Theo Randall at The InterContinental Hotel

Formerly Head Chef and Partner of the Michelin starred River Café, Theo Randall has joined forces with a major hotel in the heart of London to do something rather different. Against the background of the expensively refurbished InterContinental Hotel Randall has set up a restaurant offering his take on Italian cuisine, with a focus on the best seasonal produce and precise flavours. This is an unashamed attempt to recreate the great dining experience, and it is proving to be wildly successful.

If seventeen years at the River Café was the setting for Randall's induction and relatively rapid canonisation with a Michelin Star in 1997, his new project could be the cream on the cake that leads to the sort of fame enjoyed by the really great names in culinary history.

Randall describes with humour holidays as a boy with his parents, touring Italy in their Citroen DS accumulating exciting food and wine until the car could take no more. With such a background it comes as no surprise to find that he is more than usually passionate about his ingredients which are then translated into essentially simple Italian dishes, described by Fay Maschler in the London Evening Standard as 'irreproachable and generous', relying upon the flavours to make his point. If this simplicity is slightly at odds with the surrounding luxury with one of London's classically best hotels, so be it; the point is made.