Mark Sargeant, the renowned TV chef, restaurateur and recipe book author, has announced he will join The Strand Dining Rooms as Chef Director this month. Sargeant, who spent 13 years working with Gordon Ramsay, including seven years as Head Chef at Gordon Ramsay at Claridge’s, will introduce an entirely new Great British menu at the all-day restaurant and cocktail bar, available from Friday 3 April.
In keeping with The Strand Dining Rooms location and classic interior, and taking inspiration from London’s historic dining rooms, Sargeant’s new ingredient-led menu will be available seven days a week from breakfast through to dinner and offer a modern take on ‘classic British dishes’. With a focus on the use of seasonal British produce, the partnership will also see Sargeant creating a weekly-changing set lunch and pre/post-theatre menu at the restaurant.
Modern take on ‘classic British dishes’
Sargeant’s new menu will offer daily specials, as well as meat dishes including a 1kg ’28-day aged Angus Porterhouse steak, served with beer-battered onions & chips’(for two to share) and ‘Whole roast British wood pigeon’. Fish dishes such as ‘Poached Loch Duart salmon with green sauce & mimosa garnish’ and ‘The Strand Fish Pie’, will sit alongside vegetarian mains including ‘Whole roast onion squash, curly kale, poached egg & hollandaise’. Desserts continue the Great British menu theme and will include ‘Rhubarb crumble with clotted cream’ and ‘Lemon cheesecake with Earl Grey prunes’. A British Artisan cheeseboard will also be available, served with homemade oatcakes and PX raisins.
Accepting the challenge
Mark Sargeant commented ahead of the new menu launch on Friday 3rd April, “I’ve always been interested in the old school dining scene in London, where food was simple, unfussy and honest, but done with good quality ingredients and personality. When Mark (Harris) asked me to work with him on a new Great British menu at The Strand Dining Rooms I gladly accepted the challenge. With the new menu, I’m introducing classic dishes in a modern style, which fits well with the restaurant’s location, décor and grandeur. This place now has all the makings of a true modern British classic.”
Mark Sargeant’s new menu will be available at The Strand Dining Rooms from 12 noon on Friday 3rd April 2015.
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About Mark Sargeant
Born and raised in the heart of the Kent countryside, Mark Sargeant is a TV chef, restaurateur and recipe book author, with over 20 years in the business, notably opening and working as Head Chef at the highly acclaimed Gordon Ramsay at Claridge’s for seven years, between 2001 and 2008.
After graduating from West Kent College in 1992, Sargeant started in the kitchen at the Michelin-starred Read’s Restaurant in Faversham under David Pitchford. Following this he worked at various restaurants including Oliver Peyton’s Coast Restaurant, where he first met Gordon Ramsay. After leaving Read’s, Sargeant first worked with Ramsay at the historic Aubergine in 1998, before spending four years as Sous Chef at Restaurant Gordon Ramsay in Chelsea from 1998 to 2001, where he helped earn the restaurant three Michelin stars.
During his 13 years with Ramsay, Sargeant was responsible for all of his media activities and co-authored a number of his recipe books, as well as himself contributing to regular food columns in The Times, Olive and BBC Good Food magazines. He won the prestigious Craft Guild of Chefs ‘Chef of the Year’ award in 2002. Sargeant also oversaw the successful opening of Ramsay’s pubs including The Narrow.
Leaving Gordon Ramsay Holdings in 2009, Sargeant opened his first two solo restaurants – the harbour-front restaurant and bar ‘Rocksalt’ and fish & chip restaurant and takeaway ‘The Smokehouse’, in Folkestone, Kent, in 2011. He also published his first solo recipe book ‘My Kind of Cooking’ (published by Quercus) the same year. Sargeant is a regular on food TV shows such as Saturday Kitchen, and is consultant chef at Plum + Spilt Milk restaurant at the Great Northern Hotel in London’s King’s Cross.
Follow Mark Sargeant on twitter @MarkSargey10 and Instagram @MarkSargey10
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