Going the whole hog

This week marks the 10th anniversary of the splendid Clerkenwell restaurant St John, and also the republication of chef Fergus Henderson's essential cooking guide to Nose to Tail Eating - A Kind of British Cooking (Bloomsbury £16.99). The title is illustrated by a pig marked off into its various cuts; absolutely nothing going to waste.

I've sung the praises of St John often enough in these pages but, whereas most restaurants mutate or deteriorate over 10 years, the meal I had at St John last week, of langoustines with mayonnaise followed by roast grouse with bread sauce and buttered Savoy cabbage, was unassailable - and also most chivalrously served.

I could have ordered a bowl of crispy pig's skin in the bar. Half a braised pig's head had been offered as a special for the whole table but my companions chickened out, or rather they went for the roast Middlewhite pork with prunes.

Fergus Henderson and also Ashley Hancill, chef of THE PIG'S EAR in Chelsea, might be interested in the naturalist Lyall Watson's recently published work, The Whole Hog: Exploring the Extraordinary Potential of Pigs (Profile Books £16.99).

Watson's contention is that we will never know the true potential of pigs because it lies in the hands (or trotters) of the animals themselves; pigs remain masters of their own destiny. His theory, at this moment in political time, could give new insight to a reading of George Orwell's Animal Farm.

Until our porcine friends take over, you can eat pan-fried pig's trotter with Puy lentils and deep-fried onion rings at the recently opened first-floor restaurant of The Pig's Ear, a pub which has been rather beautifully re-modelled by, among others, Ollie Daniaud, who co-owns The Westbourne, and Jamie Prudom, who formerly ran Catch.

Chef Hancill has worked with Marco Pierre White and Gary Rhodes and was for a while head chef at Alastair Little, a suitable pedigree for his robust and roistering menu.

I started with the trotter which had been brined, de-boned and made into a breadcrumbed patty, in other words denatured. It was pig's trotter for Findus fans.

Caramelised smoked eel with pomme fondant (very MPW), wilted spinach and beetroot relish had been kippered by the caramelising process. Serving smoked eel warm isn't a good idea, was the judgment. However, Norfolk cauliflower soup with almond oil was much liked. Little clusters of cauliflower disported themselves in the froth of the broth.

The small dining-room, panelled in dark wood and decorated in part by a portrait of a pig Toulouse-Lautrec might have painted, looks into the restaurant kitchen.

A certain amount of chaos - or so it seemed - might have been the reason for our main courses having too much resemblance to one another in terms of their garnishes. Braised saltmarsh lamb shanks, rabbit confit with roast tomatoes, and roast poussin "on" truffled leeks, all served in white soup plates as is the gastropub habit, seemed more or less united in their saucing and not much differentiated by their vegetables.

However, the main ingredient in each case was well cooked, the lamb tender but not in rags, the rabbit nicely bolstered by the confit process, and the poussin as good as that rather spineless bird can be.

Both toffee ice cream - requested without the caramelised bananas that were the advertised accompaniment - and apple-and-plum crumble were too sweet to be beguiling. Our waiter, though, managed just the right balance.

The Pig's Ear is a nice little restaurant du quartier and if you desire the eponymous extremity, it sometimes appears on the enterprising bar menu, sliced and served as goujons.

The Pig's Ear
35 Old Church Street, SW3 (020 7352 2908)
Restaurant open Tuesday-Saturday 7-10.15pm (last orders) and Sunday noon-4pm. A meal for two with wine, about £72 excluding service.

The Pig's Ear
35 Old Church Street, SW3 5BS

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