Fergus Henderson’s St. John is the restaurant that launched a thousand pig logos—and many imitators. Since it opened in 1994 in a whitewashed former smokehouse next to London’s wholesale meat market, St. John and Fergus Henderson have become much-copied gastronomic icons.
With his unique personal aesthetic, Henderson’s dishes can sometimes read like a stark list of ingredients. But underneath everything is formidable technical skill. There must be—the complete lack of superfluous garnishes on each plate gives the cook nowhere to hide. Each ingredient must be scrupulously sourced and sensitively handled. The same mentality is reflected in Henderson’s approach to cheese. St. John has no compendious cheese trolley with “too many little bits of cheese, all arranged in a circle.” Instead, Henderson prefers to offer four scrupulously kept cheeses. “Cheese is human, too,” he says. “It needs to be looked after.”
A great English tradition, Welsh rarebit is generally eaten at the very end of the meal and washed down with a glass of port. Justifiably popular as a bar snack at St. John, this also makes for a comforting supper. Fergus uses Montgomery’s Cheddar from Somerset in the west of England.