EATING IN

Tom relives the real-life pleasures of dining out with box kits from his favourite Italian restaurants

Just after noon on a brisk spring day, and I’m sitting outside at The River Cafe with co-columnist Olly Smith. As ever, he takes care of the wine, and as the food starts to appear, lockdown seems like a dim and distant dream. Here, with an old friend, in one of my favourite restaurants on earth. But then cold reality crashes through those blue-striped awnings. When we realise we’re alone – save a bustling kitchen knocking up endless restaurant boxes – sitting two metres apart, Covid tested and Covid safe. We’re doing a photo shoot for the main paper, and the communal joys of a busy restaurant are still a while away.

No matter, as we get to devour one of their boxes – Set One, to be precise (shoptherivercafe.co.uk, £140 for two people, plus £15 delivery within M25 only; other options available nationwide) – sitting outside in the sun. The food is simple but peerless. Excellent fresh mozzarella with smashed chickpeas and soft, charred pumpkin. Then a great majestic tranche of turbot, with garlicky greens, and a bowl of slow-cooked Datterini tomatoes, sweetly intense. And whole charred Violetta artichokes. Any remaining juice is mopped up with great chunks of oil-slicked focaccia. For pudding, a joyous pear and almond tart. Not cheap, but worth every penny.

More class from East London’s Luca (luca.bignight.app, from £90 for two). Braised artichokes and fennel with a rich, pure walnut salsa, all well balanced acidity and satisfying crunch. Then lasciviously creamy whipped salt

Left:

The River Cafe’s mozzarella with smashed chickpeas and roasted pumpkin. slow-cooked short rib of Hereford beef from Luca

Right:

cod with bitter cima di rapa, soft confit garlic and shards of spicy fried bread. Simple to make, joyous to eat, a riot of tastes and textures.

Strozzapreti with wild mushrooms and winter truffle butter is a pasta dish of quiet genius. It renders my brother-in-law and I speechless with greedy delight. Again, cooking involves little more than boiling fresh pasta and heating up the sauce. There’s a

slow-cooked short rib of good, aged Hereford beef, soft and rich, with smoke-scented potato purée, with a sharp, lively salsa verde. Pudding is a chocolate mousse with vanilla cream.

The menu will have changed by now, but the quality will endure. Like the River Cafe, this is box food of the highest order. For us, a lockdown luxury. But for those restaurants working so hard to stay afloat, it’s nothing short of a lifeline.

Joyous to eat, it renders us speechless with greedy delight