Costly issue on opening night

The grey walls of Ristorante Fiore's long, narrow dining room are broken up by pictures with bold slabs of colour

Ristorante Fiore in St James's opened on 20 December 2004, which is when I ate dinner there. I know this is not considered a kindly thing for a critic to do - unless, of course, you are a theatre critic attending a first night - but full prices were being charged and the chef involved, according to the publicity, has more than 25 years' experience.

Umberto Vezzoli has apparently scaled many peaks in his career of cooking in Italy, from gaining a Michelin star in 1991 for the Casanova Grill at the Hotel Palace in Milan to overseeing the state banquets and private functions at the Palazzo del Quirinale, the Rome residence of the Italian president. (Whether that was for Tone's friend Silvio, the publicity doesn't say.)

Vezzoli has also won prizes and consulted for hotel groups in Bali, Mombassa and Tokyo, among other places, and recently acted as consultant chef to the Royal Palace of the King of Morocco.

Opening a relatively small gaff, previously Fleur and before that Petrus, up the road from Clarence House, the residence of the Prince of Wales, would surely be a doddle for our Umberto, who is working for entrepreneur Claudio Pulze.

Pulze recently emerged as one of the triumphant purchasers of the A-Z restaurant group - Alloro-Zafferano by way of several other interesting outlets.

Vezzoli sums up his cooking philosophy thus: "Quite simply, perfectly prepared dishes with the freshest ingredients reflecting the colours and flavours of Italy."

Oh, how I long for a chef who publicly espouses stale food beyond its sell-by date and boasts of applying intricate sauces to mask the bad smells, but that would not be the way of an "ambassador of Italian cooking".

Four of us sat in the long, narrow room which no amount of re-styling - as has been done with stainless-steel edges on now grey walls and bold pictures in slabs of colour - can render as anything much more than long and narrow, and studied the menu, initially notable for the prices. It is not that they are astoundingly high - that is not Pulze's way - but they are expressed in words, not figures.

For example, it says before the dish is described, "seven pounds" for a starter of "porrata" of potatoes and aubergines with tomatoes and "nine and a half pounds" for linguine pasta with Mediterranean lobster and Granny Smith apple. First you think it's the weight of the dish, then you think it's the amount you will pile on by eating it. It's a silly, annoying affectation.

Carpaccio of zucchini (courgettes) with smoked scamorza cheese featured almost raw courgette slices and some unannounced tomatoes. A dish of the day, or "weekly extravaganza" as it is described, sfogliata of mushrooms and cheese, was made with undercooked pasty pastry which was distinctly unappealing.

Garganelli with crabmeat had a tomato sauce in which crab was hard to discern. Risotto prepared "carbonara" style sported bulletlike, undercooked rice. This was after a long wait which we thought might be explicable on account of ordering risotto.

Another long wait preceded slightly better and possibly vaguely healthy main courses of pan-fried diced chicken with salad and " millefoglie" of veal with braised radicchio and mushrooms. The chicken was swamped with the flavour of rosemary like the scent of a woman who has up-ended a bottle over her person, and the salad was presented in a Parmesan basket, a favoured device that cropped up in other courses.

Millefoglie, the Italian for millefeuilles, involving dicing and slicing but no pastry in sight, is another popular presentation which appears in a first course and also in a dessert of pears with balsamic vinegar zabaglione. As one of my companions gloomily observed: "There is nothing here you would want to take home."

Another of Claudio Pulze's Italian restaurants, Al Duca, just around the corner in Duke of York Street, is a model of its kind. I can only hope that going to Ristorante Fiore on the first

evening was indeed unfair and that it will get much, much better.

Ristorante Fiore
33 St James's Street, SW1

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