At Quo Vadis, with friends

Plus my recipe for flourless chocolate cake

In some ways Zuni Café, in San Francisco, was the beginning of my food education in restaurants, and so it’s amazing that last week I got to join Zuni’s owner Gilbert Pilgram at Quo Vadis here in London when they hosted Zuni for a very special evening.

I remember when I was in high school my friend, recognising that I was into food even then, wanted to take me to Zuni. In my family we didn’t go to restaurants like that, so it was an incredible treat to go, it’s such a special, twinkly restaurant that’s all open with a beautiful mezzanine at the corner of Market Street and Gough in San Francisco, and we sat upstairs. We had the famous Zuni hamburger and then we had this cake, their famous flourless chocolate Gateau Victoire, that I still remember so clearly and that I was asked by Gilbert to make at Quo Vadis.

Gilbert was my GM when I worked at Chez Panisse, and he left to buy into Zuni with the late, great chef-owner Judy Rodgers. Judy herself was also former Chez, and was hired by Zuni’s founder Billy West in 1987. It was already an institution at that point; Elizabeth David considered it her favourite San Francisco restaurant, but with simpler fare so when Judy came she brought her experience from Chez, and from working in France and Italy, and created something really magical.

It's crazy how life lays things out for you, all these connections leading to different things like getting to do this event. Quo Vadis has been one of my favourite London restaurants since I moved here as well, and I’ve known Jeremy Lee, its chef proprietor, forever. He’s always been an incredible supporter of Violet, cycling past and buying cookies for his team with his elaborately mellifluous language, so it’s such a treat to get to cook in his kitchen. My head chef Niko and I, along with baker Adam, were so excited to be in a restaurant and to do night time service, which we so rarely get to do at the bakery.

With Niko and Adam in the Quo Vadis kitchen

A flourless chocolate cake can be a thing of beauty, but as Gilbert said when we were sat discussing the menu before service this one was a bitch to make. For that reason, and because it’s such a special recipe I’m afraid I can’t share it, I’m including my favourite version of a flourless chocolate cake below. We served the Gateau Victoire with a bergamot whipped cream, which you could do as well.

I’ve spoken before about the importance of underwhipping and that is so important here – you need your chocolate, egg yolks and egg whites to all be the same consistency so they can come together easily without overmixing. Make sure as well to close all windows and doors, if you have a fan or an air conditioner turn them off – any sudden change in temperature can shock melted chocolate and affect the final product. You will need an electric mixer for this.