Chef Magazine issue 43 by Chef Magazine

LIVING LEGEND S H AU N H I L L C H E F TA L K MASSIMO B OT T U R A TEST OF TA S T E A Q UA L I T Y C ATC H OPENING A R E S TAU R A N T MADNESS?

2016

Issue 43

£5.00

9 772046 266009

w w w. c h e f m e d i a . c o . u k

ISSN 2046-2662

THE MAGAZINE FOR CHEFS

LIMITED EDITION

1000 COPIES

£100

The chefs appearing in the Chef Book

Jeremy Ford

Martin Nisbit

Frederick Forster

Patrick O’Connell

Sarah Frankland

Jan Ostle

Eric Frechon

Nathan Outlaw

Pierre Gagnaire

Anne-Sophie Pic

Daniel Galmiche

David Pitchford

Chris Galvin

Theo Randall

Andre Garret

Neil Rankin

David Girard

Shaun Rankin

Frédy Girardet

René Redzepi

Brett Graham

Gary Rhodes

Paul Wayne Gregory

Massimo Riccioli

Anna Hansen

Eric Ripert

Matt Hay

Jordi Roca

Paul Heathcote

Olivier Roellinger

Jocelyn Herland

Simon Rogan

Ruth Hinks

Alain Roux

Mark Hix

Albert Roux

Phil Howard

Michel Roux

Daniel Humm

Michel Roux jr

Rachel Humphrey

Mark Sargeant

Gary Hunter

Antony Scholtmeyer

Yoshinori Ishii

Germain Schwab

Margot Janse

Julie Sharp

Tom Aikins

Martin Burge

Mark Jordan

Richard Shepherd

Yannick Alléno

Aiden Byrne

Thomas Keller

Adam Simmonds

Andreas Antona

Michael Caines

Paul Kelly

Clare Smyth

Jason Atherton

John Campbell

Atul Kotcher

Vivek Singh

Kenny Atkinson

Jonathan Cartwright

Nico Ladenis

Yolande Stanley

Sat Bains

Jimmy Chamlong

Eric Lanlard

Adam Stokes

Esben Holmboe Bang

Martin Chiffers

Arnaud Larher

Nathan Thomas

Sarah Barber

Daniel Clifford

Alvin Leung

Phil Thompson

Russell Bateman

Richard Corrigan

Giorgio Locatelli

Mark Tilling

Heinz Beck

Régis Crépy

James Lowe

Ben Tish

Alistair Birt

Luke Dale-Roberts

Thierry Marx

Tony Tobin

Galton Blackiston

Hélène Darroze

Nobuyuki Matsuhisa

Cyrus Todiwala

Raymond Blanc

Steve Drake

Colin McGurran

Jean-Georges Vongerichten

Benoit Blin

Thierry Dumouchel

Jeremy McMillan

Marcus Wareing

Paul Bocuse

Beverley Dunkley

Nuno Mendes

Marco Pierre White

Simon Boyle

Mark Edwards

Yasuhiro Mineno

Marc Wilkinson

Claude Bosi

David Everitt-Matthias

Ramon Morató

Alyn Williams

Henry Brosi

Andrew Fairlie

Anton Mosimann

John Williams

Jeremy Brown

Peter Fiori

Richard Neat

Martin Wishart

This book is a treasure-trove of great food. A veritable anthology of some of the world’s best chefs and their recipes including Paul Bocuse, the Roux family, Anton Mosimann and Thomas Keller and many of the new stars of today such as Sat Bains, Jason Atherton and Daniel Humm. In total there are 118 chefs featured in this amazing collection. The photography is a work of art and the recipes are as diverse as the chefs featured. This book has been produced to celebrate the 40th issue of “Chef Magazine”, a testament to the dedication and professionalism of the magazine. My wish would be that every cook worth his salt should buy a copy, look at it, study it and cherish it. We have become a nation of food lovers. Books, magazines, newspapers, television and the

media in general cannot get a big enough “bite” of this phenomenon. Today I am merely a spectator but I would like to think that I was in the vanguard of this culinary adventure. Looking back, in the seventies, it was like walking through a dark forest. Though I acknowledge that some of the chefs featured in this wonderful book are at the “cutting edge” of this revolution, it does not preclude me from saying that I cannot endorse some of the excesses. When you study this book, you will come to realise that contributions of this kind cost precious time and money. I would therefore like to extend a big thank you to the men and women who contributed so generously.

NICO LADENIS

book available at

www.chefmedia.co.uk

Chef 43 / THIS ISSUE Massimo Bottura A legacy for the future

Bread is Gold Il pane e ora recipe by Massimo Bottura

Method in the Madness by Josh Simms

Shaun Hill by Andy Lynes

Rack of lamb with sweetbread pie recipe by Shaun Hill

Quality Catch by Namai Bishop

CHEF TALK

CHEF BUSINESS

LIVING LEGEND

TEST OF TASTE

08 16 20 24 27 28 31 32 34 36 38 44

TEST OF TASTE Kilbrannan langostine ceviche, granny smith apple and crème fraiche recipe

COOKING THE BOOKS

TODAYS FOOD

INGREDIENT

INTERVIEW

Beers, beards and London fried chicken

Chicory recipe by Regis Crepy

Truffles recipe by Regis Crepy

William Drabble by Elizabeth Hotson

CHEF MAGAZINE CHEF MEDIA LTD Network House 28 Ballmoore Celtic Court Buckingam MK 18 1RQ Tel: 44 20 7097 1396 For general enquiries regarding Chef Magazine email: peter@chefmedia.co.uk PUBLISHER Peter Marshall

www.chefmedia.co.uk

Roast grouse with blackberries and port wine jus recipe by William Drabble

LAHIRU JAYASEKARA National Chef of the Year by Josh Simms

World Chocolate Masters 2015

4 Lotus Flowers By Vincent Vallée

Pastry Layers by Simon Jenkins

Sweet avocado white chocolate chia recipe By Simon Jenkins

INGREDIENT

GANACHE

46 50 53 54 58 59

60 64 67 68 72 76 GANACHE

CHEF TRAINING

WHERE I EAT

WINE AND DRINK

Coup du monde de la pâtisserie 2017

Rowen Darlow Competition Discipline

Shaun Hill

Romanian Wine by Jean Smullen

SALES DIRECTOR Peter Marshall email: peter@chefmedia.co.uk MANAGING EDITOR Shirley Marshall

ART EDITOR Philip Donnelly DESIGNER Olga Pomazkova

PHOTOGRAPHY Peter Marshall Geoff Dann Kuma Masahi Steve Lee Francesco Tonelli

EXPO MILAN 2015

NEWS

CONTRIBUTORS Namai Bishop Simon Jenkins Nico Ladenis Andy Lynes Shirley Marshall Josh Sims Jean Smullen

CHEF MAGAZINE EDITORIAL BOARD

FROM LEFT: Simon Boyle, Founder of the Brigade and The Beyond Food Foundation

Jeremy Ford, Exec Chef Restaurant Associates Sarah Barber, Head of Pastry ME Hotel London

Regis Crépy, Chef /Owner, The Great house Phil Howard, The Square

Marcus Wareing, Marcus Wareing Restaurants Mark Hix, Hix Restaurants

MICHELIN-STARRED RESTAURANTS A L I S T O F T H E U K A N D I R E L A N D ’ S M I C H E L I N - S TA R R E D R E S TA U R A N T S

 LONDON Alain Ducasse at the Dorchester Jocelyn Herland www.alainducassedorchester.com Gordon Ramsay Clare Smyth www.gordonramsay.com/ royalhospitalroad

ENGLAND The Waterside Inn Alain Roux & Fabrice Uhryn www.waterside-inn.co.uk

 LONDON Darroze at The Connaught Hélène Darroze www.the-connaught. co.uk/ mayfair-restaurantsbars Dinner by Heston Blumenthal Ashley Palmer-Watts www.dinnerbyheston.com Greenhouse Arnaud Bignon www. greenhouserestaurant. co.uk Hibiscus Claude Bosi www.hibiscusrestaurant. co.uk Le Gavroche Michel Roux Jr www.le-gavroche.co.uk Marcus Wareing at The Berkeley Marcus Wareing www.marcus-wareing.com Sketch (The Lecture Room & Library) Pierre Gagnaire www.sketch.uk.com The Araki Mitsuhiro Araki the-araki.com The Ledbury Brett Graham www.theledbury.com The Square Phil Howard www.squarerestaurant. com

L’enclume Simon Rogan www.lenclume.co.uk Michael Wignall at The Latymer Michael Wignall www.pennyhillpark. co.uk/ EXCLUSIVE_HOTELS/ eating_and_drinking/ the_latymer.aspx

ENGLAND Andrew Fairlie at Gleneagles Andrew Fairlie www.gleneagles.com

EIRE Patrick Guilbaud Guillaume Lebrun www.restaurantpatrick guilbaud.ie

 LONDON Alyn Williams at The Westbury Alyn Williams www.alynwilliams.co.uk Amaya Karunesh Khanna www.amaya.biz Ametsa with Arzak Instruction at Halkin Hotel Elena Arzak www.comohotels.com Angler at South Place Hotel Tony Fleming www.southplacehotel.com Arbutus Anthony Demetre www.arbutusrestaurant. co.uk Barrafina Nieves Barragán Mohacho www.barafina.co.uk Benares Atul Kochhar www.benaresrestaurant. com Bonhams Tom Kemble bonhams.com Brasserie Chavot Eric Chavot www.brasseriechavot.com Chez Bruce Bruce Poole www.chezbruce.co.uk City Social Jason Atherton www.citysociallondon.com

The Umu Yoshinori Ishii umurestaurant.com

Club Gascon Pascal Aussignac www.clubgascon.com

ENGLAND

Dabbous Ollie Dabbous www.dabbous.co.uk

Midsummer House Daniel Clifford www. midsummerhouse.co.uk Gidleigh Park Michael Caines www.gidleigh.com Le Champignon Sauvage David Everitt-Matthias www. lechampignonsauvage. co.uk Whatley Manor Martin Burge www.whatleymanor.com Le Manoir aux Quat’Sainsons Gary Jones www.manoir.com Restaurant Nathan Outlaw Nathan Outlaw www.nathan-outlaw.com/ nathan-outlaw-restaurant Restaurant Sat Bains Sat Bains www.restaurantsatbains. com The Hand and Flowers Tom Kerridge www.thehandandflowers. co.uk

Fera at Claridge’s Simon Rogan www.feraatclaridges.co.uk Galvin at Windows André Garrett www.galvinatwindows. com Galvin La Chapelle Jeff Galvin www.galvinrestaurants. com Gymkhana Karam Sethi www.hakkasan.com Hakkasan Tong Chee Hwee www.hakkasan.com Hakkasan Hanway Place Tong Chee Hwee www.hakkasan.com Hedone Mikael Jonsson www.hedonerestaurant. com HKK Tong Chee Hwee www.hkklondon.com

Kai Alex Chow www.kaimayfair.co.uk

Tom Aikens Restaurant Tom Aikens www.tomaikens.co.uk

Kitchen Table at Bubbledogs James Knappett www.kitchentablelondon. co.uk

Trishna Karam Sethi www.trishnalondon.com

Kitchen W8 Mark Kempson www.kitchenw8.com L’Atelier de Joel Robuchon Oliver Limousin www.joelrobuchon.co.uk/ L’Atelier L’autre Pied Andy McFadden www.lautrepied.co.uk La Trompete Anthony Boyd www.latrompette.co.uk

Umu Yoshinori Ishii www.umurestaurant.com W1 Restaurant Paul Welburn www.guoman.com Wild Honey Anthony Demetre www.wildhoneyrestaurant. co.uk Yauatcha Cheong Wah Soon www.yauatcha.com

ENGLAND

Launceston Place Timothy Allen www.launcestonplacerestaurant.co.uk

5 North Street Marcus Ashenford www.5northstreet restaurant.co.uk

Lima Robert Ortiz www.limalondon.com

Adam’s Adam Stokes www.adamsrestaurant. co.uk

Locanda Locatelli Giorgio Locatelli www.locandalocatelli.com Lyle’s James Lowe lyleslondon.com Murano Angela Hartnett www.muranolondon.com Outlaw’s at the Capital Nathan Outlaw www.capitalhotel.co.uk Petrus Sean Burbidge www. gordonramsay.com/petrus Pied a Terre Marcus Eaves www.pied-a-terre.co.uk Pollen Street Social Jason Atherton www.pollenstreetsocial. com

Adam Simmonds at Danesfield House Adam Simmonds www.danesfieldhouse. co.uk Alimentum Mark Poynton www. restaurantalimentum.co.uk Apicius Tim Johnson www.restaurant-apicius. co.uk Bath Priory Sam Moody www.thebathpriory.co.uk Box Tree Simon Gueller www.theboxtree.co.uk Butchers Arms James Winter www.thebutchersarms.net

Portland Merlin Labron-Johnson portlandrestaurant.co.uk

Bybrook Richard Davies www. manorhouse.co.uk

Quilon Sriram Aylur www.quilon.co.uk

Casamia Jonray & Peter Sanchez www.casamiarestaurant. co.uk

Seven Place Park at St James’ Hotel and Club William Drabble www.stjameshotelandclub. com

Chapter One Andrew Mcleish www.chaptersrestaurants. com

Social Eating House Jason Atherton www.socialeatinghouse. com

Curlew Andrew Scott www.thecurlewrestaurant. co.uk

St John Chris Gillard www.stjohnrestaurant.com

Drakes Steve Drake www.drakesrestaurant. co.uk

St John Hotel Tom Harris 020 3301 8020 www.stjohnrestaurant.com

Driftwood Chris Eden www.driftwoodhotel.co.uk

Story Tom Sellers www.restaurantstory.co.uk

Fischer’s at Baslow Hall Rupert Rowley www. fischers-baslowhall.co.uk

Tamarind Alfred Prasad www.tamarindrestaurant. com

Fraiche Mark Wilkinson www.restaurantfraiche. com

Texture Agnar Sverrisson www.texture-restaurant. co.uk

Hambleton Hall Aaron Patterson www.hambletonhall.com

The Dining Room at the Goring Shay Cooper thegoring.com The Clove Club Isaac McHale www.thecloveclub.com The Harwood Arms Barry Fitzgerald www.harwoodarms.com The River Café Rose Gray www.rivercafe.co.uk

Hinds Head Kevin Love www.hindsheadbray.com Holbeck Ghyll David McLaughlin www.holbeckghyll.com JSW Jake Saul Watkins www.jswrestaurant.com L’Ortolan Nick Chappell www.lortolan.com Lords of the Manor Richard Picard-Edwards www.lordsofthemanor.com

Manor House Hotel & Golf Club Richard Davies www.manorhouse.co.uk

The Mason Arms Mark Dodson www.masonsarmsdevon. co.uk

Morston Norfolk Galton Blackiston www.morstonhall.com

The Neptune Kevin Mangeolles www.theneptune.co.uk

Mr Underhill’s at Dinham Weir Chris Bradley www.mr-underhills.co.uk Northcote Nigel Haworth www. northcote.com Ockenden Manor Stephen Crane www. hshotels.co.uk/ockendenmanor-hotel-and-spa/ dining Old Vicarage Tessa Bramley www. theoldvicarage.co.uk Outlaw’s Fish Kitchen Nathan Outlaw www.outlaws.co.uk Paris House Phil Fanning www.parishouse.co.uk Paul Ainsworth at Number 6 Paul Ainsworth www. number6inpadstow.co.uk Pony & Trap Josh Eggleton www.theponyandtrap. co.uk Purnell’s Glynn Purnell www.purnellsrestaurant. com Raby Hunt www.rabyhuntrestaurant. co.uk Red Lion Freehouse Guy Manning www.redlionfreehouse. com Restaurant Tristan Tristan Mason www.restauranttristan. co.uk Room in the Elephant Simon Hulstone www.elephantrestaurant. co.uk Sienna Russell Brown www.siennarestaurant. co.uk Simon Radley at the Chester Grosvenor Simon Radley www.chestergrosvenor. com/simon-radleyrestaurant Simpsons Luke Tipping www.simpsonsrestaurant. co.uk Sir Charles Napier Chris Godfrey www.sircharlesnapier. co.uk Thackeray’s Richard Phillips www.thackeraysrestaurant.co.uk The Black Rat Winchester, Hampshire Jamie Stapleton-Burns 01962 844465 www.theblackrat.co.uk The Black Swan Adam Jackson www.blackswanoldstead. co.uk The Cross at Kenilworth Adam Bennett www.thecrosskenilworth. co.uk The Glasshouse Daniel Mertl www. glasshouserestaurant.co.uk The Harrow at Little Bedwyn Roger Jones www.theharrowat littlebedwyn.com

Glenapp Castle Adam Stokes www.glenappcastle.com Isle of Eriska Ross Stovold www.eriska-hotel.co.uk

The Nut Tree Mike North www.nuttreeinn.co.uk

Inverlochy Castle Philip Carnegie www. inverlochycastlehotel.com

The Park (at Lucknam Park Hotel)   Hywel Jones www.lucknampark.co.uk

Kinlock Lodge Marcello Tully www.kinloch-lodge.co.uk

The Pass Matt Gillan www.southlodgehotel. co.uk/EXCLUSIVE.../ the_pass The Pipe & Glass Inn James Mackenzie www.pipeandglass.co.uk The Royal Oak Dom Chapman www. theroyaloakpaleystreet. com The Samling Ian Swainson www.thesamlinghotel. co.uk The Sportsman Stephen Harris www.thesports manseasalter.co.uk The Stagg Inn Steve Reynolds www.thestagg.co.uk The Star Inn Andrew Pern www.thestaratharome. co.uk The Terrace (at the Montagu Arms) Matthew Tomkinson www.montaguarmshotel. co.uk/terrace_restaurant The Treby Arms Anton Piotrowski www.thetrebyarms.co.uk The West House Graham Garrett www.thewesthouse restaurant.co.uk The Yorke Arms Frances Atkins www.yorkearms.co.uk Turners Richard Turner www. turnersrestaurant birmingham.co.uk Wilks James Wilkins www.wilksrestaurant.co.uk

JERSEY Ocean House at Atlantic Mark Jordan www.theatlantichotel.com

Knockinaam Lodge Tony Pierce www.knockinaamlodge. com Martin Wishart Martin Wishart www.martin-wishart.co.uk restaurant-martin-wishart/ home Martin Wishart at Loch Lomond Graeme Cheevers www.martin-wishart.co.uk Number One (at The Balmoral Hotel) Jeff Bland www.thebalmoralhotel. com/dining Sangster’s Bruce Sangster www.sangsters.co.uk The Albannach Colin Craig & Lesley Crosfield www.thealbannach.co.uk The Kitchin Tom Kitchin www.thekitchin.com The Peat Inn Geoffrey Smeddle www.thepeatinn.co.uk The Three Chimneys Michael Smith www. threechimneys.co.uk

WALES Crown at Whitebrook Chris Harrod www.crownatwhitebrook. co.uk The Checkers Stéphane Borie www. thecheckersmontgomery. co.uk The Walnut Tree Shaun Hill www.thewalnuttreeinn. com Tyddyn Llan Bryan Webb www.tyddynllan.co.uk Ynyshir Hall Gareth Ward www.ynyshirhall.co.uk

EIRE

Bohemia (at The Club Hotel & Spa) Steve Smith www.bohemiajersey.com

Aniar Enda McEvoy www.aniarrestaurant.ie

Ormer by Shaun Rankin www.ormerjersey.com

Bon Appetit Oliver Dunne www.bonappetit.ie

Tassili at the Grand Hotel Richard Allen www.grandjersey.com/ grand-jersey/tassili

SCOTLAND 21212 Paul Kitching www.21212restaurant.co.uk Boath House Charlie Lockley www.boathhouse.com Braidwoods Nicola Braidwood www.braidwoods.co.uk Castle Terrace Dominic Jack www. castleterracerestaurant. com

Campagne Garrett Byrne www.campagne.ie Chapter One Ross Lewis www. chapteronerestaurant.com House (at Cliff House Hotel) Martijn Kajuiter www. thecliffhousehotel.com L’Ecrivain Derry Clarke www.lecrivain.com Lady Helen at Mount Juliet Hotel Cormac Rowe www.mountjuliet.ie Thornton’s (at The Fitzwilliam Hotel) Kevin Thornton www.fitzwilliamhotel.com

use our 100% convenients products and cook creatively with total control Although fresh produce is good, it takes time to prepare, there’s wastage, it can sometimes harbor unpleasant surprises, and can be costly. To help you rapidly put together high quality preparations at a reasonable cost, Les vergers Boiron has developed a range of 100% natural frozen products, ready to use and that you can incorporate like fresh fruits and vegetables. So you have total control over your dishes. Whether purees, coulis or in pieces, our products offer a host of advantages and are available to complement your skills all year round.

C H E F TA L K

MASSIMO BOTTURA A LEGACY FOR THE FUTURE

Namai Bishop brings you an exclusive interview direct from Milan during Expo 2015 where its foremost Chef Ambassador talks about his latest project and of the importance of Culture as the main ingredient in creating the Chef of the Future. NAMAI BISHOP

Image © PAOLO TERZI Fotografo, Modena

| Chef Talk | Massimo Bottura

Massimo Bottura is undoubtedly one of contemporary cuisine’s living legends. His restaurant Osteria Francescana, awarded three Michelin stars, was recently ranked 2nd World’s Best Restaurant at the S.Pellegrino World’s 50 Best Restaurants Awards 2015, rising from third best spots in 2013 and 2014. I met Bottura on the very day it was announced he was the recipient of the unprecedented 20/20 score in the prestigious l’Espresso Ristoranti d’Italia. A bastion of contemporary cuisine, I sit with this stellar chef in surprisingly humble surroundings, at the site of his latest project: a soup kitchen – though of course as with all things Bottura, there is greater profoundness to what first may appear. The Chef’s latest venture is the most daring and innovative project born of the Expo Milan 2015. Yet, it sits miles away, figuratively and literally, from Expo’s multinational pavilions, packed with the glitz and fanfare of corporates, trade and industry. We are in Milan’s impoverished Greco neighbourhood. Not a Michelin star in sight, although perhaps there may be a star, shining bright here, above this lowly shed: a previously derelict 1930’s theatre that is now the haven for Bottura’s Refettorio Ambrosiano. Its kitchens once “full of dust and rats and scraps” as Bottura describes with characteristic poesy, were used to feed the poor. Now, having been lovingly remodelled, they house instead a revolving roster of top international chefs – doing the very same. The concept is simple: food waste from the Expo is transported here daily, reworked by top chefs into a feast fit for kings, and fed to the poor. Bottura has successfully galvanised the world’s most notable chefs to practice alchemy here, turning scraps into gold – quite literally.

LET US BREAK BREAD – ALBEIT ‘GOLD BREAD’! His dessert recipe (featured) Bread Is Gold is a dish that epitomises Bottura’s underlying philosophy. In tribute to the richness of the land and the profound passion that can be transmitted through humble ingredients. The very premise of Refettorio is reverting to that same perception of frugality, simplicity, humbleness and generosity, where the ingredients are less important than the sentiment, care and in Bottura’s case, profound thought, with which they are produced.

He tells me “When I was a kid, my grandmother was making dinner before going to bed, and she was mixing the leftover bread with hot milk, one spoon of sugar, and I was eating that. For me, bread, milk and sugar evokes all the best emotions I have”. He continues “Chefs don’t need to rush to have the best caviar, the best truffle. Emotions can be transferred from a crust of Parmigiano and leftover bread.” The dish also demonstrates the work of a distinctly cerebral chef (he studied law before turning his pen to spatular). It acts as a philosophical statement about social responsibility as well as encapsulating Bottura’s quintessential style of juxtopositing culinary tradition and innovation – all set within the context of his driving inspiration: the expressional freedom of modern art. The dish, references the contemporary artist Sylvie Fleury’s gold-plated trash cans, a metaphor for the unmined riches that may be reclaimed from food waste, that is a key tenant of Bottura’s project here. “For me, it all starts with a fight against waste” is the response from Bottura to the question posed at the International Fair Expo “How to feed the Planet?”. “1.3 billion tonnes of food are wasted each year, a fourth of which would be enough to feed all those in need.” He quotes the work of Carlin Petrini (the founder of the International Slow Food Slow Movement) and how laws are being implemented internationally to discourage food waste. “No one before was talking about waste, so this is extremely important as a worldwide issue. As chefs we should be at the forefront of addressing food waste.” Bottura envisions a lasting legacy that will endure long after the Expo’s pavilions have been dismounted: “From an idea, seeds start to sprout and for me this is the significance of this project.” Massimo says. Refettorio, is a place Bottura describes as “one of the Expo’s important legacies for the city of Milan and the new generations beyond.”

BOTTURA’S HOLY GRAIL I sit with Bottura at Refettorio, in front of a giant image of a simple loaf of bread on a stark table. It dominates the central wall of the dining hall, flanked by humanity’s very essentials, bread on one side, water the other and all permeated with passion: the holy trinity in Bottura’s shrine. The mission and sentiment too is almost biblical. Top

chefs, cooking not for the visiting dignitaries and diplomats at the Expo, but the needy. As the chef says somewhat dramatically: “It’s like the Pope washing the feet of the people in the street.” In Italy, a country of deep religious and spiritual dedication, Bottura’s hallowed project has been blessed even by the highest of religious endorsements. At the opening ceremony of the Refectory Ambrosiano attendees included not just the Commissioner of Expo 2015 and the Mayor of Milan but Cardinals and the Archbishop no less, along with the backing of the Vatican itself. Giuliano Savina, the parish priest of that same impoverished area was first to sing the praises of Bottura, in his spirited declaration: “The Refectory answers the question the expo only poses”. Indeed, whilst Expo politely moots the question of how to feed the planet, Bottura and his Refettorio Ambrosiano slams (and slums) his answer with aplomb. Here Bottura vehemently practices what he preaches. This is a sanctum where actions speak louder than promotional sound bites, where a cultural movement is being actively promoted to have an impact far beyond. Indeed, turning thoughts and emotions into collective action is a quintessential Bottura trait and something he hopes he will inspire in others. “If we use our knowledge and our culture to generate awareness and to make people more responsible we can lead the way. We want to show what we can do with dry bread, a potato skin, with a chicken carcass, with milk that may expire tomorrow. Like this we are setting an example for the whole world.” he said. During my own pilgrimage to the Refettorio I experienced the lunch service for a group of underprivileged children, fed a menu prepared by award-winning Canadian Chef Jeremy Charles. Recently voted best chef in Canada with two notable restaurants (Raymond’s and since June 2015 Merchant Tavern) this young Chef is more used to foraging for ingredients than being faced with a random selection from which he must produce a healthy, hearty meal. When I asked him about his experience at the Refettorio he said “The boxes of produce we used arrived from the fair daily at 9:30am and only then could we come up with a menu, devised according to their contents: we made a pasta soup and a plum based dessert. Chefs can

Our traditions root us in a place, culture, and time, but they must never become stagnant. Traditional food is the outcome of a successful experiment. We must continue to evolve our palates, our techniques, and remain flexible in the kitchen to new ideas, ingredients and concepts. MASSIMO BOTTURA

improvise but essentially, the criteria here is radically different to usual kitchen practices; looking at the boxes your aim here becomes how best to produce something nourishing, hearty, healthy. I’m so excited to be a part of this. It’s a chance for chefs to give back to the poor community in a city hosting them, and also to get back to basics.”

CULTURE CLUB The biggest names in cuisine it seems have done just that; rolling up their sleeves, digging in and getting to grips with a common cause. Bottura told me how Paolo Marchi (founder of Identita Golose) was here, and how whilst difficult for him to even walk, he served 96 people from 5pm to midnight.

“At 11:30pm he couldn’t walk anymore! This is the experience. This is not about sitting here and judging what is happening back there in the kitchen. Back there they are doing ‘Culture’ they are creating The New Tradition, in the same mentality my grandmother grew up with: using the crust of Parmigano, or the breadcrumbs, or the left over milk, or the

| Chef Talk | Massimo Bottura

If we use our knowledge and our culture to generate awareness and to make people more responsible we can lead the way. We want to show what we can do with dry bread, a potato skin, with a chicken carcass, with milk that may expire tomorrow. Like this we are setting an example for the whole world. MASSIMO BOTTURA

acidic water to cook pasta, its about that, killing an animal in a spiritual way. An animal is giving its life and I have to use every part of the animal to say thank you. This is what this is about. We prepare too much food one day, and through our culture, knowledge, consciousness, sense of responsibility, the food that is excess, we recycle and it can become something extremely special. People are understanding this incredible situation, where Chefs like Virgilio [Martinez] is flying from Peru, landing and coming directly here or Yannick Alléno, or René Redzepi, or Mauro Colagreco are taking part. These people they come here ‘cause they just want to share the experience with us. So its not about me, its about ‘us’: we say ‘we are the revolution, not I am the revolution’”. This collective spirit is, as Bottura puts it “contageous”, escalating into a global cultural phenomenon. Bottura’s sway is clearly going global; my interview was being recorded by the Canadian camera crew who had come to make a documentary feature on this project for international distribution. More international chefs are sitting up and taking note; what started out as a project to feed the poorest in one city, is helping raise awareness

about waste issues and having widespread global impact. Stuck by Bottura’s passion and vision, apparently Eleven Madison Park’s Daniel Humm left with “tears in his eyes” and is looking to expand the project in New York. Gaston Acurio, the Peruvian chef who cooked at the Reffetterio towards the end of June was said to be so moved by the project that he wants to create something similar in the poorest quarters in Lima. He refers to Chefs with whom he has worked, including El Bulli’s Ferran Adrià and Alain Ducasse. “Ferran – he was cooking right here , [Alain] Ducasse was emptying trucks, getting his hands dirty with used plates and serving ‘til late. Anyone who comes here is going to go away with a big emotion in their heart, that they will not forget. Every person has given of themselves. This is the ethical part of our job. It is no longer about using technique to show how good we are in the kitchen, but using technique to show how good that product is. And with this kind of knowledge we can give pride and beauty to these ingredients. We just want to talk to these products and have a relationship with these products. The chef of the future is going to be someone who walks into the kitchen with their hands dirty with earth, who’s hands smell of milk with a very open mind and a big sense of responsibility.”

CULTURE: THE MOST IMPORTANT INGREDIENT FOR THE CHEF OF THE FUTURE But despite what may seem a high profile project in magnanimity, Bottura is also quick to point out that this is no selfcongratulatory show of benevolence. Instead this, and many of the world’s top chefs clearly agree with Bottura, is for the chef an exercise in social responsibility, where chef’s have a community role as messengers and activists of a global movement against waste and in promoting a collective spirit of generosity: of ideas, of actions and spirit. “What we did here is a Cultural message. Superficial people may think that we are doing charity. This is not Charity. This is Culture. We rebuilt a place that was dead. We convinced everyone we were doing something different. A group of Chefs, for the first time in history got together in this way and they all came here to share. Because its all about that. Its about breaking walls, breaking barriers and....” “Breaking bread?” I interrupt “Exactly!” breaking bread together!”

he laughs “the most important thing is to squeeze the mind of these chefs. There is a lot of culture to extract, and a lot of ethics and our mission is to leave some traces from their culture to give back – to leave after the closing date of the Expo, a very important trace of what we did here. This is something that is going to stay: in the same way the Chefs were rebuilding and re-giving a ‘hope’ to the food that was close to being wasted, so too the architect gave new life to the building, and the chefs did the exactly same thing. Going from no culture around here, to beauty all around us, from the designers creating the furniture [some items auctioned for the cause], to the food, to the energy of the people here [he refers individually to Alberto, who kneads the bread daily, Cristina the ‘lady of the Refettorio’ and all volunteers]. A Chef can be extremely important – not for himself, but for the whole community. Innovative Chefs of the future is what you are creating here. All these people have vision, an Art, a Culture; because culture is the most important ingredient of the chef of the future.” He pauses before he says sagaciously: “If you have culture, culture brings knowledge, knowledge brings consciousness and consciousness drives you to a sense of responsibility, so from culture you are just a few very short steps away from the most important aspect for the chef of the future: Culture.”

CULTURAL AMBASSADOR A Cultural Ambassador he most certainly is, given the esteemed role of Ambassador of Food in the Year of Italian Culture in the US. This eloquent, empassioned and erudite chef has been instrumental not just in pushing the boundaries of his art but also in pushing forward traditional ingredient production methods, agriculture and championing culinary causes. He demonstrates in his work the deeper social and cultural role being a Chef allows him to play. For example, after the 2012 earthquakes hit the Modena region, which caused damage to millions of pounds’ worth of Parmigiano Reggiano, Bottura worked with local producers to devise a recipe (featured) of Risotto Cacio e Pepe. Simmering the broken Parmesan resulted in an innovative take on the classic Roman dish that traditionally uses spaghetti and pecorino, putting a new brand spin on the (Parmasan) wheel and helping to raise awareness of the issues facing the sellers – another example of Bottura using his craft as a “social gesture”.

It is no longer about using technique to show how good we are in the kitchen, but using technique to show how good that product is. And with this kind of knowledge we can give pride and beauty to these ingredients. We just want to talk to these products and have a relationship with these products. MASSIMO BOTTURA

Bottura talked to me about another of his iconic Parmesan dishes “The Five Textures and Temperatures of Parmigiano Reggiano” (Cinque consistenze e temperature di Parmigiano Reggiano). Bottura sees himself foremost as the very product of his beloved homeland, famously saying: “My bones are made of Parmigiano Reggiano and balsamic vinegar rushes through my veins.” His revered dish like the rest of his menu at Osteria Francescana draws on the very best from the terroir and the region’s rich food culture. Yet the plate demostrates how Bottura draws on the past whilst examining, revelling in, and “liberating” his ingredient with a thoroughly modern interpretation, whilst simultaneously shaping future production. “One night in 1998 I met Umberto Panini, a leading cheese maker in Modena, and he said of my dish (which was then just the Four Textures and Temperatures) ‘the Four are good but you are not focusing on Parmigano Reggiano – you are focusing on yourself!’ And I think he was right because I was not thinking about the ageing process. That night I changed my my way of looking at cheese and its aging process; I set to work along with the help of the father of one of my waiters who is a cheese maker to experiment aging Parmesan more and more. At that time, the cheese was being sold at 11 months aged but after 18 months, the cheese changes drastically.” Bottura’s revised dish is now made up of a demi-soufflé made from Parmigiano that has aged 24 months; a mousse using 30 months Parmigiano; a liquid cream incorporating the cheese aged for 36 months; a crisp wafer produced from a Parmigiano aged 40 months; and to top it all a “breath of air” deriving from a broth of Parmigiano rind from cheese that has undergone an ageing process of no less than 50 months.

Bottura distanced himself enough from the singular, traditional ingredient of the region to reconceptualise it into 5 distinct forms, with a alternating sensations of temperature and texture to create a richly complex canvass. “The last interpretation refers to the fog and humidity of the region that is the most important ingredient for Emilia-Romagna ‘cause without you cannot age, Prosciutoo, Balsamic, Parmigano – its all about microclimate that is an expression of the area. That dish encapsulates the essence of the region, the pace and tradition but seen in a totally abstract way. It has also had an important impact on production because since 2005 Parmigiano has been sold at least 24 months ‘cause at 2 years old all lactose that is contained in the milk is transformed to protein and even lactose intolerant persons can eat it. This is an ethical way to approach food, this is a way Chefs can open doors, a way a Chef can express Culture, helping to evolve culture, so what we do in our restaurant is open doors, develop Culture, it’s formation, we create the Chef of the Future. We try to give that example to the Chef of the future. We help agriculture, we are very close to the producers in the terroir, the cheese makers, fishermen, farmers, these are artisans, we are close to them. We use techniques to exalt those ingredients. Not to exhalt our ego. So the same people who were pointing to my dish and claiming I had ruined Parmingano, now declare that very plate the dish of the decade for Italian Gastronomy. So you see, there are many different layers in which you can explore how deep and far a recipe can go.” Thus for Bottura, being a chef means not just creating (and certainly not recreating) recipes. As he puts it “Cooking is about not only the quality of ingredients, but also the quality of the ideas... Foraging for new ingredients is not important,” he says.

“Foraging for ideas, this is important.” He laughs “Everyone is talking about foraging, foraging, foraging, foraging, before that it was all spherification, and before that dishydration, and the next trend is going to be who knows what?! Maybe Peruvian, ‘ceviche, ceviche, ceviche’, but cooking is much more. We cannot keep following some crazy trend of the moment.” What Bottura manages to do, perhaps more than any other chef of his generation is to transcend time, at once paying homage to his culinary heritage and at the same time, radically modernizing it. Bottura shows through his dialogue with ingredients how tradition and innovation are not opposing forces but instead can be blended, as pleasingly as his plates portray, to take us on a journey through memory, time and place. “Our traditions root us in a place, culture, and time, but they must never become stagnant. Traditional food is the outcome of a successful experiment. We must continue to evolve our palates, our techniques, and remain flexible in the kitchen to new ideas, ingredients and concepts. Only then can we project ourselves into the future, and allow our own gastronomic evolution to follow”.

BOTTURA’S ADVICE: TAKE A “CRITICAL PERSPECTIVE” Bottura tells me that for him, a key factor for Chefs is taking a critical standpoint – distancing yourself from the past in order to propel yourself forward. “The heritage of French and Italian cuisine is so deep, so strong, so impressive, and culinary identities are formed at a young age. But if you step back and you see that heritage from 10km away, you don’t loose yourself in mere nostalgia for the past. Instead, you see your past in a critical way:

| Chef Talk | Massimo Bottura to bring only the best of your past into the future. Like that you can evolve tradition and bring tradition into a new space”. It is this “critical distance” – a position in which the culinary artist approaches his work from a solid grounding in traditional methods, but has the vision to detach himself and view them from an entirely novel perspective, that is the key element in Bottura’s approach. Even in his latest book, Never Trust a Skinny Italian Chef, Bottura shuns tradition in its very format, arranged not chronologically, but instead unfolding according to the “evolution of ideas”. In its forward Bottura notes “The kitchen is a place for remembering, but also for erasing. Know everything; forget everything.” These are the words of a chef who is largely credited, often controversially, for blasting the Italian kitchen to the 21st century.

ARTIST-ARTISAN In his work, Bottura narrates a dialogue between food and art. He says of his restaurant Osteria Francescana “The kitchen should be a dialogue with contemporary art that continued to this day. I shared ideas with artists. I fed them and they fed me.” When I met him his language not only makes reference to contemporary artists but words and thoughts come fast, flicked, swirled and dotted with analogies and symbolism – as graphic, colourful and conceptual as any work of art. In that same style of a modern artist, Bottura chooses to take honed classical technique and turn the canvass upside down, challenging traditional notions of presentation, texture, flavour and injecting fresh, innovative concepts. He continues “Art is the highest point of human thoughts that makes visible the invisible for 99.9% of the people. Contemporary art is not about what you see. Contemporary art is about freedom. Freedom to express yourself as you want. Good, bad, provocative, whatever.” Whilst Borrtua’s radically innvoative approach may seem avant-guard and often controversial, it is just that “irreverence, selfmockery and irony” that Bottura quotes as having helped him find that critical distance to see from another point of view and challenge traditional notions. Thus he avoids nostalgia, preferring instead to create something novel, daring and always intriguing. His culinary compass: to “pry, poke and question the authority of our culinary tradition. As I always say, contemporary food is not just about the quality of the ingredients but the

quality of the ideas.” A risk taker and culinary curator, it is no surprise that he shares the spirit of cutting edge artists and modern art remains the principal inspiration that shapes his dishes. Indeed his menus are scattered with titles that would sit just as comfortably on the walls of a modern art gallery as a restaurant menu. When I ask him whether he sees himself principally as a Chef or an Artist he responds: “We are Artisans, not artists. The cook is an Artisan, because he has to cook good food, just like the guy who builds or designs a Ferrari. He is an artisan because he has a task to build a fast and beautiful car. An artist is free, so that is a very important difference. My favourite artist is Joseph Beuys who says that every man is an artist if he can express himself, and that is why every person has to embrace culture, to express themselves, to be part of the world. Its all social and when you have this kind of approach, you can be influenced by artwork. ”

FROM POP ART TO POP UP Whilst the wait for tables at the Modena restaurant can be up to six months long, Londoners this summer had the opportunity to experience Bottura’s seven course tasting menu over three sold-out dates. Bottura’s conceptual creations sat well within the fitting context of the contemporary art galleries of Sotheby’s London auction house. Walls were hung with contemporary artworks by a myriad of artists who have influenced Bottura including Maurizio Cattelan, Lucio Fontana and Gerhard Richter, and Bottura’s art was no less provocative. Case in point his reference to modern art’s first billionaire bad-boy Damien Hirst. When, for the 2012 Olympics, Bottura was invited to cook at the Italian cultural hub, Casa Italiana, he had just read that Hirst had done his spin painting installed at a Burger King for the duration of the Olympics. Inspired by the art, and it’s context, Bottura played on the fast-food chain’s flame grilled claims to create his own art piece “Beautiful Psychedelic Spin-painted veal, not flame grilled”. Behind the playful title some profound craft and culinary challenges: Bottura asked “Could a red, white and green beef fillet take on the Tuscan tradition of grilled meat without lighting a flame”. The experiment saw him marinate a fillet of Chianina beef in milk as if it were veal, then rolled it in carbon ash and vacuum packed it. Cooking it slowly, at 64 degrees he describes how it took on a blackened appearance on the outside and yet remained uniformly pink

on the inside. This novel cooking method not only have the visual effect of the traditional prepared Tuscan flame-grilled meat, prepared in an innovative way, but imbued in it a taste “more flavourful than from any grill.” The finishing tri-colour sauces of burgundy vinegar, white potato purée, and green chlorophyll, an ode to Italian flag, were spun “like a Hirst painting” onto the plate, with a flourish worthy of any gallery piece. In another course Bottura produced ‘Camouflage: Hare in the Woods’, a plate inspired by Pablo Picasso (who as a Cubist pioneer exclaimed upon seeing a painted truck during a military procession, that cubists invented the camouflage pattern). The dish is an important example of how Bottura looks not just to create art on a plate, for art’s sake, but instead uses it as a prop to explore the more profound logic behind the artist’s canvass. He revives a dish of from the Middle Ages, an intense civet stew arduously made by cooking down hare blood and bones. The dish focuses on not the hare but the ironintensity of the blood that he blends with Peruvian Criollo chocolate “two seemingly diverse but complimentary flavours”. Bottura “tames” the flavours of the wild hare with a custard of foie gras terrine and the foam from an Italian espresso, topped with a camouflage pattern of “blanket of woodland dust” made with multicoloured root vegetable powders. If Picasso saw Cubism in a painted military truck, then Bottura fathoms a rabbit out of a hat: albeit Bottura’s hare is camoflaged in a beautifuly painted plate. Such dishes, like the now legendary “Oops! I Dropped the Lemon Tart” sound, and are devised to be, provocative and conceptual. In that dessert, he pays homage to the modern artist Ai Weiwei, currently on show at the Royal Academy, and his radical work Dropping a Han Dynasty Urn (1995).

FROM BLUNDER TO SONDER “The dish was born from a mistake” Bottura is referring to the now fabled incident in the kitchens of Osteria Francescana when Bottura’s most trusted sous-chef Takahiko Kondo accidentally dropped the dessert. Comforting the shaken sous-chef, Bottura looks at the dropped tart and sees where there is destruction, inspiration. Bottura and Kondo proceed to reinterpret the smashed pastry to create a version that has become one of Bottura’s signature dishes. The dish thus explores the generative force of folly and in it an important message from Bottura for cookery and life: allow creative space, leave

that little opportunity in your everyday life open for apparent chaos and poetry. That way you don’t loose yourself in what he calls “the nostalgia of the past.” but see things from a fresh and novel perspective. “It represents the joy of a child to break the tart but its also the poetry of the moment: to rebuild in a perfect way the imperfections.” The dish also bears that another important ingredient for Bottura: emotion. “The most Emotional moment for your palate is when you are a kid and you are open to persuasion about everything and when your mum is cooking for you. That meal was the most emotional meal of your life and your mother is cooking with her heart and not a technique and that is why, sometimes I use in my preparation that same playful approach, a child-like joy. So you are using technique to give opportunity to everyone who comes to approach the food in a humble easy way, even if it is extremely complicated.” Bottura tells me an interesting development on that tale: “today I got an email that the most important international art magazine is going to run a feature on one of the artists that took part in a critically acclaimed art show in NYC last year. Lisa Cooley produced a show, inspired by a Chef called ‘Oops, I Dropped the Lemon Tart’. So it appears now Chefs are not stealing ideas from Artists – Artists are reinterpreting the ideas of a Chef!”. Borrtua is, clearly once again at the helm of the blurred lines of creativity. “Contemporary art, like contemporary food keeps inside it very important, deep thoughts that are not what you see but are what the artist wants to tell you. When Chefs present a dish like ‘Oops’ it is about poetry and the metaphysical; a message not to loose yourself in every day life. You have to ride the wave to project yourself into the future.” He continues “There are many chefs who say ‘I want to preserve the method of my grandmother and her grandmother before’. Look at Ai Weiwei, take a vase of 2,000 old vase, he breaks it and rebuilds it in a contemporary mind. This is the approach you have to have.” And Bottura keeps on rebuilding: he regales me with another example where an apparent flaw made him again question tradition, leading to innovation. “Here we were, making pesto – but we didn’t have enough basil. So in that moment, we experimented using mint. And neither did we have pine nuts, ‘because they are very expensive and have a very short shelf life so

... pry, poke and question the authority of our culinary tradition. As I always say, contemporary food is not just about the quality of the ingredients but the quality of the ideas. MASSIMO BOTTURA

Image © PAOLO TERZI Fotografo, Modena

when they expire rapidly, they go rancid, so instead we used breadcrumbs. The pesto that resulted from this experiment was in fact much better than the traditional form of Pesto. And I can tell you because I am a chef, first ‘cause it was not so heavy, as pine nuts add a very heavy consistency to food. The balance achieved using breadcrumbs is much better with the garlic and the extra virgin olive oil. The mint gives a freshness and mixed with black basil, its amazing! We finished the pesto using breadcrumbs, toasted in the oven, making them crunchy and added a little bit of anchovy, melted in extra virgin olive oil. This meant we didn’t even use salt in the water and so we cooked the pasta simply, and just stirred in our pesto away from the heat. If you do it this way and make a creamy watery, icy sauce, it is also helping to preserve the oxidation of the fresh herbs and when the creamy pesto is used to finish pasta, it explodes on the palate!” Bottura, smashes up the rule book. But he is a rebel with a cause, and as he says of another of his muses Warhol “he showed

Delta of the Po ravioli

me you can be revolutionary without being radical”. His fellow chefs recognise him as a rule-breaker and radical innovator; Mario Batali (who was also the helm of Refettorio Ambrosiano as I left Milan) once described Bottura as “the Jimi Hendrix of Italian chefs: he takes familiar dishes and classical flavours and techniques and turns them on their heads in a way that is innovative, boundary breaking, sky kissing, and entirely whimsical, but ultimately timeless, and most importantly, deliciously satisfying.” Like all innovative artists, it takes a bold, singular and fiercy spirited talent to liberate himself from the rule book and blaze a trail. His work may seem subversive but is in fact, clearing the slate for future chefs to follow. His advice to Chefs is principally to allow that critical space for self expression. “The important lesson I learned from my experience with Adria Ferra in El Bulli 16 years ago, was not the technique or the crazy things that were coming out from there but the freedom to express yourself.” In that sense, Bottura is ultimately unbound, bold and brilliant.

| Chef Talk | Massimo Bottura

Chefs don’t need to rush to have the best caviar, the best truffle. Emotions can be transferred from a crust of Parmigiano and leftover bread.

Image © PAOLO TERZI Fotografo, Modena

R Bread is Gold Il pane è oro By Massimo Bottura INGREDIENTS

METHOD

SUGAR SHELL 50g pastry fondant 30g Isomalt 30g glucose 0.25 gr gold powder 4 sheets of oblate paper 15cm x 15cm non-stick baking sheet

SUGAR SHELL 1. Melt the three sugars to 160°C in a copper pan then pour them over a non-stick baking sheet and let the mixture cool to room temperature. Place the hardened sugars into a thermo mixer and pulverize them adding the gold powder until the powder is lightly golden in colour. Place the powder in an air-tight container or a sealed vacuum-pack bag. 2. Lay a sheet of oblate paper over a non-stick baking sheet then sprinkle the golden sugar powder over it and bake at 160°C for a few seconds in a non-ventilated oven or a ventilated one with fan at the very lowest speed. 3. While still warm and malleable, carefully remove the sugar sheet from the baking tray and irregularly shape it over a cylinder about 5cm wide and 7 cm high. It should look like a crumpled piece of paper but rounded enough to act as a shell. Let it cool and keep it in an air-tight container.

BREAD AND SUGAR FOAM 100g day-old bread grated into large, coarse breadcrumbs 100g brown sugar 800g whole milk 50g fresh cream ½ litre Siphon with double charge of gas SWEET CROUTONS 100g day-old bread, cut into 0,5 mm cubes 50g brown sugar SALT-CARAMEL GELATO 150g brown sugar 150g fresh cream 150g whole milk (room temperature) 200g water 10g sea salt 2g ice-cream stabilizer

BREAD AND SUGAR FOAM 1. Toast the breadcrumbs in a heavy iron skillet until dark brown. Add the toasted crumbs to a tall saucepan. Add the sugar and cover with 400 gr of milk. 2. Reduce over medium heat until the liquid is completely absorbed. Be careful not to burn the milk. Add the remaining 400 gr of milk and bring to a boil. Take off the flame. 3. Place the mixture in a thermo mixer and blend at high speed for 3 minutes. 4. Pass twice through a sieve for a creamy consistency. Whisk in the fresh cream. Add the mixture to a siphon with double charge of gas.

SWEET CROUTONS 1. Toast the croutons in a warm saucepan. When they start to get crunchy, add the sugar and caramelize a few minutes over medium heat. Pour them onto a non-stick baking sheet and let them cool. 2. When cooled, break into small bits and place in an air-tight container. SALT-CARAMEL GELATO 1. Caramelize the sugar. Bring the heavy cream to a quick boil in a separate saucepan and then add to the sugar. 2. Remove from heat and whisk energetically. Filter and return to pan. 3. Add the milk, salt and water and heat to 40°C over low flame. Add the stabilizer and stirring constantly until it reaches 80°C. 4. Fill a Pacojet container or an ice-cream maker with the liquid. Proceed as usual freezing then processing into smooth and creamy gelato. TO SERVE 1. Place a spoonful of caramel-salt gelato in the centre of a flat plate. 2. Cover with 5 cubes of sweet croutons and some bread foam from the Siphon, repeat with another layer of croutons and foam. 3. Delicately place the fragile sugar shell on top and serve with a spoon.

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CHEF BUSINESS THE ADAMSON

METHOD IN THE

MADNESS “If you’d asked me as a business man ‘do I want to get involved with a restaurant?’, I’d say ‘no’. But do I want to help my family to success, to find a way to secure their future? Then yes. It gives me pride.” JOSH SIMS TALKS TO THE OWNER OF THE ADAMSON.

Ken Dalton is sitting in the American Bar in Claridges and there is a sense that, over

his glass of white, he is trying to justify a move that many more experienced in the hospitality business – his background is in managing companies in the communications and design sector – might well call crazy. JOSH SIMMS

| Chef Business | Method in the Madness

The market for us is local – but local also includes 9,500 students, including lots from overseas, and golfers. St Andrews is a huge international draw for golfers of course, so there’s a consistent trade albeit one that’s very different at times. KEN DALTON

In a nutshell, he has poured £1.6m of his own money into buying and refurbishing a listed building in St. Andrews, Scotland, the lower floor of which is now The Adamson, a restaurant and latterly also a bar run by his daughter Julie Lewis. On the surface, this seems foolhardy if touching – all the more so since, as Dalton, who officially retired three years ago, puts it, “it can’t be a hobby. I expect a return. I’m not just pouring my money in for the sake of it.” But there is some method behind the seeming madness. As he adds: “Does it feel like a risk? I know the restaurant business is notoriously problematic and more fail than succeed, and I know that if I’d done this on my own it would be a disaster. But it’s a business Julie understands, and I didn’t like seeing her ability go un-used.” Indeed, Lewis has a long career behind her in hospitality, working with more corporate/chain set-ups the likes of TGI Fridays, Coffee Republic, Browns and in the operations and marketing side of Living Ventures. “I don’t see it as working with my dad, but working with someone who has invested in a business idea, and who expects us to make it happen,” Julie Lewis says. And so far, despite other rather large question marks over the project, which opened for trade in April 2012 - the least of which might be why open a 68 cover restaurant in a remote town with a population of just 14,000 – it seems to be working. In fact, it has scooped awards: recommended status in the Michelin Guide every year, two AA rosettes in 2014, Food Awards Scotland’s restaurant of the year 2014 and, in 2015, Scottish Restaurant of the Year at the CIS Awards. And it has seen impressive growth: £808,000 annual net revenue in 2012/13, £977,000 in 2013/2014, and £1.33m for 2014/2015 and projected £1.8m in 2015/16, according to figures provided by the company. The Adamson growth this year is mainly due to the introduction of a new cocktail bar that opened in April, adjacent to

the restaurant. The bar has maintained the accolades: it was shortlisted for the SLTN 2015 ‘Cocktail Bar of The Year’ in the autumn. So much for the population problem. “The market for us is local – but local also includes 9,500 students, including lots from overseas, and golfers. St Andrews is a huge international draw for golfers of course,” says Dalton. “So there’s a consistent trade albeit one that’s very different at times. If we were just doing fine dining it wouldn’t work – so the pitch is for quality food at a fair price, somewhere between the four or so top-end restaurants in the area and everything else. It’s the kind of place people might come to a couple of times a month. When we came to St Andrews there were probably lots of questions: why has this guy bought his daughter a restaurant here? It’s a small community and it didn’t really understand it, so getting its support has been vital. We want to be engaged with the community.” At one level that has meant holding charitable events to support community projects. But at a more sophisticated level it has also meant some savvy marketing, not least what it calls “club events for a quite

a club-driven city” – burger club nights, wine pairing events and the like – but also a loyalty card scheme, now with some 7,000 members, offering varying degrees of discount for regulars and local businesses. “Marketing activity like that is essential for getting people in – it gives people a sense they’re getting something back for their loyalty,” explains Lewis. Unsurprisingly, that is not the only kind of plan more typically found in a corporate environment that Lewis has brought into this one-spot family business. Unlike most independent restaurants, this one had a comprehensive staff-training handbook from day one. It has a mentoring programme, onthe-job training – something Lewis, she says, is aware so many hospitality businesses out there still don’t offer. It rewards its 60-plus staff through “opportunities to do something they wouldn’t normally get to do, and through hard cash,” she says – with a reward scheme in the pipeline – and seeks to instill a certain outlook among them. “We want staff to think like owners, to give them pride in their achievements.”

The quality of your people is always key. We had to make sure everyone knew our purpose was not just to make money – that’s a by-product. It’s about getting people to eat well and leave happy: a combination of great food and drink as well as great service – it’s pretty simple. JULIE LEWIS Recruitment, inevitably, has been a major factor in The Adamson’s success to date. When it was opening, it had 600 applicants for 33 positions. “The quality of your people is always key,” adds Lewis. “We had to make sure everyone knew our purpose was not just to make money – that’s a by-product. It’s about getting people to eat well and leave happy: a combination of great food and drink as well as great service – it’s pretty simple. It’s about ‘creating a dining

experience through excellence’ – that’s how we put it.” The Adamson is leading the dynamic changes that are making St Andrews a ‘must visit’ destination for lovers of food and drink, not just in Scotland but also from further afield. The award-winning eatery consistently attracts diners from around the world who, when they find themselves in the home of golf, seek out The Adamson through choice.

24 24

LIVING LEGEND

SHAUN

HILL

You never know when the liver will seize up or past sins will catch up with you, but until then, what else would I do; watch day time telly, annoy the neighbours? This is the way forward. SHAUN HILL IS NOTHING LESS THAN A NATIONAL CULINARY TREASURE. In a career that’s spanned six decades, he’s been in the vanguard of the 1980’s modern British movement that continues to help shape the country’s cuisine; redefined and reinvigorated country house cooking during his time as head chef of Gidleigh Park and ran The Merchant House, the 14th best restaurant on the planet (according to the World’s 50 Best List), which put the sleepy Shropshire market town of Ludlow firmly on the gastronomic map. ANDY LYNES

| Living Legend | Shaun Hill

Since 2008, he’s been chef proprietor of The Walnut Tree Inn in Llanddewi Skirrid, just outside Abergavenny in South Wales. A iconic restaurant since the 1960’s, the Inn floundered under a succession of owners following its sale by legendary Italian chef Franco Taruschio in 2001. Hill soon restored its reputation, winning a Michelin star in 2010 and retaining it ever since. Since 2008, he’s been chef proprietor of The Walnut Tree Inn in Llanddewi Skirrid, just outside Abergavenny in South Wales. A iconic restaurant since the 1960’s, the Inn floundered under a succession of owners following its sale by legendary Italian chef Franco Taruschio in 2001. Hill soon restored its reputation, winning a Michelin star in 2010 and retaining it ever since. ‘I opened just as the recession started and had a tough couple of years, partly because I’d done what I always swore I wouldn’t do which was to take over a restaurant that had been successful in a different guise,’ says Hill. ‘I didn’t have pasta on, not even as a garnish, for two years – just so people knew it wasn’t an Italian restaurant any more. Then it all started to come together. It’s still quite seasonal and cyclical, at the end of October we move from being very busy every session to being quite quiet except on Friday and Saturday, but once you know that and gear round it, you’re home and dry.’ At the age of 68, Hill still works a section at the restaurant (‘your piece of meat or fish, I’ll have cooked it’ he states proudly) and his unmistakably robust yet refined style is written all over the daily changing menu that includes dishes like veal sweetbreads with calf’s head crepinette and halibut with artichokes, clams and almond crust. Hill’s cooking remains resolutely modern while deftly side-stepping fad and fashion; if you saw The Walnut Tree’s menu in hip Hackney you wouldn’t be surprised. ‘I went and ate in Lyles restaurant in Shoreditch and had a nice meal. I spoke to the chef James Lowe and told him I’d particularly enjoyed the fish in a sort of broth and he said, “I hoped you’d like that because I ate it in your restaurant”. He’d changed it of course but I was very pleased that he’d found something on my menu that seemed like a good idea. I do the same.’

Hill sets aside one day of the week for projects away from the kitchen and is currently writing a new book, his first since 2004’s How to Cook Better. ‘It’s more Victor-Meldrew-joins-the-restaurant-trade than it is Nigella,’ says Hill who tells me that chapter titles include ‘Local and seasonal are no guarantee of quality’ and ‘Creative thinking is a bad idea if you know nothing’. ‘I felt guilty that I’d taken a page to write out how to make hollandaise sauce and then I watched Masterchef the professionals and none of the contestants knew how to make it. They all fuck around with silly shaped plates and garnishes but none of them could do basic stuff’. Despite The Walnut Tree’s rural location, Hill says he’s been fortunate to attract skilled chefs to his kitchen and that he doesn’t have a high turn over of staff. ‘There’s an awful lot of hard work and dedication required and in a way I feel embarrassed by it because the money doesn’t compensate for the demands of the job; come in early, stay very late and the place has to be clean. And if you’ve done all that and you’ve forgot to put salt in the sauce then you still get a bollocking’. Hill spent a large part of his early career in London, working for Robert Carrier at his ground breaking restaurant in Camden Passage and heading up the kitchens at The Gay Hussar, The Capital hotel and Annouska Hemple’s fashionable Blakes hotel, but has mostly avoided town and city centre restaurants since the late 80’s when he worked at Gidleigh Park. ‘I work in the countryside because

it’s where I prefer to live, but most of the countryside restaurants aren’t much good. London is where it’s at and that’s a shame. But it’s not easy in London either. There are plus points to being in the countryside. It takes longer to build up a regular clientele, you need a big circle of people from a limited population who eat occasionally to ensure you’ve got anybody on a Tuesday night. But once you’ve done it you’re much more solid than some poor devil who’s had a good review from AA Gill and has been jam packed for 6 months, and then AA Gill’s given a great review to someone else and all those people have fucked off there. So it’s plus and minus’. Hill continues to plough his own very distinctive culinary furrow. Yes, he uses seasonal produce but doesn’t shout about it like many other chefs. ‘I use what’s in season because it’s what’s best, not because it’s in season,’ he says. Although he ensures there’s ‘something that won’t frighten the horses’ at each course, his menus are based on what he would like to eat himself and inspired by anything from a holiday in India for a Keralan fish curry with dosa, to historical cookery books for an omelette Victoria (similar to omelette Arnold Bennett but made with lobster rather than smoked haddock). And he has no plans to stop ploughing that furrow any time soon. ‘You never know when the liver will seize up or past sins will catch up with you, but until then, what else would I do; watch day time telly, annoy the neighbours? This is the way forward’.

I opened just as the recession started and had a tough couple of years, partly because I’d done what I always swore I wouldn’t do which was to take over a restaurant that had been successful in a different guise. SHAUN HILL

R Rack of lamb with sweetbread pie By Shaun Hill

INGREDIENTS

METHOD

LAMB 2 racks of lamb Little olive oil Salt and pepper

SWEETBREAD PIE 1. Poach the sweetbreads in just enough white wine and water to cover for 3 or 4 minutes. The sweetbreads should be set but not hard. Leave to cool in the cooking liquor 2. Pat the sweetbreads dry then cut into medium sized diced, also the morel mushrooms. Fry with the shallot until staring to colour. Season with salt and pepper. Leave to cool. 3. Dice then blend the chicken. Process for a few moments more, adding first the egg then the cream, nutmeg and seasoning. 4. Roll out the puff pastry thinly then cut into rounds – two per portion 8cm each. 5. Stir the sweetbread mix into the chicken mousse. Spoon onto the centre of the puff pastry rounds then

SWEETBREAD PIE 12 lamb’s sweetbreads 4 fresh or soaked dried morel mushrooms 1 shallot – peeled and chopped 1 small breast of chicken 1 egg 25ml double cream Salt pepper nutmeg 10ml white wine Puff pastry 500 gr

moisten the edges and cover each with a second puff pastry circle. Refrigerate until needed. TO FINISH 1. Trim then season the racks of lamb. Sear in a hot pan then roast until pink – around 15 minutes at 180C. 2. Bake the tarts for 20 minutes, also at 180C. The racks will be ready 5 minutes earlier so will be able to rest or just the right amount of time whilst awaiting the tarts TO SERVE Carve the racks into cutelets and serve three – or four propped up against each tart with the pan juices as gravy.

T E S T O F TA S T E

Q U A L I T Y C ATC H Scotland’s Pristine Langoustine Namai Bishop joins Seafood Scotland and some of Britain’s most televised Chefs to raise awareness in the industry about the unique fishing methods used on Scotland’s coast that are ensuring seafood caught here still ranks as the very finest in the world. NAMAI BISHOP

Scotland’s naturally clear, cool lochs yield some of the very finest seafood including the world’s largest supply of langoustine. The firm, sweet flesh of Scottish langoustine is unlike any other - no surprise given the purity of the environmental conditions and the painstaking manner in which they are caught. Creel fishing is a method that has been practiced here for generations and as we saw first hand, this laborious method is ensuring Scotland’s produce is not only first-rate, but is helping to protect its bounty for future generations.

“Wicked Wendy” our Scottish fishing boat had probably never before boarded such an illustrious crew: Monica Galetti, the star of TV’s MasterChef The Professionals and senior sous-chef at Le Gavroche along with the restaurant’s former sous-chef Renee Miller, fellow chef Arran Seymour of Gordon Ramsay’s Maze restaurant and MasterChef winner 2010 Druv Baker. We were joined by the Scottish Creel Fishermen’s Federation (“SCFF”) head Alistair Sinclair who gave an animated and impassioned explanation of the importance of this ancient fishing method. As he told me aboard the boat on an uncharacteristically warm and sunny day

“We have a fishing heritage to protect. Today, Scotland is the driving force in responsible fishing methods. The word “sustainability” is overused – what does it really mean? What we are doing is not a trend; we are proud of our land and consider ourselves ‘Custodians of the Waters’ so we are ensuring that our fishing practices have minimal impact on the marine environment whilst upholding the traditions of creel fishing, for ourselves but also for future generations.” The two young fishermen I met, barely in their 20’s were proof of how the mantle (or rather ‘creel’) was being passed down. In economically fragile rural communities, young locals

are actively involved in a community industry that guarantees a living for themselves, as well as contributing to Scotland’s rise as one of the largest exporters of seafood internationally. Scotland now boasts over 530,000 tonnes of seafood exports to over 100 countries a year. Yet for Seafood Scotland, success lies not in the numbers, but the exacting quality standards of its fare.

Pristine Langoustine The purity of the cold, clear waters of the deep loch and surrounding seas already provide idyllic conditions for seafood.

| Test of Taste | Quality Catch

flesh remains sweet and succulent. In contrast to trawled prawns that are ‘tailed’ and sold into the bulk market, creel caught prawns are individually packaged, exported and sold alive. Their premium price justifies not just the higher quality levels but also the benefit to the natural environment as well as socio-economic advantages of generating higher revenues for fishermen. It is this exacting and arduous practice that accounts for the premier grade produce and environmental practices that protect present and also future generations.

HAND SELECTED

With over 12,000km of coastline and pure Northern seas, more than 65 quality species thrive here. Scotland is stringent in safeguarding its environmental virtues and is the bearer of more MSC accreditations than most EU countries, pioneering modern fishing practices whilst upholding its strong traditions. Inshore creel fishing, practiced by humble individual fishermen, on small boats often owner-operated, targeting only premium catch, is one powerful example of how Scotland is retaining its global seafood dominance. A laborious method, often called ‘passive’ form fishing, creel cages (round steel bar covered with netting) containing bait are dropped from small boats to the seabed where they soak until they are next retrieved. The langoustines, living in burrows in the deep sea bed, enter the creel. Caught alive with their stress hormones unreleased, their

“For many of these langoustines, it’s not the first time they’ve been on this boat!” says Alistair. He is referring to the practice of throwing back into the water a large proportion (often 90%) of the langoustine caught. No wonder then that creel fishing takes a week to yield what trawls catch in a single day. I watch as the fishermen throw back egg bearing ‘berried’ females or undersized creatures. When what appeared to be a prize, giant langoustine was put back into the water I questioned Alistair “Big prawns make big prawns!” he responded with a wink, in a jest that also contained the strong message: the selective fishing practices are also helping to naturally breed larger, better quality produce. We were witnessing fishing techniques from the past, and fishing practices for the future. Amazed at the fisherman’s fastidiousness, Monica Galetti could not resist hopping on board the boat for her own turn at creel fishing. Her catch, like the rest of the day’s fishing whilst modest in quantity, proved to be perfection in terms of of quality. The experience certainly made the chefs take note, as Millar said: “Seeing the care with how the langoustine are caught makes you respect the ingredient that much more but it’s also interesting to see how fishing methods are nurturing the natural environment for future generations.” Meanwhile, chefproprietor Druv Baker was inspired to consider the logistics of getting fresh langoustines sent directly to his Earlsfield restaurant. Indeed, UK restaurants is exactly where the SCFF are hoping to see more of their native products, especially given the fact that currently a starling three quarters of the creel-catch are being exported to the European market.

FROM CREEL TO PLATE

Seeing the care with how the langoustine are caught makes you respect the ingredient that much more but it’s also interesting to see how fishing methods are nurturing the natural environment for future generations. RENEE MILLER

Known to the locals simply as ‘prawns’ the langoustines may look similar to a king prawn but they are closer in relation and flavour to a lobster. With a meaty tail, soft prawn-like texture their sweet flesh works well in raw dishes, simply prepared, as well as responding well to more complex cooking methods. Whilst it must have been a daunting task cooking for chefs and in particular one chef more commonly known for her unforgiving critique, Martin Wishart Restaurant at Cameron House Hotel impressed with his dishes, that let the quality of ingredients speak for themselves. The choice of many top chefs, Scottish Seafood also provides the premium ingredients used in many chef’s challenges and gourmet events including The World Association of Chefs’ Societies (WACS) Global Chefs’ Challenge 2012-2014 as well as the official seafood partner for the World Gourmet Summit, Singapore 2015.

Kilbrannan langostine ceviche, granny smith apple and crème fraiche Recipe Martin Wishart Restaurant INGREDIENTS

METHOD

LANGOUSTINES 8 langoustines 20ml olive Oil 1 Granny Smith apple 100g mooli (white radish) 50g crème fraîche 8 borage leaves

LANGOUSTINES 1. Start by preparing the langoustines, to do this twist off the tail and remove the middle fin of the langoustine this will remove the entrails. 2. Next freeze the langoustine tails for two hours before defrosting and de shelling. (This will kill any parasites) 3. Now chop the langoustine to a fine dice and dress lightly with the olive oil.

CEVICHE DRESSING 125ml fresh lime juice 70ml fish stock 125ml Granny Smith apple juice 30g sugar 5g salt 5g fresh coriander 1 clove garlic (sliced) I shallot (sliced) 20g celery (sliced) 10g root ginger (peeled and sliced) 1g xanthan gum AVOCADO PURÉE 3 avocados (ripe) 1 lime Tabasco sauce 20g crème fraîche Worcestershire sauce

CEVICHE DRESSING To make the dressing combine all the ingredients and mix well, let stand and infuse at room temperature for 30 minutes before passing through a fine sieve. AVOCADO PURÉE For the avocado mousse purée the avocados adding the crème fraîche, season with the salt, add the juice of the lime, tabasco and Worcestershire sauce to taste, next pass this through a fine sieve and reserve in a piping bag.

TO SERVE 1. To compile the dish place neat quenelle of the langoustine tartare into a bowl, thinly slice the radish and Granny Smith apple and cut into julienne, place this on top of the langoustine. 2. Pipe a small amount of the avocado purée onto the plate and some crème fraiche. Pour over the dressing, garnish with the borage and serve.

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TO D AY ’ S F O O D

BILLY AND THE CHICKS BEERS, BEARDS AND LONDON FRIED CHICKEN

Fried chicken, as a kid, was always a meeting point – Meet you at the KFC or outside the Morley’s by the bus stop on Saturday afternoon in south east London, with just enough for a two piece chicken and chips meal. Listening to music, mucking around on the streets and having a kick about, was my past times at the beginning of my teenage years.”

35 “It’s something that’s nostalgic for me… It’s going to watch West Ham lose on a freezing evening to Crewe, and scoffing a chicken burger with some wings to get the warmth back into my fingertips. It’s by default that fried chicken is my nostalgic meal and for many others born around the late 80’s and early 90’s. With a can of drink, drumstick in hand and listening to Fool’s Gold or Hypnotize… I was content. So me and my mate Sam are opening a chicken shop. A London Fried Chicken shop! No bells ‘n whistles (or waffles…) We are keeping it close to our hearts of when we were kids, in a place that’s close to our hearts as adults. Soho is a place we’ve both lived, worked, drunk and ate, a place where we’ve made many memories. Hopefully, here, we’ll make many more.” Billy Stock. The man behind the words and the birds is Billy Stock, a talented young chef who learnt his trade in some of London’s favourite restaurants including St Johns, Salt Yard and a few pop ups along the way. Joining him is his good mate Sam Bellamy and together they have opened their own place, going back to what they know best... fried chicken. Billy’s chicken is British born and London inspired, a totally different bucket from its beginnings in America. For one thing, Billy’s never crossed the pond, but also it’s inspired by memories of growing up in London. Sam and Billy reckon London Fried Chicken is all about keeping it simple and not faffing about or overcomplicating things, covering everything in fancy sauces – this isn’t what most Londoners fell in love with when growing up, and that’s what Billy’s is all about; fun, friendship, nostalgia but with some top quality nosh.

WHAT’S ON YOUR PLATE? Billy and the Chicks use the finest British ingredients from suppliers like Bread Ahead, Neal’s Yard Dairy, Walter Rose & Son and Spice Mountain for Billy’s very own secret herbs and spice mix. But really its all about the British birds – and these are some beauties. They’re free range Cotswold Whites, nicknamed ‘The Ballerina’ due to the way they dance around the fields – only the daintiest chickens for Billy’s diners. The chicken speaks for itself really – simple, delicious and real. The sides and extras on the menu is where Billy gets to show off all he’s learnt from some of the great chefs he’s worked with.

WHAT’S IN YOUR GLASS? Billy and Sam reckon a major issue with old school chicken shops is the struggle to get a decent alcoholic beverage. Whilst Billy and the Chicks wants to take you down memory lane, it’s all about having a good time, hanging out with like minded staff and washing down meals with the right drink – so as much effort has gone into the drinks menu as the food. Billy and the Chicks serves a selection of craft beers from around the country with Bermondsey based Four Pure Brewing Co, beer from Harbour Brewing and Red Stripe on the menu (because who wouldn’t want to drink Red Stripe with fried chicken?) Keep an eye out for new additions to the range, which will change seasonally. The bar also serves cocktails inspired by childhood drinks such as ‘Dr Nick’, a Dr Pepper influenced alcoholic creation from the boys’ friend Nick, Lilt inspired ‘Guilt’, ‘Cherry Up’ and ‘Banana Cream Soda’. Or ask the talented barman for anything you’d like that’s not on the menu. There are also dessert cocktails for those who can’t make their mind up to have another drink or something sweet – the ‘Strawberry and Cream’ and ‘Cinnamon Apple

Pie’ alcoholic floats made from Moonshine are a winner. Soft drinks are of course provided and again Billy and the Chicks will take you back in time with your old friends Tango, 7Up and Coke, as well as Dr Pepper and Irn Bru - all served in the can like any proper chicken shop.

WHAT’S IT GOING TO BE LIKE? Music is a passion of the boys so Billy and the Chicks is as much about the music as the food. Customers will be met with anything from Marvin Gaye to The Pixies, with ever changing playlists and DJs in a dedicated booth playing a mix of tunes from country, soul, funk, hip hop – there’s no rules, it’s all to add a personal touch and get everyone having a good time, without deafening diners. Billy and the Chicks is a place to bring together people with a passion for great food, great music and good times without pretension. The boys chose to open on St Anne Court to catch the back end of the spirit of old Soho, and keep this alive through Billy and the Chicks – a little bit gritty, a little bit old school and a lot of good times. Billyandthechicks.com

INGREDIENT

C H I C O RY

studiogi/shutterstock.com

Chicory is a woody, herbaceous plant that has a wealth of health benefits, including the ability to ease digestive problems, prevent heartburn, reduce arthritis pains, detoxify the liver and gallbladder, prevent bacterial infections, boost the immune system, and reduce the chance of heart disease. It is also a natural sedative, and can protect against kidney stones, and benefit attempts to lose weight. All in all, this small plant is a powerful addition to any diet. Chicory grows well in many different conditions, and is commonly found on the roadsides in Europe, where it

originated, but it has now naturalized into the Americas and can be found widely there. The leaves, buds, and roots all have certain beneficial qualities, and the leaves are used in a similar way as spinach in many cultures. The root is often ground into a powder and used as a coffee substitute, which doesn’t negate all of its health benefits. It has been used for hundreds of years as a herbal remedy for many diseases, and continues to prove its worth today.

Marinated seabass, glazed chicory, coriander emulsion By Regis Crepy INGREDIENTS

METHOD

Affilla cress Sea trout caviar Coriander micro leaves Red mustard frills Radish

CORIANDER EMULSION Put the water and the coriander in the vitamix and slowly add the olive oil. Season to taste. Put the emulsion in a squeeze bottle.

CORIANDER EMULSION 50ml warm water 2dl olive oil 1 bunch coriander Salt and pepper SEA BASS 1 fillet of sea bass, boned, skin on 110g salt 110g sugar 4 bunches of dill chopped 1 orange zest 2 lemon zest 4 star anise powdered GLAZED CHICORY 1 chicory (need only half for this recipe) 1 lemon, zest and juice 1 tsp ascorbic acid 50ml water Sugar

SEA BASS Mix salt, sugar, chopped dill, orange and lemon zest and star anise together. Rub all over the sea bass. Marinate for 24 hours. GLAZED CHICORY 1. Soak the chicory in the water with the ascorbic acid for 1 hour. Dry and season with the sugar, salt and lemon zest and juice. 2. Vac pack and cook sous vide for one hour at 85⁰C. Let it cool in iced water for one hour. 3. Remove from the pouch and slice in quarter. Caramelise 2 quarters in a frying pan and reserve. TO PLATE 1. Thinly slice the sea bass and arrange on the plate with the caramelised chicory. Decorate with the cress, caviar, micro leaves, the frills and the radish. 2. Using the squeeze bottle dab three or four coriander emulsion dots around the plate.

| Seasonal ingredient | Truffles

INGREDIENT

TRUFFLES WHICH TRUFFLES ARE THE GOURMET EDIBLES?

Oregon white truffle (Tuber oregonense and T. gibbosum) Reasonably common in the Pacific Northwest from the west side of the Cascade mountains to the coast from British Columbia to northern California. Tuber oregonense is generally found from October through February. Its exterior perideum is whitish when young, developing orangish-brown tints as it matures, and finally becoming orangishbrown overall.Microscopically, it has a perideum of interwoven hyphae. Tuber gibbosum is usually found from February through June. Its exterior perideum begins whitish and becomes pale olive-brown as it matures. Microscopically the perideum is of inflated cells. In both species, the texture is quite firm (not spongy), and the interior is white when immature becoming a marbled smokey brown as it matures. Both species seem to prefer young (15-40 year-old) Douglas-fir plantations. By February, most of the Tuber oregonense should be pretty mature and the T. gibbosum will just be getting started. Tom Volk has a nice Oregon white truffle website. You can also read more about both Oregon white and black truffles in this article.

Oregon brown truffle (Kalapuya brunnea) The Oregon brown truffle was discovered by NATS members in the early 1990’s and formally described in 2010. It grows in younger Douglas-fir forests in the Oregon Coast Range and western foothills of the Cascades. It has a reddish-brown exterior and a greyish mottled interior. When mature the odor can be quite garlicky.

Oregon black truffle (Leucangium carthusianum, formerly Picoa carthusiana) Less common than Oregon white truffles, Oregon blacks are larger (golf-ball to baseball size), and are often much deeper in the soil than Oregon whites (commonly 4-10” deep). They are very dark inside and out, and have a very pungent, earthy odor when ripe. Some equate the aroma to a strange mix of pineapple, port, mushrooms, rich soil, and chocolate. Looking like irregular lumps of coal, with white-veined flesh, the Oregon black truffle has a texture of moist Parmesan and ground almonds.

French black (Perigord) truffle (Tuber melanosporum)

Native to the oak forests of the Perigord region of central and southwest France, it is now widely cultivated in Spain, Australia, and the United States. The black perigord is among the most valuable of truffles at up to $1000/pound. It has a blue-black exterior when fresh, fading to brown-black with age and a pungent, earthy odor.

Italian white (Piedmont) truffle (Tuber magnatum) Considered by some (mostly the French) to be second best to the French black truffles, its cost can exceed that of the perigord. It is native to the foothills and mountains of northern and central Italy and southern Yugoslavia. They grow in conjuction with oak, hazel, poplar, and beech trees. The flesh is solid, light-coloured, and very brittle; it

is not unheard of for a fresh truffle to shatter if dropped on the floor. Large specimens can weigh as much as a pound, but most are the size of large walnuts. The white truffle is slightly more perishable than its darker cousins, and the flavour and aroma diminishes within a week or two after harvest. The white truffle has a distinctive pepper edge and is often eaten raw. The skin is a dirty beige when fresh, turning a darker brown with age. More information can be found at this website.

Burgundy, or Summer truffle (Tuber aestivum, formerly Tuber uncinatum) Native to France, Italy, and Spain, the summer truffles are usually at their best in July, but can be found from May to October. They have a black exterior and off-white interior, and a relatively light scent. This truffle has been established on plantations in Sweden and New Zealand.

Tuscan truffle (Tuber borchii, formerly Tuber albidum) Similar to the Italian white truffle in appearance, having a chestnut to muddy tan exterior and a softish interior equally divided between chocolate brown and white. The flavor can be distinctly garlicky.

Pecan (Texas) truffle (Tuber lyonii, formerly Tuber texense) Pecan truffles (also called Texas truffles) are found from New Mexico to the gulf coast and eastern seaboard to the great lakes and eastern Canada. It is not limited to areas with pecan trees, but was named based on the habitat in which it was discovered. More information can be found at this University of Georgia website. Click here for a story about Pecan truffles from the Hilton Head Island-Bluffton Island Packet, and click here for a story about Pecan truffles from the New York Times.

Chinese truffles (Tuber sinense, Tuber indicum, and Tuber himalayense) These are three distinct species found in southwest China, but pickers tend to lump them together as Chinese truffles. This is unfortunate since the flavor and quality vary from one species to another. First marketed in France in 1994, these truffles are now found in American restaurants at fairly reasonable prices, but their flavor and aroma do not come close to that of the French truffles, perhaps for the same reasons as Oregon white truffles (too many immature specimens). T. indicum is recognizable by its brown interior and very fine white veins. T. sinense has a dark brown interior with large ivory veins, and is said to be chewy and oily with a bitter aftertaste.

Desert truffles (Terfezia boudieri, Terfezia pfielii, Terfezia claveryi, and others) Native to northern Africa and the Middle East, these truffles have been a staple for many nomadic tribes for millenia. Sometimes called the Lightning Truffle, they often fruit shortly after thunderstorms wet the desert. There is an account of desert truffle culture.

| Seasonal Ingredient | Truffles

R Pigeon breast, truffle, girolles mushroom and red beetroot By Regis Crepy INGREDIENTS

METHOD

1 pigeon 600g (we use the Vendee pigeon from West of France) 1 truffle, sliced finely 2 baby red beetroot few girolle mushrooms 2 dl pigeon stock 1 dl wine 10g honey 10 ml sherry vinegar pinch 5 spices 50g salted butter Red basil micro leaves Red veined sorrel micro leaves

BEETROOT Poach the beetroot in salted water until cooked, then glaze in a frying pan to caramelise. Cut in quarters. PIGEON 1. Remove the legs and keep aside for another use. Pan fry the pigeon breasts on the bone and with the skin on for about 5 minutes on each side. 2. Then cook in the oven for about 8 minutes at 180⁰C. Take out of the oven and rest for 5- 10 minutes before removing the two breasts from the bone. Keep warm. GIROLLE MUSHROOMS While the pigeon cooks in the oven, glaze the girolle mushrooms in butter making sure they are not overdone and retain a little crunch. Season accordingly. SAUCE 1. Reduce by half the pigeon stock with the wine, vinegar and honey. 2. Add the 5 spices and 50g butter swirling the pan around until the butter is incorporated. Season to taste. TO PLATE 1. On the plate arrange the girolle mushrooms anvd the glazed beetroot. 2. Lay the pigeon breast on top and drizzle the sauce over the vegetables. 3. Lay some sliced truffle on top of the pigeon and decorate with the micro leaves.

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THE SOUS VIDE EXPERT Sous Vide Tools, the UK’s leading supplier of sous vide equipment, has extended its team to further its specialist business consultancy offering. Chris Holland, Great British Menu 2013 contestant and head chef at 3AA Rosette Alderley Edge Hotel, comes on board full-time from January 2015 as chef director. After three years as its part-time development chef, Sous Vide Tools will now have Chris on hand full-time. Having cooked using the sous vide technique for over 10 years, Chris’ sous vide knowledge is second to none. Businesses and chefs can now access expert sous vide advice, training and menu development whilst learning how to incorporate the flavour-enhancing cooking technique into their food service. Commenting on the role Chris said: “Sous vide cooking has been an important part of almost everything I have achieved in my working career. It gives me great pleasure to pass on my knowledge and expertise and I’m looking forward to helping more businesses implement this clever cooking technique into their kitchens.” Alex Shannon, managing director at Sous Vide Tools, said: “We sell an extensive range of high quality sous vide products and provide excellent expert advice, training and technical support but wanted to take this to the next level.” “With Chris on board we’ll now be able to give even more advice and support to chefs and businesses, and further develop our online advice, recipes and tips as well as offering wider consultancy and specialist training.”

NEED MORE INFORMATION? To discuss your tailor made consultancy package, please speak to one of our advisors or contact us

call 0800 678 5001 or visit: www.sousvidetools.com email: enquiries@sousvidetools.com tweet:@sousvidetools

INGREDIENT

E N J OY I N G T H E G A M E WILLIAM DRABBLE ELIZABETH HOTSON

It’s 10.30 and William Drabble - or Billy as he’s affectionately known at Seven Park Place - appears in the doorway. He looks exhausted, there’s no other way of putting it. It’s 10.30 and William Drabble - or Billy as he’s affectionately known at Seven Park Place - appears in the doorway. He looks exhausted, there’s no other way of putting it. “I was up until 2am,” he explains, sliding into a chair. “We had a full silver service charity dinner last night. It was Downton Abbey themed, 1920s style.” So much silver was used that Billy had to borrow it from a local silver merchant. There’s a twinkle in his eye as he reels off the courses; salmon mayonnaise, whole roast chickens carved at the table, flaming Christmas pudding, the list goes on. This is not food for the faint hearted or faddy. It’s full on, packed with flavour and unfussy. Winter at his eponymous Seven Park Place by WIlliam Drabble means game and lots of it. “The Glorious 12th, the start of the grouse season is my favourite day of the year. I can’t wait to get it on the menu,” grins Billy. Grouse is just the start of it, the menu’s packed with furred and feathered game; rabbit, venison, teal….For diners who really want to push the gastronomic boat out there’s a truffle degustation menu. This currently includes saddle of venison, pomme de terre Ninon and truffle jus, Marmite of game with black truffle and to end the meal in style, sublimely rich truffle ice cream with port reduction. It’s unashamedly luxurious. Yet for the sheer opulence of it all, Billy is a modest guy. There’s no basking in the glory of his own talent or waxing lyrical about his latest gastronomic masterpiece. “How would I describe my style? Straightforward cooking with great ingredients. A beautiful truffle or a perfectly hung piece of meat should speak for itself. You don’t need to mess around with it.” It’s the kind of approach that has garnered numerous accolades for his Mayfair-based restaurant. The majestic squares and fabulously expensive shops of London’s most exclusive corner are a long way from Billy’s beginnings on Merseyside and Norfolk. But Billy’s roots are the key to his success. His childhood in the East

Anglian countryside first inspired his culinary ambitions. “We grew loads of fruit and veg at home so great seasonal produce was the norm. Watching my mum and grandma create wonderful food from what we’d grown has stayed with me throughout my career.” Starting at 13 in the kitchens of local hotels, Billy’s next step was catering college. “It was the making of me. I loved it and pretty much straight after I finished my course I got my first job at the Mirabelle.” The Grand Hotel in Eastbourne’s French restaurant was something of a peculiarity in 1989. “It was high end, fine dining and I’m not sure Eastbourne was ready for it! There were some pretty quiet days but that was great for me. Keith Mitchell who was - and still is - in charge, taught me about refined sauces, the necessity of tasting everything after two, four, six, eight, ten, twelve minutes, how to tell that a piece of meat is cooked purely by touch.” After a thorough grounding at the Mirabelle, Billy moved to the Capital in Knightsbridge, then to 3 Michelin starred Nico 90 Park Lane, where he became junior sous chef. He also managed to fit in a stint at Tom Aikens’ former restaurant Pied à Terre before moving moved to Michael’s Nook in the Lake District and his first head chef job. “I went there in August when I was 25 and a few months after my 26th birthday I was awarded a Michelin star. Then less than a year later, in July Gordon Ramsay walked out of the Aubergine. I was offered his old job and moved back to London. Following someone like Gordon was incredibly daunting, but things fell into place and I stayed for more than 10 years.” Billy speaks fondly about his time at Aubergine but when the job came up at Seven Park Place he was ready for the new challenge. “It was time to move on but I’m not going to say it was easy. At the beginning especially it was incredibly hard work but the management were very supportive and

pretty much gave me free reign to put my stamp on the place.” A Michelin star came a year after Billy started and he’s held it ever since. He attributes a big part of his success to the most basic thing imaginable; ingredients. “I champion British farmers and producers. We use two fish suppliers on the south coast of England and I have supplier up in Scotland for my scallops and langoustines.

We grew loads of fruit and veg at home so great seasonal produce was the norm. Watching my mum and grandma create wonderful food from what we’d grown has stayed with me throughout my career. WILLIAM DRABBLE

For meat and game I still use the butcher I had when I was in the Lake District. He’s based at the meeting point of Cumbria, Lancashire and Yorkshire so he’s got access to the best of everything. That’s what makes the difference.” Does Billy have ambitions to open a standalone restaurant of his own? “Why would I? I’ve got everything I need here.”

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R Roast grouse with blackberries and port wine jus

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By William Drabble INGREDIENTS 4 young grouse SAUCE 100 ml olive oil 100 g butter 2 shallots peeled and sliced 4 sprigs of thyme 2 flat mushrooms 2 cloves of garlic peeled and sliced 300 ml veal jus 200 ml chicken stock 200 ml port GARNISH 500 ml duck fat 1 savoy cabbage 24 blackberries Potato galette Hearts and livers from birds Thigh meat from birds 3 large potatoes baked in oven and centres removed 200 g bread crumbs 2 eggs whisked 100 g seasoned flour

METHOD 1. 2. 3. 4.

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Remove legs and wings from birds. Separate thigh from drumstick by cutting through joint. Place thighs into a pan with some duck fat and confit slowly until soft. Remove meat from thigh making sure there is no bone or lead shot and flake up. Remove intestines reserving hearts and livers. Cut across spine where legs have been removed and put to one side. 7. Remove crop and wish bone. To make sauce put olive oil and butter into a pan, when it starts to foam add the drumsticks, winglets and spine bone from the bird and slowly caramelise. When bones are caramelised add the sliced shallots and garlic, cook until soft. Then add sliced mushrooms cook until water is cooked out of them and they start to caramelise. Then drain the fat from the pan and deglaze with the port, add the bones back to the pan with the thyme and fresh blackberries and boil until the bones become glazed, then add the

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chicken stock and jus, bring up to the boil and skim. Cook slowly for 20 mins. Pass through fine chinoise and then 4 layers of muslin cloth. Put back into a pan bring up to the boil and reduce until light syrupy consistency, skimming all of the time. To make galette bake some potatoes until soft, scoop the centres out and put to one side. Saute the livers and hearts and then chop to a smooth paste along with the Confit thigh meat. Mix potato into the paste meat a little at a time until you get the taste you require (it can be quite strong) season with salt and pepper, then form into 4 round discs approx 1 cm thick, let them set in the fridge. When potato mix is set, put through flour, egg and bread crumbs and put to one side. For the savoy cabbage remove dark green outer leaves and discard, use nice light tender green leaves removing stalk and slicing very thinly, then place into boiling salted water until tender and then straight into iced water. To cook dish........ Seal the grouse all over in a hot pan with olive oil and butter until golden brown then place into a hot oven (180 c) for 4-8 mins depending upon size of bird. When bird is cooked rest in a warm place. In the meantime cook the potato gallete in a deep fryer until golden brown and crispy, reheat the cabbage in a little butter, season with a little salt and pepper Place the blackberries into the sauce at the last minute just to warm through. Then remove breasts from bird keep warm. To assemble the dish place cabbage into the centre of the dish, place galette on top of the cabbage then place grouse breasts on top of the galette (one on top of the other). Place blackberries around cabbage. Bring sauce back up to the boil check for consistency (you may want to whisk a little bit of butter into your sauce at this point just to smooth it out and make it shine), pour sauce over and around grouse and serve.

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L A H I R U J AYA S E K A R A

CRAFT GUILD OF CHEFS’ N AT I O N A L C H E F OF THE YEAR

“I think the biggest lesson I’ve picked up working in so many places is not to go crazy in the kitchen,” he says – and he means

that literally, rather than in terms of overly-inventive dishes. “You can’t lose it, because it just doesn’t bring out the best in people. Respect the ingredients, yes, but also each other. I mean, those people are really a second family. You spend most of your life with them. So, really, what’s the point if you’re not having some fun?” JOSH SIMMS

51 Oh the glamour of the haute dining establishment – the finery, the deference, the decadence... Well, says Lahiru ‘Larry’ Jayasekara, you can keep it. “I wouldn’t be here in the UK if I hadn’t met an English girl back home in Sri Lanka. No chance,” says the senior sous chef at Gordon Ramsay’s Petrus, and now the National Chef of the Year for 2015. “I was quite happy in Sri Lanka” – where he oversaw the cooking for a small beach-side family restaurant established by his parents. “You work hard for six months during the tourist season, and for the rest of the year you just live your life. It’s not like here [in the UK], were you have to want everything – all that consumerism. Here it’s all about following trends, and that attitude can apply to the faddish food too. Back home in Sri Lanka everything is much simpler.” Indeed, with an army of chefs below him, and working hours typical of a London hot spot – not to mention the grime, bustle and pace of London life – Jayasekara could hardly be further away from the environment of his upbringing. But, although he moved to the UK 14 years ago, he keeps a little bit of his homeland with him, in his life philosophy – “you just have to try to find your own way, deal with it on your own terms and remember that life is too short to worry even about what’s happening just a couple of months ahead” – and in his approach to cooking. That too, is all about simplicity.

“I’m really not into cooking for show,” he explains. “You have to want to eat food, not look at it, say ‘wow’, then put it in your mouth and be disappointed. You have to work hard to make a dish look good on the plate, but that has to work around whatever you do to make it taste good first. Food should give pleasure.” It is to this end then that, unsurprisingly, Jayasekara leans towards more classical cooking. He gives the main dish of his National Chef of the Year-winning menu by way of example: whereas the trend may now be to, for example, pan-fry a piece of venison, he creates a toasted covering for his using crushed juniper berries, which gives the meat an aroma to complement the sweetness of a red current jelly. That doesn’t sound so simple – “but it’s not all about foams and water-baths,” he counters. “Don’t get me wrong – they have their place, but only if they improve the flavour. You have to keep asking yourself why something is part of the dish. And if it’s just there for presentation’s sake really, I say forget about it. What you want is for your customer to ask the waiter what’s been done with the food to make it taste so good. That’s the real accolade.” Jayasekara has a rather more obvious accolade himself now – having triumphed, on his third go, in arguably the UK’s most prestigious cookery competition. He won’t, he says, be entering again. Rather, it’s a box he wanted to tick, and now he’s ready to move on and grow not just as a chef but as a person. Indeed, that, he says, has been the main motivation for his choice of employers to date – which reads somewhat like a Who’s Who of the country’s major name chefs of recent years. Having studied cookery at South Devon College – studies he took up only on his wife’s insistence and encouragement – he then worked at Torquay’s Derwent Hotel (under Andy Johnston) and then at its Grand Hotel (under Wayne Madden). But then he moved up and around the big city, and began his ascent up the greasy pole: as a senior chef de partie for the GR Company under Gordon Ramsay; then as chef de partie under Michelle Roux Sr at the Waterside Inn; then as senior sous chef under Gary Jones and Raymond Blanc at Le Manoir Aux Quatre Saisons; and then, in the same position, at the Berkley Hotel under Marcus Wareing. Then, after a brief 18 months as head chef at The Manor Weston on the Green in Oxfordshire, he was back with Gordon Ramsay at Petrus. “Every place I’ve worked was with a purpose in mind,” Jayasekara says. “I wanted to work for the GR Company while Ramsay was still in the kitchen, for example, which I got to do – it was an opportunity to work with someone who’s not only a great chef but a great businessman. I wanted to go to Waterside because it basically brought the idea of the Michelin star to the UK and many of the very best chefs have worked there. Le Manoir was the best kitchen I ever worked in – it was about making you as much a good person as as a good chef. A lot of what I learned there was a real eye-opener for me.”

Without those other skills – from knowing how to turn a profit, to knowing how to speak with people to understanding hygiene – you don’t have the consistency in a business, and without the consistency, you don’t get loyal customers, and that applies as much to a burger bar as a Michelin star restaurant, ... LAHIRU ‘LARRY’ JAYASEKARA

JAYASEKARA ON THE NATIONAL CHEF OF THE YEAR COMPETITION

Jayasekara cites perhaps the simplest, and yet most over-looked, idea in the restaurant business as his best example. “Understanding that not everyone lives, feels or even eats as you do,” is how he summarises. “And the idea that cooking is really about trying to make someone happy, because most people do not eat out at a top restaurant often – it’s a special occasion – so you have to give them something they’ll enjoy, that it leaves them feeling is correctly priced, whatever that price is. The fact is that a lot of chefs forget they’re cooking for the general public, not other chefs.” But Jayasekara goes further. It is, he says, the lack of a rounded education in the kitchen arts of the kind he has been lucky enough to receive that is leading the UK industry into what he predicts will be a crisis. After all, he says, cooking is not that difficult – it is, he posits, common sense combined with “a bit of an understanding of the marriage of flavours”. What makes a successful chef – and by turns a successful restaurant – is everything that isn’t cooking. “Without those other skills – from knowing how to turn a profit, to knowing how to speak with people to understanding hygiene – you don’t have the consistency in a business, and without the consistency, you don’t get loyal customers, and that applies as much to a burger bar as a Michelin star restaurant,” he says. “And the fact is that not many young chefs are being trained in these things anymore. I get five or 10 CVs a day and they often leave me speechless – they show no real understanding of the business, because they haven’t been given it. No wonder there is a shortage of chefs now.” No wonder too that Jayasekara does all he can to make the team he works with one that wants to stick around – and for more reasons than a concern about the likelihood of replacing them. Rather it turns back to that life philosophy he tries to maintain. “I think the biggest lesson I’ve picked up working in so many places is not to go crazy in the kitchen,” he says – and he means that literally, rather than in terms of overly-inventive dishes. “You can’t lose it, because it just doesn’t bring out the best in people. Respect the ingredients, yes, but also each other. I mean, those people are really a second family. You spend most of your life with them. So, really, what’s the point if you’re not having some fun?”

Lahiru Jayasekara had no doubts he would enter the Craft Guild of Chefs’ National Chef of the Year competition yet again. “I’m just the type of person who doesn’t give up when I’ve set my mind to do something,” he says. “And if I hadn’t won this time I’d be back next year. Thankfully I did, so I won’t be doing it again – it just takes up so much time and effort”. The rewards, though mostly intangible – bar a medal and catering equipment – have, he says, been none the less invaluable for that: from the opportunity to make contact and take advice from high-profile chefs – the competition was conducted in front of a judging panel with 31 Michelin stars between its members, including the likes of Clare Smyth, Sat Bains, Claude Bosi and Jocelyn Herland – to the win being another step towards his becoming one of those himself. Past winners have included Gordon Ramsay, Mark Sargeant and Simon Hulstone. But perhaps the greatest insight came only from having entered the competition three years running. “Of course, there was an advantage in that – you’re more confident, you go in understanding where you went wrong last time, and you know you won’t make the mistakes this time.” Jayasekara says. But he third shot at the title also taught him to be more tactical. By his own admission, on previous occasions his attitude had been one of a determination to make one 10/10 dish, rather than three dishes – made from a surprise selection of ingredients – perhaps lower scoring but all very good; to create a dish that tasted as he wanted it to, even if that meant going well over the allotted time. “This time I understood that it’s part of the competition to take part within the rules,” he laughs. “The judges don’t want anything less than a good plate of food, of course, but they also want it within the constraints of the situation. So you have to be on time. You have to present three dishes. So I re-thought my strategy.” Indeed, his starter, for example– a lobster salad – was a cold one, “so I didn’t waste time worrying whether the temperature was right,” he notes; he spent more time on the main – venison with a roasted celeriac puree, grated nutmeg and blackberry sauce – “because that’s where most of the points are”; and, in keeping with Jayasekara’s preferred style of cooking, the dessert he kept “simple and tasty”, a Cacao Barry Chocolate and coffee cream confection with chocolate ice cream and roasted pear. The deserts, in fact, were described as being the best the competition had ever seen since it was founded back in 1972. Someone, somewhere, has a very sweet tooth.

W O R L D C H O C O L AT E MASTERS 2015 P R E PA R E TO S U C C E E D time to reflect and consolidate my ideas, develop them and put them into motion. Above all, what was important was not to lose time. So every day after work and practising on my days off I worked, first tasting the small showpiece and the big one with Thierry Bamas and Pierre Mirgalet, two of my coaches who gave me advice. Then I rehearsed to check if my timing was good.

Q&A with World Chocolate Master 2015, VINCENT VALLÉE

HOW DO I PLAN ON CONVINCING THE JURY MEMBERS? As for the national final, I prepare my showpieces depending on my feelings and what I want to convey. I want to convince the jury with the interpretation of the theme of the showpiece, touch them emotionally, by mastering chocolate, sharpness, cleanliness in collages, skill, dexterity execution . For my taste , a reflection of what I like to eat , simple and straight forward tastes , textures and delicate on the palate, with an original visual .

W HERE DOES MY PASSION FOR CHOCOLATE STEM FROM? I have always loved working with chocolate since I started in this business 12 years ago, but my passion took an even more interesting turn when I worked with Patrick Gelenscer Relais Desserts International at la Roche sur Yon, with my teammate Alain Roman. The chocolate art and sculpture fascinates me. Modeling, texture, molding and realism I like everything in this incredible and limitless material where everything is possible.

WHY DO I PARTICIPATE TO THE WORLD CHOCOLATE MASTERS? Since my training with Alain Chartier (MOF) and Relais dessert International, I read the pastry newspaper and saw parts of the World

Chocolate Masters competition organised by Cacao Barry. I remember Yvonnick Le Maux and his showpiece which fascinated me. I was far from suspecting at the time that I would participate in the WCM International Finale. I decided later in 2011 to participate at LA CABOSSE D’OR in Vannes where I finished second, I was not prepared enough. In 2014, Mr Bamas (MOF), my current employer, decided to sign me up for my first trophy, Exp’Hôtel Bordeaux Criollo, the new “salon”that allows access to the French Finale WCM; it was a chance not to miss. At this time, only one aim: to be the winner. Participating in the WCM helps you to push your limits and to give the best of you;This competition is unique in the world of chocolate.

HOW DO I PREPARE FOR THE WCM? The preparation of the WCM began at the end of the selection in Lyon. Since the World Cup was in October, there were 10 months: it’s a long and short

WHAT DO I HOPE TO LEARN FROM THIS EXPERIENCE? This adventure is unique, and has been since the selections, no competition is comparable to the WCM. I have a chance to share my passion with other professionals. Loving the challenge. The challenge is daunting for me to compete with others and go beyond my limits. Participating in such a competition, is not always clear, we think, reflect, work tremendously which is what makes us progress even more and become stronger. Representing France, many people dream of it, I would have lived it, and I can say that the WCM experience have made me grow, evolve, affirming my style in my work as pastry chef chocolatier.

| WCM 2015 | Vincent Vallée

4 Lotus Flowers By Vincent Vallée A Patisserie of the Day that represents flower petals, made with a crunchy chocolate praline speculoos, multiple layers of thin leaves of Extra Bitter Guayaquil chocolate, passion fruit mango diplomat and low-fat OcoaTM chocolate cream. The heart of the flower is composed of banana-passion fruit-vanilla compote. Poached, it gives you an instant and incomparable pleasure.

INGREDIENTS CHOCOLATE SPECULOOS 180g/TRAY 77g butter 90g brown sugar 154g flour 14g milk 1g salt 28g Cacao Barry© cocoa powder Plein Arôme CHOCOLATE BISCUIT 650g / TRAY 55g invert sugar 190g whole eggs 55g almond powder 95g sugar 90g single cream (35%) 95g flour 20g Cacao Barry© cocoa powder Plein Arôme 2g salt 55g butter 20g Cacao Barry© cocoa mass Grand Caraque CRUNCHY CHOCOLATE SPECULOOS PRALINÉ 25g/PIECE 180g Cacao Barry© Almond Hazlenut Praliné 210g chocolate speculoos 20g butter 55g Cacao Barry© Deodorised Cocoa Butter 50g Cacao Barry© dark chocolate couverture OcoaTM 70% cocoa

‘4 FLOWERS’ COMPOTE 20g / PIECE 90g ‘Vintage’ Passion fruit purée, Capfruit, from Ivory Coast 90g Fruit‘Purée Mango Alphonso Capfruit 160g Fruit‘Purée Banana Capfruit ½ Bora Bora vanilla bean 20g glucose DE40 40g sugar 10g pectin NH PASSION FRUIT MANGO DIPLOMAT CRÈME 30g / PIECE 100g Fruit‘Purée Passion fruit, Capfruit 190g Fruit‘Purée Mango Alphonso, Capfruit ½ Bora Bora vanilla bean (sliced) 56g egg yolks 56g sugar 28g starch 40g butter 2½ gelatine leaves (200 bloom) 170g whipped cream (35%) CHOCOLATE OCOATM 70% DIPLOMAT 170g milk 32g egg yolks 32g sugar 17g butter 50g Cacao Barry© dark chocolate couverture OcoaTM 70% cocoa 1 gelatine leaf (200 bloom) 100g whipped cream (35%)

METHOD CHOCOLATE SPECULOOS 1. Mix together all the ingredients and homogenise. 2. Strain onto the tray covered with greaseproof paper and bake at 150˚C for 20 minutes. CHOCOLATE BISCUIT 1. Melt together the butter and cocoa mass at 50˚C. 2. Mix together all the other ingredients and add to cocoa mass mixture. 3. Bake at 170˚C for 8 minutes. CRUNCHY CHOCOLATE SPECULOOS PRALINÉ 1. Mix together chocolate speculoos and praliné. 2. Melt together the butter, cocoa butter and chocolate at 45˚C. 3. Pour onto the praliné mixture and homogenise. ‘4 FLOWERS’ COMPOTE 1. Mix together all the purée and vanilla. 2. Add the glucose and heat. 3. Add the sugar and pectin, and heat to 65˚C.

PASSION FRUIT MANGO DIPLOMAT CRÈME 1. Boil together all the purée. Add the vanilla and leave to infuse. 2. Blanch together the sugar, egg yolks and starch. 3. Remove the vanilla from the boiling fruit purées and pour the latter onto the blanched mixture. 4. Cook the cream for 2 minutes, add butter and pre-hydrated gelatine leaves. 5. Leave to cool on film-wrapped tray. 6. When cool, whip up and mix in the whipped cream. Store in a cold environment (4˚C) until the moment of use. CHOCOLATE OCOATM 70% DIPLOMAT 1. Blanch together the sugar, egg yolks and starch. 2. Bring the milk to boil and pour onto the blanched mixture. 3. Cook the cream for 2 minutes and add the hydrated gelatine leaves and chocolate. 4. Leave to cool on a film-wrapped tray. 5. Whip up, mix in the whipped cream and store in a cold environment (4˚C) until the moment of use.

FINISHING AND ASSEMBLY 1. When cool, cut the chocolate biscuit into the desired shape and place into an equally sized frame. 2. Spread the crunchy chocolate speculoos praliné onto the chocolate biscuit and freeze. 3. Unmould and pipe passion fruit mango diplomat crème around the biscuit edges with a small piping bag and pipe chocolate diplomat into the biscuit centre. 4. Cover with a thin layer of Cacoa Barry dark© chocolate couverture Extra-Bitter Guayaquil 64% cocoa and pipe ‘4 flowers’ compote into the centre.

WCM UK ENTRANT A L I S TA I R B I RT Age: 26 WCM national qualifiers achievements: Best chocolate showpiece, best Cake of the Day and best Chocolate to Go concept

PROFILE Whilst studying at university, Alistair Birt fell in love with all things sweet and chocolate. Under the tutelage of pastry expert Yolande Stanley Birt travelled across the UK and America visiting top industry names, which cumulated in him representing the UK in pastry at the 2009 edition of Worldskills in Canada. Birt is currently responsible for all production at William Curley, which includes chocolates, patisserie, baked goods, plated desserts and much. Birt has competed in many competitions, including the 2013 UK qualifying round for the World Chocolate Masters where he came in second and won the awards for Best Showpiece and Best Entremet. He also visited China on a British council tour, demonstrating and lecturing on the benefits of skilled labour and has been a guest lecturer at Westminster Kingsway College several times. In 2013, Birt received the coveted Acorn Award, which acknowledges people under 30who have made a significant contribution in their field.

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Pastry Layers

brave new world SIMON JENKINS Today, patisserie is something quite different to what it was when I started out in my career – when I started my journey into the world of pastry, it was very much classically based with traditional garnishes, despite having a lighter twist on the main elements – but generally quite safe in terms of flavour profiles and combinations. Simon Jenkins

In present day patisserie those parameters are much wider. Allowing the ability to merge together flavours and textures, which are bolder and braver – trying out new and imaginative ideas. In some cases you might not naturally think they would work but they can, if successful, make a dish stunning – or occasionally result in disaster! Incorporating interesting, wonderful and unique flavours, speciality ingredients, or even adding savoury elements and interactive touches at the table does, in some establishments, push the experience to the extreme for both the pastry chef and the diner. Moving away from the more traditional style of cookery – introducing new technology and cookery methods to improve and incorporate new, lighter, exciting touches, adding a new technique here and a change of consistency there – all transforms the pastry department into a more interesting and exciting place to be, to now say “the world is your oyster” is an understatement. With the many varied techniques, and new, innovative products and equipment available to the pastry chef, there is so much scope for creativity, making the field of pastry much more exciting, different and unique than the more traditional base from which it has evolved. Pastry in the UK always has, and still does, draw on influences from influential pastry chefs at home, and around the world, bringing a whole range of new ideas which can enhance our skills and allow us to introduce different ways to create, build and dress, our newest

labours of love to present to our clients, who in turn will let us know if they are successful. Presentation has a great deal to do with the current practice of modern pastry – eating with your eyes is just as important as the taste, using different finishings on items, creating new and elegant decors, or even being completely left field – this offers the guest a completely fresh approach, a much more exciting experience and hopefully one which they will remember. It also gives us, as the pastry chefs, a greater challenge if we choose – we can be as creative as possible, showing off our skills with the new techniques, methods and blank canvas on offer. Now more than ever there is also the added requirement and pressure to incorporate dietary and allergen options into a menu – this in itself is now part of the modern pastry chef’s thought process, whether welcomed or not, and should also be tackled as part of the creativity challenge. Being able to create dishes which are dairy free, wheat free, reduced sugar, or a combination of some or all of these, is now part and parcel of our current working environment, as many diners now have dietary requests, or allergen restrictions. Now currently working as a pastry consultant, I understand that every client’s brief is individual and will always require something specific to them. This allows me to be as creative as the client’s parameters permit whilst offering them something personal and specifically tailored to their business.

Sweet avocado white chocolate chia By Simon Jenkins Serves 4 / Shelf life 3 days INGREDIENTS AVOCADO MOUSSE 50g Whipping cream 1⁄4no. Re chilli, no seeds, roughly chopped 100g White chocolate, semi melted 60g Fresh avocado puree 60g Whipping cream 0.50g Pinch salt 5g Lime juice

10g Agave syrup (light and mild) 1g Super fine red chilli dice 3g Super fine fresh ginger dice

CHIA SEED GEL

CARAMELISED GRUE 100g Grue cocoa nib warm 70g caster sugar, caramel

15G CHIA SEEDS 45g Water 70g Apple juice

GARNISH Toasted corn on the cob 70% dark chocolate

METHOD AVOCADO MOUSSE 1. Bring the cream and chilli to the boil, and Infuse lightly for 20 minutes. 2. Pass the cream through a chinois then reboil and emulsify with the chocolate. 3. Add to the puree, the salt and lime, emulsify with the chocolate and make smooth. 4. Fold in the cream. 5. Weigh at 55g per mould 90cm diameter. 6. Store in the fridge.

CHIA SEED GEL 1. Mix the Chia seeds with the water, and leave for 5 minutes.

TO SERVE Construct as illustrated.

Gently work in the apple juice, and the syrup. 3. Add the chopped chilli, and ginger. 4. Reserve in the fridge. CARAMELISED GRUE 1. Make a caramel using the caster sugar, when a golden colour is reached add the warm cocoa nib and coat well. 2. Turn out onto silicone, break up lightly paper to cool. 3. Store in an air tight environment.

COUP DU MONDE DE LA PÂTISSERIE 2017 The opening day of this year’s Restaurant Show was also the occasion for the 3rd UK Pastry Open Competition

and Awards Ceremony. The overall winner joins the UK team at the prestigious Coup du Monde de la Pâtisserie held in Lyon in 2017. Namai Bishop was live at the event to see the chefs create their showpieces, the judges taste, deliberate and finally announce the overall champion.

NAOMI BISHOP The UK Pastry Open was fiercely fought between seven pastry chefs, each chosen from some of the UK’s top establishments. Even before sunrise, the chefs were busy prepping, then, from 7am for six gruelling hours, the chefs were charged with preparing their pastry creations. Divided into two competition categories: Chocolate and Sugar, the former called for a 125cm display with an entremet for six portions, and the latter, the same size display made with a minimum of two thirds cooked sugar to include one fruit entremet for six. In one tense morning, we saw the chefs prepare and present their creations to the judges who tasted, ranked and finally agreed on the winners, with awards for sugar work, chocolate work, taste and ultimately, the overall winner. First to present his chocolate creation was Dale DeSimone, executive pastry chef, Grosvenor House Hotel, London. Bringing over 20 years of experience, garnered from top restaurants in U.S., U.A.E. and more recently from the renowned kitchens of Sketch right here in London, his “Curls of Rapunzel” creation featured an entremet incorporating candied lime flavours, salt and lime powder and chilli compote, that was appropriately fantastical given the theme: Fairytale or Carnival. As with each of the competitors, first the entremets were individually presented in their entirety, to be judged on visual appeal, before being divided and served, assessed for taste and texture. Chris Seddon, head pastry chef, Coutts London followed with a presentation simply called “Chocolate, Blackcurrant and Peanut” that featured a duck and fishing rod atop it: a nostalgic nod to the funfair games played in his youth. And so the remaining contestants each went on to present their work; with fellow contenders also in the chocolate category being John Costello, Chris Zammit and Abdelhalim Messaoudi and in the sugar category: Florian Poirot and Joakim Prat. Both categories were judged by a stellar panel of judges. President of the jury, Stephane Glacier MOF had flown in from France especially for the competition whilst chairman of the UK Pastry Club, Benoit Blin MCA

of Le Manoir aux Quat’Saisons presided, along with the president of the future UK Team, Martin Chiffers. On the tasting panel, industry heavy hitters included Brian Turner CBE; Ramsay Group’s James ‘Jocky’ Petrie; Hakkasan Group; executive pastry chef Graham Hornigold; chocolate champion Ruth Hinks; Sara Jayne-Stanes OBE; Mourad Khiat, executive pastry chef at The Berkeley Hotel and Cherish Finden, executive pastry chef at Langham Hotel London. The last time I came across Cherish was in Singapore in April 2015 at the World Gourmet Summit during which she had showcased exquisite creations from her kitchens. I asked Cherish just before the UK Pastry winner was announced what skills she was looking for from contestants: “The next Pastry Chef to represent the UK is an important responsibility so I was looking for someone who could deliver all the elements: taste, texture as well as appearance, so that all components come together in one complete uniform manner. We think we’ve found that.” A few moments later the winners were announced: The sugar category, Florian Poirot, senior confectioner, Nestlé, York; the chocolate category, Christopher Zammit, pastry chef, Camilleri Kitchen, Eastbourne; the taste category, Christopher Zammit; overall winner, Florian Poirot. Seconds after he was awarded top place I asked Florian how he was feeling. He was clearly incredulous as he breathlessly told me, “I was totally surprised! I expected Christopher, who had won both the taste and chocolate challenges to go on to also win the overall title. So it was great to hear my name being called. I suppose my taste ranking couldn’t have been far off! I’m honoured.” Florian goes on to win prizes including a stage at the prestigious French Pastry School of Chicago in 2016. I asked him what he hoped to gain from the being part of the U.K. Team. “I’m looking forward to learning from some of the best pastry chefs in UK today: the judges but also lessons from my fellow team mates.” Talking about his show piece Florian said “I wanted to do something different. Usually a showpiece is a structure with elements stacked on top. I wanted to create a fully incorporated work. That’s why my structure, based on the theme of Carnival, was itself crafted entirely in the form of one complete roller coaster track.”

Florian’s work stood out, not just because of its eye-catching flashing lights, its vivid colours and the unorthodox shape of the construction but because, in his work, he had boldly spun his sugar just as well as he had spun tradition on its head! When I asked him about his daring design and techniques used he answered “in Showpieces, chefs typically work with flowers and judges expect to see them. But I didn’t want to do the usual and didn’t really see the point of using flowers if they not relevant to my theme. Instead I took those same traditional techniques and used them to make an explosion!” Florian’s work certainly hit the mark: at the pinnacle of the roller coaster, as well as balloons and banners, he crafted a dart hitting a target, creating a flash, shot with an array of bright, fiery colours of orange and red. The results were as head turning as a roller coaster ride itself! Asked whether he was as bold with his flavours as his presentation, Florian commented, “In fact, I took no risks with flavour! I stuck to the classics, using mango, passion fruit and hazelnut. I had experimented with lime, mint and mango and did a few trails but, in the end, I chose to go with what I knew as I’d rather not take risks with certain elements if I don’t need to.” Clearly he had a firm strategy that saw him lower the risk when needed but be bold where he could. It was a strategy that judge Benoit Blin recognised and as Benoit said, “It was great to see someone win who had the

vision to create something as stunning as that to look at. It was particularly impressive that he practiced the piece ten times to ensure he perfected it. There was a lot of thought in the sugar work, very impressive, fine and elegant technique but also, it was fun! The showpiece had spirit and reflected all the fun of the fair!” Asked, as a seasoned sugar work expert himself, how he viewed this sugar candidate’s ultimate win, Blin responded, “Of course I was delighted to see sugar work put centre stage today. It is a craft that is not as highly appreciated as other elements and not always at the forefront of our craft. The chefs had six hours to prepare and I felt that

I wanted to do something different. Usually a showpiece is a structure with elements stacked on top. I wanted to create a fully incorporated work. That’s why my structure, based on the theme of Carnival, was itself crafted entirely in the form of one complete roller coaster track. FLORIAN POIROT

| Review | Coup du Monde de la Pâtisserie 2017

Florian pushed himself where it mattered, yet worked within the boundaries of risk. That is an important skill: to not overstretch yourself. Some chefs may try to tackle ten hours worth of work in six hours to show their ability, but in fact, to not stretch yourself beyond what is realistic, but to still be ambitious and work to your maximum, is a real skill. Florian has that and he was well rewarded for it today.”

UK’S A-TEAM Martin Chiffers, team President, will be drawing on such skills as he goes on to curate his UK team for the Coup du Monde de la Patisserie competition in 2017. Martin is, of course, himself a coach to the experts as well as running his own successful ventures (including as he told me eagerly, an upcoming chain of Madam Posh pastry stores, starting up in Windsor and developing beyond). When asked about the winner, he agreed that Florian demonstrated well honed skills. He continued that the strategy to building the UK team had not been set out yet, but that they had time to harness a capable group. “Of course, being the UK team, the team captain will have to be of UK origin. We have 15 months to build that team, so that we have a solid all round group to best represent Britain.” UK in fact has only recently become a contender, in a competition created back in 1989 in Lyon. As Chairman of the Club said in his speech “We started in 2011 with only 3 or 4 chefs and today we are 30 chefs strong, all ensuring that UK pastry skills are at the very forefront of pastry today. We are seeing standards improving year on year.” As one of the “Best 7” the UK team will automatically qualify with no need for an intercontinental round, along with national teams from France, USA, Singapore, South Korea, Japan and Taiwan. The talent was certainly world-class amongst the contestants at the UK Open. Originally from Malta, chef Christopher Zammit scooped the taste award with his ‘Arabian Nights’ themed chocolate showpiece. Cherish Finden praised Christopher for his well judged balance of flavours, subtly blending the robustness of the chocolate that he had selected with the balanced acidity of blood orange, contrasted elegantly against the sweetness of the silky mousse. She also noted the attractive glaze achieved, the distinct layers and varied textures not to mention the creamy richness of the chocolate work.

Still beaming from his double win, Zammit exclaimed how delighted he was at this triumph. “I’m thrilled I won the taste challenge. I used a grand cru chocolate that had a spicy aftertaste so I could balance that with the sharpness of blood orange and the sweetness of the hazelnut cream. I worked with hazelnut too for my biscuit base and added almond to the base for extra flavour.” His skilled touch with chocolate also won him the chocolate work prize. “Weight was my main issue: there are weight restrictions I needed to stick to so that was a real challenge for me.” In showpiece, blue scowling sorcerers and sultan swords were expertly crafted using his own handcrafted plastic mounds, all carved himself. “It’s got the works: real smoke, lights and music!” Several weeks after the competition, at The Berkeley Hotel, Knightsbridge, the brand new team captain was formally announced. Martin Chiffers will be team President, having led the UK Team – Coupe du Monde de la Pâtisserie who won the European Pastry Cup Coupe du Monde de la Pâtisserie twice in 2012 & 2014, held in Paris and Geneva, with best sugar and chocolate piece and highest points in all categories consecutively. Martin has gained a reputation for leading teams to achieve victorious results and numerous accolades in the pastry

culinary field. Andy Blas (Executive Pastry Chef at London’s Hotel Café Royal) takes on the role of team captain and, like last year, he also takes on the ice challenge. With a change to the format, the team will now be supported by a ‘reserve’ candidate in each category. These ‘reserve’ pastry chefs will follow exactly the same practices and will help support their team mate. Chris Seddon, head pastry chef at Coutts bank, takes on the ice reserve role whilst Florian Poirot’s reserve in sugar will be Joakim Prat (chef-owner of patisserie Maître Choux - the only pastry shop in the UK headed by a three Michelinstarred chef). Dale Simone (who leads a team of nine pastry chefs at Grosvenor House) will be reserve to Christopher Zammit in the chocolate category.

FULL UK TEAM FINAL LINE UP Martin Chiffers Team President Andy Blas Ice candidate & team captain Florian Poirot Sugar candidate Chris Zammit Chocolate candidate Chris Seddon Reserve Ice candidate Joakim Prat Reserve Sugar candidate Dale Simone Reserve Chocolate candidate

CMY

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CHEF TRAINING

CHEF TRAINING ROWEN DARLOW COMPETITION DISCIPLINE After taking first place in a South African culinary competition in 2014, 20-year old Rowen Darlow worked with renowned chef Margot Janse, Nuno Mendes and now Ollie Dabbous. Here, he talks to Chef magazine about winning the first Cook South Africa competition and his search for the perfect kitchen environment. According to Rowen Darlow, a graduate of Westminster Kingsway College and winner of the first Cook South Africa contest, any culinary student should kick start their career by entering one of several challenges for young chefs. “Enter a competition,” he says, “The work you put into this will improve you as a chef. It forces you to be strict with yourself: to self-criticise, stick to timings and get organised. It allows you to think creatively, while still sticking set criteria. If you can win the competition it proves you are capable of this.” “When I heard about Cook South Africa, I was very excited by the challenge but was a little daunted. It was also going to be my first culinary competition and I had no experience of cooking South African cuisine. “I started by researching the topic – going through websites, books and recipes – to learn what traditional South African food was and to establish what I could cook in my own style. The competition specifies South African fruits that you have to include such as apples, pears, peaches or plums. From research I knew that their cuisine naturally used a lot of these ingredients so incorporating them didn’t seem difficult”.

| Training | Rowen Darlow

Rowen won first place for his performance in the cook off final and his menu – which included pickled fish with Flavorking plum ketchup and a peach and nectarine bobotie. It saw him travel to Franschhoek for a stage at The Tasting Room led by one of South Africa’s most renowned chefs Margot Janse. “The stage in South Africa was an amazing experience I will never forget,” says Rowen. “Margot has a very precise way of working with the dishes and ensures that every dish tells a story. In a tomato dish reflecting Franschhoek in the winter, for example, she imagined tumbleweeds rolling down deserted streets. She made nests of a potato paste, filled each one with a confit tomato and micro leaves from the garden, gluing two halves together to create a miniature tumbleweed. I loved all the creativity and the use of unique South African ingredients such as Eugenia berries”. The kitchen was as much a revelation as the food. “This wasn’t a tense, testosterone-fuelled environment like some places in London. It was calm, spacious, lively and happy. It was a family,” says Rowen. “I was lucky enough to experience every section in the kitchen, and learnt different things from them all.” The intimate and composed atmosphere at The Tasting Room was a glimpse of the working environment Rowen was looking for. “I was at the Chiltern Firehouse at the time,” he says. “I was working as a demi chef de partie amongst a section of seven people and a whole brigade of almost 40. The food there was incredible; a complex and different mix of Japanese, Portuguese and American food. I loved it there, but I felt I didn’t really have the time to truly enjoy it. In South Africa, working on just 40 covers a night compared with 250 gave me a focus that I would retain. This was really an awakening.” Upon leaving the Chiltern Firehouse, Rowen spent a month staging at different restaurants

including Kitchen Table on Charlotte Street and The Typing Room. “This opened my eyes to other career options,” he says, “before Dabbous, invited me to do trial.” Starting at the restaurant in August last year (2015), he has worked the larder section at Dabbous since. Rowen finds further echoes of his SA experience in certain of Dabbous’ dishes and the experimentation with local and exciting ingredients. “That’s Ollie’s specialty,” says Rowen, playing with new ingredients that people may never have tried, or eaten in that particular way.” And while the responsibility of a job at one of the UK’s most in-demand culinary venues is huge, Rowen says he’s has now found the working environment he has been searching for. “The kitchen brigade here is only 10 people, serving around 30 for lunch and around 40 to 50 for dinner. It’s still busy, but here I really have time to focus on the food – which is what I loved about The Tasting Room,” he says. “To anyone wanting to become a chef, or to the prospective entrants of the Cook South Africa or any other competition, ensure that you understand what you are creating but put your personality into it and make it your own. And above all, you must enjoy what you are doing!”

Young UK chefs invited to submit menus for third Cook South Africa competition South African fruit producers have launched the third UK Cook South Africa competition. It asks students and young chefs already working in industry to invent a three-course menu. The top prize is an expenses-paid trip to South Africa to work for a week in the kitchen of the Tasting Room, Margot Janse’s awardwinning restaurant in Franschhoek.

The rules of the competition are: Entrants must create their own threecourse menu, inspired by South African food and cooking. They must use one of South African plums, peaches or nectarines, apples and pears, in each course. They must list the ingredients and method for their three dishes and provide photographs of each. Entrants are being encouraged to research South African food – no previous experience is needed. After the first paper-based round, eight shortlisted chefs will be invited to take part in a cook off final in London at the end of March. The winning chef will win flights to South Africa and accommodation in Franschhoek in the winelands of South Africa’s Western Cape, and work at the restaurant, located in the Le Quartier Français hotel. There will be prizes for the seven runners up.

It forces you to be strict with yourself: to selfcriticise, stick to timings and get organised. It allows you to think creatively, while still sticking set criteria. ROWEN DARLOW

The Cook South Africa! competition is part of an ongoing campaign to promote fresh produce from South Africa, particularly the flavour and season of its fruit, and the key role farming is playing in the development on the country. Entry packs and posters for the competition can be downloaded at http://www. beautifulcountrybeautifulfruit.co.uk/cooksouth-africa/ The closing date for Cook South Africa! 2016 is February 27th, 2015.

W H E R E I E AT

SHAUN HILL

6 of my favourite places to eat With almost 50 years in the industry, and numerous awards under his belt, culinary legend Shaun Hill takes time out to give us six of his favourite eateries for this issue.

KOFFMANNS

THE BUTCHERS ARMS

THE HARDWICK

The Berkeley, Wilton Pl, London SW1X 7RL 020 7107 8844 www.pierrekoffmann.co.uk/at-theberkeley

Lime Street, Eldersfield, Gloucester GL19 4NX Tel: 01452 840 381 www.thebutchersarms.net

Old Raglan Road, Abergavenny, Monmouthshire NP7 9AA, 01873 854220 www.thehardwick.co.uk

This shouldn’t have worked as a viable business but does. It’s awkward to find, along a country lane on the Gloucestershire, Worcestershire borders. It’s a rural pub with just a few tables and is run by James and Elisabeth Winter. James has worked at the Three Chimneys in Skye and with the likes of Alastair Little and Stephen Markwick. Good food, good beer, friendly and efficient service. What more could you ask for?

Stephen Terry’s restaurant, just the other side of Abergavenny from the Walnut Tree. Like Koffman, Terry has held Michelin stars at various addresses, training at Harveys alongside Marco Pierre White and Gordon Ramsay. This is about approachable and inclusive cuisine and is just the sort of restaurant anyone – especially anyone who doesn’t live in the culinary fireball of London – would want within driving distance.

Pierre Koffmann is regularly at the stoves and the quality is similar to the glory days of Tante Claire but a touch less formal. The food shows the complete confidence and skill of the kitchen. Trouble is, I keep ordering the same meal – langoustines followed by stuffed trotter then pistachio souffle. It’s such a pleasure to eat there and see dishes that are complex and interesting but free from any fussiness or absurdity.

FISCHERS THE WATERSIDE INN Ferry road, bray, berkshire sl6 2at 01628 620691 www.waterside-inn.co.uk

It’s easy to overlook this great restaurant, as it doesn’t appear to court publicity and certainly never jumps on any food bandwagons. The many visits I have been lucky to make have always shown elegant and skilfull cooking from first Michel and now Alain Roux. Always a lot to learn. Service is similarly excellent and Diego’s memory for faces is quite phenomenal.

50 Marylebone High Street, London, 020 7466 5501 www.fischers.co.uk

I went to school in Marylebone. The magistrates’ court was directly opposite so all the main characters in the Profumo scandal would be trundled in whilst I was trying, unsuccessfully, to master Greek grammar. Similarly, I worked in 1971 in a Hungarian restaurant making hefty stews, carp sausages and seriously life shortening cakes and puds. So this place has great and affectionate nostalgia for me, as it captures the village-like atmosphere of the area and the food of Austro-Hungarian. A venison gulyas with spatzle and a beer wont disturb the wallet too much providing you don’t, like me, tuck into too much apricot schnapps afterwards.

HIBISCUS Old Raglan Road, Abergavenny, 29 Maddox Street  London W1S 2PA Tel: 020 7629 2999 www.hibiscusrestaurant.co.uk

Claude Bosi opened his first restaurant a few yards along the road from my own, in Ludlow, and I have counted him a friend ever since. His food is more cutting edge than dinosaurs such as myself cook, but you are in the hands of a chef who understands what he is doing and delivers an exciting meal every time.

WINE & DRINK

ROMANIA WINE An embryonic

industry

Aventis Vineyards

Recas Vineyards

My memory of Romanian wine were a few decent Pinot Noir’s from the Dealu Mare region tasted back in the 1990’s when wines from central Europe had more distribution in this part of the world. Romanian wine then fell off the radar, rendered invisible by the rise and rise of wines from the new world especially during the 1990’s and into the noughties. That said a recent visit to Romania has re-acquainted me with a European wine country that has enormous potential and a story to tell. We flew to Timișoara one of Romania’s largest cities in Timiș one of the largest counties in western Romania situated close to the Hungarian and Serbian border. Our first stop was a visit with Englishman Philip Cox at his Cramele Recas winery. Philip, originally from Bristol started working for Kenderman, a German wine company back in the early 1990’s. His job involved buying bulk wine from Bulgaria, Hungary and Romania for the company. He got to know the area pretty

The team at Recas Wines well and in 1994 Kenderman appointed him MD of their Romanian set up with a brief to make wine to a specification using flying winemakers. 1993 was the first vintage and from there they built up an extensive business in Romania. By 1996 Philip saw the potential for Romanian wine and decided to set up his own business, he rented the winery at Recas with a view to producing varietal wines for the UK market. The structure of the Romanian wine industry at that time was pretty haphazard. After the 1989 revolution no one really knew who owned the land. A programme was initiated to return the land to its original owners from the pre-communist days. It was an uncertain time, because of the land owning issues no one really invested in or planted new grapes. So from 1985 to 2005 no new vines were planted in Romania and wine was made from international varietals which had been there for some time. Philip, together with his Romania wife Elvira started their business by acquiring a

lease to buy option on 100 ha granted over a five year period. With money from a group of investors they dug up vineyards, replanted and upgraded the winery. In order to keep the cash flow moving they had to sell a hell of a lot of wine, which Philip, with his energy and inherent sales ability was able to achieve. Philip who has a strong commercial head on his shoulders re-invested all the income to re-plant a range of French varietals that he knew would have appeal in the U.K. He also started to plant some of the local varieties for the Romanian market. Today Cramele Recas is the biggest selling Romanian wine company on the UK market with sales of over 300,000 cases per annum. Their wines feature strongly in many c-stores and supermarkets and they have also expanded into other markets such as Holland, Ireland and Belgium. On the home market they are the biggest producer in value terms and the best known for local grape varieties.

My overall impression is of an embryonic wine industry with enormous potential. Having emerged from the communist era, the country and the wine industry are struggling to catch up. But catch up they will, ... JEAN SMULLEN

| Wine & Drink | Romania

By 2014 the company had sales of 10 million bottles annually with 4.8 million of those heading for the export market. Bag in Box is another huge seller for them on the Romanian market, particularly in the restaurant sector. They now bottle on a 24 hour basis and this year expect sales on the international market to grow by 40%. The day of our visit Philip, who had just got off a plane from China, was brimming with energy and passion, despite jeg lag and an eight hour flight. The Chinese trip was a successful one and he is hoping to launch his wine into a Chinese supermarket chain with 35,000 outlets. In 20 years he has put Romanian wine firmly on the global wine map. A visionary with a keen business focus, his very comprehensive range of Cramele Recas wines are now widely available throughout the UK in Waitrose, Asda and Sainsbury. An on-trade range of Cramele Recas wines are distributed in the UK by Alliance, Adnams and Forth Wines. Our next stop was the Salonul Rovinhud at the Hotel Timișoara. With 24 exhibitors, the event was open to both trade and consumer guests with all proceeds being donated to people with disabilities. This is the second year of the Rovinhud Fair, the organisers were enormously proud that in year one, Jancis Robinson MW attended and gave good reviews for many of the wines she tasted. This year, with over 205 wines to taste and 8 master classes given by 3 MW’s including Julia Harding MW, Caroline Gilbey MW and Yiannis Karakasis MW the event was well attended. A quick tasting around the room showed the enormous potential of the emerging Romanian wine industry. Many of the producers were small boutique wineries but the quality was very much in evidence. Many of the wineries are not yet available in the UK but look out for Prince Stirby www.stirby.com Roy & Damboviceanu Cordova www.corcova.ro Lilac – the Wines of Transylvania www.liliac.com SERVE www.clubulcavalerilor.ro and Vinarte www.vinarte.ro We flew from Timișoara to Bucharest, before embarking on a four hour drive to the region of Drăgășan in Romania’s Vâlcea County on the banks of the Olt River, a Danube tributary. To the north are the Carpathian Hills and further south is the Wallachian plane. We were here to visit Vila Dobruşa, the family estate of Valeriu and

Cristiniana Stocia situated on the top of a hill close to the 15th century Dobruşa Monastery. Arriving late at night, the next morning I was intrigued by the incredible view, the historic and modern architecture and their family story which epitomises modern Romania. Valeriu Stocia, a professor of law was once head of the Romanian Liberal Party and was for a time Minister for Justice. Christiana his wife, whose family were the original owners of the estate is also involved in the legal profession and she specialises in corporate law. Christiana’s great grandmother Maria Râmniceanu built up the wine estate after the death of her husband Iancu, at a relatively young age. The original villa dates back to 1914 and is built in neo-Romanian style. After the communist revolution the estate was confiscated and became a state farm. After the end of communism, Christina Stocia had quite a battle on her hands, but she persevered and using all her legal acumen succeeded in having all the land restored to her family. She and Valeriu then bought out the remaining family members and acquired full ownership of her grandmother’s estate. They decided to restore the family mansion and to create a modern cellar. They commissioned Aleandru Beldiman to create an original work of modern architecture

for their working wine cellar. Situated on the top of the Drăgăşani Hill the walls are limestone and the building is discreetly built into the landscape of its hill surroundings. An impressive state of the art winery lies beneath and the building and the original house are now surrounded by vineyards. This is the future of the Romanian wine industry – of course to make a small fortune in the wine industry you first must start with a large one: the Stocia’s have invested many millions of euros to create their vision. Their winery produces approximately 150,000 bottles of quality wine per annum which they sell under 13 different labels. They have employed a young French winemaker from Alsace, Ghislain Morit – a 26 year old graduate of Dijon University who has worked in Burgundy and Portugal – to make their wine. Ghislain and his Colombian wife work closely with the Stocia family. Since his arrival two years ago, Ghislain has been working hard, with viticulturist Gheorghe Lixandru, to introduce sustainable viticulture to the region. The quality of their wines was, of course, outstanding – the Alsatian influence shines through, especially in terms of the quality of the white wines. Pinot Noir is a key red grape in this area and is grown

RECOMMENDED WINES CRAMEL RECAS 2015 Calusari Chardonnay (Alliance Wines) Using staves, this is a modern Chardonnay with lovely pure fruit and some wood influence. Subtle and appealing.

2015 Chardonnay/Fetească Regală (Forth Wines) A 50/50 blend of Chardonnay and the native white Fetească Regală grape. This was a wonderfully floral wine with a very distinctive appeal. 2015 Paparuda Pinot Noir (Adnams)

Lovely vegetal nose, smoky with cherry fruit, soft and very drinkable. A good value Pinot Noir with a lot of class!

AVINCIS (THEATRE OF WINE)

2014 Crâmpoşie Selecţionată

Beautifully floral and fresh, this is a thick skinned grape which can be sensitive to oxidation. Made with a light touch it was very elegant and floral with a very subtle elegant finish. Very well made, something completely different, definitely worth trying! 2013 Pinot Gris & Fetească Regală

This was the wine of the tasting for me, a Silver Medal winner at the 2015 Concours Mondial de Bruxelles this wine was wonderfully balance. Made from 70% Pinot Gris and 30% Fetească Regală the wine was aged for 10 months in French oak barrels. Made from old vines the aromatic characteristic of the native white grape shone through, floral with yellow fruit and a good fresh acidity, this was an outstanding wine.

2011 Pinot Noir

T his wine was aged in French oak barrels for 14 months. Quite smoky on the nose lots of black cherry fruit, soft tannin all of which was beautifully balanced. The vines are relatively young but the potential for Pinot Noir from this region is very evident from this wine.

nearby. Ghislain’s experience of working with Burgundian producers is also in evidence – the Avincis Pinot Noir was outstanding. As well as the French varietals, they also have a range of wines made from indigenous grapes – these include Crâmpoşie Selecţionată, a local grape variety from Drăgăşani; a Fetească Regală/Pinot Gris blend; and a white made from the native Tămâioasă Românească and Muscat Ottonel. The red grapes include Pinot Noir, Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon, as well as Negru de Drăgăşani – a native red grape from Drăgăşani region. My overall impression is of an embryonic wine industry with enormous potential. Having emerged from the communist era, the country and the wine industry are struggling to catch up. But catch up they will; with visionaries like Philip Cox and the Stocia family, I have no doubt that before too long, many will be beating a path to their door in search of their quality wellmade wines especially those made from the native grape varieties. Vila Dobruşa sell their wine in the UK under the Avincis label – an amalgamation of family names – through Theatre of Wine in Greenwich and Islington. www.theatreofwine.com

EXPO MILAN 2015: Feeding the Planet, Energy for Life

Food was the central tenant at the year’s most internationally significant cultural event: Expo Milano 2015. The Expo’s theme “Feeding the Planet, Energy for Life”, shone the spotlight on food, it’s impact on our planet and international food culture right at the forefront of the international agenda. As the colossal fair, attracting over 20 million visitors with participating nations from over 140 countries, approached the grand finale of its epic 6-month run, Namai Bishop was present to bring you a round up of the global issue of food and sustainability. “How to feed the Planet?” was the question posed at the International Fair Expo. Ingredient sourcing, agriculture , livestock, fishing, manufacturing, sustainability and international food cultures were topics addressed by countries in each of their dedicated Pavilions. With its theme of “Grown in Britain & Northern Ireland” the UK Pavilion (heralded by UK Trade & Investment along with the full support from seven HM Government departments) was an impactful example of how UK creativity, innovation business and science are all combining to be at the very forefront of solving the global environmental challenges of food sourcing and sustainability.

In parallel, ran a global programme for UK business (Global Business Programme) and cultural events, centred around food. Each month the Pavilion saw internationally renowned UK chefs showcasing the best of British creativity, each serving a menu made with UK sourced ingredients and produce. Meanwhile Royal Warrant holders and caterers Mosimann’s provided the general catering in the Pavilion with dishes such as classics Fish and Chips and Cock a Leekie Soup that the international visitors lapped up. Other popular Pavilions included the COOP’s Supermarket of the Future, where visitors could browse shelves stocked with products handled by robots and select produce from interactive screens that, at a flick of a finger, provided full audio and visual information on product, producers and providence. Given the enthusiastic response of the visitors, some queueing for hours to enter the Pavilions, it seems the popular appetite for immersive experiences on the future of food is insatiable.

UK PAVILION: A HIVE OF ACTIVITY The UK shone at the expo with an award-winning, spectacular mutual-media Pavilion, inspired by the crucial role played by Pollination in providing the food that we eat. Of fundamental importance to our eco system, bees are the primary biological indicators of the quality of the environment. As Albert Einstein once said “if bees become extinct, humanity will too within 4 years”. All the buzz provided an effective wake up call. Nottingham-based artist Wolfgang Butress designed an immersive user experience where the visitor journey is taken from the perspective of a honeybee, first travelling through a series of landscapes including orchards and wildflower meadow and onto a giant aluminium beehive. Inspired by the ground-breaking scientific research by physicist Martin Bencsik from Nottingham Trent University monitoring the health of beehives, the hive offers an audio and visual response, linked live to the activity of a real beehive in Nottingham. Providing a radically innovative perspective, the hive successfully delivered the message of the importance of pollination and the micro-climate. Nature was all around us and the UK’s force as a leading pioneer of science, research and of global issues resonated, literally, even more powerfully amongst the circa 40,000 daily visitors to the Pavilion.

There were also shared areas, so called ‘Clusters’ dedicated to particular ingredients, such as coffee and chocolate and how these were harvested, processed and used with an examination of how these practices would develop in the future. In addition, a series of Expo related food projects provided a means for Chefs to leave a lasting legacy in their approach to food. One of the Chef Ambassadors of the Expo set up his own answer to the question posed by the fair of how to feed the planet. “For me, it all starts with a fight against waste” says Bottura. A humble sentiment from a mighty Chef, lauded as one of the greatest culinary figures in the world today.

NEWS COFFEE IN A BAG Latest bedroom and conferencing innovation from Café du Monde

ew from luxury coffee and tea system supplier, Café du Monde, is ‘Coffee in a Bag’, the simple, no mess solution to serving fresh ground coffee in hotel bedrooms and conference centres. It completely dispenses with the need for cafetières or expensive coffee machines.

COFFEE IN A BAG ‘Coffee in a Bag’ works in much the same way as teabags. Guests simply pop the coffee bag in the cup, add hot water and allow to infuse for 3 minutes. Then the coffee bag can be hygienically disposed of without the messy grounds often associated with ground coffee. The bags are bio-degradable and sealed in Aluminium-free sachets that are gas-flushed to keep the product in tip-top condition. There are two coffees available, a Rainforest Alliance Certified™* 100% Arabica blend with coffees from El Salvador, Rwanda and Sumatra and Decaffeinated coffee, a blend of coffees from Brazil, Peru and Honduras. The coffees are packed in dispenser boxes of 100 with a flip down lid, ideal for self-service or housekeeping use.

Prices are £25.95 per box of 100 bags for the Rainforest Alliance Certified™* blend and £26.75 for Decaffeinated.

HOTELYMPIA PREVIEW

meg Foodservice Solutions will present a variety of new equipment and operating features at Hotelympia that will support and enhance a wide range of foodservice operations. WAREWASHING Made in Italy Smeg’s new Ecoline range of warewashers offer a well designed and functional option for operations that need an affordable solution with ease of operation and standard features like three stage filtration. The Ecoline features a simple electronic control requiring little explanation to operate effectively. Visitors to the Smeg stand will also see the new digital touch screen control panels on the Topline and Greenline ranges that have recently been showcased at Host in Milan. “The controls have been developed for ease of use to access the wide range of wash options and settings available, and importantly these machines will be wireless internet and Bluetooth enabled with a web based app developed in-house by Smeg. “Connectivity to mobile devices and central operations will mean that there will be access to real-time data on the machine’s performance e.g. its usage of energy and detergents as well as temperature info etc. It will provide early fault diagnosis and also allow for remote software updates to improve and adapt each machine to suit the operator’s requirements. “We see digital operation and the wireless control app as a huge leap forward in Smeg’s professional warewashing range’s capability, as machines will effectively be able to evolve and update to suit each site’s needs,” comments Phil Coulstock, commercial channel director for Smeg UK. Smeg also has a new warranty system under development for its commercial warewashing range that could be very attractive to many foodservice operations. OVENS Smeg will showcase a newly developed range of Italian-made electric multifunction and combi ovens at Hotelympia. The multi function ovens are highly flexible with fanassist and non-fan-assist functions allowing a range of roasting, baking and grilling functions with 435 x 320mm tray and 600 x 400mm tray platform options. A new model is the ALFA 45MFPGN multi-function humidified oven with a refractory stone base. The new combi ovens from Smeg have been developed in Italy to provide flexible and precise cooking in 6 and 10 GN1/1 tray versions. They have simple touch controls to access a range of 99 editable cooking programmes (USB port for uploading additional programmes) and nine cooking phases. The ovens utilise a core cooking probe with single point, multi-point and pin options. Some of the models also feature an automatic washing system to continually maintain cleanliness and effective cooking. Semi-Professional Cooker Developed with smaller operations in mind Smeg is introducing a Semi-Professional Cooker at Hotelympia. Influenced by Italian design, and quality manufacturing, the new cooker features a multi-function oven with fan and non-fan assist options and hob with six powerful brass gas burners. REFRIGERATION Smeg Foodservice Solutions is introducing two new refrigerator cabinet models at Hotelympia – 1400 litre and 700 litre capacity models finished in AISI 304 stainless steel. They have a ‘tropicalized’ monobloc refrigeration unit to ensure high performance even in environments with high temperatures (up to 43°C) and are insulated to 75mm thickness with high density polyurethane foam. Finally, Smeg will introduce two models of blast chiller cabinet in 5, 10 and 14 tray versions. The blast chillers are highly flexible with 99 storable programs and five customizable operation cycles, offering a total of more than 20 operating cycles.

NEWS OXO TOWER’S ‘FALL OFF THE BONE’ OXTAIL IS GREAT – AND FAST – IN RESTAURANT’S NEW FRIMA

et in the iconic building on the Southbank, the Oxo Tower Restaurant offers an eclectic menu built around British and European classics. It serves over 200 covers a day but, like many urban restaurants, kitchen space is limited. This means catering equipment needs to be as efficient as possible, while delivering the best cooking results. Recently head chef Jeremy Bloor installed a FRIMA VarioCooking Center. He and his team are so impressed they are about to install a second one. “I first saw the FRIMA at a catering exhibition,” says Jeremy. “Its versatility and ease of use were very impressive.” Oxo Tower has a 211+, which has a 100 litre cooking pan and can be used to boil, fry, deep fry, confit, slow cook and pressure cook. It was supplied and installed by TAG Catering Equipment UK. The overall project won a CEDA award. “We use it for a range of different foods, using different techniques,

from blanching asparagus to cooking pork belly under sous vide,” says Jeremy. “Our oxtail cooked under pressure is also great, falling from the bone, super-moist, in half the time it takes to cook conventionally.

” In fact, it was the pressure cooking option that attracted Jeremy’s interest initially. “Making stocks under pressure, in a controlled environment, gives us a yield and consistency we are very happy with,” he says.

“The FRIMA has cut the cooking time of our stocks down by 50%. With veal and chicken stocks there is no skimming needed at the first stage and the stock stays perfectly clear, without clouding. “The yield is excellent – what you put in, you get out. Plus, cooking this way has reduced waste heat throughout the kitchen, with less condensation, and it minimises cleaning. We tend to cook the stock overnight then, when we arrive at 7.30 in the morning, it’s ready to reduce.” Despite the FRIMA’s hi-tech appearance, Jeremy says it is extremely easy to operate. “A quick training session and we were up to speed. The touch screen control is the same as is on a Rational, so it’s a system most chefs have used,” he says. “In our Brasserie we have a bratt pan and a stock boiler that we are looking to upgrade. We’ll replace them with a second FRIMA.”

MAXIME MICHELOT WINS CLASSIC FINE FOOD’S BUCHE DE NOEL COMPETITION.

arrods pastry chef Maxime Michelot has been awarded first prize at this year’s Classic Fine Food’s Buche de Noel Competition. The competition, designed to promote UK pastry talent and encourage creativity, asked participants to create a classic Buche de Noel (Christmas Log) using Valrhona’s Nyangbo 68% Dark Chocolate, Azelia 35% Milk Chocolate, Opalys 33% White Chocolate or Dulcey 32% Blond Chocolate. From an initial list of 25 entries from the UK’s pastry chefs, the final five were shortlisted based on the number of ‘Likes’ on Classic Fine Food’s Facebook page. A grand jury made up of press, including Chef Magazine, representatives from Classic Fine Foods, Valrhona chocolate and last year’s winner then made the final judgment. The full results were: 1st Place – Maxime Michelot (Harrods) Spiced cinnamon Log with Valrhona Opalys bavaroise mousse. Cinnamon spiced Opalys white chocolate bavaroise mousse, Passion fruit and mandarin jelly with poached pear sitting on a base of coconut dacquoise. Decorated with

boules made with yoghurt mousse and yoghurt meringue jelly and popping chocolate centre. 2nd Place – Oana Cercel (The Berkeley Hotel) Valrhona Opalys Christmas Log with mandarin Layer of Chocolate mousse with mandarin and star anise jelly insert, cinnamon and manjari cremeaux, marcona almond streusel, glazed with opalys white chocolate.

3rd Place – Jonathan Deddis (Kadiri’s) Valrhona Nyangbo, Azelia & Opalys Log with winter spices and fruits. White chocolate and apple mousse, apple and yuzu compote, dark chocolate mousse, flexible ganache, orange caramel biscuit and dark chocolate gingerbread sponge. Decorated with dark chocolate glaze,

speculoos biscuits crumble, Red chocolate stones, apple microwave sponge and white chocolate crumbs. 4th Place – Clarence Sanoner (The Lanesborough) Valrhona Azelia crunchy log with Macadamia. Macadamia caramelized dacquoise with crunchy feuilletine macadamia, azelia chocolate mousse and a cremeux mandarin and saffron. 5th Place – Catherine Smith (The Ritz) Clementine cremeux & jelly Log with Valrhona Azelia mousse. Valrhona Azelia mousse, clementine cremeux and clementine jelly on a caramelised almond feuilletine and brownie base. Maxime Michelot wins a five star weekend in Rome, complete with a dinner in a 2 star Michelin restaurant, while Oana Cercel receives a Valrhona stage at their esteemed cookery school in Tain L’Hermitage. The runner’s up also received prizes of Champagne. It is hoped that the competition will grow year on year, and encourage more and more entries and more creative themes and flavours.

NEWS WHAT TRENDS ARE PREDICTED IN 2016 If 2015 was the year nothing was safe from a spiraliser, kimchi unquestiona-bly came into its own, and sharing was truly inescapable (cocktails, small plates, tables, taxis!), then 2016 has a heap of surprises in store. We pick the brains of some of London’s top chefs, who predict what will appear on plates and make up menus in 2016… ALLAN PICKETT Chef Patron Piquet Restaurant

Chefs using more traditional cooking methods and less use of chemicals in cooking will become more apparent next year. The Bakewell tart will make a firm comeback and chefs will be doing their variations on it using rhubarb jam, damson jam etc. I also think chefs will be looking to source older, more uncommon grains like barley and spelt for use in veg-etarian cooking. Delivery from top end restaurants is also set to boom in 2016 and restau-rants will need to keep up with the current technology available to make it happen.

VIVEK SINGH Executive Chef The Cinnamon Club

SAIPHIN MOORE Co-Founder and Head Chef, Rosa’s Thai Café

I predict more of a shift towards raw, uncooked foods that are cured, marinated or simply soaked and bitterness as a taste is set for a resurgence whilst spices like nigella seeds and fenugreek will be used more and more in 2016.

Street food is showing no signs of slowing down, though healthier options will likely take over in 2016 with more vegetable-based dishes. East Asian cuisine from Thailand and Laos is perfect for this as it provides fuller-flavoured dishes that are fast, fresh and soulful with lots of vegetables and herbs.

OWEN SULLIVAN Head Chef maze Grill Park Walk, maze Grill Royal Hospital Road

CHRIS JENNINGS Owner, Purssells London

MATT HILL Head Chef Down Hall Hotel

Consumers will look for greater provenance of meat as they eat less but expect a higher quality and spec when they do, for example the sensational quality coming out of Scotland and Wales-bred Wagyu beef. Peruvian cuisine is set to really take hold in the capital.

A more traditional approach to cookery will continue to grow – foraging, diner demand for organic, locally-sourced produce; pickling and fermenting – whilst I predict more sa-voury, herb-based desserts like mango and white chocolate mousse with basil and an influx of coastal and woodland ingredients such as seak buckthorn, wild garlic, wood sorrel and sea beets.

Quality coffee is becoming more and more accessible online as discerning customers seek premium taste, provenance and quality. The taste for espresso, rather than syrup-sweetened or milk-based coffee drinks, will grow throughout 2016 and similarly coffee-based cocktails will offer a more grown-up way to imbibe! JAMIE DOBBIN Head Chef One Canada Square Restaurant & Bar With the shift to a more vegetable-based diet, ugly or unsung vegetables will take more of the spotlight, becoming more available in supermarkets not just farmer’s markets. I also think we’ll see a big rise in Korean food in general. It’s the next Asian food to become mainstream – less greasy than Chinese, less spicy than Thai and lighter than Indian. Roche Communications: Copyright © 2015 Roche Communications, All rights reserved.

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