Fit For a King - The King's Head

The King's Head fills a void for the more wealthy residents that inhabit the area of Roehampton, providing them with a local pub and restaurant. The surrounding area of the King’s Head is not what may be imagined when looking at it from the inside, as with it's wooden beams, cosy armchairs huddled around the fireplaces and blankets provided for the customers, it could well be situated in the British countryside. However, during the early 60's the council estates that populate Roehampton imposed upon beautiful Richmond Park and more affluent housing that surrounds them and The King's Head has been plonked in the middle of this, and admittedly, more on the less 'desirable' side. The building of social housing in Roehampton has created a very diverse selection of people living in this and the surrounding areas such as Putney Heath and Barnes village and The King's Head gives those who aren’t satisfied with the services of Favorite Chicken or a Subway sandwich for Sunday lunch somewhere to eat out. It also provides an alternative to the street corner for having a pint which many of the locals have become accustomed to. The public house has a large wine selection that would give the Co-Operatives's array of Blossom Hill and Jacob's Creek a run for it's money, concreting the fact that they are‘very passionate about [their] wines’. The menu also offers advice on which specimen to accompany certain dishes, not only relieving the customer of the pressure of choosing a great wine that isn't overpriced, but also reassuring them that the restaurant and it's staff know what they're doing .

At the very top of the menu is a list of ingredients that are in season and by placing it there it is the first thing that is read by the customer; introducing them to a world of fresh produce and seasonal crop not usually offered by the busy city in which they live. This is comforting for the customer, knowing that the restaurant has taken into account which foods are at their best and available locally rather than having to be imported from elsewhere.
This attitude of ensuring you only eat a certain type of food at a certain time has been coined as becoming a 'locavore' by chef Jessica Prentice. Whole books have been written about this generation of people including Marilou K. Suszko's 'The Locavore's Kitchen: A Cook's Guide to Seasonal Eating and Preserving'. She was inspired after Jessica Prentice started a competition in 2007 to motivate people to "think, act and live as locavores - people passionate about buying, cooking and eating food grown, raised or produced close to home" (xiii). These ethically conscious eaters are not only concerned with the effect this locally sourced food will have on themselves, but "want to know if the food they are buying and eating is good for all; the families, the farmers, the land and the enviornment" (xiii).
There is in fact a small selection of dishes available on the menu, demonstrating the exclusivity of selected food that means only providing the freshest ingredients for 'locavores'. This is something that is expected of a restaurant serving a certain standard and price of food. It is deemed a necessity to have food that is not only in season, but also can be sourced locally. A smaller menu to select from reassures the customer that they are not paying for a microwave meal that they could have got from their nearest M&S or that the ‘game chips’ they’re tucking into were thrown into a deep fat fryer from frozen.

One of the most unique things about the food on offer at the King's Head are the starter selection boards that although don’t come cheap, are intended to share between a number of customers. The ‘King’s Board’ is perhaps intended to be ‘fit for a King’ as it mixes dishes such as chicken kiev and scotch egg which can be found in a supermarket with more pricey and niche items such as oysters, liver parfait (which is difficult to say without sounding as if you’re imitating royalty) and chicken crackling. This banquet style starter allows the customer to sample a range of dishes of a smaller size; possibly making it seem as if they’ve eaten a lot and gotten a good variety of flavours for their money. .However, there is little option for vegetarians as even the chips are soaked in the juicy flavour of game before they are served, leaving those not a fan of meat to feast upon bread sauce only. In fact, throughout the menu there is little option of a meat-free dish, with specialities such as whole birds being offered upon a rotisserie; a style of cooking a bird that isn’t often found in the city due to the time that it takes.

The menu is written in a list style, a basic agenda of ingredients emphasising their natural origin and lack of additives or flavourings. Here and there adjectives are added such as 'wild', 'whole' and 'London', to describe their being locally sourced, reminding the ethically-conscious customer that what they are eating is wholesome whilst the poultry available is described as either being free range or British native. I can certify that wherever their produce was sourced from, it was pretty yummy!