Sally Clarke’s Kensington Thanksgiving

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In the Wine Room downstairs at Sally Clarke’s Kensington restaurant, now celebrating its 40th year, the lights are low, the flower arrangements are a fire of autumn colours and the scene is set for a Thanksgiving feast.

Clarke trained in Croydon, then Paris, before working for Prue Leith and Caroline Waldegrave in London. But the thing that changed everything for her was when she took a job at a restaurant in California in 1979. “Los Angeles was stuck in a bourgeois French over-sauced, over-cooked mélange,” she says, “but Michael McCarty [considered by many to be one of the founders of contemporary Californian cuisine] was a breath of fresh air, bringing contemporary art to the walls and bright colours to the plates. I was introduced to Alice Waters of Chez Panisse – as soon as I touched the door handle I knew this was it.”

From left: jewellery gallerist Louisa Guinness (just seen), artist and photographer David Dawson, Jessica Tutt of John & Jessie flowers, Sally Clarke, Ed Shimonov of Kensington Cigar Shop and tailor Caroline Andrew at the table

Bottles of Clarke’s own-label Verdicchio © Daisy Wingate-Saul

From left: Jessica Tutt of John & Jessie flowers, Clarke and jewellery gallerist Louisa Guinness — From left: Jessica Tutt, Sally Clarke and Louisa Guinness © Daisy Wingate-Saul

It was there also that she was introduced to Thanksgiving. “It seemed to me to be the most wonderful, all-embracing celebration: everybody seemed to be invited, everybody was willing to bring something and the more I learned about it the more I felt it was an international celebration for every creed, every colour, every age. Every year since opening the restaurant we’ve served a Thanksgiving dinner.”

The party tonight is a local affair, bringing together Clarke’s “family” of friends who live or work on Kensington Church Street: one of them, Tuggy Meyer of Huntsworth Wine Company, had his first home there; another, David Dawson, the late Lucian Freud’s studio assistant and model, now lives in the artist’s house a few doors down.

From left: Guinness with Tuggy Meyer of Huntsworth Wine Company and Colin Livingston, Clarke’s former dining room manager and now a private caterer and florist © Daisy Wingate-Saul

From left: head chef Gabrielle and sous chef Davide bring in the main dishes © Daisy Wingate-Saul

Roasted turkey breast with cranberry sauce, cavolo nero and parsnip crisps © Daisy Wingate-Saul

When Clarke entertains, the only music she will allow is “the clink of the knife and fork on the plate and gentle chatter” – and the conversation roams around local subjects from the pub opening across the road to characters they see around, to memories of Freud, who would come to the restaurant most days for breakfast and lunch: “He used to eat a whole bar [of our homemade nougat] in a day,” recalls Clarke.

A boned, rolled and roasted leg of organic turkey © Daisy Wingate-Saul

Pouring Jack Daniel’s over a dark chocolate brownie © Daisy Wingate-Saul

The nougat is served tonight with the coffee, but before that there’s a three-course feast to enjoy, kicked off with a damson bellini. First up is a “showy-offy” soufflé suissesse with Umbrian truffles shaved over the top. Main course is turkey from the Rhug estate in north Wales: “We’ve taken the legs, boned them out and rolled them around a stuffing made of chestnuts and raisins, so the breast is roasted separately.” It comes with parsnips, pumpkin, cranberry sauce and cavolo nero (“I always like a bit of green on the plate”). Dessert is a brownie with vanilla ice cream generously laced with Jack Daniel’s.

“It’s an honour to have an evening with you, because you are always working,” says gallerist Louisa Guinness, raising a glass to the host. “It’s lovely to sit down for a change,” replies Clarke, with feeling.

In Season for 40 Years by Sally Clarke is available from sallyclarke.com