When life gives you lemons, you come up with a ‘single ingredient gourmet experience’ in collaboration with Krug Champagne. At least you do if you’re Michelin-starred chef Theo Clench, the man on the pass at Cycene. The restaurant in the Shoreditch cultural hub of Blue Mountain School earned its first star from the red guide within six months of opening, while Clench himself is a Krug ‘ambassade chef’.

On 11 and 12 July, guests can book in at Cycene to experience a special tasting menu themed around the zesty citrus fruit. The menu explores the complexity of this hero ingredient; highlighting in one moment its acidity, the next its sweet succulence and then the bitter balance it can offer to cut through rich ingredients. Dishes will include a dessert of baked Amalfi lemon cream, with burnt lemon granita and lemon balm, as well as some plates inspired by Clench’s recent trip to the lemon groves of Brazil.

This is the first year that Krug has taken the ‘one plot, one wine, one ingredient’ mantra of its winemaking and challenged its partner chefs to concentrate on an individual item on the shopping list. This makes sense, given that champagne itself is made from a single ingredient, the grape (albeit in three varietals of pinots noir and meunier, and chardonnay), yet each edition of the Grande Cuvée has subtly different flavours from the previous one. And that’s not to mention the uniqueness of Krug vintages, single-plot wines (such as the blanc de blancs from Clos du Mesnil) and, of course, the rosés, blended with a skin-fermented pinot noir. One characteristic of the Krug style that will always be there, however, is an abundance of citrus notes that evolves from nose to palate to finish.

The dinner at Cycene will be accompanied by the 171st Edition of the Grande Cuvée, Krug Grande Cuvée 161st Edition and Krug Rose 27th Edition. The 171st is a light, golden champagne with fine, vivacious bubbles, offering floral aromas and citrus peel on the nose, along with spicy hints of gingerbread. These develop into grilled fruit notes, frangipane and quince, while the lemon becomes limoncello-rich. Guests trying to pin down any other, slightly elusive tasting notes will be able to turn to the most qualified person to help them out – Krug’s cellar master, Julie Cavil, who will attend the dinners. 

If you want someone to wax philosophical while you eat unwaxed lemons, Cavil is your woman. ‘Cultivating differences is a limitless source of creativity,’ she says. ‘I believe this to be the cellar master’s mission in the vineyards. Whether we seek harmony or balance, only through the diversity of our terroir and by showcasing the individuality of each plot can we express the generosity of champagne. This reconciliation of paradoxes enables us to recreate the dream of Joseph Krug every year.’

Talking of ‘cultivating differences’, Krug has partnered with more chefs ambassades – more than 100 of them, from 25 countries – to create a cookbook on the lemon theme, The Zest is Yet to Come. Read more about that here.

The Krug Single Ingredient by Theo Clench dinners take place at 7pm on Tuesday 11 and Wednesday 12 July, at Cycene, Blue Mountain School, 9 Chance Street, London E2 7JB. The experience (tickets are available from bluemountain.school/cycene) is priced at £250 per person, which includes champagne pairings.

krug.com