Chef cooks up capital grub

A chef is to open a restaurant in central London that aims to use only ingredients produced within the M25.

Oliver Rowe has been amazed at the cornucopia available within the capital and its suburbs.

His menu will feature mushrooms picked in East Ham, flour ground in Ponders End and honey produced in Tower Hill.

Rowe, 32, has even succeeded in sourcing a home-grown sparkling wine for his new restaurant in King's Cross.

"I was surprised to find how much is out there," said Rowe, who already runs Konstam, a popular café on Kings Cross Road.

His new venture - he has taken over a former pub close to Konstam, and will call it Konstam At The Prince Albert - is due to open at the end of next month.

With just weeks to go, there are still a few gaps in his list of ingredients - and a few areas where he is being forced to cheat. "Tea and coffee, obviously," he said. "And pepper and spices. Salt I can get from Essex.

"I have found a mushroom farm in East Ham, fish from the Thames, a fantastic farm with lamb and pigs at Amersham and an ostrich farm in south-west London."

Olive oil looked like it was going to be another problem until Rowe sourced some rapeseed locally and then discovered an oil press.

"It is a very good oil, good for dressings," he said. Rowe trained at Moro before working elsewhere in London and in Italy.

He opened Konstam - named after his great-grandfather, a German-Jewish immigrant - two years ago. It has won praise from Evening Standard food critics. The food at Rowe's new venture will be "north European" but the full menu will not be revealed until the opening.

He said: "I like produce that takes you out of your mundane environment. Supermarket food comes in plastic packages, and we have lost some of the delight in food and seasons."