Chichester's Pallant House Gallery, arguably the finest gallery in the southeast if you are looking for modern art of significant stature, equally goes in for pictures on the culinary plate, the restaurant now run by Sam and Janet Mahoney of nearby Field And Fork fame.

The Mahoneys, who decamped from London last year to open their dual business of café-restaurant and deli in the city centre, added a third string to their gastronomic empire in early November by taking on the gallery's catering.

The previous company didn't quite gel in the remarkable space given over to refreshing those seeking a modern art fix or for others in the city simply on the lookout for good food, the restaurant open to all, not just ticket holders. Enter Sam, past head chef of the famed Kensington Place and other restaurants including ones in Japan and the US, and Janet, in charge of front of house.
The gallery, the Gulbenkian Prize winner of Museum of the Year 2007, is divided into Queen Anne townhouse with sweeping wood staircase and modern new wing, the latter designed by Colin St John Wilson, the renowned architect-art collector who designed the British Museum.

His phenomenal 500-piece collection with its major examples of Brit Pop Art including Peter Blake's The Beatles, is housed here, the 40-seater restaurant with swish extra courtyard seating part of the classy glass and brick wing.

Come here for coffee and pastries, lunches and afternoon teas, dinners served on Thursdays only, Sunday brunches equally on the culinary map. Sam has devised clever menus, pricing keen as mustard.

The changing choices may include spiced lamb, tomato and butterbean soup (£5.95); oak smoked salmon, lemon and capers (£8.25); crayfish and spinach omelette (£6.95); roasted peppered beef on rye with watercress and horseradish (£6.95); linguini with crab, chilli, lime and coriander (£9.95) and roasted partridge with artichoke tart tatin, spiced carrot purée (£13.50).

The Sunday brunch has a changing roast, poached egg Florentine, pumpkin and truffle risotto and other dishes culled from the weekly lineup, the Thursday dinner menu going down the more formal, substantial two or three-course route.

London art dealer friends Peter and Neil couldn't wait to sample the food, the art they came to see - the surrealist Eileen Agar's A Life In Collage's collection - getting their full attention after the inner man had been seen to.

Peter's griddled mackerel with apple salsa (£5.95), a fine, fresh specimen of filleted fish artfully draped over a tart, moreish salad satisfied as did Neil's chorizo and roasted pepper bubble and squeak with fried egg, also just short of the £6 mark. It might have found space on the Brit Pop wall as an artefact in its own right, an unintentional play on a David Hockney thanks to the large egg on its multi-coloured potato, cabbage and sausage backdrop.
My spiced tuna salad with sweet wasabi dressing and toasted seeds (£7.95) completed the culinary picture, the griddled tuna with its vegetal diamanté crust possible homage to Damian Hurst's £50 million diamond skull.

We polished off two dazzling dark chocolate, orange and pistachio tarts with white chocolate mousse and a caramelised apple and cinnamon Charlotte with butterscotch sauce, coffee equally well sourced and executed as the desserts (all £4.50 and house made) before taking to the stairs and Eileen's art.

Art galleries are increasingly taking on board the necessity of offering good food, not cardboard, as visitors seek quality over quantity, Tate Britain with its Whistler Restaurant serving stylish British food and Manchester's Whitworth Art Gallery Café two luminaries, Portsmouth's Aspex Art Gallery in Gunwharf Quays a possible local contender. The penny has finally dropped at the Pallant House Gallery.

Hands together for Sam and Janet Mahoney and for Stefan van Raay, the gallery's director, for placing art on the plate and palate as well as on the walls.

Our bill came to around £15 each.

Source: The News
Location: Portsmouth