Recipease - With Jamie Oliver

 

Do we all know who Jamie Oliver is?  (I think so!)  Do we all generally love everything that Jamie does??????  (Leave your answer in the comments section below.)  So tell me what you think about his very latest project - Recipease at Notting Hill.

To be found in the old WH Smiths space at Notting Hill Gate.  Check out  Jamie talking about it in a YouTube vid at the end of this post.  (He looks tired, doesn't he?)  It opened in August.

We - the Paradis family - didn't try anything.  There is a cooking school, and a cafe at the location.  If you want it, it's all here.  Cookbooks, cookery tools, dishes....bread, coffee, and gelato.

I have to admit, I was not quite convinced.  (Really??? Have you ever found me NOT doing a super-enthused food post?)  But this is a very ambitious undertaking, and after a month of being open it seemed that this Recipease was still trying to get all its many moving parts working well together.

(I''m referring to the broken expresso machine and the pond of water on the floor right next to the ineffective, ignored or ultimately tardy bucket-for-said-water.  The situation seemed to be verging on - great English expression - SHAMBOLIC!)

Jamie mentions value for money in the vid.  This huge stuffed chicken must be what he was talking about.  ALL of his similar takeout items come with all the (impeccably fresh looking) fixings in - can you believe it! - their very own Falcon enameled tin baking dishes - for popping straight into the oven.  Considering that the Falcon baking set that my eyes lingered over caressingly at Liberty (several sizes ranging from oven to breakfast dish came out to about about $20.00 per enamel pan if you buy the kit), this truly is a bargain.  Because you get the meal, the labour, the fixings AND the Falcon pan all for about $35.00.  

Now, though, how many pans do you want to collect and/or give away to friends and family over year(s?) and how many taxis do you want to take home, or traffic tickets do you want to risk, coming to collect your chicken at the very busy corner of Notting Hill and Pembridge Road?   I don't know.....because even tho' the Tube station is right across the street, do you really want to be schlepping a 2800 g chicken up and down the Tube escalators or the hills of this part of London??????

Just asking.

The lighting is also weird.  I think it is specially designed to give a cozy retro vibe but as I was struggling with a new camera too, I seem to have only come up with this strange bluey-orange glow.  Sorrys!  

The gelato was tempting.  They give it great names.  There is a cafe above, up a narrow steep stair.

Trip Advisor gives it rave reviews for the cooking schools at the Brighton and Clapham locations.

Have you been?  What did you buy/eat?  What do you think?  Tell me how lovely Recipease is?