Guernsey press

SATURDAY 30 NOVEMBER 2013

THE WEEK 2: HIP-HOP HIGH

WIN

The Get Down gig, reviewed

a Michelin star trip to Jersey

4: ROLL IT OUT Why toasting barrels is all in good taste

5: LET IT SHINE Sequins, sparkle – it’s fashion’s Shirley moment

6: MICHELIN MAGIC WIN a Jersey Michelin Star Experience worth £500

8: EYES RIGHT The best beauty products for that smoky-eyed look

9: BRING IN THE NEW Old is not beautiful, says garden centre guru

10: TOP POP PROG How TOTP (aged 50) defined a generation

12: COLUMN INCHES Shaun Shackleton and Ramsay Cudlipp

Star prize 2

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ESSENTIAL READING EVERY WEEKEND

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THE WEEK

Saturday 30 November 2013

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Michelin fan

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Veal sweet sweetcorn – Ma

Straw fromage Cham

Foodie heaven lies just an hour away by fast ferry, discovers Di Digard.

Here’s how you can experience three nights of luxury and matching Michelin-star meals, right on our doorstep.

And there’s a chance to win a taster for yourself...

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HE kite surfer is travelling at an impressively swift lick.

Up and down he darts, in and out, showing off to the belly-boarders near the shore, working with the waves.

Elegant leaps and slaloms punctuate his progress, while a handful of Saturday morning strollers are apparently oblivious to the free show.

Not me. I’m happy to stand and boggle at the water ballet, a big breakfast half walked-off, a sunny day out stretching ahead. And at the end of it: a Michelin-star dinner. Doesn’t get much better.

But actually, it does. Try three nights in a five-star hotel and three Michelin-star dinners – each at a different venue, each a very different experience. Fine food, fine hotels, all wrapped up in a package stamped ‘luxury’.

You could do it in any number of European cities, of course.

But here’s an unexpected bonus: a little nugget of foodie knowledge. You can do it on our doorstep.

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t Brelade’s Bay on a late-autumn day.

Summer crowds gone, a handful of dog-walkers.

A row of boats, drawn up high on the beach, is braced for the first of the winter storms, coming our way this evening.

This is the calm before it, a perfect morning. Ouaisne to St Brelade’s Church and back – quite high on my list of Desert Island Walks – is a winner whatever the weather but today, with a Jersey pork pie in my coat pocket, a flat rock for a perch and a free show offshore, there’s more to love than usual.

The pie is pure piggery. ‘Buy me,’ it said on the stall at St Aubin’s farmers’ market earlier on, and ‘eat me’ it’s saying now. But there’s a problem, and it’s all to do with capacity.

Last night we left the office, hopped straight on a Condor ferry and within two hours were sitting in the Champagne Lounge at St Helier’s Grand Hotel, bags unpacked and menus in hand.

Ahead lay days of sheer indulgence: the Jersey Michelin Star Experience, popular with gastronomes Europe-wide.

The package is for a three-night stay at one of three luxury hotels, each of which has a Michelin-starred restaurant and spa facilities.

You choose one of the hotels as your base, but eat at all three on different evenings.

Three nights. Three fabulous meals. Three breakfasts. Free use of the hotels’ fabulous spas. And in Jersey, an island whose chefs have the pick of some of the best grown, reared, foraged and caught produce in the UK. Could we hack it? Yes, we could. Here’s how we got on...

THE CLASSIC – GRAND JERSEY HOTEL & SPA AND TASSILI HERE’S a panoramic view over St Aubin’s Bay, a sunset and Elizabeth Castle to admire from our room, but it’s straight downstairs and down to ‘work’.

Pink champagne and a chat with an old chum who’s part of the hotel’s lively Friday night crowd. Tassili is tonight’s restaurant and with a star under his belt since 2011, chef Richard Allen is the newest Michelin man of the Jersey pack. The Grand has been around since 1890 and the ambience is oldschool luxury and service, right down to the unexpected treat that is valet parking. But his menu is distinctly modern.

Richard grew up in the family business, a Dorset bakery, and has a culinary pedigree that includes experience with Michel Roux Jr, but working here, with Jersey’s premium produce on tap, is his idea of heaven.

Tassili’s seven-course tasting menu is one of four including pescatarian, vegetarian and a chef’s surprise option for the intrepidly curious: Richard’s aim is to take diners on a culinary journey incorporating various temperatures, textures and flavour combinations.

Wines matching each course are an option, but we share a bottle of crisp, fragrant New Zealand sauvignon blanc from Waipara.

Restaurant manager Shaun Corrigan really knows his wines. He’s worked at La

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Gavroche, in South Africa and in Australia and is quietly attentive, expertly talking the celebratory couple alongside us through their wine matches.

The promised flavour alchemy doesn’t disappoint, beginning with the butter, which is flavoured with French Espelette pepper and unbelievably delicious. The stand-out dish?

Turbot served with crab, saffron and quinoa. Yes, quinoa.

Gourmet food with that promised twist and more than a dash of panache.

THE WEEK

GUERNSEY PRESS

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COOL ONE – CLUB HOTEL & SPA AND BOHEMIA

WIN a Michelin

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Experience taster... plus travel

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r – pea & o – smoked utter

extures – – ricotta – mato

loin & tbread – n – samphire adeira

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HEF Steve Smith had a hard act to follow when he took over at award-winning restaurant Bohemia.

The Club Hotel is truly ‘boutique’, with beautifully turned-out rooms, the bestdressed beds, five-star bathrooms, a great spa – a little bit Soho House, right in the heart of St Helier.

Add Bohemia and its stellar food and you’re pretty much in hotel heaven.

Celeb chef Shaun Rankin’s departure last year left aficionados wondering who could match him. In came Steve, collector of five single Michelin stars over 14 years and with a Paul Heathcote pedigree. Bohemia’s star was safe.

And so to dinner – a la carte, although the four tasting menus are tempting.

A trio of amuse bouches is just the start of a series of little surprises: a pre-starter granita, three kinds of bread that, charmingly, arrives in a linen bag, butter flavoured with smoked salt or seaweed.

Steve’s food is a revelation; his foie gras starter (foie gras – cherry – duck salad – almond, reads the no-nonsense

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UXURY Jersey Hotels has put together a taster trip for one lucky Guernsey Press reader.

On offer is a night’s stay and dinner for two at the winner’s choice of the three hotels, plus return travel to Jersey with Condor Ferries for two people and a car.

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For your chance to win simply name the head chefs at each restaurant.

Complete the form below and send to: Guernsey Press Michelin Experience competition, PO Box 57, Braye Road, Vale GY1 3BW. Closing date is 10am on Monday 9 December.

menu) my top dish of the weekend.

The sweetest scallops are cleverly served with celeriac, apple, smoked eel and truffle; veal loin and sweetbread

comes with sweetcorn, samphire and Madeira. The earthy flavours of beetroot are given a kick with verjus and lemon thyme – the unexpected extras are a treat in themselves. With a couple of fingers of Wairarapa Valley pinot noir to finish, a trolley laden with artisan cheeses calls, and doesn’t disappoint.

Neither does Steve. He’s a real find.

Terms and conditions: One entrant will win an overnight stay for two in a twin or double room and a three-course dinner for two from the a la carte menu at their choice of either The Atlantic Hotel, The Club Hotel & Spa or Grand Jersey Hotel & Spa. Drinks not included. Transfers not included but can be arranged. The prize can be taken up to 23 December 2013 or between 7 February and 27 September 2014 excluding 14-16 February 2014. More details can be found at www.luxuryjerseyhotels.com Excludes employees of Guernsey Press, Condor, Luxury Jersey Hotels and their immediate families. Open to over-18s only. The prize does not include travel insurance, personal expenditure or incidental costs. Subject to availability, non transferable, no cash alternatives. The winner may be required to participate in publicity.

Entry implies acceptance of these terms and conditions.

Name: .......................................................

THE MAINE CHANCE – ATLANTIC HOTEL AND OCEAN RESTAURANT ICHELIN-star food is dainty.

Nobody’s going to soldier through a seven-course meal of man-sized portions, so tasting menus are miracles of measured construction.

Even so, staring down at an Ocean Restaurant starter, there was a moment of stunned contemplation. ‘Where’s the rest?’ we were thinking, as a single square of butter-poached lobster stared back up.

The answer, it turned out, was ‘right here’.

Maitre ’d Darren, eagle-eyed in the way that all the best ones are, silently appeared the moment that square disappeared, and he had a trick up his sleeve.

The empty plate was whisked away to reveal the rest of the dish below – lobster and sweetcorn macaroni. ‘That,’ said my spouse, finishing every speck, ‘rather went beyond lovely and into the realms of sublime’.

It was only one of a string of surprises at The Atlantic Hotel. Our ocean view room’s panorama over St Ouen’s Bay wasn’t one of them – the clue was in the name – but the hotel’s airy, Maine-chic style was.

Stunning modern art on the walls (much of it local), comfortable corners to make your own, candle-lit hurricane lamps, American-style shutters. All very lovely, as are the staff.

The promised storm arrived – damaging gales, the ferry-stopping type. ‘Stay longer,’ said The Atlantic, inviting us to dinner at chef Mark Jordan’s satellite showcase, a bistro-style restaurant right on the beach at St Aubin.

On that stormy Sunday evening it was packed, which tells you everything you need to know. Mark – there with his family for a celebration – told stories of his days in Devon with the legendary Keith Floyd, and we dined on lobster bisque (‘cancel my main course, I’ll have another bowl’), crab cakes with aioli, Jersey plaice with cockles, prawns and capers, and the lightest, most intense passion fruit souffle imaginable.

‘And that,’ they told me, ‘is just a taster.

Just wait until tomorrow.’

Is it possible to overdose on lobster?

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A taste of Tassili Sea bass fillet, tempura and sashimi with wasabi, cashew nut, coriander and ‘pork beans’ Parfait of foie gras, smoked duck, 100% chocolate, pine nut butter, chamomile, Pedro Ximinez vinegar jelly Pork belly, braised cheek, olive oil poached cod, apple, chorizo, pork ‘popcorn’ Marinated strawberries, Szechuan pepper, lemongrass granita, Manor Farm yoghurt, strawberry bubble

Apparently not. Back with the surprise dish – ‘the one’, according to my crustacean specialist – we’re only one course into our final Michelin meal, and still very much on board.

Darren, newly-married and a fan of Guernsey, having worked at La Grande Mare, talks us through the courses and I’m drawn to the ‘sea shore’ starter.

‘A tasting of the bay, foraged seaweed, anchovy sand, tomato essence,’ the intriguing description reads, and tonight’s tasting also features sea bass, langoustine, mussels and scallops, served with a flinty Chablis, one of a series of superb complementary wines recommended by sommelier Sergio dos Santos.

A palate-cleansing passion fruit and apple sorbet arrives before Jersey beef fillet and roasted loin of roe deer with ceps and vanilla, and an elderflower cream with jelly, meringue and lemon sorbet proves a pretty perfect finish.

Mark is ballroom dancing that night, a final rehearsal for a Strictly-style extravaganza, but his brigade is clearly spot-on.

At the beginning of each season his staff take outings to the local suppliers: meat, dairy, fish. They know what they’re preparing, serving, recommending, and they know the people who ‘grew’ it.

It’s details like that which make all the difference.

Ocean Restaurant tasters Ballontine of local free-range pork knuckle and foie gras, seared Jersey scallop, apple salad Fillet of yellow fin tuna, crab, wasabi mayonnaise, soy gel, pickled mouli Iced peanut parfait, guanaja chocolate mousse, popcorn and salted caramel ice cream

Address: ................................................... .................................................................. .................................................................. ..................................................................

Contact number: ......................................

Name the head chefs at each restaurant Answer: .................................................... .................................................................. ..................................................................

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How it works...

The Jersey Michelin Star Experience includes three nights in either an ocean view room at The Atlantic Hotel, a studio room at the Club Hotel and Spa or an executive sea view room at Grand Jersey Hotel & Spa, plus dinner for two at each of the three restaurants, breakfast each morning and full use of all spa facilities. It costs from £375 per person. For more information go to www.luxuryjerseyhotels.com

Getting there...

Condor Ferries offers regular sailings to Jersey taking just one hour, with foot passenger fares starting from as little as ??? Go to www.condorferries.com for full details and timetables.