'It's theatre and dinner all rolled into one'
I blame Momofuku's David Chang for the whole rock'n'roll-ification of cheffing these days. It had all calmed down since Marco Pierre White caused mass swooning over his lank locks, smouldering eyes and razor-sharp cheekbones. It pains me like you wouldn't believe to watch him these days, fondling chicken breasts, palms spread with stock cube. My ex-idol has feet of salt and maltodextrin.
Anyway, the difference between Chang and White is not just the cheekbones, but the former's swooning fans tend to be male rather than female. Fanboys in whites, kimchi-ing anything that stands still long enough. I know that other chefs, Pierre Gagnaire for one, have tinkered with the double-umami whammy of pairing kimchi with blue cheese, but it was Chang's transgressive croissants that brought it to a drooling wider audience.
So here's chef Michael Bremner, owner of 64 Degrees, a new 27-seat restaurant that has foodie Brightonians in something of a tizz, with his kimchi chicken wings with blue cheese. I bet he's either been to Momofuku Milk Bar or owns the cookbook. It's a play on the classic buffalo chicken wing, but instead of vinegary, Lee & Perrin's-laced sauce, Bremner's are sticky and lipsmacking with gochujang. A fermented cabbage leaf, dehydrated until paper-thin, pokes out of the glass bowl like wafer from an ice-cream; the blue cheese is foamy, squirted from an espuma canister. It's a great dish, one that makes you stretch your eyes with its unholy tang.
There are only 16 dishes on the menu and we eat nearly all of them. We don't intend to, but each new arrival is such a blast it seems rude not to. There's cauliflower in several iterations – roasted, puréed, shaved – scattered with pomegranate seeds and topped with a gloriously lacy and crisp shallot bhaji; the whole thing is like a molecular version of curry house favourite aloo gobi. I love it. Or tiny logs of potato knödel, toasted and nutty outside, truffly within, with swirls of emulsified smoked butter and cabbage.
Bremner makes great use of his advanced kitchen kit, his dehydrator and water bath. The restaurant's name comes from the "house egg", bathed at 64 degrees precisely until its white is translucent but set and its yolk as spoonable as honey. We have this with ham hock – a little underpowered (I'd have liked more salt and heft) – and woody girolles. And he's not above jokes. "Fish & chips" is exactly that: a smoky, grilled chunk of bream, yer actual chips, pea purée and a pickled quail's egg with, by way of garnish, a slab of batter. Then, after all this playfulness, comes a sticky toffee pudding as conventional-looking as a Tory wife, albeit one who's hiding a good swig of bourbon.
We're on stools, right in front of Bremner and, as the wine goes down (unlike the food, which is served in considered and decorative crockery, it comes in the sort of horrid institutional glasses we used to drink Creamola Foam from at school), pester him with questions. Despite the place being mobbed, he's all good grace. There's no hiding place: we watch as he prises shimmering discs of bacon gelée to perch on top of scallops, and dismisses in disgust a plate on which the blob of coconut is not the desired dimension for his blow-torched but otherwise raw mackerel. It's theatre and dinner all rolled into one.
Yes, there are hiccups and snafus: one very grumpy chap, who has booked, can't get a table and is determined to share his irritation: knife-resistant tortillas under an otherwise wonderful dish of pressed pig cheek, somewhere between rillettes and pulled pork with a clever accompaniment of scorched, pickled pineapple; those glasses. And if you long for obsequious sommeliers and linen tablecloths – or even room to swing a cat – this won't be for you. It's teeny and cramped and a bit frantic. But, food-wise, it's the most exciting thing to hit Brighton for years. Actually, maybe ever.
• 64 Degrees 53 Meeting House Lane, Brighton, 01273 770115. Open lunch, Tues-Sun, noon-3.30pm; dinner, Mon-Sat, 6-9.45pm. About £25-30 a head plus drinks and service.
Food 8/10
Atmosphere 6/10
Value for money 8/10
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