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In 1999, the chef Tom Aikens hit the headlines after an incident involving a member of his staff in the kitchens of London's Pied a Terre restaurant. There were two versions of the story: the horrible one was that Aikens had branded his colleague with a red-hot palette
knife; the more likely one that it was a playful tap that had been misinterpreted. In the ensuing fall-out, Aikens left the restaurant and vanished into culinary hinterlands unknown.
For the past four years, he has been cooking privately - for seriously rich clients such as Anthony Bamford and Andrew Lloyd Webber - while nurturing and implementing long-held plans for him and his wife to have their own restaurant. And, on the site of a former pub in Chelsea in London, Tom Aikens the restaurant has finally opened.
The grotty old Marlborough Arms has been razed to the ground and the new building that rises in its place is a testament to the sleek power of pared-down modern design. There is lots of glass and black wood, there are metal tubs full of clipped boxwood stagily marching down the pavement outside and, within, an interior designed by that queen of minimal luxury, Anouska Hempel. Yes, the very same exacting woman who once used 26 shades of white paint to decorate the foyer of her Blakes Hotel in Amsterdam.
Here, Hempel has decided on a strictly neutral and natural palette. Inside, there is a dark, candlelit womb, which does duty as a holding area and bar, while the rectangular 60-seat restaurant retains its air of mystery to the outside world, with dark, wooden blinds ranged against the windows that run down two sides.
The round tables are theatrically draped in black, with the finest cloths of raw...