Opposite the stately colonnades of Mayfair’s St George’s Church is HUMO, a cutting-edge wood-fire kitchen quickly becoming the holy grail of London’s restaurant scene.
It brings a seriously fresh take to wood-fired cooking as the kitchen runs without gas or electricity. While the food has Colombian and Japanese influences, the menu is ingredient-led rather than cuisine-specific, helping differentiate it from the ever-evolving list of new eateries in the capital.
Miller Prada, Group Executive Chef with The Creative Restaurant Group (think Burger & Lobster, Endo and Sumi), smiles over his oat milk cappuccino as he reflects on the success of the first four months of business.
He says: “The reviews are fantastic, better than anybody could have imagined… So many people are talking about us, coming back, bringing friends, so the reception has been amazing.”
The concept is fixed around the primitive notion of live fire and the art of grilling over different wood species. Oak, cherry, walnut and beech are just some of the woods sourced from protected wood farms to create a unique layered flavour profile.
Chef Miller adds: “I believe that different species of trees come with different flavours, and it’s the same with wine.”
“You have oak in England, and you have oak in France, and when you cook with them, and you smell them, and you see everything you can do with them, it’s totally different.”
The menu is split into four sections, each relating to food cooked differently: ignite, smoke, flame and embers. And it’s recommended each person has one plate from each of the four sections (not including dessert).
Each plate is as much a work of art as it is delicious. The dinnerware has been specifically chosen to complement the colour and texture of the ingredients, with each dish plated precisely in front of you in the open-plan kitchen.
As each course takes you on a journey to the next, it’s difficult to pinpoint exactly which to champion individually. Each is as unique as the next, with many elements fusing into one savour-worthy mouthful.
From ‘ignite’, the Hampshire trout, marinated and smoked in juniper and seared with white ubame oak, topped with matured caviar grilled in kombu kelp, giving a umami falvour that was simply melt-in-your-mouth.
While the hand-dived Orkney scallop from ‘flame’, grilled directly on 25-year-aged French oak and topped with a Speyside single malt whisky sabayon, was quite literally, another conversation-stopping dish.
It continued with a 30-day-aged Cornish lamb kissed directly on the embers to give it a blush pink colouring and further enhanced with a beetroot sauce.
From the ‘smoke’ (or vegan) section, the Salsify with Jerusalem artichoke, saffron and hazelnut emulsion and Ayrshire Blackthorn salt proved to be yet another winning combination and demonstrates that HUMO isn’t just for the carnivorous or pescetarian.
Most of the produce is sourced as locally as possible, but HUMO also sources from various farms in Italy and uses authentic ingredients from Columbia and Japan.
The five-day aged yellowtail, for example, is made with Castillo coffee from Chef Miller’s family farm in Columbia, bringing a unique bitterness that compliments the citrus sauce and saltiness from the fish. It was pure culinary genius.
But Chef Miller said there had been a lot of trial and error when creating the menu explaining there was no ‘manual’ when trying to perfect the balance of each dish.
He says: “The first menu was a disaster – there is nothing from my first tasting that I did two years ago that is on the menu today.”
“Absolutely nothing because there were a lot of tastings and a lot of mistakes, and a lot of feedback from people telling me, ‘hmm maybe, it’s good, but it’s not there yet’.
His persistence has paid off, with the final menu resembling little mouthfuls of heaven, albeit if they’re small plates with minimal carbs.
You can wash down each serving with a beautiful selection of wines (350 units to choose from), saké or one of HUMO’s own cocktail concoctions. The Anillo De Fuego, made with three varieties of smoked Mexican chillies, Tequila and a dry grapefruit side, is a great choice if you love a spicy Margarita.
There really is no stone left unturned (pun intended) at HUMO – from the citrus-water-infused hand towels when you sit down, to the well balanced customer-to-staff ratio which means you’re always looked after – it’s almost impossible to fault.
Chef Miller adds: “That’s the whole idea, to have enough people to produce quality.”
“For us, the quality is the big part; the idea right now is not to be making money, the idea is not to be making different things, the idea is to be making the best food that we can possibly make and the best service.”
With only 32 seats in the upstairs dining, you should book ahead of time, or you can head downstairs to the 10-seater chef’s table on Friday and Saturday evenings, for a multi-step menu that champions a seasonal core ingredient.
