CONFESSION time: it was not a virtuous search for wellness that brought Farmacy to my attention but the reading of a lunch-based interview with Woody Harrelson that took place there. Harrelson was given the choice of where to eat and, as an almost three-decade-long vegan, Farmacy is his favourite London restaurant when away from his home in Hawaii.
Then, after discovering that Camilla Fayed is the restaurant’s founder, a celebrity-conscious drive truly kicked in and a visit became imperative. The idea that the food might be medicine was a secondary but not irrelevant consideration.
Westbourne Grove has no shortage of restaurants but there was a small queue outside Farmacy when I arrived on a Monday evening. Only about half of the tables can be reserved so there is always a chance of finding a table at short notice.
Inside, busyness rules OK. An inner circle doubles as a bar and eating area and beyond this area more formal tables fill the available ground. Given the food ideology behind Farmacy, various plants properly decorate the edges and window sills of the dining space.
Farmacy’s Mexican EarthBowl
The menu is vegan and although very little is marked specifically as raw there was little to see in my Asian salad that had been cooked. The broccoli, spinach, cucumber, mushroom and sprouts all tasted 100 per cent fresh and raw, although I guess the seaweed is prepared after straining it from a saucepan of hot water.
The theory behind eating raw food, as Harrelson explained in his interview, is that food cooked over 46°C greatly reduces the enzymes within it. The body’s metabolic reactions, from digestion to activating hormones, depends on enzymes and those produced by the body itself are not as good as naturally occurring ones.
Avocado toast, now so ubiquitous, features for breakfast or lunch at Farmacy alongside cleverer preparations like a chickpea pancake filled with butternut squash and a dressing of smoked paprika. There are also quirky drinks, listed as “syringe shots”, including an intriguing one that fuses activated charcoal with raw coconut water; reassuringly, more conventional cocktails and wines are not in short supply.
Recipes from the restaurant and lots more
Farmacy Kitchen (published by Aster), the title of a new cookbook by Camilla Fayed, is packed with recipes and advice based on the theory and practice of her restaurant. Instructions for the Earth Bowls – they form a centrepiece of the restaurant’s menu – are meticulously given and it’s easy to see how you could create your own healthy and delicious palette of different tastes and textures. The illustrations are as gorgeous as the food and no doubt Woody Harrelson has a copy in Hawaii.
Camilla Fayad, founder of Farmacy
The ethos and inspiration behind Camila Fayed’s restaurant has part of its DNA in Californian cuisine and this led me to another restaurant, Malibu Kitchen, one of the eatery spokes in the vast entertainment hub that radiates out from the ground floor of The Ned, a luxury hotel in the City.
What was built as a capitalist cathedral – a pillared and palatial banking HQ designed by Edwyn Lutyens in 1924 – is now a supremely secular hotspot dedicated to eating and drinking in the company of a live band that performs on a throne-like platform in the centre of the colossal, architecturally grand atrium. Over half a dozen restaurants are spread around the sprawling space and finding the alcove that is home to Malibu Kitchen is no easy task.
An immense space devoted to pure fun – there is seating for over 800 punters – seems an unlikely setting for plant-based food but Malibu Kitchen’s menu has some surprises alongside familiar beef and chicken items. Jalapeno with plantain chips accompany sea bass ceviche while raw vegetables are at the heart of the salads as well as in the rolls dipped in tamari sauce that appear on the First Bites section of the menu.
An adaptogenic Latte at Farmacy
When it comes to drinks, all the outlets on the grand ground floor depend on the production-line process that churns out orders at the speed of light. This means that cocktails may taste a little iffy but not so with Malibu Kitchen’s food – witness how time is found at the clean-eating, open kitchen for tweezering a single viola petal onto raw chocolate with dates – a sensual riposte to anyone thinking a vegan can’t enjoy a sinfully rich dessert.
The only drawback to Malibu Kitchen is the popularity of The Ned and the consequent crowds of sybarites that compete to fill every available bar stool and table at the various outlets. Snagging one of the mini-booths at Malibu Kitchen guarantees a cosy spot for a meal but if these are occupied you may have to share a table.
Farmacy is sedate compared to Malibu Kitchen but they share a concern for tasty Californian cuisine and a willingness to go wild with raw food.
by Sean Sheehan
Find out more about the Malibu Kitchen at The Ned here
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