Otto’s: Where kitsch meets a deeply serious kitchen

Modern French classics in a quirky Clerkenwell setting
Kitsch and culture: David Moore is a fan of Otto's
Fay Maschler1 February 2018

My friend Simon Hopkinson, the best cook I know, spots Otto’s in 2013. It is not just prestigious empty wine bottles in the window that catch his eye but a notice announcing, “canard à la presse prepared to order”. We make a plan to go — the duck from the same company in Challans that supplies La Tour d’Argent in Paris must be ordered in advance. A silver-plated duck press made by Christofle in the early 1900s is in place and Otto embarks on the elaborate rich and redolent procedure that results in boozy brown velvet sauce for the breast meat followed by crisped legs served with salad. “I don’t suppose there will be pommes soufflés,” sighs Simon. There are. Otto is a maître d’ who might be cast in a Wes Anderson movie. Now he has a lobster press and also offers the option of Mère Brazier’s Poularde de Bresse demi-deuil en vessie. It is old school; it is heaven — where kitsch meets a deeply serious kitchen.

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