Pink and green should always be seen and that’s probably what most of your Instagram feed is made up of at the moment – for every green wild garlic dish you’ve scrolled past, its pink cousin isn’t too far away, because spring is also rhubarb season. It’s the time of year when maincrop rhubarb is harvested, as opposed to the earlier arrival of forced rhubarb, grown in the Rhubarb Triangle around Leeds, Wakefield and Bradford. Some like to artfully tessellate the pink stems on pastries and tarts to rack up those likes, others like to stew it down, sweeten it up and slop it across puddings, normally custard based, for the ultimate nostalgia hit. Us? We just like to eat the stuff, and these are the rhubarb dishes in London that have got us tickled pink.
Jolene
Sometimes simple is best, as proved by Jolene, which is dishing up this vanilla bavarois with a pile of shocking pink rhubarb in Newington Green.
Fallow
You can always count on the Fallow guys to do something interesting and unexpected, and that’s exactly what’s happened with this new cheese course of malted honey waffle, rhubarb chutney, soft Baron Bigod, fresh honeycomb and truffle.
Nessa
Tom Cenci is doing a fine line in retro desserts at Nessa, which includes this baked Alaska with rhubarb, the bronzed meringue pleasingly set amongst a pool of pink fruit.
Sager + Wilde
The Bethnal Green outpost of Sager + Wilde is pimping up the classic combo of rhubarb and custard with the addition of ricotta frittelle and we are very much on board.
Pophams
You can always count on Pophams for mega seasonal pastries and they’ve done it again with this gin-poached rhubarb, rosemary-infused vanilla custard and lemon crumble beauty. We’ll take two.