Koffman attracts star sommeliers for ‘pop-up’ restaurant

It may only be open for three and a half weeks but Pierre Koffman’s ‘pop-up restaurant’ at the new London Restaurant Festival has attracted some of the capital’s most sought-after sommeliers.

The 61-year-old Koffman, former chef of Tante Claire, has come out of retirement to run The Restaurant on the Roof at Selfridges in Oxford Street.

He has assembled a brigade of former employees and now some of London’s best-known chefs such as Eric Chavot and Tom Aikens around him, and restaurant manager Dawn Davies, a former sommelier at the Ledbury and the brains behind Selfridges ‘Wonder Bar’ has pulled together a team of top sommeliers.

These include James Lloyd of Marcus Wareing, Emily O’Hare from the River Café, Claire Thevenot of Hotel du Vin and Jade Kochs of The Tate.

They will be serving an eclectic list ranging in price from the modest (a £17 Vin de Pays de Gers from Plaimont) to an eye-watering £6110 for a 1990 bottle of Chateau Pétrus and £5000 for a 1949 d’Yquem.

Wines from Koffman’s native south-west France will also be represented – at his insistence. ‘Pierre has left the wines to us,’ Davies said. ‘He just asked that we do a focus on regional France, which we have done, including our house wines and an extended regional French section.”

And the best wine to match Koffman’s famous pig’s trotter which has been imitated by many top British chefs? A 2006 Saumur Champigny ‘Amateus Bobi’ from Bobinet, according to Davies – list price a comparatively modest £52.

DON’T MISS the Decanter World Wine Awards Trophy tasting at the Wonder Bar, Selfridges, London W1, from 7-20 October. BOOK NOW

Read Fiona Beckett’s review of The Restaurant on the Roof on Matching Food & Wine

Written by Fiona Beckett