Water House

Delia Smith, whose recipes famously never fail, recently made a series of memorable faux pas on Radio 4’s ‘Today’ programme. ‘If the whole world goes organic, the state of the Third World will be twice as bad as it is at the moment and I’m much more interested in people getting enough to eat’, she said. ‘I love fresh shelled peas in the winter from Kenya,’ she added, as well and mentioning that battery hens are okay if you’re poor.

We may love her recipes, but Delia’s out of step with many consumers. We’re all more aware than we’ve ever been about food, ethics, and the environment. The organic sections in supermarkets swell year on year; free-range chicken is now de rigueur for the sentient shopper. Food labels declare if fish is from MCS-approved stocks; farmers’ markets are popping up all over London; and ‘big organic’ operators such as the US-based Whole Foods Market are muscling in on London in a big way. Food miles and fair trade are deemed suitable for dinner party conversations in Hampstead.

It’s not just Delia who’s finding it hard to keep up with the changing times. Most of London’s restaurateurs are equally guilty, and have done very little to address sustainability, animal welfare or food waste. The exceptions that do make an effort – Acorn House, Tom’s Place – stand out as anomalies.

One common excuse is that only the affluent can afford the luxury of caring about the planet. Personally I think this is utter nonsense, as even people on low incomes can watch Jamie and Hugh on the telly and pay a little bit extra for free range. It seems the people behind Acorn House agree, as they’ve just opened their second eco-friendly restaurant not in Islington or Notting Hill, but in an isolated back street in deepest Dalston – where there’s no tube or Waitrose, let alone electricity-generating windmills or solar panels bolted onto the ex-council houses.

Waterhouse isn’t in the most promising of locations; the view across Regent’s Canal is of graffiti and hooded youths ambling along the towpath. But they’ve made the most of a modern building, turning it into a chic bit of Scandinavian-looking modernism. It’s the menu that really stands out though. Water is filtered tap; wines are organic or biodynamic; and the food is, as far as possible, low on carbon usage, and highly seasonal. Nothing is airfreighted (the salamis are brought by road), and the fish is all bought from sustainable stocks.

I’d like to think Water House is a future direction for many restaurants, but it’s not a model without glitches. Like sibling Acorn House, the sentiments are great, but the actual cooking needs more attention to detail. Some dishes are very good, such as the big piece of firm cod with a perfect beurre blanc, or a sensational slice of chocolate torte. But other dishes just don’t cut it. Although a selection of salads is a nice idea, two out of four we chose were duds; the purple sprouting broccoli had inedibly tough stems, and what they called a remoulade was mushy, more like a coleslaw, with the wrong texture and taste. Our success rate overall was better than 50-50 though; a lemon polenta cake was excellent.

In the Radio 4 interview, Delia also said ‘I'll stick to teaching people to cook. I can't get into the politics of food.’ It’s such a shame the two schools of thought don’t seem to talk to each other more; Delia could do with a little more ecological awareness and Water House could do with a little more of Delia Smith’s attention to detail in dish preparation.

Photography Michael Franke

Guy Dimond

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