Mr Ambassador, you really are spoiling us

Hail to the King: Pascal Proyart's special relationship with Norway brings ingredients such as this red king crab from the Barents Sea in its wake
10 April 2012

Working as head chef in a hotel doubtless has advantages. You probably get to join a pension scheme, receive decent holiday entitlement and maybe even medical insurance. There is also a chance that you will be made an ambassador. This is an honour that has been bestowed on Pascal Proyart who, for the past eight years, has been executive chef of the restaurant One-O-One in the Sheraton Park Tower Hotel. A badge sewn onto his chef's whites proclaims "Norwegian Seafood Ambassador".

The downside of being a hotel chef is being in a hotel. Even though the newly refurbished One-O-One has an entrance of its own from the street - as well as through the gloomy corridors of the Sheraton Park Tower - a revised layout which seats a relatively intimate number of customers and a new muted look created by the designers Forme, the atmosphere of corporate hotel dining has not been eradicated nor the sort of customers it attracts shooed away. Lighting fixtures suited to a medical suite and commis waiters dressed as dental hygienists are no help at all. Even Proyart's re-invented menu offering "petits plats" to allow customers a wider selection from the menu - these days a rather overworked concept - seems too little too late.

The list of small dishes, quite extravagantly priced, has headings that set the teeth on edge. They kick off with Low Tide and Wonderful Discovery and finish with The Goodness of the Sea and the Earth while taking in Delicacies from The Shore and Beyond and High Tide with Its Exceptional Sea Fishing.

The relentless emphasis on twee is exacerbated by constant questioning from the troupe of waiters as to "How is it so far?" and "Are you enjoying yourself ?" as well as admonitions such as "Take your time".

Proyart, who comes from Brittany, where his family have been restaurateurs for generations, is a skilful, imaginative chef. His special relationship with Norway brings in its wake ingredients such as red king crab from the Barents Sea plus Norwegian scallops, salmon, cod and halibut with which to conjure.

Brittany provides plenty of oysters, lobsters and other seafood. The little freebie, that sine qua non of fine dining, was a glass containing a ceviche of white fish topped with gaspacho and under-pinned with a scattering of couscous grains - delicious. Bread was served with two kinds of butter, one allegedly flavoured with seaweed but tasting more like anchovy.

Low Tide, a phrase with rather niffy overtones, delivered one of the three ways with that sci-fi creature red king crab - "Chilled with Aioli sauce and a Few Winkles". Flavour in the shellfish was fugitive - and Norwegian king crab can be so enticingly sweet. The chilling and the garlic in the mayo had done nothing to improve matters.

From the Shore and Beyond I chose red mullet bouillabaisse served with rouille and mouillette ("soldiers") made of seaweed bread. More of a punch from the red mullet would have been good; bouillabaisse should thrum with piscine action.

In the same section, and much better, was the Asian-influenced pan-seared langoustine and duck foie gras with a Peking duck consommé and hoisin froth. It was the sort of petit plat you want writ grand.

What you don't necessarily want is another dish with clever-clogs complexity which walks all over its memory. Pan-roasted halibut and langoustine dumpling with Paimpol (a small town in Brittany) coco beans truffle cassoulet, sauce Nantua effectively did that.

Norwegian cod loin served with finely sliced chorizo, squid à la plancha and olive oil, lemon, garlic and anchovies had been cooked sous-vide. Chefs are increasingly turning to what I think is a distinctly unsexy way of cooking with all vital tension removed as ingredients bathe for hours or days in an electronically controlled water bath. It did, however, give Reg and me another entry in our ongoing game of Unfortunate Families: Mr and Mrs Veed and their tragically vapid daughter Sue Veed.

I would love to eat Proyart's food away from a hotel dining room where every little dish is accompanied by no fewer than three waiters as it is brought to the table. It would be good if excellent sommelier Alessandro Bonuzzi was with him. Failing that, I would certainly go back to One-O-One for lunch when prices are ameliorated and Harvey Nicks is open. It is by no means Room 101.

One-O-One
Knightsbridge, London, SW1X 7RN

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