The Tommy Tucker, Fulham: quick restaurant review and meet the chef, Claude Compton
Read our review of The Tommy Tucker, a renovated pub (or rather, restaurant with bar) in Fulham. Look out for smoked beef short rib with arrocina beans and homemade ketchup. Plus: meet the head chef, Claude Compton.
We love the name of this renovated boozer in Fulham, with its echoes of cheeky rhyming slang (the menu features the Rub-a-Dub Burger), but pub it isn’t; more restaurant with bar. Ingredients such as buttermilk and oats in a dish of chargrilled leeks and onion squash, and smoked beef short rib with arrocina beans show off the kitchen’s eye for trends.The ketchup is homemade, the gin is infused in-house and the sourdough bread is served with whipped herb butter. Chef/owner Claude Compton was visible in the semi-open kitchen. thetommytucker.com
MISFIRE: Choc, raisin and infused rum choc ice, while delicious once thawed, was too hard to eat for a good 10 minutes (so much that a waiter placed a napkin under the plate to stop it skidding off the table).
BULLSEYE: Buttermilk rabbit bites, the perfect nibble while perusing the menu.
Meet the chef: Claude Compton
The best thing on my menu is our Sunday Roast. I am so thrilled that locals say it's better than their mother’s! For such a sociable meal we encourage sharing, and bring in a whole animal which is broken down; so there are varied cuts on the menu. The apple pie is also a big winner – an English tradition with a Middle Eastern twist.
In my fridge there’s always free range eggs, English butter, some HG Walters ‘Smoked Streaky’, and bunches of fresh herbs.
My most-used cook book is Edible Selby by Todd Selby. He is an illustrator and photographer more than chef, but it is a complete pleasure to read and offers a great outlook on every style of food.
A restaurant trend I see sticking around is the rise of the independent supplier. It's wonderful to see how discerning the public are becoming about good food and the provenance of ingredients.
My guilty pleasure is an Indian takeaway on the sofa. I love peshwari naan.
A fellow chef I admire is Jesse Dunford Wood, exec chef of the Parlour in Kensal Rise. Great grub, great vibe.
Never trust a chef who has a red face. There is no space for angry people in a kitchen.
I love eating out at The Gunton Arms in Thorpe, Norfolk. Awesome meats off the neighbouring deer park, cooked over a huge wood fire, great beer and the most amazing décor, juxtaposed against this rural setting. Best foodie run-away.
A place I love that not many people know about is Mes Amis which is tucked away down a little residential street in Hammersmith. It's essentially the converted living room of a leather-clad dude who cooks you up an Anglo-Lebanese feast to an eclectic mix of tunes. The interior looks like the inside of a Genie bottle in the 60’s.
If you gave me a tenner I‘d spend it on a Well Kneaded pizza. £6 for a stonking firebread pizza – can’t beat it.
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