Hogwarts for chefs

It's not often that a restaurant critic can claim to have 'discovered' a place, but in the case of The Vincent Rooms I think I may have a genuine case.

Admittedly, it has been reviewed twice before - but that hardly constitutes a publicity blitz given that it has been around since 1910. When you consider the fact that Jamie Oliver, Ainsley Harriott and Antony Worrall Thompson have all done stints in its kitchen - and the fact that it's located in one of the nicest squares in Pimlico - such underexposure seems almost scandalous.

The reason The Vincent Rooms has been more or less ignored by my colleagues for the past 96 years is because it's staffed entirely by catering students. The building it's in is the headquarters of what used to be called Westminster Technical College, but, following a merger with Kingsway in 2000, is now known as Westminster Kingsway College. According to Jamie Oliver, who was a student at Westminster from 1994 to 1996, it's 'the best catering college in England'.

The Vincent Rooms is located on Vincent Square, a beautiful bit of greenery that's only five minutes' walk from Victoria Station. Customers are given a choice of eating in the brasserie or the Escoffier Room, depending on how much trust they're willing to put in the student chefs.

I decided to play it safe and opted for the brasserie - a large, canteen-like space that can accommodate up to 180 people. On the day I went, it had around 60 people in it. Not bad for a Tuesday, particularly considering it was lunchtime.

Since it's part of an educational establishment, The Vincent Rooms is not intended to be profitable and, perhaps for that reason, the prices are absurdly reasonable.

For instance, a starter of linguine with basil, garlic, salami and olives is £3.50, while the most expensive main course - roasted duck breast with potato Cretan and green beans - is only £9.50. In effect, you can have a decent two-course meal in a proper restaurant setting for the price of a sandwich and a cup of coffee at Starbucks.

Queen Victoria had only just died when The Vincent Rooms first threw open its doors: back then, the kitchen was staffed almost exclusively by children. In these more enlightened times, you have to be at least 14 to enroll on a catering course, so at least your meal won't have been prepared by a ten-year-old orphan.

Having said that, I did spot an Oliver Twist lookalike in chef's whites scurrying about, so I erred on the side of caution when it came to ordering.

I started with smoked chicken caesar salad and followed up with veal cordon bleu. Clearly, I needn't have worried since both dishes were exemplary. Whoever prepared my salad had gone to the trouble of rolling the anchovies into little worm-like shapes - a nice touch, I thought - and the veal escalope was even better than my wife's, if such a thing is possible.