Jeremy Chan
Jeremy Chan is the UK’s most exciting chef right now, peppering the island’s dull weather with the spiciness of African spices and the excellence of British ingredients.


Ikoyi
It doesn’t just bear the name of the Lagos suburb because of the co-owner’s roots and doesn’t just use exclusively British ingredients because of the English chef, but Iré Hassan-Odukale and Jeremy Chan are young friends who, in 2017, fulfilled their desire to combine African barbecue with British rain… Ikoyi received its first Michelin star after a year, and its second after five, and is currently ranked 35th in the world according to 50 Best.
Ambience
Everything, from the warm light that directs the entire space to the golden armchairs that all face the stage, is subordinate to a performance that is so different from anything we are used to.


Ingredients
First there’s the showcase of ingredients, because those dry-aged coolers, where English wagyu is aged for four months and Cornish fish for a week or two, are the only things you learn about the menu. What follows is a tasting of surprises. The beef is aged for 120 days, and the best tuna, which has almost died out, is once again swimming in British waters. Chan uses the best (British) ingredients, but for him they are only at their best when they are properly aged (and then seasoned in an African way).
Pepper
Gola Pepper Broth. Chicken soup with hot pepper. The soup made from caramelized chicken wings has been steeped in the aroma of hot pepper and herbs for nine hours, then given a drizzle of pepper oil at the table. At the bottom of the cup, the daikon radish is added for even more spiciness. Chef Chan uses hot pepper to emphasize sour, sweet, citrus, mustard, spicy notes, aromas, textures and flavors.


Maturation
Smoked Sirloin & Bluefin Tuna. A small slice of quickly seared sirloin has a depth that is further emphasized by the mustard seed cream and jalapeno pepper. In this sea, two-week-aged bluefin tuna belly swims on top, cooled by kumquat, black radish and lime caviar. But the crispy coating of crystalline brittleness, made of – poppy seeds, surprises!
Trout
Daikon, Trout & Apple Rose. The fish hanging in the ripening room at the entrance are capital, but the most respected is the “worst” of them all, the trout. In a crispy cake in the middle of a rose made of radish, stewed onion, lime zest, fermented ginger and sumac, which all together refreshes, sweetens and bitters.


Squid
Drunken squid. Black rice (with cuttlefish ink), dried boiled squid meat, black English truffles, fried squid leg. You can’t help but think of sushi. Because this squid is so different that it’s similar. When you swallow it in one bite, it’s like eating your entire lunch, but you still want to start over right away.
Sauces
John Dory, Crab Salad & Tonnato. Cornish John Dory is in tempura, crab is in a salad with parsley and coriander, and the sauces make the dish. The dark one is hazelnut, the white one is citrus (kaffir lime, kombava), fig leaf oil. Ikoyi’s autumn-winter dishes are full of citrus because that’s their season.


Wine
Accompanying wine forJohn Dory: Vino di Contrada SM 2022, Occhipinti, Sicily. Great wine from Etna.
Sweetbrad
Sweetbread, Radicchio & Grits. After the “salad”, the “main” course is right away. The young chef does not allow for rest. His ingredients are not seasonal because they are now, but because they are at their best now – an aftertaste. Sweetbread is roasted in sesame, topped with spicy fresh lamb sausage merquez, and topped with English corn grits. The red chicory with green herb sauce is therefore not a decoration, but a necessity, allowing the complexity some respite between bites.


Turbot
Turbot & Egusi miso. When dry-aged, the turbot is ready for the barbecue… but since Chef Chan doesn’t kill it again, he just poaches it in BBQ sauce, ready for the challenges offered to the eater by combinations with chanterelles, celeriac pudding, mussel mousse, braised and roasted cabbage with pomegranate glaze.
Beef
Native Breed Rib & Midnight Kale Bagna Cauda. The live fire backdrop also has the function of constantly roasting or not roasting beef ribs, aged on the bone for four months, cooked in lard overnight and roasted boneless during the day. The meaty flavor is even more concentrated than the previous few acts with the back (with tuna), and accordingly so is the flavor of the sauces, which decorate with color and season deeply. The pumpkin sauce is angry with curry and mustard seeds, the bright yuzu sauce soothes with its density, and the bagna cauda inflames everything. A battle of intensity, which with patience immediately turns into harmony.


Jollof
Smoked Jollof Rice. Rice cooked with chilies, tomato paste, paprika, garlic, onion, ginger, thyme, curry powder, bay leaf…, sometimes with meat, radish, roasted wild turnip and yellow cumin sauce accompanies-mellows the intensity of the beef.
Sorbet
Mikan & Tahitian Vanilla. A predessert of Japanese mandarin sorbet, with blackcurrant sauce, citrus sauce with citrus caviar and crispy blackcurrant wafer. When there’s a spiciness in every dish, but always different, it’s good to have something to heal the wounds.


Long pepper
Flower Sugar & Red Long Pepper. And when everything is intense, dessert is best when it’s not… When you don’t know it’s sweet, even though it’s sweet. All desserts should know this! Barley pudding with flower sugar ice cream.
Istrian truffle
Suya Gananche & Roasted Cap. The chocolate choux is light and fluffy, filled with salted caramel and ganache, and the aroma of dried porcini mushrooms. On top is a caramelized half of a walnut with pieces of white truffle from Istria! It’s not (just) about the ingredients, but about that deliciousness when in one bite you relive everything that came before it.


Accompanying wine
Aperitif: champagne L’incandescent, rose
John Dory: Vino di Contrada SM 2022, Occhipinti, Sicily
Sweetbread: Selvadolce Bianco 2022, Liguria
Turbot: Les Petits Combes 2022, Clement Baraut (sauvignon)
Beef: Morey St. Denis 2016, Clos des Ormes, Domaine Marchand Tawse, Burgundy
Dessert: Carcavelos 1995, Quinta dos Pesos, Howard’s Folly, Lisbon