The Last Supper...For Now&nbsp;

BY NEAL MARTIN | APRIL 16, 2020Amid tumultuous times, I reflect upon the two soirées that took place in the twilight
days of the pre-coronavirus world, including a dinner with Vinous forum
members, finishing with a shard of optimism for an unwritten future.

Like myself, you are reading this in self-isolation as Covid-19
inexorably sweeps across the world, dismantling the fragile framework of
society and turning loss of life into mind-numbing statistics. Just a couple of
weeks into lockdown, I find myself wistfully looking back upon the twilight
days of my previous life, picking out mundane details of freedom now seen in a
new light of appreciation: the morning walk to the shops, catching a crowded
train, browsing a busy market, meals with friends. It is trivial in the scheme
of things, but I already miss eating out, whether it is visiting the fish and
chips shop around the corner or dining in top restaurants in order to write reviews.
Events overtook my planned contributions to Vinous Table, made redundant as the
hospitality industry teeters on the brink of a vast unknown, surviving from one
day to the next. Of course, this predicament must be taken in context against a
backdrop of exhibition centers transformed into makeshift hospitals and ice rinks
into morgues. Yet it still represents countless livelihoods whose future is a
question mark.

Avoiding infection and protecting our loved ones are at the
forefront of our minds. There is also yearning for a return to the life
snatched away by an invisible enemy. We could take some comfort if we had a
date when everything will revert to normal, that light at the end of a tunnel,
a point in time when we will be able see Covid-19 in the rearview mirror. We
search for hope in experts’ predictions in an unprecedented and bewilderingly
fluid landscape with so many unknowns that nobody can say for sure what and
when the exit strategy is. So we revisit memories, especially those that are
the freshest, just before our world changed.<img alt="" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/images.vinous.com/uploads%2F1587067481889-la+trompette+group+pic1_copy.jpg"> 

This brings me to La Trompette. Even without a pandemic,
there is no need to wax lyrical about one of London’s most consistently
impressive restaurants, which has already been reviewed <a target="_blank" href="https://vinous.com/articles/vinous-table-la-trompette-london-uk-aug-2018">here</a>.
But I visited twice before everything changed, and even though this is not the
right place or time to detail the menu in the normal fashion, I resolved to
preserve the memory of those occasions. What I intended as a Vinous Table has
been rewritten to capture other aspects of a special evening in January, when
Vinous forum members congregated for no reason other than to celebrate food,
wine, good company and life. I can almost taste that evening’s mouthwatering
dishes, the combination of a skilled chef and the interplay of ingredients. I
have not forgotten the attentive service of waiters and sommeliers, and I wonder
how they’re doing now. I still hear the sound of clinking glasses and
conversation prompted by shared bottles. I vividly remember the conviviality
and bonhomie that night, the
bacchanalia and communal enjoyment of wine and food that is part of human DNA.
At this moment, when bad news follows bad news, forcing us to continually
process upheaval and implications both personal and societal, we cling to such
memories like life buoys in a roiling sea, lest we be swept away into despondent
waters where we can no longer glimpse the coastline of normality. That evening feels as if it took place in some distant past –
certainly in a different lifetime. It is difficult to reconcile the fact that
it was less than two months ago. In fact, January’s gathering was the second
edition. The first took place a year earlier, and despite being unable to get
into the spirit of the evening due to illness, I chuckled when one forum
regular poured a champagne blind and duped us all with a Blanc de Blancs from
Tesco. Such was the success of the gathering that we vowed to do it again. This
year’s dinner was, thankfully, one where I was healthy. It was a marvelous
evening of like-minded people brought together by shared passion for food, wine
and a subscription to Vinous. Little did we know what lay around the corner. <img alt="" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/images.vinous.com/uploads%2F1587067497838-la+trompette+group+pic2.jpg"> 

I returned to La Trompette on March 11, when I should have
been in Burgundy at Les Grands Jours. By that time the reality of Covid-19 was
dawning upon our collective consciousness, a tsunami visible on the horizon and
heading our way, though it was difficult to comprehend the enormity of the
wave. As we entered the practically empty restaurant, the waitstaff were
keeping their chins up, and both the food and the service were as exemplary as
ever. Two Bordeaux winemakers joined our party: Julien Meyre from Cap-Léon-Veyrin
in Listrac, and Anthony Crameri, sales director of the de Schepper family, who
own several Bordeaux estates, such as Tayet, La Croizille and Tour Baladoz.
They would be my last direct contact with vignerons
for who knows how long, and unsurprisingly, beneath the light-hearted banter
there was a valedictory air. 

There are no photographs of the dishes or bottles in this
article, just a picture of the truffle tortellini on the
homepage as a reminder of the epicurean delights that I long to savor again.
The only images I wanted were of forum members enjoying everything great that
life has to offer. Though it is difficult to imagine as the pandemic takes its
toll, these pictures serve as reminders that eventually we will return to a
semblance of our previous lives. Our primal desire for enjoying life has not
been extinguished, and our appreciation of fine cuisine will surely be enhanced
when this is over.<img alt="" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/images.vinous.com/uploads%2F1587067510237-la+trompette+group+pic3.jpg"> 

The pandemic will lay waste to vast swaths of the
hospitality industry; restaurants whose loyal clientele took years to build will
vanish and economic hardship will ensue. That is the ineluctable reality of
the situation every country faces. But I wanted to finish with a glimmer of
hope. Green shoots grow in even the most barren ground. I asked Nigel
Platts-Martin, co-owner not only of La Trompette but also of <a target="_blank" href="https://vinous.com/articles/vinous-table-the-ledbury-london-uk-aug-2019">The Ledbury</a>, <a target="_blank" href="https://vinous.com/articles/vinous-table-chez-bruce-london-uk-aug-2019">Chez Bruce</a> and The Glasshouse, how things had been since I
bumped into him crossing the street as I was leaving La Trompette in March. He
told me that the mood is “grim” and his staff is furloughed, but then added: “I
am super optimistic that Chez Bruce, La Trompette et al. will all return...When
we finally see this awful pandemic off, I’m sure our customers will want to end
weeks of enforced isolation by returning to their favorite restaurant to
celebrate the return to some sort of normality. We can’t wait!” 
The third edition of the London Vinous off-line will take place. I cannot say when it will happen, but it will happen.<img alt="" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/images.vinous.com/uploads%2F1587120471966-glisk-Courtesy+of+author+Robert+Macfarlane%2C+%E2%80%9Cglisk%E2%80%9D+comes+from+Shetland+Isles+dialect.+It+means+a+far+off+gleam+of+sunlight+through+darkened+cloud%2C+figuratively%2C+a+glimpse+of+the+good.jpg">Courtesy of author Robert Macfarlane, “glisk” comes from Shetland Isles dialect. It means a far off gleam of sunlight through darkened cloud, figuratively, a glimpse of the good 

(Thanks to James
Taylor, who was instrumental in putting together the second edition of the
London Vinous off-line; to everyone who came with their bottles; to Greg
Sherwood MW for inviting me to lunch in March; and to the entire team at La
Trompette, who I look forward to seeing again in the not-too-distant future.)<hr>You Might Also Enjoy<a target="_blank" href="https://vinous.com/articles/vinous-table-brixton-laundry-london-united-kingdom-mar-2020">Vinous Table: Brixton Laundry, London, UK</a>, Neal Martin, March 2020<a target="_blank" href="https://vinous.com/articles/vinous-table-the-ledbury-london-uk-aug-2019">Vinous Table: The Ledbury, London, UK</a>, Neal Martin, August 2019 <a target="_blank" href="https://vinous.com/articles/vinous-table-chez-bruce-london-uk-aug-2019">Vinous Table: Chez Bruce, London, UK</a>, Neal Martin, August 2019 <a target="_blank" href="https://vinous.com/articles/vinous-table-la-trompette-london-uk-aug-2018">Vinous Table: La Trompette, London, UK</a>, Neal Martin, August 2018

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