Fay Maschler reviews Hām: Inventiveness coupled with breezy buoyancy

1/5
Fay Maschler14 March 2018

Hām, the old English word for home” states the menu at this new restaurant.

Ham, says the dictionary more emphatically, is the name given to the cut of meat from the upper part of a leg of pork preserved by curing and/or smoking. Ham can also be a hyperbolic actor or, according to urban slang, an acronym for “hard as a motherf**ker”. 

With the pleasing graphics of a horizontal line — by the way called a macron — above the “a” as utilised here, it is possibly referencing mathematics. My definition is that Hām is yet another neighbourhood restaurant in West Hampstead where practically every shopfront offers stuff to eat — but a noticeably loftier one. It even has the chefs looking out over the dining room from the back of the room at a theatrical mezzanine level.  

Head chef is Matt Osborne, who has worked at The Ledbury, Terroirs, Salon in Brixton and ToastED in East Dulwich (now Terroirs East Dulwich). I happen to know he is Australian but I could have guessed his nationality from the dinner menu anyway. Then the brunch list confirms it. There is a strand of inventiveness coupled with health-consciousness that isn’t unusual these days but here possesses a breezy buoyancy that I associate with the Land of Oz.   

Co-owners Rose Tuckey and David Houten seemed to want to create an agreeable fairly priced restaurant that cherishes small independent suppliers. They are fortunate in their warm, capable manger Alexandra Caciuc, whom I remember from 45 Jermyn Street.  
 

We ask for a Negroni and she shows us the bottle of Sacred Rosehip Cup that is involved. It is an English take on Campari brewed with 27 botanicals in the home of Ian Hart in Highgate. His distillery also provides Sacred gin, vodka and vermouths. What a discovery right on the doorstep.  

Social media can surely be blamed — the garnish of the moment is discs of thinly sliced radishes. You see them spinning everywhere. Here they make a pretty quilt neatly draped over a mound of chopped aged raw beef mixed with wasabi mayonnaise, ginger and shallots creating powerful Superman mouthfuls. Equally impressive is Norfolk quail, roasted, pulled apart and tumbled with artichokes, pearl barley and kombu, which is Japanese dried sea vegetable. I think I see leeks unless that is what fresh kombu resembles — probably grown by some woman living in Crouch End. The benign chewiness of the barley is spot on. 

Herdwick lamb shoulder is judiciously cooked, yielding gracefully but hanging on to a distinct personality that suits beautifully the anchovy purée alongside. A skein of calçots (strapping Catalan spring onions) and a light snowstorm of grated salted ricotta complete the picture. The flavours of grated almonds, pear and parsley do every kind of favour to the roasted root vegetables that are all of a golden hue.  

On this same day my chum Stiffy and I were at lunch at The Fordwich Arms. We are two of the Infamous Four who try out restaurants within a two-hour train journey from London. So far The Sportsman in Whitstable has come out tops — as it does with everyone — but The Fordwich, a gemütlich pub in the smallest town in the land, now run by chefs and a sommelier previously at The Clove Club, is a strong second. This is to explain our tame dessert order of just blood-orange sorbet to share. How I love and admire blood oranges.  

Fay Maschler's 50 favourite restaurants in London

1/50

Sunday brunch sees queues of West Hampsteaders or West Homesteaders as we can now call them. My sister Beth and I luck out with a corner of one of the long turquoise leather banquettes. It is Mother’s Day, which has almost certainly upped the baby count. I might have kicked off with a Hair of the Dog of Breakfast Bellini or An Apple a Day made with Sacred organic gin, bitters and cloudy apple juice, but the inclusion of horseradish and what turns out to be an intrepid amount of Worcestershire Sauce draws me happily to a Bloody Mary stirred with celery.  

The assembly of Bircher muesli, almonds, Hurdlebrook yoghurt and rhubarb is as healthy as it reads and the girly pink rhubarb batons hold their shape. Hām Breakfast of scrambled eggs, bacon, sausages, mushrooms, tomatoes, avocado and toast is excellent in each of its particulars although the sausage might be a little too virtuous — a certain amount of filler and fat is desirable. Allpress Redchurch Blend Coffee and Ivy House milk show that in this household the pursuit of quality never lets up.  

My only complaint is the acoustics. Architects and designers these days seem mostly to ignore this element. Oh well, Hām is your home. I suppose you can shout if you want to. And music is confined to the loo.