Borough, Third Course: Arctic Char – Fennel, Salt Cod Agnolotti, Leeks, Pimentón

I was one of those that got this. The char is grilled very slowly and was flat-out the best piece of fish I have had in a very long time. It was a pleasure to eat it slowly (and the dabs of trout roe on top of it were a very nice touch, as was the little triangle of crisped up skin). There’s a bit of caramelized fennel under the skin in this picture and that was fine too. I was less enthused about the fennel-tarragon puree on which the fish sat and the agnolotti. The puree I thought was too cloying; the fennel and tarragon somehow produced an effect of mint–it could work well with something else but didn’t seem complementary here; and while the brandade in the (squid ink) agnolotti was fine on its own I’m not sure it did anything for the char either. I wonder if this is a case where the composition of the dish was driven more by painterly considerations than culinary ones. It certainly is an attractive looking plate, but the components somehow added up to less than the sum of their parts. A pity as the main player was just so good.