CAPITAL CUISINE

It took Swiss watchmaking’s Nineties revolutionary, Jean-Claude Biver to coin ‘The Art of Fusion’, when – having saved Omega and reinvented Blancpain – he made Hublot the millennial’s ‘Rolex’.

To be fair, in launching the beefy ‘Big Bang’ version of Hublot’s titular ‘porthole’ in 2005, Biver paid due diligence acknowledging the daring of Italian originator Carlo Crocco back in 1980, ‘fusing’ rubber with precious metal (let alone dreaming up that outré circle/octagon case design).

But Biver’s ‘fusion’ philosophy proved to be more than mere sloganeering. It underpinned a breathless embarkation of branded coming-togethers, from FIFA to Usain Bolt to Berluti shoes. (All the while pioneering remarkable in-house capabilities on the actual watchmaking front, it should be said, from 3D tourbillons to scratchproof gold and coloured sapphire cases.)

So far so multi-platformed and cross-pollinated. But in Hublot there’s a refreshingly potent alignment of values in fine dining. If you’re making a pilgrimage to ROX’s most exciting new door-opening, at London’s redux Battersea Power Station, we urge you to bear in mind that a mere hop, skip and a jump away are two partners in Hublot ‘fusion’, both of which demand an evening out.

The notion of ‘fusion cuisine’ is, mercifully, outmoded enough to avoid being wrestled with Hublot’s credo (their crack marketeers would never be so gauche) but gastronauts would concede that in fairness it is because it’s a given with modern haute cuisine – hence the perfection of Clare Smyth at Core and Anne-Sophie Pic at La Dame de Pic, their own ever-shifting seasonal fusions enjoying long-established crossover with the Hublot universe for years now.

Uncompromising precision through mastery of every craft, plus a passion for fine artistry, blended with timeworn innovation and a respect for past masters, are the ingredients of both gourmet cuisine and haute horlogerie. And to anyone who finds that trite, we’d suggest that at the very least, the most important aspect binding both and at the heart of both individually is: time. You can’t deny the vitality.

The notion of ‘fusion cuisine’ is, mercifully, outmoded enough to avoid being wrestled with Hublot’s credo but gastronauts would concede that in fairness it is because it’s a given with modern haute cuisine

Precise timing is essential for chefs and patrons alike from the moment of ordering, plating up on the pass, and through to service. On entering the dining room, guests at three-starred Core by Clare Smyth in west London’s Notting Hill will see proudly displayed in the centre of the kitchen a Hublot Classic Fusion wall clock; the heart of the restaurant beats to Hublot time.

Clare joins Hublot’s growing family of culinary partners, with three Michelin star chef Yannick Alléno, Andreas Caminada and Paul Pairet partnering with the Swiss luxury watchmaker. Clare Smyth was made a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in 2013 for services to the hospitality industry, and it says everything that this was in no small part down to her reinvention of the potato in her signature dish, ‘Potato and Roe’, elevating a humble staple of British produce to the pinnacle of haute cuisine. An ethos that Hublot is keenly attuned to in comparably, seemingly simple things like bringing the chronograph works of its Unico movement forward, dial-side – not necessarily in improvement but in celebration.

Similarly, Anne-Sophie Pic is much more than a sum of her stars. The most garlanded woman in cooking, her journey from the Beau-Rivage Palace in Lausanne to serving £195 tasting menus at the Four Seasons Hotel in the Square Mile has always nurtured a human identity at its own ‘core’.

Whether it helps that she’s also Swiss? Well, you’ll have to get Monsieur Biver out of retirement to ask that question…

La Dame de Pic London, Four Seasons Hotel London at Tower Bridge 10 Trinity Square, London EC3N 4AJ

Core, 92 Kensington Park Road, London W11 2PN