London's food scene just gets better and better: This September, iconic chef and restaurateur Wolfgang Puck will make his restaurant debut in Europe when he opens CUT at 45 Park Lane. Located in the Dorchester Collection's new Mayfair hotel, CUT at 45 Park Lane will mirror the award-winning and hugely popular original CUT in Beverly Hills offering outstanding steaks, a superb wine list and impeccable service, in a fun, buzzing and dynamic environment.
Puck has appointed David McIntyre to head up the kitchen. Having worked for Puck for more than 13 years, McIntyre was heavily involved in the opening of CUT Beverly Hills in June 2006, and relocated to London with his family in January.
The menu will offer contemporary interpretations of the classic steak restaurant, with hand-selected prime dry- and wet-aged beef from Creekstone Farms in the United States, grain-fed cuts from Casterbridge in the United Kingdom, plus Wagyu beef from Australia, Chile and New Zealand. The signature cuts of beef—filet, sirloin, ribeye, rib-chop, Porterhouse, bone-in New York and bone-in filet—will be grilled over hard-wood and charcoal and then finished under a 1200° broiler. Meat cuts will be offered in smaller tasting portions as well, and will be served with a large choice of homemade sauces, such as shallot red wine Bordelaise and CUT's signature recipe for Argentinean chimichurri.
For those a little less carnivorous, guests can also try an extensive array of seafood, such as the pan roasted Scottish lobster with black truffle sabayon and sautéed Dover sole "à la Meunière" with preserved lemon, as well as other steak alternatives including Kobe-style beef short ribs "Indian spiced," slowly cooked for eight hours. A bone marrow flan with mushroom marmalade and parsley salad and big eye tuna tartare with wasabi aioli, ginger, Togarashi crisps and Tosa soy will all be among the available starters.
For pudding, pastry chef Melissa Zahnter (from CUT, Las Vegas which opened in March 2008) has devised a collection of traditional British and American favorites such as baked Alaska, dark chocolate soufflé with whipped crème fraîche and banana cream pie.
Best of all, for the first time at a CUT restaurant, breakfast and lunch menus will be available, showcasing Puck's twist on American classics. At breakfast, guests will find blackberry buttermilk pancakes with whipped Bourbon-maple butter and salt beef hash cake with poached organic eggs, crispy leeks and Béarnaise sauce. Puck will also offer his version of the traditional English breakfast featuring poached organic eggs with black truffle sauce, rustic bean ragout, black pudding and house-made breakfast sausages.
The lunch menu will include several entrée-sized salads which will showcase local produce such as the heirloom tomato salad with Neil's Yard goat curd and aged balsamic and USDA prime rib eye steak salad with Colston Bassett stilton and smoked bone marrow vinaigrette. The lunch menu will also feature smaller portions of the signature cuts of meat with CUT's sides and sauces as well as a "From the Sea" section with Dublin Bay prawns and scallops with Yuzu-Kosho butter and the famed Spago lobster club sandwich with Applewood smoked bacon.
Another of Puck's team to leave the US and set up home in the UK is Sommelier Vanessa Cinti (previously of Spago in Bachelor Gulch, Colorado), who will oversee the carefully selected international wine list. Fittingly, there will be an emphasis on American wine, showcasing some of the country's finest producers, alongside a strong cross-section of wines from around the globe including new and old world selections.
Overseeing CUT and Bar 45 will be Restaurant Director Loyd Loudy, who has helped launch Notting Hill's Supperclub, China Tang at The Dorchester and Shoreditch House.