Sunday Roast / Victor Lugger
Dining in
Famous for their tasty take on Italian food served in riotously fun surroundings, Victor Lugger’s Big Mamma restaurants can be summed up in a word: abbondanza (excess). Whether it’s wine, chatter, the hue of the walls or the flavour of the pizzas and pastas everything is amped up – not least the queues. Lugger opened the first restaurant in 2015 with co-founder, Tigrane Seydoux and the pair now own 15 sites across France, Spain and the UK, with plans for more in the works. Here, Lugger (pictured, on left, with Seydoux) tells us about cold-water swimming, Vivaldi and wines from France’s Jura region.
Where do we find you this weekend?
On Osea Island, one of the UK’s best kept secrets. The plan is treasure hunting, s’mores and fishing with the family. Then, partying at night with friends.
What’s your ideal start to a Sunday, gentle start or a jolt?
Jolt. I go for a morning swim in the pond in Hampstead Heath. During the winter months, it can get really cold. Sometimes the water temperature is 4C.
News or no news?
On Saturday, the FT Weekend. On Sunday, no news. Sundays are for connecting with the people in the room.
What are your larder essentials?
White pepper from Épices Roellinger in Paris and tea from La Maison des Trois Thés. Rare pepper is the most affordable luxury!
A Sunday culture must?
Fenton House, one of the oldest houses in Hampstead. It’s a 17th-century National Trust property, which has one of the biggest collections of harpsichords in Europe.
Ideal dinner venue?
Home. During the summer, it’s mozzarella, fresh basil and tomatoes. But in the winter months, I love to cook chicken by injecting it with vin jaune from France’s Jura region. My mother is a doctor and when I visit her I steal a few syringes to use for this recipe.
Who’s joining you?
My whole family gets together for lunch on a Sunday. If we’re lucky some friends and another family will join us too.
A glass of something you would recommend?
I am a huge fan of Jura wines. They remind me of my family because my grandfather comes from the region. They are amazing oxidised wines, which will keep for up to 100 years. I’ve bought one for each of my three children’s birth years, and I am keeping them for their 50th birthdays.
Any Sunday evening routine?
I visit one of our restaurants. When we launched our first location six years ago, Tigrane, my business partner, always said that we needed to set up something that felt like an “antidepressant” on a Sunday evening; a place to beat the Sunday blues.