Le Grand Fromage

Week 12 - sorry no post last week as I was a bit busy


This week's Food of the Week is more of a Food Shop of the Week!

La Fromagerie on Moxon Street, off Marylebone High Street, is [to everyone's great surprise] a cheese shop. But it also sells beautiful charcuterie, chocolates, cakes, wines, butters and just about every 'nice' food thing under the sun. You can even have lunch or parties there
So what's the difference?

Unlike a standard deli, it sells a few really good things and there is practically no deli clutter of gimmicky things that no one really wants hanging around. It's all about quality. It also has a tasting cafe where you can choose examples of the foods that are on sale in the shop.
Be prepared for one very strange thing though! The cheese area is kept closed by a sliding glass door and you're asked to make an orderly queue (I wonder if a Brit is responsible for this novel idea) to take your turn inside the inner sanctum.

Where can I find La Fromagerie?

Moxon Street just off Marylebone High St. Helpfully it's next door to Ginger Pig butchers and round the corner from the very nice Sunday farmers market (10am-2pm) so there's plenty of other things to see



Restaurant of the Week

The Providores, Marylebone High Street (a short walk from Baker St or Bond St tubes)
http://www.theprovidores.co.uk/
So whilst you're in the area, go and visit The Providores. It's one of the few restaurants that made fusion work and produces great twists on Pacific Rim food so it's really quite different from other restaurants. My favourite is the downstairs tapa room which is all about casual dining on benches or little tables. I've never made it to Sunday brunch here but have been told that it's excellent and well worth a short queue.

Upstairs is more about fine dining with white tablecloths - great if you're looking to impress someone!

The genius behind Providores is Peter Gordon, a very nice New Zealander who produced the most amazing canapes at a young chef event I attended a long time ago. I was fortunate to be talking to a larger than life chef who had a great knack for attracting the canapes over to our end of the room and it goes down as one of my best food experiences!!!

If you're in the area, just find a reason to pop in and you will be sure to have a great meal and you won't break the bank as it's about £20-40 per head

n.b. one of the founding members of The Providores, Anna Hansen, has gone on to open The Modern Pantry in Farringdon where you will find more fusion style cuisine..