New Order: sea urchin with bagna càuda, quail egg and fermented milk at RIGO’

Sea urchin with bagna càuda, quail egg and fermented milk at Gonzalo Luzarraga’s new Fulham place, RIGO’.

Each dish at RIGO’ tells a story, and Luzarraga’s signature sea urchin is no different: a visually arresting surf ’n’ turf dish scooped inside the urchin’s shell, atop a bed of sea salt.

It has a curious texture, moist like an oyster but juicy and meaty too, like a snail. It certainly shakes up the London restaurant scene.

For Luzarraga, it’s personal. “This dish represents one of my first memories,” he says. “When I was six years old I used to go on holiday to Spain, where my father loved to dive and go fishing. I would wait patiently for him on the beach, and he would always bring back a sea urchin. He’d pack a lemon in his beach bag to accompany it.”

Luzarraga didn’t have sea urchin again until “10 years ago, when I was in Chile where I tried it at a fish market. It blew my mind and brought back memories — I had to incorporate it into the menu as an homage to my father.”

Luzarraga’s food attests to be from a “kitchen without borders”. “The restaurant is Italian but I have worked in Spain, France and Italy and the menu shows my journey.”

A dessert of porcini brûlée, with chestnut cream, caramelised popcorn and black sesame. Luzarraga caramelises the popcorn crust with a blowtorch in the kitchen. Chestnut cream should not work as a sweet substitute but it does: a delicate froth perched on the popcorn brûlée bed.

A Royal Aperol Spritz with champagne, vermouth and a pomegranate and basil tonic and the Mentha Margherita, with freshly juiced mint leaves. Fittingly, both are just as original as the urchin.