A new destination in Kings Cross turns its back on mod cons to cater to a fantasy of past times

The Yellow Bittern, 20 Caledonian Road, London N1 9DU (020 3342 2162). Starters £7 – £8; mains £20 – £28; desserts £8 – £9. Wines from £40

Chefs gather in tribes. There are the tweezer chefs and the dude food chefs and the live-fire chefs, wisps of smoke forever rising from their singed eyebrows. Then there are the chef poets. They cleave to texts by Richard Olney and Elizabeth David, like mothers to their newborns. They perv over ingredients. They work backwards from the experience at the table into the kitchen, rather than from the kitchen outwards. And they adore a well-turned phrase. They are romantics.