Critically-acclaimed London restaurant, Scully St. James has transformed its evening by offering its first 8-course tasting menu, which has been years in the making.
During the lockdown of 2020, Chef Patron Ramael Scully used this time to go back to his roots and hone his cooking style in an experiential way.
The evolution of Ramael’s experiential cooking has created a natural transition into this new format where the restaurant will guide the guest on a journey through his unique heritage, lesser-known ingredients, and cooking techniques.
Ramael was born in Malaysia and grew up in Sydney with a mother of Chinese/Indian descent and an Irish/Balinese father. His diverse cultural upbringing translates into his cooking, with dishes reflecting the Malaysian flavours of his childhood and culinary traditions from his diverse family heritage, all whilst harnessing sustainably locally sourced ingredients.
The appointment of Head Chef Dom Auger, previously of Hackney Coterie, HIDE and Scully St. James as Sous Chef, also welcomes a new era for the restaurant.
The menu starts with three surprise snacks across both the vegan and standard menus, such as Arepa, originating from Colombia and Venezuela, made with 8-day fermented corn bread and served with Scully’s Mum’s eggplant sambal.
Also, Purple Beetroot, thinly sliced and slow cooked in its own juices for 4 hours before being glazed with fig leaf vinegar with Urap Sayur, an Indonesian style caramelised, spiced shredded coconut, and Yuba Tart with Salted Black Bean and Shiitake (pictured).
Finally, Lemon Myrtle, considered the Queen of Australian native herbs with a fresh aroma of citrus and menthol essence, is served with red and green strawberries.
Also across both menus is Scully’s childhood street food dessert, Caramelised coconut sticky rice with jackfruit sorbet, made with fermented Malaysian jackfruit fermented for 10 days, slow toasted jasmine rice powder and Original Beans’ Zoque 88% Mexican bitter chocolate.
The standard tasting menu includes Lake District short rib pastrami which is brined, smoked and slow cooked with Urfa, a Turkish chilli pepper often described as having a smoky raisin like taste.
From the vegan menu, Nasi Jagung, a traditional rice dish from Indonesia with a Scully twist, made with cooked dry cracked corn, sweetcorn kernels, corn dashi, green tomato and yeast flakes served with candied Jalapeños and Australian Black Truffle.
The menu concludes with surprising and engaging seasonal petit fours, made by expert pastry chef, Adrian Petrovan.
The menu keeps to the pantry-style kitchen ethos focusing on fermenting, preserving and ageing ingredients which are proudly displayed around the informal yet refined setting. These not only create exciting and unexpected flavours within the dishes but also ensure the restaurant is as sustainable as possible with minimum waste.
Unique wine pairing menus pulled together by the team explore everything from orange wine from Penedes Catalunya, Els Jelipins, Famille Delouvin Meunier Perpetual Extra Brut Champagne, reds such as rich and sweet Madeira Verdelho from Portugal and oaky vanilla Bocca di Lupo Castel del Monte from Puglia.
Ramael said, “I feel it is the next step in the evolution of my food presentation, to offer a tasting menu. It is something I have dreamed about pre-pandemic and now feel it is the right time to do it!”
The Tasting Menus - standard menu (£110) and vegan offering (£90) - are available now for dinner Tuesday-Saturday from 6.30pm (last booking at 9pm).