The acclaimed French chef Claude Bosi has today opened a new rooftop restaurant paying homage to British motoring and aviation.
Brooklands sits on top of the five-star Peninsula Hotel and is named after the historic racetrack in Surrey — a circuit synonymous with record breaking driving — which dates back to 1907.
Long considered the birthplace of British motorsport, Brooklands also played a prominent role in its early aviation, having been the meeting point for the British and French engineers behind Concorde.
Before heading to the rooftop restaurant, guests arriving at the top floor of The Peninsula London will be greeted by a rotating collection of memorabilia, including the Napier Railton, the legendary aero-engined racing car, and the original Concorde nose cone.
The dining room and adjacent terrace have views across Hyde Park and beyond and is full of motoring and aviation models and artwork. Many pieces of furniture are replicas from the original Concorde lounge.
Elsewhere at the venue will be a tasting room, a cigar lounge, and tabac, each trumpeting motorsport and flying. Expect leather-lined wall panelling inspired by the Rolls Royce Silver Ghost and a glass chandelier inspired by the blades of its turbine engines.
As far as the food goes, Bosi, best-known for his two Michelin-star Bibendum, has created a menu of “creative European cuisine” alongside chef de cuisine Francesco Dibenedetto, formerly sous chef at Le Gavroche.
Described in press fluff as “a chef-led space,” Brooklands will serve British ingredients cooked with traditional French techniques. Dishes will include Exmoor caviar with Roscoff onion and duck jelly; Great Fen Farm celeriac nosotto - risotto of potatoes - with crab and coconut; Racan guinea fowl with sea beets and Scottish razor clams; and Scottish cèpes, banana and crème fraîche.
In the bar are “gourmet” beers and ciders, aperitifs, fine wines and spirits, and a new Mach II gin from Cambridge Distillery distilled for the restaurant. A snack menu there includes lobster rolls, Welsh rarebit, whelks with tartare sauce, and a leek tart with preserved black truffle.
