WORDS
Chris Madigan
The courtyard of Holborn’s Rosewood London hotel has been transformed this winter into a portal to a virtual Scotland, in the shape of the Glenfiddich Time:Capsule Terrace. It’s a cosy and calm shelter from the howl of High Holborn and on Wednesday, 25 January, it will host a Burns Night supper in what the poet might call the heart of “England’s province”.

It’s not unknown for London venues to host Burns suppers, but often they overcompensate for the Sassenach location by putting the twee in Harris tweed. Rosewood London’s Glenfiddich Time:Capsule has a contemporary feel, using digital effects to create a sense of Speyside.
The Burns supper menu strikes a balance between contemporary dishes and tradition. Not surprising, as Rosewood London is the home of the Holborn Dining Room – renowned for serving twists on British classic dishes when they need modernising, but sticking to traditions when they ain’t broke and focussing on quality ingredients.

Dishes will include Rosewood London’s take on Cullen skink (a Morayshire smoked haddock soup), whisky and dill-cured Loch Duart salmon and traditional haggis, neeps (what the English call swede) and tatties. The drinks offer is strong too – after all, the hotel’s bar, Scarfes, has one of London’s best whisky collections.

Included in the dinner are two Glenfiddich cocktails, the Apple Evolution based on Glenfiddich Orchard Experiment (finished in apple brandy casks), and a Reversed Coffee with 12YO Glenfiddich, plus a dram of 18YO Glenfiddich to raise when the words ‘Gie her a haggis!’ ring out at the end of the Address.
The tribute to the “Great chieftain o’ the puddin’-race”, and some original pieces, will be performed by Edinburgh-based poetry collective I Am Loud.
Tickets to the Time: Capsule Burns supper, £135pp, are available from Rosewood London