My low-carb(on) menu

Arthur Potts Dawson of Acorn House restaurant

If you asked me to ‘future proof’ my restaurant menu for the type of world we’ll be inhabiting in 2025, here’s something I might come up with for a late summer meal.

First course
Beetroot & cardamom soup

Main course
Aubergine, spinach, goat’s cheese
& grilled red chilli sauce

Dessert
Summer pudding

There’s not much of this that I couldn’t get in the UK, even the secret ingredients in the soup – the organic vodka and sour cream.

Beetroot is on here because it’s drought tolerant, like most root vegetables. As for the aubergines, I figured they wouldn’t need to be cultivated in glasshouses with the sort of summers we’ll be seeing. And the ‘exotic’ chillis and cardamoms? They’re the type of thing I plan to be growing on a hydroponic barge outside my next restaurant. You’ll note there’s no meat on the menu. I’ve not gone for a vegetarian restaurant today, because I’m trying to balance sustainability and commercial interest. But it’s something I’m sure we’ll see a lot more of in the future.

Last but not least, the summer pudding will be all British – from the blackberries, strawberries and redcurrants through to the peaches that give it that something different…

11 October 2007