Jeff Baker was the king of the York culinary scene, and I bet half of you have never heard of him.
While you flocked to Jamie’s Italian for bland pasta and Wagamama for oversized bowls of average noodles, a creative genius was slaving in his kitchen over truly interesting and exciting dishes.
When I visited, it was £25 for three courses, one of the best value restaurants I’ve eaten in. 2 courses at Jamie’s will set you back £20+, and what do you get for your money? A bland rip-off meat platter balanced on some canned tomatoes and a bowl of lacklustre pasta. Jeff offered so much more, and now that he’s sadly shut up shop, York will miss out. I went with my girlfriend (vegan!) and she was looked after extremely well. The Vegan chocolate pudding was a particular highlight, but the variety of choices she was presented at each course showed real care towards customers and none of the typical snobbery many chefs would be expected to serve up.
At The Blue Bicycle for example, she couldn’t eat the bread; her starter was a green salad with questionable dressing and the main event a rather bland vegetable curry, despite us giving them two weeks notice of her dietary requirements. Starters at J Baker’s were fantastic: unctuous potted duck with pickles was particularly good. The cod roe pâté served with the bread was a much more interesting way to start a meal than just salted butter.
Jeff played with bitterness and acidity throughout the meal, finding interesting ways to balance the stronger flavours together, so that the dishes were never overwhelming. The rib of beef, filo wrapped egg yolk and burnt leeks with 25 year old balsamic was excellent. The complexity from the bitterness of the leeks and the sweet acidity of the vinegar worked perfectly. The aforementioned vegan chocolate dessert was great and my cheese board was well thought out, and carefully presented.
I realise a restaurant review for somewhere that has recently shut down isn’t going to help any of you find somewhere new to frequent. Instead, this review is written as a plea to expand your food horizons in York. Always seek out original, inventive cooking from one-off restaurants. The problem with Jamie’s Italian is that there’s no Jamie in it, and hardly any Italian, so find somewhere authentic instead. Spend a little more a little less often. Good quality restaurant cooking takes hard work – upwards of 15 hours a day in a hot kitchen, and we should be rewarding chefs’ efforts with regular business and admiration instead of flocking to a generic poster boy’s money maker.
Look for a kitchen filled with exhausted, miserable-looking men and women skulking and smoking round the back, and the food will probably be amazing.
Sadly J Baker’s isn’t open anymore, so don’t go too far off the beaten track and try and eat there.
What’s the point in talking about a restaurant that’s closed?! I ate at J Baker’s twice, just for the record, and I wasn’t that bothered TBH.
Anyway, here’s an independent Sardinian restaurant run by the owner who lives in York. It’s underground, beneath Micklegate Bar. Del Rio’s. http://www.delriosrestaurant.com/
The Mirchiz on Fulford Road isn’t bad either. It’s run by four British-Bangladeshi lads who come over from Bradford every day! http://www.mirchiz.com/york/
Hi Dave, I think I made my case for writing the article in the last paragraph. To add to that, discussion of closed restaurants is definitely not a waste of time. Talking about the cooking at Harvey’s, or El Bulli is undeniably important.
Sorry you didnt like J Baker’s- obviously my review is entirely subjective and some people like different things to other people. The quality of the cooking there was definitely something worth noting, and good cooking and culinary ideas are something that I, as a food writer want to write about..