining the best available ingredients: prime Scottish fillet steaks, racks of lamb, ready-boned whole baby chickens and veal escalopes from the very best butcher in Knightsbridge; whole Stiltons and Roquefort from Harrods.
...The storeroom contained hundreds of cans of soup: vichyssoise for the chilled cream soups and cream sauces, cream of chicken (the bits of chicken strained out) for the hot soups, and beef consommé used as a stock for some meat sauces...
But Ray Parkes was also a practical man. Why spend costly hours making a proper, classically made vichyssoise when a good quality canned variety would suffice? – especially as it would not be served per se, but used solely as a base. The storeroom contained hundreds of cans of soup: vichyssoise for the chilled cream soups and cream sauces, cream of chicken (the bits of chicken strained out) for the hot soups, and beef consommé used as a stock for some meat sauces. There were only three chefs and they had to work in the confines of an extremely cramped cellar kitchen. This necessitated a great deal of advance preparation so that by the time the first diners arrived at 7.30 the contents of those tins had been well and truly blended and stirred into some original creations, stunning in both looks and taste.
 A part of Parkes’ genius was that, without exception, his dishes were incredibly simple. They were dishes anyone could prepare at home with a minimum of fuss and bother. The cold champagne sauce that accompanied salmon en croute was just good quality mayonnaise blended with sour cream and NV champagne. Mayonnaise was mixed with puréed apples and a good measure of Calvados to make the sauce for half a roasted boned baby chicken stuffed with tinned apples and whole almonds.
Pheasant pie, a seasonal favourite, was a little more conventionally and classically prepared. The birds were larded then part roasted; the breasts carefully removed, and the remainder made into a rich dark stock with vegetables, herbs and oranges. The breasts were placed with tinned apricot halves and whole peeled chestnuts in an individual pie dish with the reduced stock flavoured with Grand Marnier, and baked under a pastry crust to delicious effect.
Main courses came only with potatoes, diced and cooked in milk with butter. In winter, a sensational purée of celeriac, Jerusalem artichokes and cream was also offered. Next came a vinaigrette-dressed green salad, accompanied by a moreish cheese paté of Roquefort, cream cheese and Armagnac.
Desserts were simple but again immensely successful. Strawberries MacRomanoff, for instance, were fresh strawberries stirred with double cream, sugar and more than a few drams of Drambuie. Fresh cherries were marinated in brandy and sugar and served with vanilla ice cream.
The meal ended with coffee – Nescafé’s Continental Blend 37 - a luxury instant coffee in those days. It was very strong and if customers asked for the name – and many did, they enjoyed it so much – waiters were instructed to say it was a special blend.
Fresh dates and Bendick’s Bitter Mints rounded off a meal, which in 1970 cost 85 shillings (£4.25) – a small fortune.
Try some of Parkes' soup recipes...
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