Wolfgang Puck, the chef who has cooked for the Oscars for almost 30 years, is to bring the restaurant which first made his name to London for a brief pop-up. Spago will open in Cut at 45 Park Lane for a handful of days at the end of March, returning to the capital for the first time since a brief stint in the summer of 2017.
Puck first opened the original Beverly Hills Spago in 1983, swiftly attracting the glitzy local clientele and rewriting the rulebook for Californian cuisine.
As in Britain at the time, restaurants in California were largely dominated by French fine-dining. Spago opened at the height of Chez Panisse’s fame, but rejected the trend of imported classic French stuffiness, instead opting for dishes with less formality. The menu was full of things diners would now take for granted at any opening worth its salt in London: wood-fired pizzas, seasonal local ingredients and grills. The use of salmon with roe on a luxurious pizzette might not seem groundbreaking today, but in the early Eighties, it was transformative. Appetisers would include raw tuna with avocado and daikon; this influence of both Asian flavours, alongside lighter European dishes would go on to help define what Californian cuisine was, which in turn has helped shape much of London dining too.
The Spago pop up will feature many of Puck’s revolutionary dishes. Guests can expect stir-fried black pepper lobster, Austrian beef goulash with spaetzle and whole roast duck served with individual bao buns. The caviar-topped smoked salmon pizza is also due to make an appearance.
Working alongside Puck will be Tetsu Yahagi, executive chef of Spago in Beverly Hills. Both will partner with the Park Lane team.
Executive chef of Cut at 45 Park Lane, Elliot Grover, said of the Spago pop-up: “I think the dishes we have chosen are really special in that they not only give guests the chance to experience Spago in the UK, but they are aligned with the culinary direction I have taken Cut in the past few months.
“It is such an honour to be working alongside Tetsu Yahagi and Wolfgang Puck.”
