Claude Bosi has been busy.
After opening Socca last spring, then Brooklands last autumn (and scoring yet another two Michelin Stars in the process, taking his total to six), he’s now opened up yet another new eatery: Josephine Bouchon.
It’s named after his own grandmother, though to be clear, her surname wasn’t ‘bouchon’, that’s just the style of restaurant that it is: a Lyonnaise-style bistro. It’s all inspired by Bosi’s own upbringing in Lyon – his parents had a restaurant there, and he practically grew up in the kitchen. And in Lyon, butter is basically a food group, the salad comes with bacon, and they’ve basically turned making sausages into an art form. And Josephine is very much a Lyonnaise restaurant.
You’ll find it on Fulham Road where it’s parked itself around the corner from Gordon Ramsay’s Park Walk restaurant. Inside, the space feels like it was plucked from a Lyonnaise side street, with bentwood chairs, candles on every table, and walls crammed with far too many pictures in the most pleasing way.
On the menu, you’ll find classic starters like puffy Saint-Félicien cheese soufflé, or a soft boiled egg encased in a crystal-clear jelly. There are even frogs legs draped in garlic butter. And of course, you can get the classic Lyonnaise salad, which comes equipped with bacon, poached egg, and baguette croutons to fend off any accusation of it being too lean.
The main courses follow the same script, delivering huge chicken & mushroom vol-au-vents; beef fillets in peppercorn sauce; veal sweetbreads in morel mushroom sauce; and sharing dishes that include a pot of roasted rabbit drenched in tarragon & mustard sauce plonked right in the middle of the table. And as for vegetables? There’s just cabbage or leaf salad as a potatoes in their various forms (frites, pomme duchesse, pureed, etc.).
As for the desserts, there’s a healthy selection to choose from, with old school choux pastry jammed with Chantilly cream; pink praline tarts; iles flotants; and a rum baba that comes slightly deconstructed – a trolley will be wheeled over to your table with a sponge cake under a glass cloche. After a slice is hefted onto the plate, it’ll be soaked in a rum of your choosing, and partnered up with a silver goblet filled with vanilla cream. You can then assemble each mouthful as you see fit.
And as for the wine? Well, there’s plenty to choose from, and you can indulge in yet anther classic Lyonnaise tradition: pay-as-you-drink wine.
You start sipping, they keep pouring.
NOTE: Josephine is open now, seven days a week. You can find out more and make a booking right HERE.
Josephine | 315 Fulham Road, London SW10 9QH
Like Lyonnaise cooking? Might we recommend Bouchon Racine…