E-Senses: Playing with our food

Another NOMA post, a birthday lunch

2012-01-13T14:09:00.000Z

Haha, Oops July eh? last post on the blog, what am I like. for the people who check back every month (and surprisingly many more of you than I thought) thank you, and I see my most viewed post is the review of my January meal at Noma in Copenhagen, along with the stage I undertook there.

Well it's not without a small sense of irony I return after a long hiatus with another review of the so called 'Worlds best restaurant' well not so much a review but a ramble through the meal.

So what have I got to say about Noma that I haven't already said, well to be honest probably not a huge amount, so I won't be milking it, but I do have the odd observation I would love to share.

Anyhow without further ado, this trip had nothing to do with work, nothing culinary, this was about treating my wife to a birthday lunch at the worlds best restaurant. so 3 months earlier, I religiously waited in front of my PC and phone in hand began clicking refresh and hitting redial for a full hour, before I managed to secure a lunchtime table (which I wanted), and on my wife's birthday (on a Tuesday, so that helped). Incidentally at the time, I was in the process of organising stages for my commis chef, one placement was to be at the 1 michelin star restaurant, owned by Simon Hulstone. I had watched his tweets along with my own as we had tried to secure tables in the month of November, once we had tables I called him to finalise arrangements for my chefs stage and found we would not only be dining at Noma on the same day, but for the same service. it's a small world.

So with one excited Mrs. we departed for Copenhagen at sparrowfart in November, after an event-less journey and check in to our simple (read cheap) hotel. we wandered into the city past the flats where I lived for the week 10 months before, and casually ambled the same route I took then down towards the restaurant, funnily enough it was pretty much as blooming clod as I remember it too.

My wonderful Mrs. @lallypo on twitter, with the obligatory door shot, quite poorly with my shadow lumbering in it, I remembered most things this trip, except for my camera, so iPhone images all the way, sorry about that.

now I wont blah on again with the description of the restaurant, the ethos, etc. etc. cos I've been there and done it, so below a few pictures of the dishes of note.

these are the snacks that were either new or evolved since my last visit.

unlike the whole leek, this blanched and fried affair, finished with parsley puree. a great incarnation of the idea, very cleverly executed and personally nicer that the whole leek

Mussel, amazing, stand out dish, albeit only one little bite, the cleverness of the bottom shell being fully edible bringing the texture to a beautifully cooked full flavoured mussel.

Another clever dish, crisp potato, mushroom powder. the potato being the finest cut i have ever seen, fried into thick discs and dusted with an intense mushroom seasoning, lovely

The biscuit tin arrived, one of my favourites from January, but instead of a purple disc with a pine-shoot adorning it, this came out. Delicate shortbread, cheese and a herb stem salad. Amazing strength of flavour from something so small.

Odd one this, snail & nasturtium. Simple, pleasant, pretty, forgettable.

Razor clam, last visit got given this as an extra during a Saturday function by Matt, thought it was lovely then, but now not having to grab nibbles of it between jobs, absolutely stunning.

Scallops, grains, squid ink (those beech nuts), tastes nicer when someone else prepped it :)

Radishes (and carrots) in a pot, soil and puree lovely, veg themselves not as young and sweet as last visit, I fell this would have benefited from being dropped this day, veg not up to scratch.

Pickles, oh how I remember pickles. Just as lovely, just as impossible to distinguish the separate pickles, dish is amazing even with the mono-herb this time (forgot to ask, tasted like a variety of sorrel)

'The apple that fell from the tree', this stands out for its cleverness, as with so much here, every bit was edible, and below the dehydrated apple skin dust surrounding it was so many different textures of apples, or at least I though so, until I spoke with James in production who gave me the full ingredient breakdown which included Jerusalem artichoke and truffle, neither of which stood out, but could guess that if they were omitted then they would be missed.

The signature dish of beef tartar, juniper, tarragon puree. As it's longevity on the menu would suggest its a cracker, really lovely and fun to scrape every ounce off the plate with fingers. Only slight negative here would be that we were seeing the repeat of sorrel quite a bit and there is only so much one man can eat.

Matt Orlando served us this one, one of his personal favourite dishes and one that was on the 7 course menu in January. Cabbages, bacon broth and fresh cheese. Flavours were quite simply mind-blowing super rich yet ultra light.

The 'Meat' course, Venison, buttermilk, wild herbs, walnuts.

great yin and yang of flavour and texture between 2 different cooking styles in the venison itself, the garnish elements carrying the rest well, good yet not quite great.

that wasn't all the snacks or the mains but only the ones I either had comment for or an un-blurred picture to share, now we move to desserts, I found these the most challenging dishes on my first visit, and as it was to be, again the most challenging again.

Cucumber, yogurt, elderflower. All the elements I like, and the yogurt at the bottom was perfect, but the unsweetened, barely seasoned cucumber granite was a challenge to the palate the pickled elderflowers helped bring things together, but not enough of them for the vast amount of frozen cucumber juice.

'Carrot cake' Light mousse, parfait, paper thin carrots in many guises, a few challenging textures throughout but a very accomplished dish flavour wise.

Potato & plum.

a log description preceded this dish on how it had come about, and the vast preparation involved (phew glad G wasn't there in January, he would have killed me for the job of cracking plum stones, then peeling the 'bitter almond' inside. Anyway the dish was a full breakdown of the chemical element Benzaldehyde the chemical that gives almond its flavour, also the aroma present in Cyanide. again very cleverly done potato sticks that melted into puree on touch, a very soft whipped potato infused with the plum stone, then plum jam/compote etc through the dish. Damned clever from conception to delivery and one of those dishes you will either love or hate, I loved it my wife hated it.

finally, just prior to the kitchen tour, a birthday cake 'Noma style' was delivered for my wife, a massive slate, soils and herbs all over it, and a great simple mousse. very nice touch.

We toured the kitchen with Simon's table as it was getting late and was great to catch up with a few of the same faces I'd worked with earlier that year and to grab snippets of info regarding techniques and methods. but I was craving meat, I had had about 18 of my 5 a day and needed something unhealthy which I sorted that evening in the brasserie at the Nimb hotel.

So was it better? the meal was as good overall, some great some duff, but there are 22 plates put in front of you, it's unlikely they will all be your favourites, what came close to damaging the experience for me was the fact I chose champagne to start, 1 wine and 1 juice pairing, and whilst the juice pairing is decent value for money, adding the wines to this sent the bill into silly levels, the wine was pretty ok, but nothing I would write home about, the juices were well made, but often didn't really complement the dishes they were served with, so we kept quite a few glasses dotted around the table and sipped as and when each flavour made sense, there was plenty of opportunity to partake in a sip of the sorrel juice.

I believe it was Charles Rolls who said something along the lines of 'Quality is remembered long after the price is forgotten' and whilst I had a truly great experience at the hands of Rene's team the bill will linger in my memory for a long time to come. I don't want to put you off going to Noma, just if you live life on a Normal salary, drink water, or try the juice pairing, TBH the wine aint all that for the money.

Chaine des Rotisseurs dinner, Danish embassy in riyadh

2011-07-07T12:28:00.000+01:00

Ok, how long does it take to do a blog post? Hmmmm. Too long really, my apologies, but with general life and my darling wife not having the best pregnancy she could have, but finally delivering a little perfect boy on the 25th (proud dad), I would finally like to blame the chaine for only just supplying me with the evenings pictures. Ok that's unfair, I had pics on my phone I could use, only myself to blame. Sorry again.

Anyway with further ado, as most of you will know I was invited to cook a Danish banquet in the kingdom of Saudi Arabia in May, if not then it's your first visit, so welcome, if you do, then welcome back.

Before I discuss the work and the meal itself, I have to mention, that after the travellers horror stories I read on google prior to visiting, making myself and my wife quite uncomfortable, I found the Saudi people probably the most welcoming people's I have ever encountered. Indeed it has a huge amount of armed security on show and there are customs which are to be obeyed, once you've been there a couple of days, you suddenly realise that with a little thought the hotel x-ray machines and metal detectors just fade into the background, allowing you to enjoy the experience. In a nutshell if you get the opportunity to visit, take it.

Anyway after being taken from the airport to the hotel in some style, I arrived to the Sheraton hotel and towers and checked into my room. The executive chef, Akter called a few minutes later to arrange dinner for us in the restaurant, I unpacked and went for a packed Lebanese buffet and to be introduced to the chef and other members of the team. The food was beautifully presented and for a chef with eyes bigger than his (already sizeable) belly was far too much, I should learn not to eat so much, especially if I still have work to do that day. After dinner I was taken into the kitchen and introduced to the sous chef Kazi, who would be helping me this week, we went through the menu and had fun deciphering each other trying to make sure that the food that was in, or coming in was what was ordered. This was my first encounter on how easy words and descriptions can be lost in translation. More on this a little later

The next day, after breakfast with the GM, Stuart Birkwood I set to work in the piazza restaurant kitchen, this didn't open until the afternoon allowing us to crack on with the donkey jobs which needed pickling or could be frozen until the day, we also went out to the local market, which I might add puts UK supermarkets to shame with the vast range of produce available. However trying to shop for root vegetables available in Nordic climes easily, when you are in a country that has a current average temperature of 45C a few alterations had to be made. Anyway we still had 5 days to go till the event itself so the days jobs were pickled veg for the robbed from Noma dish, stocks, soup bases, sauces went on, Kazi cracking on like a trooper by 5pm we had done what we could that day, next day was time with the pastry and start items for the reverse spherification, a technique seemingly unheard of in the kingdom so the whole brigade showed a great amount of interest. The powders for which I had shipped a couple of weeks before not wanting to carry white powder through customs in a country that announces everywhere that trafficking drugs, meant the death penalty, didn't want to try and explain away xanthan gum, sodium alginate, calcium lactate, agar agar.

Second day was more donkey work, along with finishing off 3 portions of everything as we had a full tasting the next day, this brought a few fun items which didn't quite translate from order and prep lists sent through when asking for apple juice I was given a carbonated one (not great for spherification, but doable by removing the bubbles with a little sugar) I had asked for fresh horseradish, and with next to no time to spare (cos I checked too late) was given jars of creamed horseradish. A reasonable amount of oooooh shit thinking was required as I didn't want the bubbles creamy as I wanted a hit of fresh apple with the heat of horseradish. A bit of thinking done and sorted. I won't let you know how, we'll just leave it at that.

The biggest hurdle came to the dessert, it was a twist on a Koldskal a Danish buttermilk and biscuit mess and strawberries, I though I would twist these ingredients into a Eton mess of sorts. Which required the buttermilk element to be within the ice cream. Anyway unbeknown to me, buttermilk is not available in Saudi Arabia, at all!!!! Sure you can get American style buttermilk pancake mix but that was it. Ok quick recipe rethink with yogurt, then the hammer came down when the pastry chef asked me how I wanted it frozen, because it was company policy for the chefs not to make ice cream.

Now a quick soap-box moment. Starwood hotels, nay all large hotel chains. Why the hell do you pay for talent in your kitchens, with training programs a plenty and all the skill you require at department head level in each section of your kitchens, do you these talented professionals from making such a simple item as ice cream, I understand the concerns you have from your air conditioned offices where you make these decisions, but some decent training will yield you much better product and profit than using bloody Ben & Jerrys. Ok

Anyway, thankfully the hotel has ample staff so with an ice cream base made and large gastro container in the freezer. The pastry chef was under instruction to whisk the mix every 15 minutes, with a ba-mix blitz every hour. Ice crystals were much larger than I would have liked, but the flavour was as I wanted and an acceptable product for the conditions. Also pasteurised and perfectly safe (policy crunchers take note!!!)

On the Sunday was the tasting, not just a case of chucking dishes out to a few organisers, 10 people were expected and a full table set up was placed in the kitchen. 3 full portions of everything from canapé to petit fours. This was the only real nerve wracking hours of my visit, one dislike at the tasting could screw up the rest of the visit entirely.

After an hour and a half of deliberation and discussion, the tasting concluded with comments only on the soup (a little thick) and a course order change. Get in. For the next 2 days it was simple, just prep it all again for 90 covers, simples.

For the majority of the work the guys cracked on without complaint and perfectly. The only exception to this was the pickles, robbed blatantly from the Noma dish, the chefs were very much used to cracking out large volumes of food on a regular basis, but work that generally involved chopping and cooking vast pans of this and that, so when I set 5 chefs to rolling pickle rolls and fine picking a huge amount of herbs I threw them right out of their comfort zone. Ah well, push on boys.

Anyway the next couple of days went very well, and come the day of the event I had to rely heavily on the teams expertise, knocking the prep out in a huge (read gargantuan) kitchen was easy, but the event was not at the hotel, it was being held at the ambassadorial residence a good few miles away, am being sent from a good sized domestic kitchen, so some artful juggling was required, also a couple of corners I would rather not cut had to be, such as the pickle dish, we set this up in the afternoon in the hotel, then with a small square of cut damp muslin covering each one, jack stacked ready for transport. 2 massive hot cupboards on wheels carried the rest of the mis en place, and having sent the plates, cutlery, glasses etc earlier in the day, by 4.30 pm we were ready to roll.

It took the best part of an hour to travel us and the food, with a small slow-down at the security area entering the diplomatic quarter we arrived on site and began arranging ourselves to plate up each course.

The menu was designed to only have 2 hot courses, so we used the main dining room, and a huge corridor to set up courses so there was always at least one course gap between another in a different area so we had plenty of time to plate and arrange, and with 12 chefs on site, plenty of hands to take care of each one.

First up were the canapés, as every set had to pass the same security cordon, this hour was essential to ensure each guest had plenty of time to arrive to the venue, these were very simple and all bread based to (slightly) mimic a smorrebrod (open face sandwiches) they included smoked salmon, beef tartare, cured chicken roll, crisp plaice, liver pate (traditionally pork, but be substituted for calves liver) a small prawn cocktail and a couple others I now forget.

The next course up was a small amuse consisting of a traditional gravadlax on a homemade rye bread, and a spoon of White herring with mayonnaise and quails egg. Quite a favourite with the ambassador himself.

Then the first of the hot courses, a rodbedsuppe (beetroot soup), a light consommé, which to my opinion on the night was too light and thin at the request of the tasting and would have benefitted from a little more body, this had a touch of creme fraiche and a sphere of apple and horseradish.

Then we serve a jellied lobster, crisp vegetables and marinated potato. The jelly was an agar filtered fish stock, mirepoix of vegetables barely blanched with the lobster trim chopped into it, a medallion of lobster to top it, and the potatoes were pickled in a simple dill 3,2,1 pickle and dressed in a mild dill mustard prior to service.

Then came the pickles, blatantly stolen from Noma, a dish which was a big hit on the night, funnily enough thank you Rene, I take the praise for this as payment for standing at a bench for hours on end rolling them for you. Cheers chef!!
In Noma this dish is described as traditional Danish fayre, where they would normally eat roast pork with pickled vegetables, in Noma you have the pickled vegetables as the main element of the meal with some fried bone marrow and a pork glaze, obviously in a muslim country the pork glaze was a no-no, so using the same technique as they do at Noma made an intense chicken glaze, and with much less herbs at my disposal the dish was essentially the same.

Next the main course, this was inspired from an apple cheese recipe I found in a Hans Christian-Andersen book. The hotel had some great venison in from a promotion they were running and as using pork was not an option decided on a roasted loin of venison, braised haunch wrapped in cabbage, carrot puree, apple cheese, caramelised potato and a red grape jus (no alcohol again made my culinary was change, but the sauce was lovely), this dish was well received and I was very happy with the balance in the meal.

Next up dessert, I was given an idea from my Danish chef to do Koldskal she described this as strawberries, buttermilk, biscuit, meringue. A little more research showed it was more like a buttermilk soup, so the decision was made to make an Eton mess with Koldskal flavours. This had a mixed reception in terms of authenticity (did I mention I was a welsh lad?) but all plates returned completely clean so job done.

Coffee was served with a few petit fours, again Danish inspired an almond biscuit of kransekagge, a raspberry layer cake, and a chocolate shell filled with ollenbrod, a traditional porridge of beer and rye bread, a non alcoholic malt beer was used with the trim from our rye bread and quite surprisingly was very tasty and authentic.

Finally myself and the whole team were paraded in front of our guests, and the menu was discussed and scored, everyone seemed happy and the comments were positive (nerves settled I could then enjoy the evening), and just as the teams returned to their tasks, I had expected a few people to catch me and pass comment, what I wasn't ready for was a queue of people lining up to comment, discuss, pinch recipes and have photos taken. I have never been the subject of a queue before, I felt very humbled and more than a little scared, however all the people were very lovely and even the critique was positive, as I had not taken the view that I was trying to please all the guests with every dish on the menu, they accepted that the experience was great, even if they had not adored every dish, after all food is subjective and you will never feed 80 people 6 courses plus snacks of their favourite ever food, I was just glad that all guests seemed to be happier than when they arrived, job done.

We returned to the hotel, where I collapsed in a soggy, happy heap. Looking forward to flying home the next day back to the family.

The next morning, I was requested down to the kitchen, where a table had been set up beyond the passé, with a cake and a pile of presents for myself and my wife, incredibly thoughtful, and the whole brigade embarrassingly saw me off with a small party. Thank you guys.

Akter the exec chef, then took me shopping for the obligatory gifts, we travelled all over Riyadh and he was very patient choosing the kids toys, and a great haggler at the gold market choosing a lovely trinket to take home to Sally. We then had a lovely lunch at the recently refurbished Restaurant in the four seasons kingdom tower hotel, very lovely.

We had also organised a lunch at the gorgeous al faisaliah hotel, but sadly the restaurants opened too late for me to be able to make my flight, so took my dinner in the hotels most excellent Italian restaurant, la piazza, and very happy to do so. This restaurant is classed as one of the best in Riyadh, and I concur, all the pastas are hand made, the fillings and sauces are of a great quality clean fresh flavours, simply very good.

Whilst I missed the family greatly, I am so grateful of the experience. It was amazing from beginning to end, and once back in London, missed the ambiance and most certainly the heat. Thanks to all involved in making my whole experience absolutely wonderful.

Thanks for persevering with this inordinately long post, a couple of meals out will be plonked up next, not what I originally decided for this blog, but they were so lovely, really think I will share. What I will not do is blog the bad ones. I will simply mention on twitter, but if something is just lovely then gonna use this vehicle to share that.

Cheers, Alex.

Journey to the kingdom of Saudi Arabia, part 1, the journey with BMI

2011-05-27T23:13:00.000+01:00

Good old Grant Hawthorne
Looked after us during kaiwecare, he was the head chef, daddy, mentor we could all look up to. Didn't know he had a mate in the general manager of the Sheraton in Riyadh, who had put a call put a call out if anyone knew any Danish chefs who could help with an event they were having, Grant promptly threw my name into the hat, yep that's right they wanted a Danish chef, I'm a Welsh boy, who cooks in London, being invited to Saudi Arabia, to cook modern Danish food??? Go figure. Ok so the clubs the home to the Danish club of London, I've done a week at Noma, how hard can it be .............?

Part 1, why I went, and how I got there, and oooh! How indeed

For those who already follow me on twitter, you will already know some of the above, for those who don't, please check my profile right here. Over the next couple of weeks I'll be sharing my experience, originally this was going to be a 1 parter just about the event, but with so many things to share, will now be 3 healthy parts (that means you need coffees/teas and a comfy chair), the dinner itself will be left until last, not owed in any small part by the fact I am awaiting the pics from the night.

The flight I had arranged for me, was provided by BMI, which they do occasionally sponsor for travelling chefs into Riyadh for events such as this. I had never flown BMI before so was looking forward to trying a new airline as well as all the other 1st time experiences this trip would bring. I had also been asked by the Sheraton Riyadh's general manager if I would pen a small piece on the blog about the chefs that cater for the business class customers on each flight, which of course I said I would, after all to write about the business class service I would have to travel business, get in!!

So imagine my face if you will, when the booking is emailed to me, Economy. Boo sucks, after checking the price difference between the 2 tickets I thought, ok fair enough. It's not costing me anyway.

So after some fun getting my visa (the joy of 4 bank holidays in quick succession (all the best for the future Kate & William) the day came and off to the airport I went.

Checked in, changed money, did a little shopping. Went to board still in awe at what could possibly lay before me, and also with a little trepidation as most of my research into Saudi Arabia was proper scaremongering (absolute tosh, explained in a later post)

I got my seat, which was pre-allocated, corridor seat so at least I had reasonable leg room, however a minute or two later an attendant asks if I would mind stepping into the galley as there is a small issue with my seat, puzzled I step with her as she guides me through to the front of the plane and shows me my business seat. I settle myself down with a huge smile on my face, messing with all the switches and buttons in and around my seat, true kid in a sweetshop. Now this is the life, and having only ever had a chefs wage, not something I could or would afford myself. The cabin crew introduced themselves to us and Angela the inflight chef spoke with me regarding her role and when I would be able to talk to her (after service)

Now the chef in the air role, is not just a heat and serve, yes most of the food is prepared and cooked in production kitchens on the ground, however this is business class, tickets cost thousands of pounds, guests get what they want if available, sure you can't pop down the local tesco and pick up a few bits, and there is (seriously) only a finite amount of storage space, however chefs do have to think on their feet to offer alternatives if possible, and also offer different cuisson on the meats. Add to this that they are also expected to act as stewards when they are not cooking is definitely one of the more challenging roles I have seen for a chef in a long time.

The menu is quite a simple 3,3,3 affair, for my outbound flight I chose the white bean and thyme soup, monkfish with watercress, samphire, crushed new potatoes and sorrel cream, and to finish took the strawberry & chocolate Eton mess. The soup was nice and hot, flavours were deep and well pronounced and served as a nice simple opener to the meal, the monkfish to be fair, considering my locale was a great dish, the monkfish was perfectly cooked, still a little spring to it, and not dry and crying out for sauce as you might imagine, the potatoes were of good quality and well seasoned, and most surprisingly the samphire was fresh and still retained a nice crunch. The sauce was a little lacking in the sorrel and a little more pre-fab as it would have to be to cook and serve in their tiny kitchens, however was not heavy or cloying and well balanced with the rest of the dish. The dessert was served in a pot, very nice good quality, but I have to say, not very Eton messy, a bit too tidy to be a mess, however pleasant enough.

Now was my time to talk with Angela and get the feel for the job, however far too full, and far too comfortable, I simply fell asleep.

Upon waking a couple of hours later, I went to the front galley and conveyed my apologies, Angela showed me the equipment (or lack of) not to mention bench space you measure in inches rather than feet, and the storage which in itself a miracle of packing. If you are a chef reading this, thinking your kitchen is a bit small, forget it, try cooking 24 covers to order, when the guest requires it with one small hob and a equally small oven, and enough room to put maybe 2 plates down. I take my hat off( if I ever wore one) to these guys, to produce very good quality food in these conditions. If you've ever considered it, don't let my comments above put you off, Angela pointed out that along with the travel aspect of the job, being able to spend days in different countries, the time off is very good with decent recuperation time between each flight on long haul, and with a little resilience the holidays soon mount up, Angela has been with BMI for 10 years and has a 7 week annual entitlement for holidays. She also commented the money was pretty good too, although I felt 'how much' was too rude a question to ask.

The return flight was a red-eye, leaving at 1:10am local time, landing at 6:30 uk time, the surprise upgrade was again very lovely, the service again without fault, the cooking this journey provided by in flight chef, Nicky. The only fault on this flight was my own.

As I had agreed to pen a wee (well not so wee now) piece, I felt compelled to order the take off snacks (read full meal), and also breakfast. My advice is to do what the guy next to me did, refuse everything, and as soon as the pane is up in the air, put the eye mask, provided, on, chuck your chair back and get some kip.

I again had the soup, followed by the chicken breast. Both were again well cooked and perfectly seasoned, it is simply I shouldn't have eaten at 2am when all I could think about was how much sleep I was missing out on. I had a beer and a glass of wine, chucked my mask on and got some sleep.

20 seconds later, or so it felt like, I was awaken to be asked what I would like for breakfast. Bleary eyed I ordered the smoked salmon and scrambled eggs and a bucket of coffee, the breakfast was again well cooked and nicely presented, and the attendant must have got the measure of how I was feeling as he simply whisked away each empty cup of coffee and swiftly replaced it without so much as an ask, genius service!

(please note the cappuccino stencil, Angela made this herself, and is a lovely fun touch, but sales won't let her use it, sorry guys... spoilsports!)

I quite frankly was spoilt, the food will never be truly 'high end' but it's as close as it can get, every now and again you will see a 'top chef' take up the challenge of improving airline food, good luck no restaurant or hotel chef has ANY clue on what it takes to complete a service on one of these things.
To Angela, Nicky & the rest of the cabin crew who's names I did not get, thank you for such great journeys to and from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, it was truly a great experience, and an extra note of thanks to mr Robert Lickley, country manager for BMI, who kindly sponsored the flight, sir you have a team to be proud of, thank you and well done.

Kai we Care, The Menu

2011-03-24T16:55:00.000Z

DONATE HERE

After much tooing and fro-ing of venue, chefs and dishes the menu has been finalized for this magnificent event brought together by the power of social media.

on the 4th of April a multitude of Michelin starred chefs, along with multiple AA rosette winners (oh and me & G) will be cooking for 200 wonderful people who are parting with the contents of their wallets readily to help in this great cause. If you have stumbled here and have no idea what I'm on about go to HERE which will give you an insight as to why this is such an important event.

Unfortunately Mother nature seems to have a few issues at the moment, with the Horrors that have happened, and still are in Japan, and whilst typing this another earthquake has hit Burma, all our thoughts go out to all people directly and indirectly affected by these tragedies of nature, however the decision was made to keep this event for the people affected in Christchurch, New Zealand. not that any other is less deserving of charity. It seemed the right decision to continue supporting our original cause.

Anyway cheffy Blog, so the menu which has had it's ups and downs in putting it together is finally ready to print, cooked by some incredible talent am so looking forward to this event, even if with a little trepidation with the responsibility of one of the courses on my shoulder, sure there will be plenty on hand to bail each other out as and when required.

Without further ado, the menu for the evening is as follows

Canapes

Steve Groves; Lisa Faulkner; Druv Baker; Lee Behn

Pork crackling toffee apple, Cured salmon and cucumber “fruit pastille”, port and Spenwood pencil

Pre starter

‘Beetroot’ Simon Hulstone

Tasting of beetroot textures with elderflower curd

Starter

‘Pork and truffle’ Dominic Chapman; Adam Gray

Rare breed pork ‘Scotch egg’, warm tartare sauce, pea shoots.

English quail and summer truffle pie with buttered kohlrabi

Intermediate

‘Fish’ Russell Brown; Adrian Oliver; Kieran Smith

Saffron-poached tiger prawns with piquillo pepper salsa, sherry reduction, olive oil foam

Main Course

‘Lamb’ Mark Poynton; Russell Bateman

Slow cooked NZ lamb, broccoli puree, smoked garlic, Olde Yorke cheese, almonds, wild garlic jus

Pre-Dessert

‘Eggs and Soldiers’ Alex Wood; Ben Goldsmith; Darren Goodwin

Coconut white, carrot yolk, carrot juice toast

Dessert

‘Chocolate orange’ Matt Tomkinson; Mark Lloyd; Tom Kneale

Dark chocolate delice, lavender ice cream, burnt orange syrup

Cheese

Marcus Bean; Johnny Mountain

Goats cheese pannacotta & artisan cheeses; Bournes Cheshire, Stichelton, Cenarth brie. Served with quince jelly, spiced apple chutney, cheese tuilles, oatcakes and fruit crisps

Petit Fours & macaroons

Luke Mackay; Edd Kimber

Pistachio macaroons with saffron butter cream; Rosewater and raspberry macaroons; Rhubarb and hibiscus fruit pastille; Salted Dulche de Leche milk chocolate truffle

As you can see from the list of names above each course this wil certainly be a night to remember for all attending, I am extremely grateful and proud to be part of this, and for such a worthy cause too.

make sure you visit the official site and buy tickets, if you cant make it, simply donate, every single penny goes towards rebuilding peoples lives.

I will post photos, feedback etc after the event, so until then. DONATE NOW!!!

Thank you.

New Zealand earthquake disaster releif fundraising dinner

2011-03-04T08:28:00.000Z

A little sideways step from the usual blog posts, but all in a fantastic cause.

Follow, support in anyway you can, we are, as should everyone, even if just an RT on twitter

It's going to be an amazing event, can't wait to be cooking alongside some of the best talents in this country

Excerpt copied from Gourmet Guys blog

I don’t have to remind people of the shocking and saddening events that occurred in Christchurch New Zealand on the 22nd of February last.

We all sat stunned as the pictures of the earthquake were broadcast round the world. New Zealand is a proud and prosperous country but in moments its second largest city, Christchurch was devastated. Its iconic cathedral lay in ruins, the proud symbol of the city reduced to rubble. As sad as it was to see, its a building, and buildings can be rebuilt, the lives however that were just as devastated may be far harder to repair.

Last Monday I was chatting on-line to Kiwi chef and Masterchef winner Mat Follas, it was just a general chat about maybe meeting up for a beer later than evening as Mat was going to be in London overnight. Needless to say we began to talk about the earthquake and I said if there was anything he was doing to raise funds then I was more than happy to help. The idea of a supper club was mentioned and we figured that we could do a supper club or pop-up for 20-30 people with Mat doing most of the cooking and me putting my event management background to use organising it. Then we both Tweeted the idea and everything changed beyond recognition.

Within 30minutes the 30 people idea was a distant memory, the numbers increased and the offers of help of all sorts flooded in. From chefs wanting to cook, to producers offering their best products to be used for the menu, to people happy who were simply wash up or wait tables.

I grabbed hold of a friend of mine John Comyn, who has kindly offered to take care of the admin on this, and we met up with Mat in a very late night pub in Borough about half past midnight to try and make sense of it all, the numbers were mind-blowing, the offers of help were humbling and the task facing us was daunting but one thing we agreed on was that we would take this as far as we possibly could and raise as much money as possible. I immediately recruited chef Grant Hawthorne to oversea the technical side of the meal and let us know exactly what was achievable with what time, personnel and produce we had to work with.

There is so much talk of social media these days and how it is changing the world and to be honest it is something I have always had a somewhat sceptical view of but now I see just how true it is. Twitter has taken this to a place we never even dreamed of. From a 30 person supper this is where we now stand.

200 guests attending a 7 course dinner cooked by a variety of very highly rated chefs, including the likes of

DominicChapman, Head Chef at The Royal Oak and Michelin Star holder

Mark Poynton, Chef Patron at Restaurant Alimentum, 3AA Rosettes and listed in the UK’s Top 60 Restaurants

Russel Brown, Chef Patron at Sienna and Michelin Star Holder

Alex Wood, Head Chef at St Stephens Club London

Adrian Oliver, Chef Patron of Margot’s Padstow

Mathew Tomkinson, Head Chef at The Montagu Arms and Michelin Star Holder

Darren Goodwin, Head Chef at Losehill Hotel and Spa

Not only that but

Mat Follas and Dhruv Baker winners of the last 2 series of Masterchef will be cooking alongside these guys

Just like Steve Groves winner of Masterchef The Professionals and now working alongside Toby Stuart at Roux Parliament Sq.

We even have Celebrity Masterchef winner Lisa Faulkner and Master Chef Judges Jon and Gregg on hand to help out on the night.

I can’t even begin to list the prizes that will be auctioned or raffled on the night, full details will be on the website soon but if you have been following us on Twitter @KaiWeCare then you know there are some truly amazing things already offered by so many generous people.

We plan to stream the auction and raffle live as well as make the raffle tickets available to those who won’t be able to make it on the night.

The ticket price will be £150 per person and include wine.

A full menu will be up on the site in the coming days once all the chefs have had a chance to swap ideas and steal the donated ingredients from each others courses!

We will also show the incredible quality of the produce and who so generously donated them.

The auction too is surpassing all expectations and a catalogue of items and those who were wonderful enough to give them to us will be available to view so you can be prepared to get your wallet out on the night. We are hoping to allow people bid via Twitter who are watching the live stream

Vanessa Kimbell contacted me and insisted that she be allowed organise the raffle, those of you who know her know how hard it is to say no to her and those of you who don’t just take my advice it’s pointless, just buy the tickets, it will be far easier and the prizes which will be announce shortly will be mind blowing.

What I ask now is this, those of you who have blogs will you please reprint this on your sites and put the links there for those who wish to contact us.

Twitter @Kaiwecare hashtag #KaiWeCare

Website: http://kaiwecare.weebly.com/

email: kaiwecare@gmail.com

Thank you all for your help and amazing support, it is ye who have changed this and helped make it what it is, Mat, John, Grant and I have merely tried our best to cling on.

There will be far more to follow but for now all I can say is that we are staggered and humbled by the out pouring of generosity

Regards

Dave Ahern

Aka @CorkGourmetGuy on Twitter

Noma - A stagier view of the worlds best restaurant, part two

2011-02-26T21:21:00.002Z

Ok, so after exhausting quite a bit of material over the last couple of posts, and building this post up, the last of the Noma ones I believe I can dare milk. What is left to say, most of the readership on here knows how a kitchen works, often very closely as I am sure many of you will be reading this in the wee small hours, or on your phones in your splits. Others will simply understand the workings of a kitchen, and am sure you are eager to know what makes this one different to any other kitchen, after all what do they do that makes them 'the best restaurant in the world'

For the answer without the drivel, please feel free to skip down to the bottom, for those of you with a little more time on your hands, I will go into a little detail of the goings on during my meagre week.

My mornings consisted of preparing items for the days services with one of the section 1 chef de parties, these jobs were tiny Parisienne of cucumber, cucumber slices (both for a sea-urchin dish), fine chopped parsley and tarragon, doing some weigh outs, bio-dynamic grains for the scallop dish (55gm), laurum (bleak fish roe, 24gm), running up and down for containers, ice, many other things I cannot recall. Rolling many, many napkins for the langoustine dish. Then came the bane of my existence for my week, give me bloody beech nuts or veal threads anyway of the week, but no I got to polish the windows overlooking the kitchen, nightmare as you have to climb over the benches to do so, and stocks were reducing each day which you had to artfully move whilst the steam from them screwed up every chance of getting the glass crystal clear and spotless. This I'm afraid is about the only job I didn't sink my teeth into and do to the best of my ability, whilst I understand the need of the window being completely spotless, they can stick it, preferably where the sun don't shine. Sorry, shouldn't really go off on one, but you wouldn't believe how long the damn thing takes.

Anyway this would take us until about 11:30 when we had morning briefing, this is where the whole team, front and back of house would discuss the service, this is one of the first points of note, where they rise above the rest, each guest is researched, if you have ever eaten there, rest assured that they will try and find something out about you, whether you give them a heads up or not, if your email has a 'chef' in it, or the domain name on the email is in anyway connected to the food industry as a whole, rest assured they will be looking out for you, trying to know as much as they can so they can spot, especially, industry or industry journos, don't worry if there is nothing about you, you will still get very well looked after. There is a further briefing before evening service. Every member of staff is present, including stagier at this briefing, as often if a guest comes from a country that none of the paid guys come from then a stagier might be asked to be available for a kitchen tour afterwards to assist with translation. I found the depth of detail towards the guests amazing.

Ok so now staff lunch..... Oh that's right, isn't one, chefs divide to their stations, stagiers are assigned duties if working on service, many hands are grabbed to build chestnuts (more on this in a minute), and all else back up to the production areas. Then we would be given our jobs for the afternoon. For me this consisted mostly of pickles.....

7 different vegetables, in 7 different pickles. The sheer amount of these required to cater for up to 80-90 covers a day is staggering, and my requirements for this was instructed in 'layers' a 1.5 litre container, capable of holding 2 'layers' well compacted, each day I prepared a minimum of 4 layers of each vegetable. Pretty time consuming and the bulk of my afternoon work, occasionally I would be helped on days of 4 layers each service, but generally would happily plod with this, to be honest this is the kind of job I like to be given on a stage, similar to the 4kg of tiny morels I was given by Jocky at the fat duck, technically simple to do, so a minimal amount of focus required, which allowed me to be able to watch all else around me, absorbing as much as I could in my short time there.
Ok a small digression at this point for this, to me, the reason for a stage at any restaurant is to gleam as much as you can in your time there, to me this cannot be achieved if you are stuck in a heavily detailed task for hours on end, you will only see the job at hand, missing out on what's going on, watch what's going on and you will more than likely screw up what you are working on, so my advice is take the jobs that the full-timers hate, the more mundane the better (NOT window cleaning, I might add) so you can get a bigger picture, and not just the chervil stems, again more on this in a minute.
Anyway, often just a few minutes before service a small crew of stagier would be asked to build chestnuts. A wonderful dish to eat, and interesting to out together, only available on the 12 course so at least not one per guest was needed, Sam the sous chef would take care of the basic prep of these, already shelled by the production team, he would peel the remaining skin off about a 5 litre container each day, then for each service slice some truly paper thin, and the remainder required into simply very thin slices. Then 4 or 5 of us would take the thinnest ones and put 2 together so they stood to a point, 4 per plate, then some peeled chopped walnuts were sprinkled in the plate, now the fun bit, anywhere between 10-14 pieces of the next thickness were stood as upright as possible (see picture), using the paper thin ones and the walnuts only to hold them, a great laugh as a small army of chefs tried to build these together, concentrating, focused, and often cursing as one ill placed chestnut could send them all crashing down, leaving you to start again, and with the first guests arriving into the restaurant, no time to dally. A few were left out for the opening tables, the rest, cloched with 1 litre containers and transferred through to the walk in, to be collected as required during service. Now can you see the relevance of describing trying to get through the snacks section?

The dish is finished with a micro mustard cress, and a bleak-fish butter sauce then at the table, lovely and with the 'how the hell did they do that' factor

After this, I returned upstairs to continue with pickles, other jobs could intersperse, picking herbs, putting sol stock (seaweed) on, razor clams were a nice distraction one day, some 40kg of them, pulsing with life and a rich aroma of the sea, these were popped out of the shell, trim cleaned and reserved for a future staff meal, the remainder trayed up and frozen, to tenderise, once frozen they were bagged up in 10's and transferred to the main store across the car park (sorry no description, never went there)

Whilst pickles were underway, other chefs would be doing their thing, generally Leo the CDP would be organising the prep for section 1 and spent most of his time, cutting to shape different fruits, vegetables for stagieres to finish, the leeks and the apples for:-

The veg for the pickles, trying to get the stove space to reduce the stocks. A little time now needs to be spent here, explaining James, the AM chef de partie. In the room off to the side of production, was James' domain.

James, during my stage, was the chef de partie in charge of the AM shift, starting at 6am, they fired everything up, and started the Noma ball rolling each day, His team of 4-5 had a list as long as your arm (assuming you the reader have a pretty average length arm that is, if not please envisage this at this point), to collect from the basement at the other end of the park. As well as other duties I have no idea of before 8am, why? Simply because I was sleeping.

During the main part of the day, they cracked on with a number of tasks, from the crisp chicken skin, and rye toast for the sandwich in snacks, to making, drying and slicing the corrugated bread for the toast snacks, James' biggest challenge was that he had control of the only heat sources in production. 4 induction rings, 2 combi ovens. Not to bad perhaps, but up to 30 chefs need stuff cooked, and your stuff is ALWAYS the most important, however you have to convince James, why yours is the most important, my admiration with whoever has that role, you have not only to get your own work done, make most of the juices for the juice pairing menu, and get the huge amount of staff food done, make sure the dishwash area is kept in at least an orderly mess (sorry forgot to say, that's in there too), as he is the one who polices the stove and ovens, if he doesn't agree it it doesn't cook, so out of the chefs to stay on side of, after Rene, this is your man.

So the remainder of the afternoon was generally ensuring enough mis-en-place was in place for the sections to reload for the evening, and to break the back of a few of the more long winded tasks, chervil stems etc. Now I have been using the stalks off herbs as main ingredients in my dishes for some time, the most basic I guess being the Rosemary skewer, but also make infused dressings and oil from fine parsley stems that kind of thing, but chervil stems, they are in a league of their own, very nice to look at and nice to eat, but for a stagier, quite simply a crap job, mundane, but requires all your focus. Each 3branch sprig was removed, then very carefully each leaf is removed leaving as much branch structure as possible, then the leaves..... well, on my chervil stem day, went in the bin as there was no immediate need for them. If you stage here, just make sure you only get one batch to do, very time consuming and by stem number 3, you've learned all you're going to about this task.

At 4:30 the production sous calls a set time to have your work boxed and fridged, then the kitchen has a deep clean, from tile top to floor, only the walk in fridge doesn't get a full going over, not a problem with 20 odd chefs picking a piece of wall, and a further 5 or so armed with squeegees and cloths. After the clean, staff food is served, the only break of the day, officially 30 minutes, but translates into good 45 if you had your afternoon prep sorted. The meals for staff when I was there, whilst a little cauliflower heavy, were simply fantastic, by now, anything would have been great, everyone survives on a diet of stolen cucumber trim and apples all day (and in my case imperfect pickle prep) so you are starving and ready for anything. But in fairness to the AM team, it's lovely simple homely food, pies, curries etc, load your plate high you will need it.

After evening service briefing at 5:45, it was either back up to production for the night jobs, or if you have shown any affinity in it's construction, chestnuts.

I will list the jobs tackled in the evenings a little later on, but just to finish off the timescale of an average day. Prep ensued for the rest of the evening, but the pace a little less frantic, whether this was down to simply winding down by all, still a huge amount of work is done by a huge amount of people, or whether once the morning shift had gone home, there was more space for everybody, the fight for containers was lessened the sheer volume of football throughout the kitchen was less? Not sure of the reason, just that is was less pressured.

Around 10:30 when the kitchen was slowing down from service we would get communication to start drawing to a close, the production sous would call 10-15 minutes, by which time we needed to be finished and fridged ready to clean, some split off to strip the cold room which got it's daily deep clean at this time, which allowed for easier ordering by the chefs. After clear down and service had wound down, there would be a steady stream of guests being shown around the restaurant, one lovely touch is that they would pair the guest up with a chef who had the same native tongue if possible. then once everything had died down, about 11.45 there would be a kitchen meeting, this was to cover any issue discovered during the day, and to avoid future ones, and also to discuss the following lunches guests.

After this we (the stagiers) busted it, but the main team would start their planning for the next day, putting MEP in the right place, hoarding containers, cloths, c-folds. Should you go to noma as a stagier, take some blue wipe down cloths, rags, these are gold dust there, they will love you for it, think of it as a kind of barter system. I digress, sorry. The chefs would sort last minute mis en place. by which time I was in the seven-eleven near my apartment picking out the next days breakfast, and tumbling into my cot. Biggest advice, unless you thrive on no sleep, get accommodation not too far away, it will pay dividends by the end of day three.

The night jobs seemed much less pressured than the day work, with the AM team leaving the building between 7 & 8 pm, left a noticeable hole in the amount of chefs on the floor, the jobs that came out were the longer ones and more time to converse and find out about the colleagues from all over the world, also giving their time for the cause. My first night was beech nuts, mentioned before so I will not labour much further. Outer skins were removed before we got them, so our job was the removal of the hard shell, then toast and rub until White. To be honest this was not a hard job at all, anyone who has tried to peel a perfect walnut half will testify that nuts can be challenging (which we did some of these also, only to be told half way through not to worry, they were for chopping), it is just with the beech nut it's demoralising, myself and 2 other chefs after the first hour, looked at our achievement, we hadn't even peeled enough to cover the bottom of a 1 litre container, many hours later we had a half litre and was deemed enough. Thanks fully the scallops that they were for, were coming in too small so the dish changed and no more were needed all week. That was pretty much Monday evening done, I would love to recount Wednesday evening but as I had lunch, then was given the evening off, I merely typed up a few notes, had a couple of beers, watched a movie and was out, for the lunch post if you missed it, you can find that HERE

Thursday was an odd day, it ran its course, albeit with enough pickle prep to keep me going for the evening as well, interspersed with prepping a couple of boxes of sea-urchin (lovely), but the mood was odd, maybe it was the fact from 6-11pm I had most of the room to myself, no-one was in the mood to talk so was the longest night, I left that evening wondering what the hell was the bother, quite depressed and pissed off, but so everyone seemed, not the best service by all accounts at the evening meeting, quite a few things could have gone better. just one of those days I guess.

Friday was on the other hand an excellent day, the morning went as usual, with the fun of the stocks on section 1 stoves in desperate need so window cleaning was nigh on impossible with the constant steam of reduction screwing up every wipe. so bugger it I've given it my best shot, it stays like that. usually move up to production, but we had a private table in upstairs that evening. so the prep was a little more for all, and yep, more pickles, quickly (as I could) busted them out, with a little more sea-urchin prep. after tea Matt came up to run the event, he had a couple of black face pigs hanging in the cold room for a week or so, which he pulled everyone to see how he butchered it down, a well held masterclass, the then took the loins and slow roasted them using its own fat, this he incorporated into the evenings party menu, thankfully during the evening he called me over and carved a hunk of it off the rump end for me to try, absolutely incredible.

As stagier in production, when there is an event upstairs, you are actively involved in service as the menu is a very slightly shorter menu (not always) than the main room, including the snacks menu, some could be done ahead of time, but my favourite 'Toast'

Takes a good 3-4 minutes each to prepare, depending on the quality of herbs and skill of chef. so it was all hands on deck, and as Matt and Yannick (production sous) had taken over most of the bench space upstairs was a very nice breather from just prep. we were also very involved in the service of the food to the guest, as in the main restaurant the chefs deliver a majority of the food, not so much the snacks as they are done 4 portions to a plate so the waiters take those, but for each other course, every plate entered the room at the same time, place in front of the guests at the same time. Then all the oohs and aahhh's are in unison. we swiftly vacated the room, so Matt could introduce each dish.

service took up a lot of the evening, and with long chats with Matt about the pork and various other banter about food, didn't get much else done except helping him (lazy git). I also had the opportunity to try dishes not on the menu with my lunch including the razor clam in parsley gel, horseradish, yogurt mousse, sorrel granite and the walnut ice cream. this is why I love my job, truly.

Saturday was mental, truly mental. One of the first things Matt told me was they didn't encourage lunch bookings in the private room, due to the sheer difficulty in logistics making it happen as the production was in full swing during the day. So today was lunch 43, plus 10 private dining. then dinner was 45 plus 12 private dining. absolute maximum covers, so everyone was in full swing, for me the day went pretty much the same we were more cramped and moved into the back room due to the lunch function, but that was fine, about 20 of us in there at one point, then Tom from the snacks decided he wanted a circulation of air to help dry his leathers so opened the window, and with the temperature barely above freezing one by one, we sneaked back into the production kitchen, prepping perched on the edge of benches, using balance only Russian gymnasts have the possibility of achieving. lunch went well, we cleared down, had tea and got ready for evening service. A mammoth chestnut session ensued with most tables on 12 course, Sam Miller the sous not very happy when I asked if there was more chestnuts and still 10 plates short, he seemed a little, well, miffed. with all done I made my way swiftly upstairs before Sam found whoever had not ordered enough chestnuts.

Once upstairs, saw Leo with the obligatory, "what now?" he asked me to pick a few herbs, then do some weigh outs, ok what then? he said that was it, but there was a party again so I could just get involved with that. Ok so picked the herbs, just a few so no worries, 20 recipes of weigh outs for the coming week well should have been a cinch, as it was, however the ingredients to weigh took 5 minutes to gather, the plastic containers to store them in took the rest of the evening, with me eventually having to rob them from sections whilst backs were turned, good fun though. we also had the function running which again Matt looked after, I spent most of my time helping out ( a bit more efficiently than the previous day), again being given some wonderful pork to sample. This time he slow cooked the shoulder from the day before and finishes it in the fat and juices of yesterdays pork, well take all that flavour and condense it into the glaze for a low temp working muscle, Bloody hell it was beyond amazing.

Being the last day of the week before they close for two days, the wind down is more relaxed everyone is planning their weekend jaunts except for the 4 on projects, our last job involved every spare hand. 2 gastro trays of parsley and lovage for oil, blanched and squeezed and in need of being laid out pretty much leaf by leaf to dry at room temp for the weekend. at one point there was 15 of us on the job and still took us until 1am to finish, but was a good laugh with such a big crew.

The final meeting of the week then happened, final plans made, discussion of the following Tuesdays lunch guests, and then to projects. For those not in the know, now is the chance for the Noma chefs to cook their own creations, unlikely that they will ever make the menu, but an opportunity to express themselves Noma style to the whole team. It is not only a chance for them to express themselves, it is expected that 1 member from each section (at least) comes up with a dish each week. 4 plates of each are done up, as there is a big turnout, Best I go through them dish by dish.

first up was Oliver, my CDP from section 1, he had an idea to attempt to replicate the growing conditions on Jersey to get his own crop of Jersey royals to grow, they had been in touch with a farmer who was ploughing seaweed into his soil to get the same soil and the first crop would be ready to test next year, for the dish in question, as the spuds were a little way off, he used the vintage potato from the Noma menu, with some barely cooked clams, pickled seaweed, seawater gel, crown dill seeds and a cappuccino of the clam juice, the story behind it was very interesting and I wish him all success in replicating the potato, although I truly feel Royals may only grow with the flavour they do, because they are grown on Jersey.

Second up was Yo-Bo from section 2, his dish was a slow braised pork tongue cucumber, celery, cauliflower, slices of horseradish, finished with a ham hock glaze, very hearty and also light at the same time, fitted perfectly with the Noma brief, however for a dish in the middle of a 12 course menu after 10 snacks, thought there was simply too much food on the plate.

Third was Matt, the head chef who all week I had seen him prepare the cauliflower for the menu, during the prep he had noticed the cauliflower stalk where the leaves joined the stem had visual appeal, he had squared the stem off, fried it as you would a piece of meat, then held it for 2 hours in a juniper emulsion, he then served it up with some purple cabbage, raw cauliflower, spinach rounds and a sauce made of the split emulsion and some of the pork juices from the last 2 days private dining menus. This dish excelled (he is Head chef after all!) the stalk tastes earthy on first bite, then slowly the juniper comes through on second chew, then a little garlic, flavour deepening with every motion in the mouth, outstanding.

Last up was Carol, who's inspiration for her dessert was honey and mead, she made a mead parfait, covered with a honey gel, served with a rosehip sorbet and crisp bread. this dish has possibilities, but she made the gel with agar and was a little too brittle and the bread tuille was quite thick. these minor issues aside another great dish with clean obvious flavours packed into small packages.

And that was it, a week at the worlds best restaurant done, the option to join the guys to sample the left over wines of the week was there, but as I had booked an early flight, I passed. It was now nearly 3am and needed my bed, even if it was only a couple of hours. I had a few conversations with Matt, Sam and the purchasing sous (and the guy who organises stages) Viktor thanking them and offering my two penneth of advice before heading my way into the very cold night.

There was more to it than I've written, but am tired of typing now and want to get this post out to those who are interested, to you I thank you for your support and for being the reason for me logging this experience, it's lovely to re-live it through words. if this is the first time you have seen this blog, thank you for dropping by, please stick around got some interesting things coming up, such as why I no longer need a stock pit to make the best sauces I have ever tasted, amongst others.

If anyone has any questions, criticisms or just random banter, please leave a comment, email me or follow my witter on Twitter

Thank you, have a great weekend.

NOMA - A Stagier view of the worlds best restaurant, part one

2011-02-18T20:02:00.001Z

Having never spent more than a day away from my family in many years, saying good bye to my kids and my wife and mum to be of number 5 was a horrendous wrench, I had set this up in November not really thinking the ramifications through fully as to the impact of this trip on my family, but Sally is the strongest woman I know and the kids are inherently good natured, and under severe instructions to help mummy so hopefully the rest of the week will be manageable for them, as for myself, whilst the wrench is a horrible feeling, by tomorrow I will not have time to think of anything other that what I have been instructed to do.

I have seen a blog, and our own pastry chef, 'G' who has done a week already, have regaled me with the prep that can be given, pine needles (not too bad) veal threads or fibres (extremely bad) but truth is, the restaurant is a constantly evolving one, all I know is that a sizeable force of both paid and unpaid spends hour upon hour painstakingly preparing for each service, each job a mission for small teams of chefs to ensure the chefs in service have all the perfect prep they need, when they need it, how painstakingly I was yet to find out.

The walk each morning was brisk to say the least, running water frozen and the breeze cutting across Knippelsbro bridge froze me to my core, painful on day one, but the rest of the week was essential to ensuring I arrive to work awake. A swift left turn and through a small industrial area and Noma sat at the end, I walked around a while wondering where the heck to get in, finally see a door where a chef was working in the instantly distinguishable brown apron, with a few butterflies in my stomach approached the cook, who very politely broke away from his work to tell and guide me to where I would get changed. Whilst getting changed I met my chef de partie, Oliver who had been briefed on who I was and where I was from previously, he showed me to my first (an consequently my most worked on task for the week) the pickles prep.

After a short while of about 15 pickles, I was taken for a show round of the working areas by head chef Matt Orlando, the kitchen is spilt over 2 floors.

Downstairs, the main service kitchens, section 1, is the cold section, and where I spent my week. They do a considerable amount of cooking on the cold section, however a lot of what this section does is about assembly, and they have a (small) amount more space than the other areas, just adjacent is section 2, responsible for all the cooked items, from cauliflower to reindeer tongue. Behind these two sections is a door through to the potwash, where their 1(YES ONE) kitchen porter Alieu works, although he doesn't get in till 11am, so a large majority of what you need, you wash it yourself, but I digress. Alongside here is a corridor through to the pastry section and the walk in fridge, however the corridor contains probably the busiest sections, snacks, from here, chefs work shoulder to shoulder throwing out the 1st ten or eleven plates you receive, madness ensues from this section, but sets the tone for the meal, containing a large amount of Noma signatures, such as the radishes in a pot, complete with the perfect malt 'soil', perfectly cooked, impossibly peeled, delicately smoked quails egg. The chicken skin smorrebrod. Quite amazing, what is also amazing is how the hell to get through the corridor when snacks are in full swing.

Through from the snacks section in the pastry section, quite a decent size, but again as the appetiser is plated up here and a further 4 chefs are needed to keep the section running, it feels cramped as Rosie and her team buzz around all day long. At the end of the section is the main walk in coldroom for downstairs, which is used by all sections, hence my comment on trying to get through snacks every time you needed to get something from there, ie chestnuts, which I will explain a little later on.

This concludes downstairs, well not quite, outside through a door accessible only through snacks (again) there are a number of storage sheds, which contain veg (when it's not freezing, so not now) to cleaning utensils (different shed, so don't worry) to a small BBQ area, I mean small, like one of the small drum ones you see in a DIY store, where the pastry cook the grilled pear for the pear and pine dessert. Then we enter through the furthest door and travel on upstairs, to where I spent a majority of my time.

First thing you see upon climbing the stairway is a nicely carpeted area, with bookcases adorning the furthest wall, including a sizeable collection of great cookbooks. To the right is the 'staffroom' a private dining area for up to 15 guests, tastefully and minimally adorned, a very lovely room, to the left through 2 huge glass doors was the main production kitchen (pictured), through here also just off to one side is the AM kitchen, the AM shift starting at 6AM to start things going, from collecting provisions from the main store, to getting stocks and sauces on, they in turn for the ungodly start time, were out by 8pm when I was there, although this can run later during busy periods. In this kitchen was the only stove and ovens for upstairs, and the chef de parties job was to allocate time for the other chefs to be able to do their cooking, and art in itself, they were also responsible for staff feeding, something again I will come to later. Beyond the production kitchen is a massive beamed room, multi purpose as staff would eat here, meetings would take place and overflow preparation would occur here also, Victor the produce sous chef kept the veg and herbs in here as it was still too cold when I was there, Matt the head chef also had his desk in here, although I can't say it was used much as it's very much a hands on kitchen, all the time.

Ok filled up quite a lot of space with that, so am going to leave it here as my iPad software really isn't happy with me going on and on, and I hope this is not the case with you, so to make this a little more manageable will post another in a few days, a little more bite size shall we say.

Next I will run through some of the work and the structure of the day telling the ups and downs of the worlds best restaurant, thanks for reading, and if anyone wishes to comment, please do either here, or tweet me on www.twitter.com/esenses

Laters.

Noma, my take on the meal at the best restaurant in the world

2011-02-10T10:10:00.002Z

Awarded the best restaurant in the world for 2010, Noma as a chef is not so much a restaurant to visit for a special event, but more a pilgrimage to worship at the temple of natural cuisine, at it's peak. And it's for this reason alone (and meeting Rene Redzepi last November) that I decided to do a stage there, here and now (January 2011). The stage itself will be subject to a separate post, a glimmer of this you will see over on www.thestaffcanteen.com shortly. This one is about a wonderful surprise I received from head chef Matt on the second day of my stage.

Working, it's much a normal day as I can gather from the one day I have been here previously, I was looking forward to the mornings prep, and more so to the promise I was given to work service on my section, instead of production upstairs, don't get me wrong, without production this eatery could not exist, but service is where it's at, the coal-face, the heat of battle (choose your own metaphor). After we had set up on section, we still had about a half an hour before our section would see any action, so I was sent upstairs for a short job, to await kick off, by this time, snacks was already taking off in a big way, one of the busiest sections in the kitchen by a mile. Anyway, 2 minutes into a lovely job of picking tarragon leaves, I felt a tap on my shoulder, looked around and Matt was gesturing me to one side, I thought this was my service call and called that my job would have to be taken over, once at the side, he asked as there was a table free would I like to make up a '2 top', now booking a table here is nigh on impossible, unless you have the day off on the 1st of the month, and the utmost patience on a telephone, and also can book 3 months in advance, with no real qualms about which service, which day, after all travel arrangements can be made afterwards, but here was a table handed to me on a plate (poor pun I know, I'm sorry) as I started writing this, I was still stuffed filled with amazing memories of one of the great meals of my life. The only regret is my dining companion couldn't be my beautiful wife. It was however one of the other stagier, Brian Skinner, who proved to be great enthusiastic company, and the taker of a majority of the photographs in this post, for which I thank you very much, great pictures chef.

Anyway, without further ado, the meal itself.

As mentioned before, snacks is where it begins. The menus are 7 course and 12 course. As we were probably not going to have the opportunity any time again soon, we both opted 12, again wouldn't want to walk away from the opportunity so rarely given.

Snacks came thick and fast

Branches

First was already on the table, malt crisps. Cheeky little number hidden amongst the branches of the table decoration, very light nice, just a little bit forgettable, not so the:-

Lichen

Crisp fried moss, cep powder. Wow, something so very simple, moss deep fried and dusted with a cep salt, one bite, bliss

Leathers

Next up came sea-buckthorn leather, pickled Rose petals great visually and a beautiful refreshing burst of acidity, cleaning the palate, leaving us wanting just one more, simplicity again, perfectly executed.

The snacks were building up on our table as we tried to keep up with the dish introductions, and taking pictures. But even in the face of this hardship, you will be glad to know we battled on.

Leeks

Next, perched on the edge of the table was 2 whole leeks, looking half cooked, I mean half! The root end was crisped up, the White looked blanched, and the top most definitely raw, this had been blanched, deep fried at the very root, and stuffed with a smoked garlic puree, a great bite, even if it was odd to see guests in a 2 Michelin star restaurant chow down on whole leek, very playful and perfectly executed.

Next came a battered old cake tin, I've better kept ones in my house with the kids forever in and out. Inside was 2 little purple discs, introduced as

Biscuits

Savoury biscuit, speck, pine shoot, blackcurrant, a wonderful light crisp biscuit, moist speck, dusted with an intense blackcurrant powder and topped with tiny pine shoots, crisp, fresh, sharp. Wonderful bite again.

Sandwich

Chicken skin, rye bread, smoked cheese, lumpfish roe.

A play on a smorrebrod, traditional Danish open sandwich. Served upside down, with the crisp chicken skin on the bottom.

Smoked quail egg

The softest, most perfectly cooked quail egg, looked like it was strongly smoked, but the flavour was very delicate, yet lingered on the palate for just the right amount of time. Just glad I was never asked to peel these during my working time there.

Radishes in a pot

Pretty much a signature dish now, loads of fun and felt like a kid pulling the vegetable out of the 'dirt' the aerated herb yogurt adding to the depth of flavour, the crisp fresh radish not too strong, simple. And the best soil I have ever tasted, we make a few different soils at work for this and that, but this felt in the mouth like when I came off my bicycle as a child, crunchy, dry, but obviously with a deep flavour of malt. Just great.

Herb toast

Extremely light undulating toast, dotted innumerable times with a deep smoked cods roe emulsion, filled to capacity with an array of crisp fresh herbs, topped with (amazingly) the skin from duck stock, a lovely savoury topping to the best snack served. They were all amazing but this stood that little bit higher.

AEbleskiver

Traditionally a sweet item, a light bun with apple and powdered sugar, this one was a savoury version, very light centred with pickled cucumber and studded with anchovy. Not to my taste, the bun was superbly executed, the cucumber a refreshing respite from the dough, but the fish. Not needed, they look funky but the taste, even for my outlandish palate, was an ingredient too far. Not that it impeded on my meal in any way, just not the best from an array of brilliance.

This, amazingly was the end of the amuses, generally the free little extras given by the chef to whet the appetite, and to also buy time for the kitchen to prepare the rest of the menu, we had been sitting a good hour and worked our way through 10 dishes already! Now our appetites well and truly rearing to go.

Bread service, goat butter, pork fat

Sourdough was amazing, served with a goats butter, and a rendered pork fat with crackling.

Appetiser:-

Leek and apple

A very playful beginning, the leeks and the apple prepared so you have to look closely to tell which is which. The leeks cooked nice and soft, the apple raw and crisp, interspersed with the two gels, and each spire topped with the smallest, strongest flavoured thing I have ever tasted, the kelp crisp, fantastic, easy to make, added wonders to this already great dish.

Dried scallop, grains, rocket, beech nuts, squid ink sauce

DON'T GET ME STARTED on beech nuts, you will have to wait a little for my stagier post to find out why, anyway back on point, dehydrated scallop, 4 biodynamic grains in a rocket emulsion, toasted beech nuts, squid ink sauce (beech nuts were lovely and stood out on the plate BTW)

Hugely intense flavours from the scallop, lightened by the accompaniments, harmony in 4 bites.

Chestnut, walnut, mustard cress, bleak-fish sauce

How do they do that, very in sliced raw chestnuts, standing on end (I know how, had to build a few, great effect for the guest, card building for the chefs), chopped walnuts, mini mustard cress is brought to the table, one of the chefs then sauces tableside, a rich beurre blanc with the roe of bleak fish, rich & fresh, outstanding dish. Brian, my dining companion, made a great comment that tackling this dish felt like kicking over sandcastles as children.

Langoustine, oyster emulsion, sol seasoning

next is delivered a huge, warm rock. The payfulness of the presentation here adds greatly to the theatre of it all. Perched on this is a single plump langostine, fried on one side and just shown the pan on the other. proper finger food as we dragged the perfectly cooked (partly due to the residual heat in the rock) langostine through a wonderful oyster and parsley emulsion, seasoned with a seaweed powder.

Oyster in a pot, beach herbs, tapioca, cream

As we lifted the lids, memories of clean beaches as children rushed back, the seawater and rocks, with a few interspersed shells heightening the sensation, in the main shell a lightly cooked oyster, the biggest I have ever seen, cut into 4 segments for ease of eating, coated with a variety of herbs, some tapioca and a hint of cream. Yet another success in a wonderful journey.

cauliflower, pine, horseradish

Quite simply the star of the show, having seen this prepared at the book launch, had been longing to try this one, and it most certainly didn't dissapoint, caramelized cauliflower with a pine salt, sauce of whey and pine oil. Amazing and the best yet.

Celery root, roast in goat butter, black truffle, sorrel

wedge of tiny celeriac bulb, confit then roasted in goats butter, with a hugely rich truffle emulsion, as it sounds this is one of few 'hearty dishes' the sorrell cutting through the richness of the rest of the plate nicely.

Pickled vegetables, bone marrow, roast pork sauce

This is the dish my wife is most envious of from the whole menu, and with good reason. again a play on tradition, where in Denmark would be normal to have roast pork with pickled vegetables, here the vegetables take centre stage. & vegetables in 7 different pickles, bone marrow and a pork sauce, my nly comment on this whilst it was very lovely, don't get me wrong. When eating the dish as a whole, it is nigh on impossible to distinguish the varying pickles. when rolling them (my job for the week) you can easily, however the guest perspective here, I couldn't. so prep for preps sake?

Reindeer Tongue, apple, lemon thyme

Slow cooked sous-vide for 12 or 24 hours, depending on the weight of the tongue, served with a rich reindeer stock, lemon theym, and every bit of the apple. wedges cooked in goat butter, pickled apples, powdered skin (cloying in the mouth) and the seeds, but not so. A malt pasta dough, cut into apple seed shapes and lightly fried to mimick crispy seeds, a real manly dish to finish off the savoury elements of our meal.

Dessert 1

Grilled pear, pine parfait, pear and thyme oil sauce

Sweet warm pear, grilled to order on the outside BBQ, paper thin slice of fresh pear to mask the presentation with a full coating of flowers and leaves, the sauce is an unctious syrup of pear, split with an intense thyme oil, and the showpiece on the plate the pear parfat, the smallest amount of parfait mix in a vacuum box, cold boiled in a chamber vacuum machine and frozen, intense fragrance and flavour of a walk in the forest, this dish works on every level.

Dessert 2

Bitters

Ok stop the press, knew this was going too well, and before I damn this dish I want to point out that its quite a good dish, just in the wrong place on the menu IMO, had this come before the pear I would understand the transition from savoury world to sweet world, but between the 2 true dessert dishes, no, not for me.

Milk ice cream nice and soft, sandwiched in a crisp frozen (liquid nitrogen?) whey ice, surrounded with a sorrel jus. technically excellent. before dessert fine. where I received it, sorry no.

Dessert 3

Ollenbrod, skyr ice cream, warm milk espuma.

wow, what an end, the perfect pudding wish the portion was 10 times bigger, because even though I was stuffed silly by this point, I could have kept eating this all week.

A rye porridge soaked in ale, served warm, under a milk foam with the chill of the icelandic yogurt ice cream, as I said "WOW"

petits fours

after 4 and a half hours, we moved to the lounge for coffee, we were presented with the petit fours

Smoked bone marrow caramel

a slow release toffee, the smokiness renewed on every movement in the mouth, a standout petit four

Chocolate coated meringues

As in his book, was only surprised at the size of them, massive, flavourful, a dessert in themselves

Choc and fennel coated chocolate chips

Potato chips, dipped in chocolate with fennel seeds, simple tasty and a good end to a great meal.

I struggled my way back to the apartment, thankful of being given the rest of the day off, amazed by what I had been given to eat, amazed at the seamlessness of the service, the attentiveness of not only the front of house but the chefs who would top up our water whilst walking past, one very well oiled machine.

The rest of my week can be glimpsed over on Staff Canteen and a fuller version will appear on here in a week or so.

Now the question, is it the best restaurant in the world, having seen both sides of the operation as stagier and guest my answer is, err.. dunno.

This is not because I feel it isn't, its because I do not know enough of the others on the list, but I can honestly say it does deserve that recognition, is an essential part of that list, and would be surprised to see it merely retain it's 2 star status in the michelin this March.

My thanks for this experience begin with Rene Redzepi, who whilst absent during my time on a well earned break, I beleive, runs a very tight ship and ensures all stagiers are welcomed into the fold and as guests are excellently welcomed by both the kitchen and Restaurant teams. My thanks to Matt Orlando (Head chef), and Sam Miller (sous chef) for ensuring my lunch service went as smoothly as the ones we worked, especially to Matt who made the available table mine. Also at this point, to the guests who were booked for my table and couldn't make it. my eternal gratitude.

To the whole team of chefs and stagier, for making the most mundane tasks fun due to great company.

For my club owner, for helping me go, by giving me the use of one of his apartments in Copenhagen, close to Noma, much needed was the short walk each day after work.

And finally to my wife Sally, for picking up the slack at home to allow me the time to get this out of my system, without your support I am nothing, I love you. please follow her on twitter @lallypo, not much to say, but when she has its great and will make you laugh.

A little more of the menu

2011-01-17T20:29:00.002Z

Not a huge amount of time on my hands, kids birthdays to sort, life, packing for Noma next week. It's all go, and January was supposed to be quiet, ah well, never a dull day I guess.

Gareth has returned from his week at Noma, impressed by what he saw, but gobsmacked with how labour intensive running the 'best restaurant in the world' is, all the paid chefs, and some 20+ stagieres, he has retailed me with tales of pine needle prep, and his scariest job, veal threads!!! No I had no idea what he was on about either...

They were given the veal, an had to deconstruct it, thread by thread, each one no larger than a hairs breadth, hmmmm don't know whether I am looking forward to it as much now, jus' kidding. I will leave the rest of his telling to his post, which I am sure he will put up as soon as he has caught up on some sleep.

Anyway, a couple more dishes for you, got to go, need to find my travel plugs, now where are they?

Clockwise from top left
Fennel, Seville orange, almond
Olive roasted monkfish, spring onion, kale
Crisp oxtail, smoked eel, artichoke and cauliflower

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad wherever I may be at the time

DUCK!

2011-01-16T00:07:00.002Z

Just wanted to share this, will be a few more along soon.

Duck confit, pommes sarladaise, endive, duck egg.

Simple, tasty, compact.

Bit like this post really.

Back soon

Location:Duck confit, new year dishes

New year, new dishes, new tech, new doodles

2011-01-07T20:59:00.002Z

1st week back at work.............Done!

Now we are unpacked, stale culinary cobwebs dusted away, mojo found and put in a safe place, resolution to keep a better eye on it. Ideas scribbled on every available piece of paper, new menu written and mis en place begun.

As I was compiling thoughts for our new menu starting next week I thought it was time to get my little felt pens out and start the KP nightmare of colouring in plates as I started by seeing if the elements would fit into the dish.

Then I thought where my pens might be I stumbled across a great little app for the pad, a simple one allowing me to sketch dishes and doodles with a huge array of features for the princely sum of £1.79 (sketchbook pro), Almost the only complaint I have with it is it doesn't make me draw any better, a huge downside for a non pencil artistic person such as myself, but hey let's give it a go anyway, so ideas a plenty and learning as I go I came up with the following sketch which then translated into the dish below it.

I am very content with the fact that It can help me visualise dishes but labour wise, don't think it will see the death of the pen on plate, sorry to my KP's simply because if I am trying to get an idea of what a plate of food is going to look like on the train then the pad is the way forward, but usually it's in the kitchen, not enough time at my disposal, and a quick throw down just to see if it remotely works will do.

Either way, this is a huge amount of fun nonetheless.

Crisp lemon sole, herb tagliatelle, pickled vegetables, sauce soubise, onion glass

sloe gin - it's not always about food you know

2010-12-30T21:30:00.002Z

In August, whilst on holiday in Cornwall, my family and I spent a damp miserable afternoon wandering the countryside harvesting some wonderful sloe berries. On our return I set to work with a little sugar and a bottle of gin.

The recipe I had asked for the sloes to be patiently pricked to release their juices during the soaking process, sorry this seems far too much like hard work for my liking so set to thinking of an alternative (lazy) way of achieving the same result, so I thought - freeze!! the water in the berry should expand and break the skin, so I set to lobbing a bag of berries in the freezer and doing nothing for a couple of days, when I took them out of the freezer I was amazed!!! Absolutely no damage to the berry at all, bother!

Still not having too much time on my hands, and even less inclination to spend the time pricking little holes in a never ending supply of sloes, I allowed them to defrost, the fruits felt very much softer and decided to gamble that it would be enough, I mixed my sugar and gin, put my sloes in an old sterilised martini bottle and poured the liquid on, 1st week in September religiously, weekly I shook the bottle, allowing myself the occasional peek (was a Rossi bottle so coloured anyway) and by mid November started to get concerned at the lack of colour.

About this time my wife developed pneumonia, and life got a little hectic, with 4 kids needing sorting, work that was getting busier week by week and Christmas preparations increasing, it felt, by the moment.

I had originally hoped for it as an aperitif for Xmas day itself, but since the aforementioned time, forgotten and neglected it has sat in my cupboard since, until today when I was rooting for something completely different, there it sat patiently waiting for some attention, I got it out, not without a small sense of trepidation, I might add. And thankfully upon pouring found the light Rose colour shown in the photo above. With great depth of flavour, lucky me.

I am sure that had I pricked them then the colour would have been richer, but hey, it's as lovely as i ever remember it and happy to see the new year in with a glass or 3. So my toast to you all again, Happy new year.

2010 last thoughts, looking forward by learning from our past

2010-12-30T13:47:00.002Z

Starting now to wonder what the next year will bring, also thinking why do I only truly reflect at the turn of a year.

I tend to think about what has been achieved personally and professionally about this time each year and think ahead to what I hope to achieve again next year, but why now? After all it's only the changing of days, no real significance to the new year as a bookmark in my life or anything.

So I think next year will become the beginning of a era of constant strive and reflection, taking what I most recently learned and implementing the improvements there and then. We do this generally anyway, but more skin to the reflective thought process that is occurring now and not the quick absent thoughts it can receive the rest of the 362 ish days that the process normally gets.

I will begin, unsurprisingly, with looking closer to the land for inspiration, foraging more and getting the family involved (good excuse for a nice Sunday walk) trying to recall the names and uses for the many varieties of green that we absently pass each and every day, and taking this back into the kitchen and utilising natures bounty as and when the whim takes me.

The start of this education will of course begin at Noma at the end of January, but also hope to get some time in kent eventually with forager Miles Irving, who's company I hope to start working with in january.

I don't intend to leave the other ideas gathering dust, I will not be able to turn my workplace into a 23 course foraged heaven, my customers simply wouldn't understand, and I personally like great garnishing to accompany the meat and fish I very much love to cook. I hope to achieve a greater balance of dishes from all the avenues I have at my disposal.

And now with more portable, quicker technology at my disposal, aim to increase the post count exponentially without simply diluting the content, so that there will be greater reason to frequent.

Wishing all of you a very prosperous new year

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad from wherever I may be at the time

A little thought out to chefs at christmastime

2010-12-27T19:24:00.002Z

Just thought I would use a quick opportunity to try my new Xmas gadget out and the downloaded apps I've extensively researched (at least 10 minutes) to help me with future food photography on the go with my iPad.

That's the idea anyway but the reality I guess will be a new learning curve and a good few co..... Sorry mean errors, but I know a lot of you are chefs who read this and completely understand, anyone else reading this, welcome to our world. It's a world that maybe should not be entered without trepidation, not that I wish to worry anyone, but any non-chef who has stumbled upon the chef website www.thestaffcanteen.com or has tried following the more hardcore chefs on twitter must have thought that the banter between us can appear somewhat intimidating to the non believer, not that I am going to bother explaining it here just thought I would make the difference clear.

Anyway as so many of my colleagues who work in hotels and venues that I have worked in, in the past are still toiling through this season, I sit here in the warm comfort of my lounge surrounded by family some chilling, some playing and at the moment some, not without too much excruciating pain, attempting our new family karaoke machine, ah well some gifts are destined to the 'regret I bought them' pile.

I have not worked a Christmas in 10 years, not a new year now in 2 years, and I count myself lucky for the job I hold. We closed on the 23rd and return open on the 4th of january, time in this industry where I our have never dreamed off such a holiday from my humble beginning in 1990.

I just want to acknowledge the chefs who's christmas, boxing and new years days are just another bloody day. Only difference is sod all is open but you. I have heard resounding echos of bah humbug from working chefs. Now whist they come across as complete grinches without an ounce of seasonal love in their bodies, whilst I'm tweeting of my xmas luck and joy, I just want you guys to know, I haven't forgotten the 'joy' of Xmas bloody turkey, smoked salmon plates galore, and trying not to cock up and curdle the brandy sauce, thinking of ya guys, hope you have a decent break sometime soon. Especially out to ex colleagues who I worked with at the following:

One Aldwych
Richmond arms at goodwood
Wentworth golf club
Berystede in ascot

Glad to now not be in the seasonal firing line, Glad to be working at the club I'm at now.

Here's to many more christmasses not at work next post (worth reading) will probably be from G when he returns from his stage at Noma. Looking forward to it myself, will have a little to scribble about when I go there at the end of the month.

Noma inspired: slow roast cauliflower with goat butter and spruce fir. Ridiculously simple, outrageously delicious

Posted using BlogPress from my iPad from wherever I may be at the time

Noma, book launch and a few canapes

2010-11-26T21:02:00.003Z

About 2 weeks ago, quietly strolled into work after a couple of very nice, restful days off, put the coffee on and started to get my head in the game.

Shortly after, my GM walked in with a cheeky grin on his face, knowing this usually meant an oddball request from my Danish owner asked ‘what’s up?’, the answer I got I was not ready for.

He asked if I knew of the upcoming Rene Redzepi book launch at Freemasons hall, which I did, (I had decided not to go along due to usual work/family commitments, and due to the fact of me already owning his book, much cheaper on Amazon than ticket price, truth be told), he then asked if I would like to cater for it….

‘What???!!!”, there must be a good 600 tickets sold I thought, “are you mental”, I was told closer on 800, feeling a little faint now, thought a big fat ‘NO’, knowing the audience would be the cream of the crop of foodies/chefs in the UK, not that it bothers me cooking for any of these guys, but outside catering for that number, those people, if cocked up could keep my cooking well and truly ‘under the radar’ for the rest of my career.

“calm down, its only for 80-100 of them, guests invited by Visit Denmark”, a slight calm came over me, but still quite a daunting prospect as Rene was one of the invited guests. My mind was still saying ‘don’t do it’.

The brief was to canapé up, traditional Danish dishes, and as my club is home to the Danish Club of London, began to think about the flavours and combinations we could offer them, after all for a Welsh boy in London doing a VIP canapé party for the Danish ambassador, Rene and guests, still very daunting. I thought I would consult my Danish chef and see what her thoughts were, and what ideas we could garner between us.

When she arrived to work a short while later, I explained what had been asked and her quiet, calm answer was ‘I know.’ It was only then that I found out her husband was the director for Visit Denmark, and that this had been a home discussion between them for some time, bugger everyone is conspiring against me!!!

So I drew up the first menu draft:

Maple smoked quails eggs, sel rose

Traditional Gravadlax on rye bread

Pressed oxtail and potato terrine, style bikesmad (a traditional Danish fry-up or hash)

Plaice and remoulade, cubism with golden breadcrumbs

Roulade of ham, flavours of salad Russe

Boiled egg, mayonnaise and caviar

Kransekage – biscuit of almond paste

Chocolate dipped marshmallows

And off it went, I was told I still had to wait a couple of days for the go-ahead for the menu, so creatively was in limbo not knowing whether we would get the gig or not, foolishly I announced the opportunity on twitter to raptures of ‘good on ya chef’ and ‘excellent chef, great opportunity’ before it was even confirmed, and as it wasn’t confirmed felt I shouldn’t just order food in to test my ideas until the ok was given, not to mention I have a kitchen to run too, not sure if the guys would be so understanding of me doing canapé R & D for an event we may not do. Thankfully I only had to wait till that evening for the email saying they would love me to do it, so order sheet in hand and first squiggles on paper, set to develop my ideas that were only words on paper at this point.

Over the next few days I wrangled with a few ideas, the menu gradually falling apart with every test, amazing how nothing ever pans out on the plate as it does in your head, any way further down the line and a few more squiggles added to the list, I had dishes I was happy with and set to the process of logistics, we had a visit to the hall the week prior and started to flap as it is a gorgeous venue but a complete barn. We allocated our areas (kitchen & bar) and started to plan. I must point out at this juncture, that the small kitchen at the hall I have over to the bar (completely inadequate in size for neither man nor beast), and took the hundred foot hall to myself.

Prep continued and gradually I started to finalize each evolution of each canape.

On the day, the alarm went off at some horrifically early time; I stumbled out onto the train and wended my way in, nerves starting to increase.

First job on the day was to finish the Parma ham roulade, upon testing the carrot hadn’t come through enough, so decided to cut slightly thicker to add flavour and a little much needed crunch to the canapé, big mistake, upon trying to roll the previous days preparation, my first roll happily slid off the cling film and all over the bench and floor, please note I did NOT take a picture at this point. Legging it through the kitchen my staff being knocked in my wake, proceeded to strip all of the carrot off the prepared pea mousse and start again(unplannedjob,panicsetting in). Cracked this out quickly applied carrot and tried again, success!

I wish I had more tales of rescued cock-ups (now the day is over) but to be honest, whilst pushed the rest of the prep proceeded without a hitch, my sous chef Ricardo finished the last of the detailed garnish work, A friend Ben turned up mid morning and dove in with prep and slowly everything came together as planned. We loaded the car and moved to the site.

Upon arrival, we got into the room to find Phaidon staff, Rene and his team working through some details, this finished as we were off-loading and everyone dispersed. Rene had a pep-talk with his guys, and feeling a touch star-struck barely managed a nod as we discovered we had no tables to work on, on top of that the Noma guys also had nowhere to work and set their gear up on some chairs, hmmmm organisation… NOT. Took a wee while, but G managed to locate and shortly started wandering in with trestle tables we could work from.

So we set to work, 2 hours to go and 1000 canapés to plate on teeny royal Copenhagen china. Trying to take as many pics as possible as we went. Whilst finishing the garnish on the bikesmad I see a figure in the corner of my eye and it’s the man himself come over to introduce himself and his team, and happily and thankfully he is one of the most down to earth guys I have ever had the pleasure to meet, he took a little time for each of us and explained What he had been up to whilst in the UK, the guys with him were equally open and brought wondrous food at intervals such as pickled rose petals, amazing.

We plodded through the preparation and service began, thankfully all the canapés were well received and as Rene was busy catching up with life on his laptop, delivered him a few bites throughout. We spoke a little about doing a small Stage which he very quickly agreed and am very much looking forward to spending a week in his kitchen in January, which I guess should bring a many parted post in itself.

(Pictures:)

Classic gravadlax, mustard, lemon, fennel

soft boiled quails egg, caviar mayo, sel rose, shallot and rock chive

Smoked sea rout, jerusalem artichoke, apple and horseradish bubble, lemon balm
I will not write about the night itself, as this has been covered ad nauseum by far better wordsmiths than myself. One such article is HERE one perk of doing the party for Visit Denmark was the seats me and my team were allocated were front row next to the stage, the presentation itself was quite incredible Noma’s philosophy delivered clearly and concisely with insights into the thought process that drives the ‘best restaurant in the world’

Thank you for your time in reading this, I guess I probably wont be posting again this year as business (and family) will keep me far to busy, but I thank those of you who take the time to follow and read my blog, and all I will leave you with is that I have plans for the new year, including finally revealing the method and technique for the ‘anything fondant’

Take care, enjoy life, and eat well. And if I don’t get the chance to say again this year, a very merry Christmas to you all.

Alex.

Noma, a time and place in nordic cuisine

2010-11-14T22:38:00.001Z

I know I have taken my sweet time with posting anything....

And now that I am, it is simply to inform you that a post is on its way

and not a usual post about new ideas and thoughts, but a reflection on a panicky couple of weeks and a great day and evening at the UK launch of

I was invited to do a canape event for Visit Denmark, which after quite a few trials and tribulations, turned into a great day. now its done and dusted can reflect on hits and near misses, the event went as I'd hoped with happy guests, time with the man himself and a great demo to finish the day off.

am in the process of cleaning and preparing the pictures taken throughout the preparation and service of the event, and am going to keep this hanging a day or two more.

Be back soon !!!!!!!

Holidays, apologies, the written word. Oh and a dish with lamb and carrots

2010-09-07T22:23:00.001+01:00

Summer has been and gone, a much needed holiday in Cornwall was very welcome from the whole family and now we are back, re-charged and rearing to go.

Kind of...... sandy beaches........great surf.........

Sorry, sorry & thrice sorry. Body has returned, but the brain is taking a little longer.

Apologies for lack of posts, something which we will be addressing as our season warms up, lots of new ideas, thoughts and projects happening over the next few months so should become a more interesting read.

Now for the central piece of this posts heading, I have had a number of comments about the blog through the blog and also on Twitter regarding the food, and none negative, I thank you. however reading between the lines of a few comments probably the best I have had for the written word is 'interesting' and here I feel the need to explain a little about myself.

I left school not the most academic pupil, social life had taken a complete hold on me and the only thing that mattered was Friday and Saturday nights, consequently my grading was unclassified in English language, a well deserved mark for my efforts (or lack thereof). this I am sure is reflected in what I do on here. I have very little writing experience, but am quite well read and have a vague eloquence with the language of my birth. However I am open to constructive suggestion for improvements, after all I am writing this from my experiences and it is for you the reader, If I am not fulfilling the culinary aspect then you will depart, so help me fulfil the written role, should I not be clear on something, or digress too far then tell me, so as I can improve, so will your experience here, and perhaps you will all spend a little more time here. Thank you.

Finally and the reason you clicked your way here in the first place is a dish I conceived a few weeks ago, I wanted to do a simple lamb and carrot dish for a while, but had no clue where I wanted to go with it. The first port of call is usually to look at the main ingredient and see how many different ways it can be cooked and presented, then I had a though to do this with the main garnish.

so whilst the lamb, is a lovely sample of the animal from (ironically(ish)) Cornwall

the carrots are broken down into:

Carrot puffs

Carrot puree

Clear carrot jelly

Warm 'old school' carrot terrine

And a carrot 'anything' fondant

The puffs are pure juice, whipped with methyl cellulose and finished in a dehydrator, similar to a profiterole and could be filled if required

The puree is a traditional one, cooked in clarified butter, as the carotene does not appear to be soluble in the fat so the puree is a purer flavour, with a more vibrant colour.

The carrot jelly is a seasoned juice, agar filtered and set.

For the terrine, I cooked a selection of naturally coloured carrots (not the modified Dutch thingies we all know as carrot), these I set with standard carrot juice with a little agar-agar and gelatin

Finally the anything fondant, a recipe I am still not quite ready to give away.

The dish ate beautifully and with the small addition of a little (totally out of season) asparagus for a break in colour and a simple lamb jus, finished the plate off well I feel, and it seems my guests agreed as it sold very well for it's short 2 week lifespan on our menu.

Ah well that post turned out to be much, much longer than I anticipated, sorry about that. I will stop apologising now and get on with working on the new dishes. See you soon

A spoon-full of sugar (or chocolate in this case) helps the medicine go down.

2010-08-09T23:05:00.001+01:00

It all started out with the simple idea of making a simple refreshing fruit cocktail and serving it in a sphere to capture the explosion waiting to happen when it bursts in your mouth.
I decided on the cocktail 'strawberry kiss', four simple ingredients - strawberries, cream, amaretto and rum.
Sounds refreshing, appetizing and to me like something everyone would like.
I went about mixing it up, reverse spherification style, garnishing with a few chopped strawberries, white chocolate powder and a single leaf of micro basil.

Everything ended up how i imagine, nice burst of flavour, followed a fresh hit of basil and fresh strawberries.

I set up the tasting spoons for the canape party and left for the day......

The next day,
Half of them are still in the fridge??? didn't make sense. Turns out after speaking with the waiting staff the guests were scared of them. Ok maybe they were a bit older and not yet made it into the 21st century.....

but annoyingly it happened again, twice. hmmm. No one wants to put balls in there mouth it seems.
Not wanting to give up on this cos I was happy with them, I decided to be a little devious and camouflage them....

Next time I gave the sphere's an extra minute in the aglin bath to give them a little bit more strength, for all the extra handling they were about to get.
Once 'cooked', I drained them, dried them carefully and when rolled them in a mixture of finely grated dark chocolate and cocoa, then carefully picked them up again and dusted off the excess and then lastly into the tasting spoons ready to go.
Rather delicate work, It was a good thing a had quite a few spares.

Well, the camouflage worked and the guests licked the spoons clean. Finally.

Not one to make my life easier, I'm gonna stick to the triple handling chocolate rolling method. It gives the canape another dimension, texture and in the end and more importantly... happy customers.

This week I've got a chefs choice canape party where I'm going to do a liquid chocolate bon bon, I'm just changing the center to a dark and milk chocolate liquor and rolling in the chocolate powder mix. In all 4 different types of chocolate.

Just wondering where I can take this to next......

National chef of the year 2010

2010-07-26T14:05:00.001+01:00

Have given this a go a few times now, but never with any true confidence in the dishes I have put forward

organised by The craft guild of chefs this competition is one of the largest in a chefs calendar.

Every time there is a brief which has not suited my frame of mind, my mojo as it were, was missing.

This year though, although the competition is divided into geographical categories (not sure how a french dish can be weighed up against a noodle dish from Asia, but time will tell), I had the mojo, the confidence and also importantly the dishes to put forward.

These categories are:

Modern British/Irish

Asian/Oriental

European (Continental, Central and Eastern, Scandinavian and Mediterranean)

◦Africa, The Americas and Oceania (Australia and New Zealand)

After some deliberation (basically cos my main was British and my dessert a bit French), I have chosen the modern British category

The brief for this years menu is

Canapés – 3 varieties of canapé - 4 pieces of each, 2 hot and 1 cold

Main Course – a chicken dish with appropriate starch and vegetable accompaniments

Dessert – a dessert using fresh lemons, served hot or cold

so for canapes my cold is based around what is accepted nowadays as a traditional ploughman's

The base being the celery, a cheddar mousse, pickled vegetables and onion and bread crust

My two hot canapes are 1:

Kedgeree, classical curried smoked haddock, egg yolk and white, sauteed mushrooms with fresh parsley and curried rice, this I have puffed for texture and for ease of release from the shell which it is served in.

And 2:

And an old childhood fave of mine, York ham, new potatoes and parsley sauce

For the main, I reverted back to an earlier post HERE and tweaked the dish to use the whole bird in one shape or form

Here we have, poached chicken breast, crisped skin sitting on hasty pudding, and to the side, carrot puree and a 'cottage pie' of the chicken leg, finished with a Madeira jus

Lastly the 'Frenchish' dessert

A lemon Cambridge burnt cream (English name for brulee) with blackberries (gel, puree and fresh macerated), mint pesto and lemon sorbet

I have everything crossed, judging begins this week and we will find out end of this, or beginning of next week, so here's hoping!

New menu(s) a couple of bits

2010-07-20T12:21:00.001+01:00

Not much writing today, busy service awaits so will leave you with a couple of snaps

Duck and cherries, chicory and fennel

Eton 'Tidy'

And one from our new canape menus

Foie Gras doughnut

No more time, will be posting my Chef of the Year entry menu soon, so until then

Later

And now the real McCoy, Salmon and Lamb

2010-07-04T01:56:00.002+01:00

Tricky week, 1 chef on holiday and business has doubled, fun fun fun

So this week I had to actually work, hmm no sympathy? Ok fair enough

The doodles did make it into dishes, happy enough with both of them, well received by my guests which is the most important aspect, however i feel they are missing a little je ne ce quas. So a little more playing required

Anyway the Salmon, as I said in the previous post would explain why the loin and belly, I hadn't really given it any thought before until I read This. As to why do we not consider a side of fish for different cuts, after all we would never quick roast a side of lamb and expect it to tick all the boxes, there is a huge variety in texture and tastes from each region of the animal, but whilst this does not ring true in fish, there are certain qualities we should perhaps not ignore when planning our menus

I took the side and separated the loin from the belly, and whilst I didn't give it the activa treatment they did, I did trim the shape and roll the belly tight to get a somewhat cylindrical shape. This I then cooked sous-vide at 48C for 8 minutes, and chilled down ready for service.

Whilst the loin piece is roasting, I just simply drop a piece into some seaoned lobster butter which sits on the passe at 50C for about 5 minutes.

The rest of the dish consists of some braised fennel, wilted spinach, confit fingerling carrots and an orange & fennel fluid gel, it ticks all the right boxes as far as a 'dish' goes, but as I said.... Missing a little I don't know what!!

Then the Lamb, not quite the visual food porn I was hoping for, but to eat takes comforting food to a new level, would love to be able to do this dish with lamb loin for the menu, but then I would sell none due to the supplement I would have to charge

'Tis a very simple affair, the lamb leg is Denham Castle lamb, with production like this I do not need to mess around with anything, the rearing has given all the flavour I need, to cook it all I did was to double bag each leg, with a few sprigs of thyme, rosemary and a little olive oil, this was then cooked for 24 hours at 55C, this produces a perfect medium rare throughout, I chilled the legs briefly and scorched the outer fat with a blowtorch which gives a wonderful roasted not to the flavour without over-cooking any of the meat.

The mash is scented with the smoked garlic I made a couple of weeks ago, which we pureed and stored under vacuum, grilled aubergine, and a fine ratatouille.

Will have a couple of desserts next week, but the pictures are over exposed (still trying to get the hang of my camera)

Time to start thinking towards the new menu, where did I leave that mojo?????

Salmon and lamb, this weeks doodles

2010-06-30T07:32:00.001+01:00

Hee hee, this is fun

glad I never discoved this as a kid, my mum would have done her nut, drawing on plates, really brings the kid out in me, and the look of shock from my daughter and wife yesterday as I grabbed a plate from my kitchen and a pile of marker pens and doodled away.

They didn't think they were dry wipe and I forgot (kind of) to tell 'em

ah well the look on their faces was priceless, but anyway enough of my childish amusement, just thought I would share a couple of doodles with you ahead of my menu change tomorrow.

first: Salmon

Currently going to be roasted loin, confit belly (will explain more when the dish is finished), confit carrots, roast fennel, orange fluid gel, and a couple of other bits not worked out yet

next: Lamb

Slow roast Denham castle lamb leg, sous vide at 55C for 24 hours, smoked garlic mash, baked aubergine, fine ratatouille, the purple thing should be the sauce but not sure yet, the designs are bound to change before they get served.

best get cracking with the prep, later

Everything but the squeak, a tribute to Denham pork

2010-06-16T14:44:00.000+01:00

From doodle to degustation

Earlier in the week you saw the scribble as we planned a dish I have had in mind for some time.

Even then it rarely makes it to the plate quite like that

Any way with porky bits cooked and raring for action, off we went

From front to back

pork loin studded with truffle

slow braised pork belly (60 hours sous vide)

black pudding

pigs head terrine, crumbed with crude pork crust

pork tenderloin roasted

pigs ear again pork crust coated

To this we added a small amount of pea puree, feves, split beans and peas

a slim Anna potato, some pea shoots a drizzle of pork jus and we are ready to serve

almost as sketched, beautiful plate of textures and tastes, a real celebration of one of the best farms in England Denham Estates

Also this week a coupl of dishes we have running are a simple chicken and peach salad with almonds, a small toast to benzaldehyde

And simple plaice and asparagus, which a few fillets are 'glued' together with Activa, then simply breaded and fried, with asparagus, remoulade and a parsley beurre noisette the reason for glueing is to give the piece of fish more substance and to retain more moisture to improve the eating quality

Also thought I would pop in this week's best seller though, being a club a lot of our membership are traditionalists and love the following dish, I don't believe I will ever be able to remove from the menu, and why not everyone loves a good calves liver and bacon, we serve ours simply on a bed of sage crushed potato and a little onion gravy.

Menu changes again on the 28th (or there abouts), should have more menu gems for you then, next I am hoping to show off a few little gems in my garden, providing the kids haven't been foraging too much.

Time for lunch methinks with Chef1 from The Staff Canteen

a wee taster

2010-06-14T21:25:00.001+01:00

I know usually my 'short' posts are far from that

this time though

a quick show of a plate design of a dish on the current menu

dish is called

"Everything but the squeak"

a celebration of pork

the last step as each element is cooking

Ridiculously expensive, considering what it is

2010-06-14T21:14:00.001+01:00

Very quick drop in today, just finalizing the new menu post for this week just thought I would run this by you as it startled me last Friday

I recently re-vamped my banquet menus, lighter and fresher for the summer months, I usually try to work with the seasons but, and I will probably get hung for this, I am not blinkered by them, weather is different all year round, seasons vary in different countries, there are economies that rely on our occasional ignorance of seasons, just think about that next time you see french beans on a menu and you can be happy that a hard working Kenyan farmer is able to feed his family a little longer. Also in the past seasonability was sensibility as the price of a perfect local product was so low you would have to be stupid to ignore it, nowadays as the bandwagon is very full with conciencious chefs screaming pure seasonality, that the price in season is often similar or even higher than out of season.

Anyway, as usual I am digressing, the dish in question is one of my vegetarian offerings, not my strongest suit I admit, I am still perfecting the 'anything' fondant which will expand the vegetarian offering hugely, but until then I have a small repetiore of tried and tested dishes, one of these which appears regularly is a paella of garden vegetables which is chosen from the veg growing in my own garden at the time of cooking, I dont pick from my own garden, but I keep an eye on my garden and order accordingly, this year I chose to pair this with a rocket pesto and a saffron tuille, this brings me finally to the point of this post.

I like food to smack of the flavour that is mentioned, you should be left in no doubt that is what you ordered!

maybe for once i went too far

the recipe was, 1gm saffron threads, 500ml mix of veg stock, simple syrup, noilly prat. then rduce with strands in. once a teaspoon is reached I mix in a little malt extract, maltodextrin, flour. when I reached this point my concern began. there really didn't seem to be very much in the bowl.

so I got my silpat, scraped my usual shape and 3 tuilles later i was out of mix!!

not worrying about cost (a failing of mine), I cooked them thinking, wow these will be great, dramatic size tuille and intense colour and flavour.

a few fennel seeds, a little fleur de sel

let the cool, break a little off and taste

OH MY GOD, beautiful rich saffron taste, excellent crisp, lightly puffed texture

one small issue was I got all that impact from a piece about as bit as your small fingernail, here I have a tuille 10cm X 4 cm, so a change was required, 3 small bits dotted in the rice, lost it's impact but am happy with the flavour

the point of the post, food cost for the paella, vegetables, pesto and everything required to make the rice dish. £1.75., cost of the tuille if i kept to the large size £1.45

Oops!!!!!

Smoked Garlic - lovely but a bit of a space filler

2010-06-08T11:24:00.000+01:00

Very slack, thats what we have been, the ideas are there just not the time to execute any of them

Sorry!

Thought I would plonk an image or 2 your way, to keep you going till the next post (soon I promise)

today found 2 strings of garlic in the fridge, me and my sous chef having the same thought on 2 different mobiles, so rather than watch it while away for a couple of weeks wondered how home smoking it would turn out.

This is something we usually buy in, as it is a cold smoked product, with deep smoky tones and a prefect raw garlic inside, I do not have the facility here to cold smoke and if I did, not really enough room to do it well, so I thought about trying it hot smoked

so I lined a gastro tray with foil (to help the KP), then chucked on a load of my smoke mix, which is raw rice, sugar and a great Green tea from Damman which has some dried fruit and petals in.

place on the solid top until wisps of smoke begin to appear, and move to the very side of the stove on just enough heat to keep the smoke going.

checked after 1/2 hour

nearly there

another 1/2 hour later

and...

the cloves are still quite firm, the smokyness is fantastic, now just need a dish for them, off I go

thanks for your patience, we are working on a few things at the moment so should return to lively service very shortly

Hasty Pudding - a bit of food history bandwagon

2010-05-13T19:13:00.002+01:00

It must be that chef's have had enough with innovation, the buzzword over the last couple of years has to be:

'my dish is older than your dish'

'but my dish is even older'

'mine was cooked by cavemen'

'but mine was cooked by dinosaurs'

'but mine.................' and so it goes on.

We are obviously struggling to come up with new ideas and concepts, and wrapping it up in buzz-word terms such as keeping history alive, and that they really had to know their flavours back then.

By now you must think I am slapping and slating this trend as a cop-out in culinary terms, this could not be further from the truth, I think it is completely fantastic that records of these foods exist and that with modern day technologly and know how allow us to expand on what was once was and were fantastic recipes and dishes.

So what is Hasty Pudding? in a nutshell it is a savoury porridge, a recipe for which I use has onions and leek in it, doesn't exactly sound appetizing does it? Sure Heston at the fat duck has been making snail porridge for years to much acclaim, however I wish to stand up and make the bold claim "this one's yummier", probably get shot for that. Not that I think the snail porridge is not a lovely dish having been fortunate to try it on a number of occasions both as a guest and working in the kitchen, just that this combination is soooo moreish. don't beleive me? well I was surprised too.

enhancing the original recipe, I simply make a leek puree to cook my oats in and get a great colour, add some shredded leek and soften with a little goat's milk, the chicken is pot roasted, a few baby leeks, some madeira jus and finished with a little goats milk tapioca and a shallot crisp. I love it when a plan comes together.

more information on this dish and other great dishes from the annuls of time here

Baked potato skins, the ultimate by product use up

2010-05-10T10:07:00.001+01:00

On the The Staff Canteen site, a question was raised at the end of last month from a chef who does his mash the baked potato method, he asked if anyone in the forum had any ideas for utilizing the skins beyond the deep fried tater skins and dip route, I had a little (very little) time on my hands, and a tray of potatoes in the oven already cooking so thought I would give this a little thought and see what I could come up with.

Armed with my baked potatoes, I set to work to try a couple of different ideas. the 3 thoughts I cam up with were:

A) A baked potato milk ice cream

B) Baked potato skin mash (after a concerned comment about the colour), had to give it a go just to see for myself

C) Basic mash, infused with the flavour of baked potato skins

I took the skins, some milk, cream, multidextrin, glucose, thyme, garlic and bay leaf and set them on the edge of the stove to infuse without boiling, from these I passed one completely for the ice cream, placed the skins from another into a pacojet beaker and covered (just with the milk) and in the 3rd placed the potato scooped from the skins, with enough milk to again just cover.

the 3 beakers then were frozen for 24 hours, happy with the current flavours, just not quite ready for what the next day would bring.

The following day, I removed A), B) & C) and churned. I will now begin by dismissing C) as the starchiness of the mix damn near broke the pacojet and the end result was vile.

B) this however whilst struggling to churn due to a reasonable high starch level came out a reasonable colour and had good flavour, unfortunately due to the starchy nature of the product felt like eating a frzoen mashed potato, not great, I left this to defrost and set to churn the milk. This was to prove to be the revelation I was hoping for.

Once churned, I had guessed the glucose and multidextrin levels accurately and it churned through the machine beautifully. the end product was a great textured, herby flavoured potato milk and began thinking of applications such as a parmesan risotto with the ice cream and other thoughts. I then defrosted this alongside B) to see what results I would get hot.

The milk defrosted into a rich creamy liquid, the skin mash just defrosted, to this I added a little butter and proceeded to warm it through in the traditional method, whilst this was heating I heated the milk with a little xnathan and agar to creat a fluid gel for a creamy mash texture.

The skin mash had a nice earthy colour and good flavour, however the texture was that of wallpaper paste and was ridiculously gloopy, so back to the drawing board I go with that, however the milk fluid gel worked very well served hot and again a number of different applications spring to mind including using spherification to create a jacketless jacket potato?? Hmmmm

Anyway, this is how I have whiled away my time this week, does anyone have any thoughts on what common by-product that normally lines our bins that we may be able to get one or more dishes or garnishes out of?

left to right: milk gel, skin mash potato, plain mash (great, bad, bad)

30-Second Yoghurt Cake, 168 hours in the making.

2010-05-03T22:21:00.001+01:00

A while back I had a bit of success with a Chocolate and Beetroot Microwave 'coral' cake which was a combination of a two recipes and quite a few ingredients. It worked well on the first test only needing minor tweaking for version 2. I was happy with it, well for now anyway. I had plans for the torn pieces to go with a Beetroot Parfait I was testing from Johnny Iuzzini's Dessert four play book ( recipe was about 10 miles off from being ok...but I did rip off his presentation, well expanded on it and had some fun with it ), the parfaits another story..... had to run off to Sainbury's to get more beetroot half through so you could taste something other than pink creaminess. Anyway least after all the adjusting and tinkering I got a working recipe out of that experience.

After the reasonable ease of the Chocolate and Beetroot Microwave cake and the recipe from the incredible Natura book by Albert Adria, I was off to try out the Yoghurt cake recipe for my plan to put together a canapé with Aloe Vera Gel and the Yoghurt cake for the new canapé menu. I had always wanted to put the two flavours together after
travelling through Japan a few years ago when I came across Yoghurt with chunks of Aloe Vera. It became a daily staple for me, absolutely loved it.

Straight from the book the recipe works ok but felt it was a bit too strong on the egg whites. I didn't have the Texturas Yopol Yoghurt powder but I was using a Sosa version. Maybe that was the problem? Quick phone call to my wife to ask for a favour to have a look on the internet while I was working away, she came across Michael Laiskonis's version from Le Bernardin and it's currently on their dessert menu. Test - No, way too soft and wet. Hmmm....
I brought in some Yoghurt from home the next day and adjusted the recipe to accommodate the extra liquid content in the recipe. The flavour was a bit deeper, softer crumb but still the texture just wasn't right. Next day I ordered some Yoghurt from our supplier, low fat natural Yoghurt come in. Whizzed up another version, flavour was still there but the texture had changed for the worse. Thinking it was the fat content and only having the low fat Yoghurt .1% fat. I tried adding a drop of oil to get back the texture and softness back. Nope, worst of them all.
I was almost ready to scrape the idea. Going over my notes of the various tests seeing which ones come out the best and what characteristics they possessed. So far it was the original, lacking flavour and ok structure and the one with Yoghurt from home better flavour but not as much volume. I compiled a recipe of the two, an average to say. No more Yoghurt meant it was time to go home and wait for more to come in the morning.

Over my morning Porridge, I checked out the fat content of the Yoghurt I had at home, 4.7%. Now that would explain the softer mouth feel I had back in test #2.
I boxed some up and jumped on my bike to work. Put the Yoghurt into my 'average' recipe.
At last I could feel I was getting close. Good texture, great holes and the flavour was almost there. Acceptable but I had one last thing I wanted to try. Greek Yoghurt, 10% fat and that meant waiting another day.
My perseverance paid off, the Greek Yoghurt added an extra depth in flavour and texture.
At last I was happy with my results.

I think the half of the problem was the fact that I've had the pleasure of having an amazing near perfect Yoghurt microwave cake at Arzak late last year. It was probably my second most favourite course from the whole experience. I think I've come close with my version but it's hard to compete with the R&D that goes on at Arzak.....

The original plan for my canapé with the cake and Aloe Vera, well hasn't come to much. Didn't even put it in on the new canapé menu.
That was partly dew to the fact I couldn't track down a good supply of solid Aloe Vera Gel.
There is another source I'm looking into for the Aloe. While I was travelling around Australia I stopped into a random Shop for a cold drink when I was walking around Sydney. I grabbed a bottle of White Grape and Aloe Vera juice with chunks of Aloe Vera in it. Thought it sounded nice at the time, well I can still remember how refreshing and delicious it was. Don't think I'll ever forget that day.
So far I've found just one place that sells it in the UK. Just another hurdle I've got to jump over, starting to get used to the obstacles. Eventually I get around them.

??? Yoghurt or Yogurt ???

Menu change, 16th April 2010 a new blog item

2010-04-16T15:55:00.001+01:00

I was thinking today about what to write about next, have had fun lately with some nice ideas translating into some equally nice dishes, however as you may be aware these can be sometimes spread apart, but I tweak my menu weekly generally, and we photograph EVERYTHING, much to our waiting staffs annoyance, they have to wait around whilst 3 chefs get cameras and phones out to catalogue our dishes.

So I though I would include a somewhat regular slot of some of the more interesting tweaks we do to our menu as and when it happens, not every change though as sometimes the dishes are quite simple, or we simply do not have the time to take any decent photographs.

Lets start with 'Coquille Saint Jaques'

my commmis Tom has been running away with dish ideas over the last few months with a great emphasis on foaming and jellying and losing touch with the basics that make a dish great, so I set him the challenge of recreating this classic dish. I was first concerned that I hadn't shortened the leash enough when I started seeing tuilles being made out of breadcrumbs and balls ready for spherification in his mis-en-place.

Thankfully on this occasion he pulled it off and the dish is pretty as a picture and eating quality is excellent

scallop, button mushroom, duchesse potato, bread tuille, vin blanc spherification

the sphere itself is great fun, just warm enough to burst on the plate with just the right amount of sauce, the lemon puree adds acidity against the vin blanc and the duchesse.

the spheres waiting for an order

up close and personal

Next, I gave Ricardo, my sous chef, a similar goal to recreate something a little more classical and he chose a traditional portugese meat platter, translating this down was quite a task but, like Tom, pulled off only what can be described as a fantastic dish, has everything going for it, balance of flavour, texture and whilst it is a handsome portion, still leaves you wanting more at the end of it. Well done.

Poached chicken

sausage meat with choizo and black pudding

crisp pig ear

beef fillet

carrot puree

potato

turnip

chorizo oil

(and missing from this shot) Savoy cabbage

drizzle of jus and micro parsley

Herb wrapped balotine of salmon, wye valley asparagus, new potatoes

does exactly what it says on the box, the only tweak is glueing the salmon together with activa, other than that it is designed to show off new season English asparagus (and from Monday, Jersey royals) to their very best, simplicity is key to this dish.

Sea bream, fricasse of vegetables, sweetcorn veloute, popcorn cream and chicken popcorn

The bream is simply steamed, vegetables warmed in the veloute then a splash of popcorn bubbles and for texture a few pieces of popping corn I have popped in chicken fat and seasoned whilst hot. straightforward and nice and light for this lovely weather.

Last (but in no way least) G has produced ANOTHER Rhubarb and custard variation, the versatility of this combination and how it can be presented is incredible. With this incarnation he has introduced a little bitterness in the form of a yogurt coral cake and yogurt ice cream. Oldie but goldie and our guest do not tire of it any more than we do not tire of showing off this great combination in anyway our imagination takes us.

Anyway, hope this will help keep this blog more interesting to read, we will continue with the random other things we post about, but this should lessen the occasional drought of posts that we are guilty of having more than we really should.

Thanks to the guys this week for making my life much easier by coming up with such great dishes.

Gods molecular gastronomy

2010-04-08T23:17:00.002+01:00

Odd title, but I take no credit for the work involved in creating it

but cannot live without it, regardless of what so called health experts tell me

as a chef for quite some time, I know the effects of not enough salt, not funny

All I can say everything in moderation

unless its fantastic

thanks be to God, for the saturated pools of the Camargue

Amen!

Risotto of herbs, parsley puree, horseradish

2010-04-07T12:49:00.001+01:00

Recently we have had the Danish club of London join our membership, this led this Welsh boy to wonder what do Danes eat?

Through many a google trawl, I kept coming up with breaded plaice, open sandwiches, mini meatballs and the like of homely comforting food, stuff I could happily include in my bar menus, but nothing that really jumped out and grabbed me as restaurant food.

My background is in 5 star hotels, running minimum 2 AA rosette kitchens and like to feel that my food has not diminished by moving 'behind closed doors', I still carry the same culinary ethos and try to improve what I do each and every day, even if I do not sell a single dish to 'the general public', so consequently cannot be judged by the guide books. Not that I necessarily agree with these guides, they are, whether you like them or not, a benchmark by which we are judged. Some of my old restaurant customers indeed chose to dine with us, purely because they had found us on the AA website.

Anyway guidebook digression aside, our restaurant food is a little more refined than our bar offering, and as we do not cater for a huge amount of guests each day, I do not have restrictions on the amount of effort necessary to produce each dish as we have the time to do so. This does not come at the expense of flourishing the dish more than is genuinely required, the question is always asked 'does it need anything else', as long as it ticks all the flavour and texture boxes and it is visually appealing then it is good for the menu, sometimes however this can take 8 or 9 visits to the plate, but hey we have the time 'generally'

back to the dish at hand, I came accross this from Foodsnob's blog which is a great write up about one of Denmarks leading restaurants Noma, and was inspired by the razor clam dish to utilize these flavours in my own interpretation, during the testing I used razors which were fantastic, however for my current menu I had a scallop dish already waiting which made me re-think and produce a vegetarian version, where I have utilized salsify rather than razor clams, the result is a heavenly combination of the herbs, the aldente bite of the rice with the crisp rye bread, finished with the earthy salsify and creamy horseradish.

herb risotto (parsley, chervil, tarragon)

parsley puree

braised then roasted salsify

horseradish fluid gel

beet gel

crisp rye bread

olive oil

micro parsley

wood sorrel

Easter eggs, the long good friday

2010-04-06T19:51:00.000+01:00

I have often wanted to make my Mrs. an egg for Easter, but usually opt for a last minute Lindor or Wispa egg on my way home from work on Easter Saturday, as I am now in a job that shuts down for bank holidays and left with a 4 day weekend I had finally run out of excuses to put my money where my mouth is.

One teeny problem, having always been well staffed in the pastry department, I have not had the neccesity to temper my own chocolate i realised for over 15 years, sure I have come up with desserts, but with the constraints of everyday work have often asked of my pastry section to do the nitty gritty of the mis-en-place before I step in at the 11th hour and take the credit for the creation, slightly different here, G is a great teacher and a chef who always pushes himself to the limit regardless of business levels, so I have taken to producing my creations and re-learning the pastry section piece by piece.

So Thursday, I jump on with G to make a god awful mess (I mean make eggs for our members with him), during this time (a whole 3 hours, where G tempered all the chocolate for me, so didn't practise any myself), I picked his brains on tempering, decorating and making the eggs themselves.

Armed with this new(ish) knowledge, and about 3kg of chocolate and some moulds in my bag I set off home with the express mission to make my darling Mrs. an egg within an egg within an egg. oh did I tell you how much experience I had? Not!

Firstly I did not think of one small issue, that would be my one small kitchen, if I thought I had made a mess at work with my ample stainless steel surfacing, my wooden worktops (tiny), and the ins and outs of family life over the Easter holidays certainly didnt mean that I was lessening the mess, quite frankly the opposite, and we will be cleaning that up for some time, a lot of it on the Good Friday hence the title

All that said, quite soon I had all my varying size moulds full of appropriate size chocolate shells, awaiting extraction (the tricky bit), and after trashing the first go of the larger shells had enough chocolate still to keep going.

I am happy not to have had to dash out to a 7-11 at the last minute, and managed to produce exactly what I had aimed for, but I have learned a valuable lesson that my Father always told me, and that was to never ask someone to do a job that I am not capable of doing myself, and from now on I think I will set out to teach myself some of the basics that we chefs can neglect from time to time, especially when we run larger brigades It is fine to utilize someone elses expertize, but not when you have no idea yourself, learn it then delegate, my new kitchen ethos.

note the safety tea-towel holding the egg off its stand at the front, probably the most nerve racking moment was removing this just seconds before presenting the egg

and as you can just see, the middle egg inside. took Mrs. W. 2 days before she would crack this layer

Duck, Rhubarb, Apple

2010-03-31T08:53:00.003+01:00

Doesn't matter how many different foods I cook with and discover, I will always revert to duck. I have come to the conclusion that it simply has to be my favourite meat in any guise. I love the tenderness and moisture from a well cooked and rested breast with the fat rendered to nothing but the thinnest crisp skin, to the unctious quality of a superbly confited leg. the fat itself is a great transporter of flavour and handled with care the carcass can be used to make a wonderful deep jus. And finally the liver is just enough for me on toast with a little marmalade whilst contemplating the rest of the bird.

As forced rhubarb is something quite special at the moment thought the pairing would be essential cooking for our menu this week. Wanting to introduce some spice without turning into an asian interpretation so began by making a few pickling liquors, one for the rhubarb, one for the compressed apple, and a dry rub for the duck itself.

The rhubarb was marinated under vacuum for 6 hours then poached in the bag at 70C for 12 minutes until it just starts to give under my fingers

The result was perfectly tender, the strings of the skin were present but break down easily in the mouth and no need to artificially boost the colour. The apple was cubed and soaked in an acidic pickle then compressed at full vacuum, the trim of both with a little of the rhubarb pickle I used to make a simple puree.

The duck breast, I dry rubbed with a combination of spices and left to dry cure overnight, then placed skin side down in a cold pan and brought up to a high heat to render off as much of the fat as possible from the very finely scored skin. this was chilled and bagged, we then cook this sous-vide for 1 hour at 60C, and then allowed to rest for a further 20 minutes.

As this softens the skin, we then return it to a cold pan and bring up again to render the last of the fat and crisp up the skin, it is then carved and the plate arranged.

Duck breast sous-vide

Rhubarb

Compresse apple

Ruhbarb/apple puree

Roasted Bok-choi

Gingerbread puree

Duck and apple reduction

sorrel & coriander

Chicken ballotine, wild mushroom fricasee and foie gras jelly

2010-03-30T14:58:00.001+01:00

And the jelly from the previous post is used for...

Ballotine, stuffed with mushrooms, calves liver and spinach

agar triangle of mushroom fricasse

caramelized foie gras jelly

foie gras 'tapioca' rocks

parsley

Foie gras jelly, caramelized just one gram off

2010-03-23T18:50:00.002Z

just one more gram of Agar, and this one will be ready to go.

Foie gras jelly

next the ballotine to go with it

BITTER TASTE, sideways step not quite off topic

2010-03-22T07:05:00.000Z

Been a while, with apologies

we have a few posts to deliver, just not a huge amount of time to deliver them, shouldn't moan about being busy really. Also clocked up the BIG 40 last week, so still recovering from that, post party post on its way, Sally put on a great party and spread for me pushing herself something silly, and having never made one in her life attempted a croquembouche as a centrepiece (oddly was my birthday cake, not wedding) but the onlyway she could make something to get that many bloomin' candles into. Absolutely gorgeous it was too.

anyway, digression aside, this post is about a book, written by David Evans, an ex club chef (like myself, just not ex yet) and a cracking read, I felt it really deserved as big a plug as I can give it, so here is a brief excerpt from the book and a link to a blog where it can be picked up at an absolute bargain, if you like stories from the coalface of kitchen life then get off my blog, click the link and get a copy.

normal service will be resumed soon, with the repair of my laptop keyboard nearly complete (only the left hand side keys work) and some dishes and thoughts in the bag, we should be fulfilling our promise of posting what we play very soon.

anyway digressing (AGAIN), the book...........

About the Book: With a reputation forged in France, Jack Kennedy was the pick of the new crop of British-born chefs, and when he teamed up with a Mayfair socialite intent on establishing a restaurant to rival the world’s finest, the prospect of becoming a rich man was overshadowed by his yearning for international stardom.

But the dream turned into a nightmare when the owner decided to turn the restaurant into a private members club.

Maybe if Jack hadn’t invested his life savings he would never have risked life and limb to escape the golden handcuffs, but when his scam to recoup his stake backfired so unexpectedly, he resorted to extortion.

It would prove to be the biggest mistake he ever made

you can read up more on the Author HERE

Happy reading.

Valentines Day, the one that got away.

2010-02-28T20:12:00.004Z

For a while back I had been working on the Valentines Day Dessert Menu (and this post as you can see by the date) we were having at the Club on the Friday before the 14th but sadly no one booked in and we had to pull the plug on the Special 'Aphrodisiac' based menu.

I had done a bit of back ground and ‘in the field’ ;-) research on aphrodisiac foods and herbs before the cancellation had happened.

It really is quite interesting all the little things that surround us day to day and the from far off distant lands witch doctor remedies which all have special properties that have interesting effects on our bodys. One that caught my attention was Maca Root from up in the Andes in Peru. It is meant to have quite stimulating qualities from libido, balancing hormones and a tasting quite good on my morning porridge!

It tasted quite ‘malty’ and pleasant-ish, so I mixed it up with some Bananas and made a Banana and Maca Root ice-cream to go with liquid chocolate and nutmeg sponge. Quite happy with the result.

I also come across Horny Goat Weed, supposedly a poor mans Viagra. Now that’s what I was looking for in an aphrodisiac based menu! Hmmm…Something that actually kind of did something. So off to Holland and Barrett and picked some up. Well one small taste and I couldn’t get this leafy burnt ash flavour out of my mouth. I don’t think anything could make it taste nice. Gonna have to use that one at home….

After going off into unfamiliar territory I thought I better come back to some not so customer scary ingredients. I planed to incorporate every day Aphrodisiac foods Sweet Basil, Nutmeg, Coffee, Chocolate, Almond, Banana, Passion Fruit, Champagne and Maca Root into the different desserts I had planned.

For one of the special desserts the challenge of pulling off the liquid chocolate from the almighty Alinea cook book was put in front of me and thought it would be fun to do.

After banging out the mix word for word from the book at the end of the day so it would be good to go for the morning the next day.

The morning after....

I was quite excited to pull out a square to defrost and see the chocolate ooze out and cover the plate. 1 1/2 hrs later I gently probed the centre of the block of chocolate to see if it had defrosted completely. 3c, it was ready. I carefully broke off the corner and.....

a soft solid block of chocolate was waiting for me.

Not exactly what I was expecting but should’ve seen it coming, seemed all too easy. Previously I have had quite a bit of success with the recipes from the Alinea cook book with only minor adjustments to correct slight changes between different ingredients and my personal taste.

The recipe does have a few issues you could say, which will show up in the final result.

First up the recipe calls for “bittersweet chocolate, 75 percent cacao, chopped” and the same for the milk chocolate but 33%.

Just from the top of my head I can think of several different brands of chocolate that have the same percent chocolates in their range. The thing is not all chocolate is the same even though the percentage may be. Some have a higher sugar content or higher cacao butter content, for example Valhrona tend to have a higher percentage of cacao butter content which gives them a lower viscosity or thinner consistency than most other brands which helps with enrobing, dipping and of course taste. Most decent chocolate companies have different couvertures (32-39% cacao butter) for different purposes and tastes, all featuring their own individual characteristics to that company’s specifications, which gives a few variables which could impact on the finial result.

Well with the result from the first test I had, I went about making the recipe 'wetter' with more honey, milk and cream so it would be liquid upon defrosting.

Six test batches later and numerous cleanings of the chocolate spray gun (which is the worst part of the job and takes two times longer to clean than the time your actually using it) all for 1 or 2 little squares at a time…. I finally got want we wanted all along. A good flow and stability with out the sides giving away under there own weight during transit from the fridge to the plate to the table.

Still even after the relief to getting it right, I also had another potential problem which I noticed around test 3 or 4 that the defrost time also played an important part in the finial result.

The longer it was left in the fridge in its defrosted state the firmer it would get eventually seizing up the flow and becoming just goo. Seems like the chocolate was doing its best to crystallize and annoy me again.

This could have been solved by looking at the bookings and pulling out portions in intervals through out the night and guessing how well it would’ve sold to get the best result…..

Then I had the idea how to completely solve all my dilemmas. Which sadly I didn’t get to put to use.

The easy way -

Make up a tasty chocolate liquor / sauce with a very thin consistency and freeze in gastro tray.

Cut to desired size, place back in freezer. Place a couple of needles into block.

When making up chocolate spray mix, set aside some and then take the frozen block and dip up to the top of the sides evenly along the edges. Place back in freezer.

Set up chocolate spray gun. Spray blocks well and evenly on all sides. Refreeze.

Defrost and you should have a very liquid and manageable liquid block of chocolate.

Technically cheating but allows quite a few more possibilities to be achieved with a bit less trial and error.

Have fun with it!

Basil tapioca, tomato jelly and rock oyster

2010-02-24T21:44:00.000Z

Been skimming through Johnny Iuzzuni's dessert fourplay book this week, visually stunning however sad to say whilst the ideas and inspiration come thick and fast in this book, the ability to try a recipe and it work are impossible. I have tried a few this week and it has taken all my cooking savvy to stop horrific errors due to incorrect quantities, sorry but this book is off my birthday list.

however, there is one lovely looking 1/4 on a strawberry page, had to see where this could go in the savoury world

Tomato fluid gel, rock oyster, basil tapioca

Got it!! the Anything molten cake

2010-02-21T15:39:00.000Z

In my last post I showed a celeriac fondant, made primarliy from the vegetable only. from this continued the technique through carrot, fennel and a most excellent banoffee fondant, thought I would show the last one though as it is probably the most visually contrasting one from the original, Beetroot.

am happy with the technique now, and am pretty happy that with minor alterations to the ratios on each can produce a molten cake out of absolutely anything!

and the moment of truth...again

this one is cast from a different mould to above, but my poor phone camera had a real moment and lost a number of snaps from today

Classic Fondant well nearly.........

2010-02-04T11:19:00.000Z

I love it when a thought becomes something lovely at the first attempt

especially when that is so rare

CELERIAC FONDANT

and the proof of the pudding is..........

as Hannibal would say, I love it when a plan comes together. now just the beet jus and the beef elements left to go

Roast quail, puy lentil and parsnip consomme

2010-02-03T09:46:00.000Z

Woke up a couple of days ago with a need to cook parnsip

humble vegetable adaptable for so many different methods, boiled, roasted, puree, even cereal at a certain favourite restaurant.

sat on the end of the bed thinking if it would consomme, so went downstairs and googled it, found a couple of references where a puree is added to the egg white to create flavour from the 'pack'

recently I have abandoned egg white clarification in favour of agar filtering, firstly with accurate scales it is so much easier, no more stove watching and that small possibility of fried egg running through your stock. secondly I feel the flavour is purer with not so much taste and flavour lost to the clarification, but with picture perfect clarity every time.

during preparation was not sure of the parsnip as the starch contained could affect the final dish, but nothing ventured, nothing gained, I started by roasting.

this was to draw out the flavours, I de-glazed the pan with some simple chicken stock and blast chilled.

Then moved on to vac-packing the parsnips and stock and finished cooking in a pan of boiling water until quite tender, didn't want to stew the parsnips, but was using the veg as a puree.

For the puree, I took all the washed parsnip trim (peelings, tops&tails) and cooked in a bag with full fat milk.

Once tender, passed the stock off and chilled, pureed the veg with a bit of the parsnip milk

Once the liquid had cooled, weighed it and whizzed in 0.2% of agar for the clarification, heated up to >90C and chilled to set in the chiller once more. once chilled cut into rough chunks and froze overnight.

following day, laid the frozen stock cubes to defrost on a holy gastro tray, with a solid one underneath, left to drip through, this took most of the day to get the maximum yield.

Once this was complete, season to taste and heat for each order, We are serving with roast quail breasts, confit quail leg, puy lentils and vegetables bound in a little parsnip puree, thus:-

Great flavour, nice dish but a bit brown. need to sort some colour.....next time!

Guest piece on Herve This by Peter Crosskey

2010-01-20T11:07:00.000Z

Well G has stolen my thunder, for a few days have been thinking to wake the blog up after an extended break, and log in today to find our first post of the year, ah well the hydrocolloid thing is nice to look at and playing is much easier now.

A short while ago after joining the UK food bloggers association I was emailed by Peter Crosskey who showed an interest in this post on alternative fish preparation. we got chatting about modern techniques and I found he had recently attended a lecture by the almost legendary Herve This.

I was far too jealous before I read the piece below which he has produced for this blog, and even more after! Any way, without any further ado I hand the floor, nay the screen, to Peter, many thanks for writing this.

The scientist who gets a cubic metre out of one egg white

Fresh from the Eurostar, Hervé This was in his element when he arrived at Imperial College to address a lecture hall full of chemical engineering students in London on November 30 last. With a twinkle in his eye and a playful smile that flitted across his lips between sentences, he was fulfilling his vocation: sharing his knowledge of the science that underpins cooking.

The co-founder of molecular gastronomy wears the weight of his learning lightly: March 2010 will see the 30th anniversary of a sunken soufflé. It was this which propelled Hervé to map out the scientific principles that underpin what happens in the kitchen.

He opens with an obligatory PowerPoint slide to introduce himself. Then he announces that on the train here he changed his mind about what he was going to do in this lecture.

"Let us make a simple experiment," he exclaims, much as his late colleague Nicholas Kurti would have done all those years ago when no-one had heard of molecular gastronomy. His approach is direct and engaging: he takes an egg out of its box and separates the white into a bowl.

"You say 'egg white' and yet it is yellow," he observes as he works. "But don't worry: in France we make the same mistake, too." He explains that there are about 30 grams of egg white in the bowl and that 90% of it is water.

"When the water is taken out, you are left with about 3 grams of protein – and it is yellow!" he exclaims, pulling out of his pocket a glass phial of dried egg white, like a stage magician. The phial is stowed as rapidly as it appeared and he is holding up two egg whisks: "Which one is better?" he asks, before grasping them both firmly in a single hand and using the two together.

Now an egg whisk is nothing short of "...medieval..." for This, who constantly challenges old ideas. "I hate tradition. Slavery is traditional," he interjects.

What distinguishes humanity from animals is an ability to consciously change the world around us, This argues. The mastery of fire and cooking food gave humans a decisive advantage in a hostile prehistoric world.

Society is constructed by human endeavour, This reminds his audience. "When it is built, it is beautiful," he says, pausing long enough in front of a Powerpoint slide with a restaurant plate shot to make his point.

He has been whisking steadily all the while, so the egg whites are firm now: he inverts the bowl abruptly just to make the point. So far This, who thinks nothing of generating a cubic metre of foam from a single egg white, has added only sugar.

He reaches for a bottle of water: this is his secret weapon that transforms the contents of his three-litre bowl into the magic cubic metre. "Of course it is very difficult to measure a cubic metre of egg foam at all precisely," he adds, returning to the scientific business in hand.

"Now, water has no taste, but you can use green tea, fruit juice, olive oil, anything you want." He crosses the boundaries between science, technology and cooking with ease, but never loses sight of his own role, even when pouring his egg white foam into a beaker and transferring it to a microwave.

"You see, I am a scientist and my job is to create knowledge: technologists use knowledge to make tools like this microwave, while chefs use their skill and equipment to make people happy at the table." He pauses, flings open the microwave door, withdraws the beaker and up-ends it with a vigorous shake, turning out the soft set foam.

He challenges the next generation of scientists to lay the foundations for greater things. He does it with such style and enthusiasm that we are all inspired to return to our laboratories, workshops and kitchens with raised expectations of what can be acheived.

Hervé was in the UK for a two-day whistle-stop tour to promote the English translations of two of his books. Earlier this year, Columbia University Press (CUP) published Building a Meal: From Molecular Gastronomy to Culinary Constructivism, being a translation of his 2007 book Construisons un Repas.

The most recent CUP translation is The Science of the Oven, a translation of his 2007 publication De la Science aux Fourneaux. Intended for a scientific audience, it remains an engaging read for lay readers, shot through with candour and Hervé's gentle humour.

Every month. in addition to contributing to the journal Pour la Science, This writes about a scientific insight for the website of his friend, the chef Pierre Gagnaire ( http://www.pierre-gagnaire.com/ ).

For readers of French, Hervé This has a blog at http://hervethis.blogspot.com/ which is well worth following.

Finally, anyone can sign up for the lectures that Hervé This gives at AgroParisTech ( http://www.agroparistech.fr/-Annonce-Cours-de-gastronomie-.html ). Both the page and the lectures are in French, but the inspiration is universal.
--------------------
About panel:
This post has been contributed by freelance journalist and blogger Peter Crosskey who was fortunate enough to attend a lecture given by distinguished French scientist Hervé This, the surviving co-founder of molecular gastronomy. My thanks go to Alex for letting me submit this article. A more general piece, along with reviews of two English translations of books by Hervé This can be found at:

http://www.crosskey.co.uk/index.php/2009/12/05/science-that-is-good-enough-to-eat/

Hydrocolloid Heaven

2010-01-18T22:37:00.000Z

It won't happen over night but it will happen....

I guess you’ve heard that before.
But over time and our shared love of the manipulation of textures and everyone's favourite the fluid gel, we have built up quite a handy collection of Hydrocolloids, Sugars and flavourings.
Previously we had them hidden away in a dark, hard to get to top shelf cupboard where you had to play musical Sosa tubs to find to one you were after.
After stripping the kitchen down for our Christmas break, Alex had the great idea to put them on the shelf behind me in the Pastry section and we've never looked back.
It's a good start towards setting up 'the lab'.... well one can dream can't they?

As I said before, 'it won't happen over night...

Pumpkin risotto with feta cheese

2009-12-14T17:40:00.002Z

Ever since I began in this business there are a few jobs that have eluded me to get 'just so'

Bavoirs, since college where my lecturer would give me the same bavoirs recipe time and time again, only to be startled as to what it had turned into by the end of the day, sometimes even he could not explain what I had managed to do to it.

Turning mushrooms, thankfully a pretty much dead art, sorry I cannot get to grips with the sharpest of turning knives, my mushrooms just seem to resemble over zealous road-kill after I have tried.

and then this, cubing or slicing Feta cheese evenly, I have had chef after chef show me different tricks with hot knives to no avail, I simply end up with a pile of usually 'OK' cheesy bits. that is until now

a while ago I wanted to put a risotto dish on with feta cheese, simple, seasonal and quite lovely. I wanted it to look like we tried so the cheesy bits had to be sorted, so I thought if it was possible to make a cheese gel, without losing the trademark flavour elements to the cheese, so off I went.

I took a blind guess at a 2:1 ration of water to cheese and set about melting it.

Sitting on the edge of the solid top, I watched eagerly, hoping it would melt smoothly and not curdle and go grainy

It quickly arrived to the boil, hanging it nearly off the solid, I held my breath as things were not looking particularly good.

but hey presto, it melted into a silky liquid. stage 1 complete

I then weighed the resulting liquid and mixed in .19% xanthan (to restrict syneresis) and 1.1% Agar for the gelling. these ratios are what I commonly use for my fluid gels so don't set very firm, as I didn't want it to be small solid cubes, it still had to have the same mouthfeel as a cheese when warm

I brought the cheese and agar mix to just over 90C (to fully hydrate the agar) and poured into my chosen container, placed into the blast chiller and waited eagerly.

soon it was set, and as is usual with agar gels, came out of the container without any hassle, I had to prompltly chop some up

Result, perfectly clean no crumbling shows up any knife skill errors but hey, perfect diced feta. woo hoo. stick some in my mouth as a well done treat and......................

Mild cheesy gel, bother, bother and other words unpublishable.

but look at how clean,

left is normal cheese, not bad but wouldnt like to handle it much more, and you can juggle with the gel, BUT it doesnt taste like feta.

Anyway, I got busy for the rest of the day and resigned my cheese gel to the fridge whilst I actually did some work. 2 days passed..................

That afternoon, I had a bit of time to kill and was sorting the fridge, I came accross the gel and still cross that I had a failed product I started to think along the lines of increasing the feta and lowering the water. as I did this I stuck a couple of cubes in my mouth as thought fodder, and low and behold, the gel had started to take on a dry acidic flavour synominous with the feta and thought what will another day do. I re-wrapped and left it, and on day 4, perfect feta cheese, but gelled. The Agar had firmed slightly, as it does, and the flavours were much more pronounced and most acceptable for the dish. All's well that ends well, we now use 1.5 water to 1 feta to intensify the flavour and so it can be prepared closer to the time, any lower a ration to this and the cheese wont melt properly and is unpleasantly grainy.

But happy me, pumpkin risotto, feta cheese

risotto

flavoured with roasted pumpkin puree

pumpkin gel sheet over

pumpkin fluid gel

microplaned feta gel

amaranth

Next post will be a short photo journal of 2009 and my last post for the year, we close on the 23rd for the christmas break and return on the 4th of Jan, lucky us. To all other cooks out there having to work the holidays, have a great time and hope that business doesn't always get in the way of festivities, just remember 'all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy'

Seasons Greetings

back to fillets, well this week I call them medallions

2009-11-20T15:32:00.001Z

A while ago in This post I promised to follow up with the technique for the salmon fillet, well eventually have got round to preparing and photographing it.

I won't bore with any further 'fillet' comments so without further ado here goes, am thinking of serving with a simple risotto milanaise and a herb/tomato oil.

1st trim up 2 sides of salmon, removing the skin and scraping the worst of the meat from the skin, ensure all scales are removed, thus

do the same with the other side, roll cling film accross the board from top to bottom, leaving it attached to the roll, arrange the sides to be dusted with activa transglutaminaise

slightly overlap and lay on the film with each 'head' side on the tail of the other to maintain an even size

pulling away from the roll, roll as tightly as possible, going around the salmon about 10 times, refrigerate for at least 6 hours to allow the enzyme to work.

set up clingfilm as before and cut your skins in half, dust liberally with activa and pat the loose dust off

remove the cling film from the roll, which should now be held together, place on the skin and roll carefully ensuring no gaps, again roll tightly many times

trim the ends cleanly and vacuum pack for at least 6 hours again to allow this bit of the enzyme to do it's thing

measure a scallop from top to bottom and cut that thickness of salmon fillet, you can just cut fillets from here, but this week we are going to do a salmon and scallop medallion. Using a cutter slightly smaller than the diameter of the scallop, cut a 'polo' hole out of the centre

leaving this, the cut out piece can either be served as an aside to the dish, or reserved for canapes

push the scallop into the centre and reserve in the fridge for service, sear quickly on both sides, finish for about 3 minutes under a salamander grill and finish with a lemon beurre noisette, when I have the dish up I will post a pic of the finished dish.

quite a lengthy process but very simple to prepare, just need to allow the times between when preparing as rolling the skin in the first roll is hellish to do, so I opted for this method and definitely gave me a cleaner product at the end of the day.

Oh what a night, Birthday factor the results

2009-11-16T17:39:00.000Z

Well, the weekend is all done and dusted, and would love to post a long list of pictures and comments now, but have to report that the whole day didn't go exactly to plan and as for photos, well they never stood a chance.

So will sum the day up quickly as promised and then soon move on to something more visual.

Let's start with the not so successful, beginning with waking up, not a happy moment in my day, was sick as a dog, to the point of very nearly calling the whole event off, I spent the fist couple of hours wandering round (and occasionally running for the smallest room in the house) in a complete daze.

But eventually pulled myself together, finished off the last touches and got my mis organized, most things were fine except for a quick change of plan with the spherification.

The evening before I got distracted by my kids and left the spheres in the fridge setting, and of course forgetting until the next day, I was left staring at a completely set alginate baths of olive puree and strawberry juice, many things crossed my mind including cutting them out but in the end decided to drop the introductory olives and make a fresh strawberry jam for the semolina, off to the shop I went.

As for the rest of the menu, all went as planned, the whisky sour knocked everyone for 6 to start, the surreal moment of piping my meth cel potato underwater to set them was a new experience (and quite a warm painful one) but the dish pulled off well, and most importantly my sorbet flamed up a treat.

There were a suitable number of 'oohs' and 'ahhs' in all the right places and everyone had a great evening, I was glad to see the cheese crackers and petit fours go so I could finally sit down and join in but was satisfied to pull off this menu in my shoebox of a kitchen, and bless my eldest boy Cameron for digging me out with the washing up the next morning, thank you son.

Anyway, back to work and whilst we don't have a huge amount of time to play the next post should be a more visual affair with more playing and much less working.

A very busy birthday party

2009-11-13T18:36:00.000Z

I approach this perticular time of year with a small sense of dread and excitement.

My darling wifes birthday is this weekend, and for the last couple of years for one reaosn and another has been a very low key affair, so this year I thought I would put in a bit more effort. well actually a couple of weeks ago she asked 'could I have some of those little tricks you do with food at my birthday dinner?'

'err birthday dinner?' I replied, I had thought of organising the babysitter, booking somewhere nice and letting someone else take care of the cooking. However she had been talking with one of her friends and had come up with the plan of us having dinner in our house, so as I said before time to put a little extra effort in and organised a menu of 5 courses with suitable 'tricks' for good measure, our other guests are blissfully unaware of restaurants such as Alinea and the Fat Duck so I could easily plagarise a few tricks without them being passe, sorry to Grant and Heston (oh and Ferran for my opening cocktail) for the odd blatant theft of recipe, but where needs must the devil drives.

Next day at work, I am thinking of her menu when I am checking the business for this week, and never have I had such a mental week at work, what am I going to do? loads of split shifts needed, when am I going to prep?!? but of course we always make time for the important things in our lives, the only true issue I have had all week is to stop adding courses.

here is the menu, in the next post I will follow up with the pictures of the dishes with comments from our guests (providing i don't forget with the stress of cooking on her birthday)

she also commented on the fact she never gets a cake for her birthday, so with the genius of G's baking skills at hand, can finally put an end to that issue too, (she is normally the one who makes the cakes in the family, so she does get short changed when it's her day)

anyway the menu

Opening cocktail

Whisky sour

(blatant robbery from el Bulli, saw him prepare it a few year ago at a demo in London)

Butternut squash risotto & Heart of palm

‘Cannelloni’

(risotto with squash fluid gel filling a palm heart)

Seafood Platter

Lemon & saffron pudding, olive oil ‘rocks’

(mix of prawns, mussels, calamari and a rocket salad, lemon fluid gel and olive oil compressed in vacuum with tapioca multidextrin)

Truffle & cipoline onion tartlet

Savoury frangipane

(puff paste, classic frangipane (using multidextrin instead of sugar) great finger food to save on the washing up)

Rack of Lamb cooked at low temperature

Melting potato, ratatouille, mint and redcurrant

(58 degrees for 2 hours, then fat rendered and browned, meth cel potato, mint espuma and redcurrants enveloped in a redcurrant gel sheet)

Flaming sorbet

Poached apple ‘on the bone’

(1st part ripped off from the big fat duck cookbook, 2nd part spawned from a post on Ideas in Food)

Love in the mist

Semolina, strawberry spheres (or caviar) and iced foam

(born from Sally's comment on her favourite dessert of all time (as usual a childhood memory as it often is) classic semolina, strawberry reverse spherification, strawberry juice and versa whip frozen)

Cheese cracker

Chutney transparency

(first saw this cracker on the madrid lab blog and thought it one of the most creative frugal ideas I had come accross in some time, as for the chutney, this is an evolution of G's agar filtered juice from an earlier post)

Bounty bars & balls

Nearly texture-free

(sitting watching the hells kitchen final the other day, munching through a box of Celebrations, well what can I say I need simple comfort sugar every now and then (usually now))

(we were discussing a scene in Zombieland where Woody Harrelson finds a hostess truck in his search for a twinky bar, only to find it full of snowballs, he said it was not the flavour that was a problem, just the texture. Sally completely related to this but loves the flavour of coconut, so I had no choice really for petit fours, but to try and re-create a texture-less bounty bar so she can savour the coconut without spitting out the dry dessicated at the end, did I succeed? I say nearly, the chocolate I have used to coast is dark so a little overpowering but the filling is exact, and with only 2 ingredients too! I have done some bars which are agar set, and filled some truffle shells with a coconut fluid gel.)

Anyway I guess only time will tell if I got it right, see you after the weekend!

Slacking off, we don't mean to honest

2009-11-05T17:59:00.000Z

Only just started the blog, and it looks like we dried up.

not really, just not enough hours in the day to play at the moment, what between business picking up ( a very good thing) family wintry things a plenty keeping me busy, hallowe'en, guy fawkes night tonight and this weekend (with a barbeque for about 500, ouch) and the pressures of making sure we get the correct toys purchased for christmas (not to mention the money involved), not leaving much time to sleep, let alone blog.

I can only apologise for now but will drop in from time to time and get back into some serious funtime after the holidays.

Alex.

Lamb stock - sous vide the real way forward

2009-10-27T21:17:00.002Z

"why are stocks simmered for so long?"

"WHAT!"

"err, why are stocks made over days constantly topped up with fresh water?"

"Because they work that way, get on with your mis....!!"

sure that all cooks have has sous that had the stock answer (usually shouted) of "because it does", often accompanied by a swift thwack accross the back of the head, perhaps this is why I grew up in kitchens where questions were seldom asked, for myself I was quicker at ducking than most so asked anyway, also if something didn't make sense then I had to get an answer, even if it was dug up myself.

but one question still has not been answered.

so have stuck to these rules for the last 20 years as I have not known better.

recently the trend has led towards pressure cooking stock, this can lead to outstanding flavour, but also to a heavy gelatinous mass and (once pressure is achieved) loses volume anyway, which could lead to 'topping up' the main issue I have in the whole process. why add fresh water when you are trying to impart as much flavour as possible into the liquid.

which led me to this task:

whilst preparing a petit gigot for this weeks menu, I ended up with an inordinate amount of trim due to the nature of the mis en place, so with the idea at hand, it seemed as good a time as any to try out the thought.

so step 1; traditionally roast the bones in the usual way, rendering as much fat as possible for use later.

here is the fat infusing with orange and rosemary, this will later be used to fry the gigot in for service

Step 2: is to fill large Vac-pac bags with, bones, water, red wine, rosemary, thyme, mirepoix, seal at full pressure and double bag

Step 3: set my Rational oven to 66C and put deep waterbaths in the oven, add the bags and cling film the waterbath to minimise evaporation.

Step 4: go home and have a nice weekend with the family, leaving the stock (and some duck legs for good measure) ticking over for the weekend.

Step 5: 60 hours later, remove the baths from the oven, drain the duck, god what a texture, more on this another day. but eagerly drain the stock bag in anticipation of the contents, first thing to note was the meat was squidging off the bones incredibly but the mirepoix was still firm, so my first thought was, 'bugger no veg flavour' thankfully this was a short lived concern, as the flavour was greatly pronounced.

step 6: chill the stock to remove the last of the residual fat, and found the stock beautifully gelled and clear as a bell (this is where impatience got the better of me and should have agar filtered at this point, but one step at a time). the flavour was like none I had tastede in such a simple stock, deep and meaty but with a fresh sweetness of vegetables and herbs and none of the usual stewy notes of the usual over cooked veg in stock.

step 7: reduction, had to fulfill this with respect. most of our jus at this point gets either wine, or port a little fresh veg perhaps but all get as much gas as I can get underneath it, quick reduction and pass and store, next job.

but not this one. kept the temperature between 75 & 80 (mostly) but never boiling and brought down slowly, slowly heightening flavours and not just evaporating water, trying to maintain the balance of flavour I had in the original stock, also to this stock I added nothing, just time. the end flavour was a depth I have not known in a jus of such basic ingredients, no fancy wines or ports, just a basic stock.

step 8: pass, chill, store. Ready to be served with the Gigot which I will post briefly next time.

Agar clarified Apple juice, first dessert.

2009-10-25T22:44:00.001Z

Time to put the clarified Apple juice into its first use…

Simple but flavoursome, completely clear and colourless Jelly.

I had an idea to play with the classic combination of Apple and Blackberry Pie and Custard and pulling all the components apart and ‘playing’ with all the pieces of the puzzle…..

Agar clarified Apple juice Jelly

Poached Apple balls, warm

Granny Smith infused Granny Smith ball

Bramley Apple puree

Pan roasted Blackberries

Blackberry reverse spherification, ‘ravioli’

Walnut crumble cubes and crumbs

Vanilla Custard Cremeaux

Apple Pie Ice-Cream

Apple tuille

I’m quite happy with how the puzzle came together, different textures, temperatures, tastes and techniques.

Maybe now after my head has cleared from my bike crash I might see it differently on Monday???
But several scraped clean plates on Friday make me think that it’s not just me…

Apple Agar Filtration.

2009-10-17T16:35:00.000+01:00

I heard through Chinese whispers about this last year from a Pastry Chef I used to work with, his friend was telling him about a Chocolate Consommé he was doing at The Ledbury in Notting Hill but the technique wasn’t revealed. We thought about it momentary and then kind of just forgot about. But a few months ago it seemed to be popping up everywhere on the internet, with Ideas In Food using compression on there gels for clarification. Within less than a day I believe a new and incredibly simpler method from Cooking Issues stormed onto the scene.

Again I stored it away in the back of my Cerebral Cortex with all stuff I’ll get round to doing? Till the other day I was thinking about an idea with caramelising a hot Apple jelly to go with some Apple Pie Ice-Cream. I ran the idea past Alex and we discussed the concept a bit. I originally wanted to keep the beautiful green colour of whole Granny Smith Apples in the hot caramelised Jelly. I can’t remember how, but the Agar clarification method popped into my mind. I went back to the web site and checked out the ratio and set to work.

At first after cooking the agar to fully hydrate it and then adding the cold green apple juice to it, I thought that I had done something wrong. Not enough agar? I expected it to show signs of stating it set at least, it was cold enough. I come back to it a minute later and gave it a quick stir and at that moment right before my eyes it instantly started to turn into curds with a clear liquid swimming around them.

I passed it through a J-Cloth and left it to hang.

The perfectly translucent colourless liquid collected in the jug was quite astonishing to look upon. I eagerly picked up my spoon and dipped it in.

I then immediately proceeded to pour myself a shot glass of it and knocked it back.

Yeah, it was good. Put a big smile on my face.

Before and after

Ratio 0.2% of liquid volume

I honestly didn’t expect the results I got, especially for the first test. I imagined less flavour with some of the ‘body’ of the apple being left behind.

With this base of Apple water I can instantly think of numerous uses to fool, surprise and arouse people’s taste buds.

I’m thinking for my dessert a soft gelatine based jelly would be best to let the fresh flavour of Granny Smith melt in your mouth and linger just that little bit longer….

First Dinner Of Married Life...... At Arzak!!!

2009-10-16T00:21:00.000+01:00

….Finally my first post, (Your not alone any more Alex, awesome work so far! )

With all the pre-Wedding/Honeymoon last minute scramble to put all the pieces of the puzzle together behind me and settling back into day-to- day life after the celebration of our union, I was very surprised or more to the point…forgot. That I still had the tidying up of all the loose ends of everything else I had put on the side during the last month or so. And with the light at the end of the tunnel getting within in sight, it’s as good a time as any to pick up my end of the deal…..

With a million things I could ramble on about stacked up behind me piling up I’m gonna put to one side for the moment and keep them for a rainy day- Don’t worry we’re in London.

I'll start with a few tales of the culinary kinda from our Wedding and onwards.

With the celebration of our marriage being the happiest day of our life, it was also one of the most enjoyable meals of my life. Sure the emotions were high, my blood stream flowing with happy chemicals and lots of love everywhere.

But the food…. Incredible. Maybe it’s the Spanish air? They seem to put an exciting edge on their ingredients that takes it to the next level.

The first thing that caught my eye was the canapés, little cubed sandwiches which had the loveliest piquillo pepper on top as the garnish and the lightest whipped butter as the filling. The four different flavours all had the ‘filling’ on top as the garnish. It was the first time I had seen that, so simple but perfectly cut, executed and tasty. Other highlights were olive reverse spherification, a la ‘El Bulli’ and Foie Gras Chocolate Lollipops.

In total 16 hot and 16 cold little wonders, forgive me if I don’t go detail for all of them.

Another Unforgettable Spanish canapé I’ll never forget was a liquid Tortilla in a shot glass - Chorizo, potatoes, onion and egg yolk slow cooked at 64c. All this gorgeous warm goo flooding your mouth with the thick velvet egg yolk giving way to the sweetness of the onion, smokiness and spice of the chorizo binding with the fried potatoes.
They quickly disappeared with people going back for seconds.

Before I knew it was dinner time,

Crispy Seafood Terrine, Vegetable tagliatelle, cloud of American sauce

Gin Fizz sorbet

Young Loin of Lamb 65c, Polenta Mushroom Mousse, Soy sprouts

Marinated Char-grilled tropical fruits with Spices Ice-Cream and Almond tiles

Mini Pastries and Chocolates

And…

CAKE – The beautifully decorated 3 level Wedding Cake which my incredible wife created especially for me with the flavours that I like very MUCH.
Super Moist Chocolate Sponge which is made from an mayonnaise base, passion fruit mousse, blood orange inserts all wrapped in Chocolate and topped with Large Coconut Tapioca Pearls.

Quite an involved menu for plating 47 at once and not forgetting all the work that went in to the Canapés and Petit Fours.
Due to everyone wanting to talk and thank the bride and groom, I didn’t even get a chance or time to try the Petit Fours. Doh! And being a pastry Chef, that’s quite a crime.
I do remember seeing 7 or 8 different little sweet works of art…..shame

Crime No. 2
With all the cameras taking photos over dinner, NO one actually took any photos of the food. Well apart from the occasional caught out guest taking a mouthful in the background.

Dancing, drinking and more dancing meant the night went very quickly before it was all over……..

Day 2.
Off to San Sebastian at the complete opposite end of the country to Malaga for a surprise (for my wife) culinary experience at Arzak.

It’s quite an understated place from the outside, I actually drove past it before realising what street number I was at. Better for the surprise, parked up and walked back up the hill. As the name above Arzak became visible my wife started to jump up and down with joy.

Extra brownie points!

We entered into the small bar/foyer area and were greeted by the friendly staff. Off to our left was Elena Arzak talking and signing photos with an old American man who was asking after her father, who was actually in New York for the International Chefs Congress. The American gentleman later went on to sleep at the table for at least a hour or so. When we left he was still going....

We were then escorted in to the dinning room, first through a rapidly opening automatic sliding door. Cool. The intimate room was waiting for us, being the first table to be seated was quite special as we had the whole downstairs dining room for 10minutes to ourselves, apart from the waiting staff blending into the surroundings preparing for the coming palette rollercoaster.

The whole experience went incredibly fast for the 4hrs we were dining.

Curiosity and intrigue with every plate, Looking and tasting each others dishes as most of the 16 courses were different for both of us.

It was really nice to have Elena Arzak come out and check and chat with us 3 times during the meal. She came across as really down to earth and very friendly. With my wife being Spanish, she managed to extract more info from Elena on the dishes; sadly my 12 word Spanish vocabulary wasn’t so handy and had to wait for the in-depth translation after she left the table.

Elena also asked politely that the photos be kept for personal use and not publish them, nearly broke my heart but agreed…..which brings up a whole lot of other issues on why?

(didn’t ask at the time, my mother did raise me with some manners you know! So didn’t want to be rude….after 10yrs in a kitchen I still have a few left).

Is it…..Intellectual property, keeping secrets, not spoiling the surprise for other future diners, spoiling the food by taking 20 photos before eating it and losing the instant magic of the dish by deconstructing it looking for the best angle, other people’s crappy photos of the dishes being put out on the net and of course the other side ‘I just paid 4-500euros for the meal’…….the list goes on.

But with respect for one of the best chefs in the world, I can see where they’re coming from, the surprise and anticipation for the next dish, not knowing what’s coming next gave me ants in my pants, my body tingled with excitement with each dish. Looking back, losing that element of the unknown would’ve cut down the whole experience of tasting and looking upon the dishes for the first time.

Unlike 2yrs ago I was at Per Se in New York and ½ of the meal was like going through the French Laundry book page by page. Sure everything was amazing, beautifully cooked, immaculate service but I knew what was coming and even tried half of it before back in the kitchen at work……..

So I’m with Elena on this one.

Arzak

At the end of the experience Elena then ask us to check out the kitchen and the pastry section. Service was nearly over with just the Pastry section left and half of the section cleaned down. She then went to demo one of the desserts we just ate Sopa y Chocolate “entre vinedos”

A light Strawberry soup, fresh basil ice-cream and liquid chocolate balls. I won’t go into much description to spoil it for anyone going.

What she went on to demo was very interesting.

A Methyl cellulose membrane around a solid looking chocolate ganache, heated so completely liquid when served.

One of the Pastry team then put the whole dish together right in front of us. It was brilliant to watch her work, you could tell she’d done that about a thousand times. The fact is that was her dish for the whole service and that’s all she did, practice makes perfect…..

So once back at work I was quite keen to give it a go, with no quantities or ratios give out from the Arzak ‘behind the scenes’ experience. Time to jump in the deep end.

A small discussion with Alex later I hydrated the Methyl cellulose, couldn’t wait for it to fully hydrate so did a quick premature test…..worked but should’ve waited.

The next day.

Decided to start with a frozen chocolate ganache, wasn’t working too well. I gave my wife a call to see if any finer details were passed on in Spanish back in the Arzak kitchen. Sure enough, the chocolate should only be fridge temperature and that it also contained an amount? Of cocoa butter with the chocolate. Hmmmmm…..

Not wanting to wait another day, I decided to try it out with a hand rolled Dark Milk chocolate Cherry truffle I had on plus for Petit Fours.

Dipped the Truffle with a needle completely into the Methyl cellulose base. Tapped off excess and submerged into lightly sweetened 80c water. Gelled up immediately. Left in for 1minute for the heat to liquefy the centre and carefully removed, dried off and then plated the second time round as membrane ripped on me. I think The ratio of the base needs to be tweaked a lot bit more before it’s at Arzak level.

I was more interested in testing the results and incorporating it into one of my own creations rather than complete plagiarism. Still, I would like to tick that off my list for future reference.

Second time, plated with a Strawberry Fluid Gel and micro mint.

It was just what was in the fridge at the time but it was nice / hot cold sensations which I quickly made disappear.

Back to the drawing board, well half way anyway….

Restaurant show 2009, brochures and book signing with Ferran Adria

2009-10-12T22:13:00.001+01:00

Such a long time since I went to a catering trade show

never really liked going to them

wonder why?

usually is a hot bed of new inspiration, seeing wonderful new ingredients

from solid innovative suppliers

Cresses from Koppert, new items are eye opening, can't wait to work with them

also a chance to see competition work from the future of our industry

junior chef class, risotto starter. duck main (pictured), seemed to be free dessert based around pear

on the whole some great dishes with minor details in each, judging would have been tough.

listening to the most innovative chef of our time, discuss a whole lot about timelines and on what was novelty and often feared then is now normality and commercial available

Ferran with vanilla oil

can't say I was happy that the Canterbury Goods shed chef was distracting Ferran for my pic

not sure what G said

but our books are now signed, one more down on the Bucket list

but as I left I remembered why I dont usually like trade shows, and that is the vast pile of brochures for items that I will probably never use, too many sales people crammed into a small area with no way out without being rude, so with the brochure I will go.

looking forward to wading through the stuff I actually was interested in, being inspired with new knowledge and new email addresses so questions can be asked to the right people.

rest of the team get to go over the next couple of days, can't wait to see what they see from their perspective

as for me, Hotelympia next year, whether to compete or not??