Cook House Issue 1

cookhouse

join our foodie family Soho House Group is recruiting.

We are looking for the most passionate and dedicated chefs from around the world. If you want to work for a company that’s full of opportunities, that’s expanding in Europe and America and that might even give you the chance to work in different exciting locations, then please get in touch. The right candidates will want to learn as much as possible: from improving their cooking skills to finding out about local seasonal produce and what best to do with it. If you’re the right chef for us, we’ll help you develop your career and have a great time along the way.

We’d love to hear from you.

To find out more email – cookhouse@sohohouse.com

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Soho House Food Magazine

What's our beef?

summer 2010

EATING what’s good to munch & where this summer COOKING how to find the perfect steak WORKING making good chefs great

a4 taste...

DIGEST THIS

News from around the foodie world plus events to look out for across the houses

summer 2010 Welcome to the first Soho House food magazine – a food magazine for chefs and people who love to eat.

This magazine celebrates the unique food philosophy of five of the Soho House Group restaurants: Soho House New York, Babington House in Somerset, Soho House West Hollywood, Soho House Berlin and Pizza East in London.

We want to tell you what we’re about: that for us, cooking isn’t just a job, it’s a way of life. We follow our food from farm to fork and are driven by the seasons. Chefs who work with us get great opportunities to make really good food – whether it’s going on fantastic tasting trips to find new ingredients, learning from brilliant guest chefs or going on stages around the group.

We have serious fun with our food – so chefs love working with us and people love being fed by us.

Editor Rebecca Seal Design and Production Dominic Salmon

ulia Taylor-Brown, thanks to Dan Flower, Kat Hartigan, J tonella Bonetti, Matthew Armistead, Ronnie Bonetti, An lly Taylor, Simone Gobbo, e K Amanda Middlebrooks, John Pollard, Lent, Kate Goodyear, y e h s A , s e e l Kirsten Stoner, Matt Green nah Eagen and Caroline Boucher o J , u a e n r u o D e r r e i P , d Shelley Armistea

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WHAT I KNOW

Babington House head chef Ronnie Bonetti on what life in and out of the kitchen has taught him

WATCH OUT - CHEF’S ABOUT

Where do chefs go to get inspired? Markets, restaurants, smokeries and, erm, hedgerows...

HOW I MADE IT

Matthew Armistead on how a boy from Blackburn, England, ended up head chef of Soho House West Hollywood

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29 30

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BEEFCAKES We take a look at how each house sources their all-important beef – from an old-school New York meatpacker to a tiny Highland herd

SEASONAL EATING What’s in season and on the menu in LA, New York, London and Somerset, plus how to cook it

MEATBALLS FOR MUNCHIES

h includes Member Dan Flower shares his favourite recipe, whic some slightly unusual methods...

FARMER’S WIFE Finally, there are more women in farming than ever . One of them, Cathy Shellard, shows us around her dairy

Is this why you want to be a chef?

The Cook to Bang blog is one of the best food blogs out there and is so good it’s just been turned into a book of the same name. It does what it says on the tin: the site is full of recipes designed to get you in the sack. All the dishes are priced out (in dollars) so you can figure out how much to spend on your date, and despite the more than dodgy puns (condomments anyone?), it’s definitely worth a look. www.cooktobang.com

NIBBLES

In what the makers say is an advertising first, a North Carolina billboard not only has a massive picture of a rib-eye on it, it also reeks of grilled beef too. The aim is to lure drivers into a nearby grocery store by wafting the smell of cooking out across the road. Local residents have complained about fake eau de steak, which is actually created by blowing fragranced oils with an electric fan.

food news from around the world

Little Heifers C O O K H O U S E 4

Sign of the times

Mini cows? They sound like a mad scientist’s genetic experiment right? Wrong, actually – miniature cattle as found all over America and increasingly Australia too, could be the answer to the question of how to find environmentally-friendly meat. The bovine dwarves, who are about three feet tall, are descended (via 10 generations of careful breeding) from smaller British cows and generate more meat per acre than normal cattle. They’re less, um, gassy, too – so more meat, less methane. Doesn’t hurt that they’ve been bred to look like pandas, either. www.sohohouse.com

EVENTS Whether you’re a chef or a member, there are foodie events to get your mouth watering wherever you are.

NEW YORK Later in the summer, look out for the 100 mile dinner, when all the ingredients used will have come from within a 100-mile radius of Soho House New York. This will be a huge challenge for the chefs who are already trying to figure out what on earth to cook with no sugar, few spices, no vanilla, no olive oil – maybe even no flour. (Chef Kate Goodyear admits she’s had a few nasty looks since she suggested it...)

July sees the launch of beer and cheese pairing classes – using the new season’s cheeses chosen by the chefs. Beverage director Nicolas is working hard (our hearts just bleed) on finding great local beers to pair them with.

Members who want to see how seriously the chefs take finding the right ingredients can take a trip out to some of the New York State dairy and vegetable farms that supply the restaurant. After a hard day of trying fresh produce and touring the farms, chefs and members will head to nearby North Fork Vineyard to recover from their exertions with a wine tasting.

LOS ANGELES Meatball Mondays are a huge success, so look out for the next one – and don’t forget, members can submit their favourite meatball recipe for the chefs to judge, so if you fancy risking competing against the experts, send one in (see last month’s on page 29) BABINGTON HOUSE The Babington chefs are going fishing, and you’re invited. Members can spend the day on the water, setting off from Weymouth and the catch will later be expertly cooked. This year, general manager Matt won’t forget the beers...

BERLIN If you can’t wait for Oktoberfest, try the Berlin Beer Festival in August, which will involve a mile of beer stalls – many of which will be run by small independent breweries, as well as a few from Britain, Poland, Belgium and the Czech Republic.

C O O K H O U S E 5

starters

Head chef of Babington House, Ronnie Bonetti.

“The best thing about being a chef is travelling and being able to express myself. Does that sound stupid?”

what i know Ronnie Bonetti, head chef, Babington House When I was a kid in Australia I wanted to be a motorbike racer. When I got old enough I worked as a kitchen porter Monday to Thursday and raced at weekends. But then I fell

to find out more about working for soho house group contact cookhouse@sohohouse.com

off and some female chefs who worked in the kitchens told me I was wasting my life and that I should be a chef.

The women chefs at Bather’s Pavillion, Sydney, kicked me into touch when I worked there. I was always out on the razz, had a mullet and talked with a thick Aussie ocker accent. We went away for a weekend to Byron Bay and they told me I couldn’t come back to Sydney until I had a haircut.

I can’t stand heights. I’m terrified of falling. I went up the Sydney harbour bridge once and nearly had to crawl on my stomach across it.

C O O K H O U S E 6

The worst job I’ve ever done was packing shopping for old ladies at a supermarket in my home town in Queensland. I got paid almost nothing, the bags would break on the way to the car and they’d always get mad at me for putting cold with the hot, or tins with the soft. I’d sleep in the back on sacks of chook feed. I also washed buses for a while. That was pretty rubbish.

I cannot choose a favourite food. That’s impossible. Italian is where my heart is, in a way, because of working at the River Cafe. But what about Chinese? Japanese? I can’t choose. No way. www.sohohouse.com

My motto is that the more I give, the more I’ll hopefully get back.

It doesn’t exactly work all the time, but I stick with it.

My best ever date was a couple of years ago, with my wife Antonella, who is Italian. We went to Venice and Verona and saw the opera Aida at the Colosseum. That was pretty special.

The best thing about being a chef is travelling and being able to express myself. Does that sound stupid? I just mean, I grew up in rural Australia, and now I’m here. It’s pretty amazing.

I buy a lot of recipe books and never read them. But the best one that I do use is the Cook’s Companion by Stephanie Alexander. All the recipes are easy and they work.

D to find out more about how you could become SOUND? part of the soho house group team OO contact cookhouse@sohohouse.com Gwww.sohohouse.com

C O O K H O U S E 7

mains Whole carcasses are delivered to be butchered in the kitchens.

“We get most of our meat in nearly whole, lambs and stuff, and it’s just the best way to learn about cuts of meat, butchering it yourself.”

chefs on tour C O O K H O U S E 8

All chefs love a good skive (all humans love a good skive) but there’s nothing quite like a skive in the name of work. Getting chefs out of the kitchen and tasting other people’s cooking and produce means they get better at what they do. It also gets those pasty faces out in the daylight, which is why good head chefs know tasting trips are a great idea. www.sohohouse.com

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C O O K H O U S E 9

mains

Pizza East, East London

LA’s sunshine makes sneaking out of the kitchen on the pretence of working particularly special.

Soho House, West Hollywood “I try and make sure that my chefs get to go to the ,” say fantastic farmers’ markets here as much as possible yMatthew Armistead, head chef at Soho House West Holl e awar be to us wood. “It’s important to encourage all of seasons of seasonality.” Of course, it helps that in LA the just her weat for fruit and vegetables are long and the right for growing an amazing array of goodies. from Pastry chef Kate Goodyear, who has recently moved LA in s chef LA to Soho House New York agrees: “All the get go to Santa Monica market on Wednesdays, so you can a It’s ng. a sneaky peek at what everyone else is maki to do bit competitive but it’s also great because you get ries. wber stra things like try all the different kinds of and It’s nice to have a break from working a 16 hour day t righ good ’s you can ask the farmers themselves, ‘What might now?’ You develop relationships that mean someone and ’ week whisper to you, ‘I have morels coming in next you can make sure they put some aside for you!”

C O O K H O U S E 1 0

“It is a bit more difficult in London to find great local producers to visit,” admits Pizza East head chef John Pollard. “But we have still managed to do some excellent trips – I do at least one a month. Recently we went to visit the Foreman smokery in north east London, where they’ve been smoking salmon in the same way for over 200 years. They’ve had to move because of the Olympic developments, so they’re now right on the edge of the Olympics site. They use a friction smoke method where an oak wheel is turned – it means the salmon smokes much longer and slowly. Delicious! We’ve also done tastings at W&F smokery, which is tucked away among all the trendy bars and clubs of the Chalk Farm area of London – they’ve been on the same site since 1936.”

Pollard also organises trips to Borough Market. “A lot of our Italian suppliers have small stalls down there, so it’s great for all us chefs to be able to go and meet the people behind the produce we use.” They also go to the legendary Billingsgate fish market, so that the chefs can see for themselves what fish would be good on the menu.

He often sends chefs away to other restaurants in the group: “Some of the guys who work with me rarely get the chance to get out of London, so I like to send people to Babington House in the country when I can – it’s like a fantastic working holiday where they can do things like shooting and fishing.”

ased A group of the chefs recently went to see London-b -tonose y chef Fergus Henderson do one of his legendar plans tail eating demonstrations, and Armistead has big ing fish sea s for future trips too. “I’m taking the chef t next month, and we’re going to catch all kinds of grea go to s trip some stuff,” he says. “I’m also going to arrange s I oil tasting in the Napa Valley too, just like the trip .”

Cafe r Rive used to go on to Italy when I worked at the www.sohohouse.com

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Borough Market in London - just don’t go on Saturday with all the tourists.

C O O K H O U S E 1 1

mains

Babington House

Soho House, New York ker “There’s a great cheese shop called Murray’s on Blee Kate Street, which we’ve been working with,” says chef Goodyear. “They do local cheeses and we’ve done some . I’ve great tastings there for our East Coast cheeseboards learnt so much – like I did not know that cheese was . Now seasonal, with three of four ‘cheese seasons’ a year their we really focus on seasonal cheeses. We worked with beer and se cheesemongers and have created some great chee h we pairings for the House. Plus their Tarentaise, whic city get use, has a charitable aspect too, as they help kids out of town to experience life on a farm.” iceGoodyear has also been taking regular trips out for new our with cream tastings. “We needed an ice cream to go lodesserts, especially a cherry crostata. We found a cious deli cal gelato place who helped us develop the most ing.” toasted almond ice cream with buttermilk. It’s amaz ets The New York team also head out to the farmers’ mark n “Whe es. regularly, and sometimes to the farms themselv nts you see what people go through to create the ingredie . says she you use, you learn to treat it all with respect,” have “These guys don’t take vacations, they work hard and r thei real integrity. It makes you proud when you put work on the plate.”

C O O K H O U S E 1 2

Murray’s cheese store in New York.

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Being out in the countryside means the range of foodie trips for the chefs who work there is almost limitless – and there’s the walled veg garden as well, so ingredients in the kitchen have probably yanked out of the soil that very day.

Head chef Ronnie Bonetti takes new recruits out there as soon as they arrive. “We’ve got nettles and elderflower, wild garlic and all sorts round the boundary of the garden as well as what we’re actually growing. You can see them going ‘Wow’ as they take it in. We’ve got elderflower champagne on the brew just now.”

One chef, South African Kyle Knight, remembers a brilliant trip out pheasant shooting: “We drove deeper and deeper into the countryside and I couldn’t help but notice the sheer beauty of the landscape – I realised then this was going to be very different from back home.”

Nettle picking.

“I was well chuffed with the hunt. You never really know where things like pheasant come from until you go and get them yourself,” says Bonetti. “The guys were totally buzzing afterwards.

“My team have also been out picking wild asparagus. They go before work, totally under their own steam and come in with bunches and bunches of it, and ear-to-ear grins,” says Bonetti.

He’s also about to sample the first of the prosciutto they made last year when all the chefs got together to butcher a pig in a day. “We made sausages, chorizo, salamis and brawn as well as all the cuts. We’ve got five pigs on the go right now, and the moment the apples start to drop is the moment the team will do it again with them. We get most of our meat in nearly whole, lambs and stuff, and it’s just the best way to learn about cuts of meat, butchering it yourself.”

Last month Babington also hosted the first of a series of dinners for the West Country Committee, which involves getting together chefs Babington.

Chefs swap ideas at from within the group and from Fifteen Cornwall, The Rising Sun Inn, Tresanton Hotel, Rick Stein Restaurant and the Bath Arms plus appearances from locals Frank the Farmer and Tom the Cheesemaker. True to form, the pasta served was stuffed with nettles foraged that morning. www.sohohouse.com

C O O K H O U S E 1 3

careers advice

I tried art college, furniture making, skiing in Europe in winter and bar work in the summer, but nothing really fitted. In the end I headed to Australia; I wasn’t sure what to do and I was just bumming about, but the food culture was amazing. I was always looking for great restaurants, and then I’d knock on the door and ask if they needed anyone.

Matthew Armistead in the kitchens with Nick Jones, CEO of the Soho House Group.

I came back to the UK, decided to get serious about food and managed to get an interview at the River Cafe, but I was so green – I’m not trained or anything – so when Rose Gray asked me why I wanted to work there, I replied “I just want to cook!” Rose always liked to take on projects and she nurtured people; fortunately she saw something in me.

It was a great place to work. After two or three years they’d take you on one of their trips to Italy to source their olive oils. We stayed at ancient vineyards and olive groves and I’d stand there in these beautiful places and think, “I’m just a bloke from Blackburn – I never expected to get to be somewhere like this”. I still come back to those trips as a point of reference.

“I’m just a bloke from Blackburn.

I never expected to get to go somewhere like this”

Nick Jones (CEO of the Soho House Group) asked my wife, Shelley — who I met at the River Cafe but who’d left by then — if she would help him open the Electric in London back in 2002. She worked at Cecconi’s in London, and then Nick asked if we’d both like to work at Babington House, his hotel in Somerset, south west England.

how i made it Matthew Armistead, 38, is head chef at Soho House West Hollywood C O O K H O U S E 1 4

I always knew I’d end up doing something with my hands but I didn’t know it would be cooking. I grew up in Blackburn in northern England, which doesn’t have much of a food culture, and I left school with nothing.

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Babington was my first real head-chef position and it was a big thing – before, I’d been able to turn to other people above me and I’d never been responsible for all the food costs, the themes of the menu and a whole team.

We came out to LA a year and a half ago to help Nick open Soho House West Hollywood. We wanted to keep moving and Shelley and I had talked about Australia or South Africa, but LA is a great option. We live in Venice Beach with our kids which is just brilliant, and there’s a family farmers’ market on Sundays, plus I go to Santa Monica farmers’ market on Wednesdays, where all the chefs in town go for ingredients.

We’ve now opened two restaurants here and had a second child, so we’ve had a lot on our plates – it’s been an interesting time! I like to fill my kitchens with people I get on with so I brought several of my team from England to work with me here. Being here has broadened my horizons and I love working with such a diverse range of people. There’s a real Californian-Cuisine movement here and it’s been so interesting learning how other chefs take in the Mexican and Asian influences that you find here. www.sohohouse.com

C O O K H O U S E 1 5

total bullocks

beefing up Beef. There’s nothing quite like it – oozing blood onto the plate, making your chips go soggy, clogging up the arteries. That’s why it’s always on the menu in all the Soho House restaurants, as a burger, as steak tartare, as a bloody great Florentine hunk of meat dripping all over the place, or simply with fries and bearnaise. Hard to get right, easy to get wrong, chefs spend a worrying amount of time fretting over cattle.

C O O K H O U S E 1 6

“Our beef comes from a mile and a half up the road,” says Ronnie Bonetti, head chef at Babington House.

“It doesn’t travel far to slaughter and I know exactly what farm it’s from – I know that the calves start off on mum’s milk, then grass, and that later they’re fed grass, a little maize and a bit of brewer’s grain.” For Bonetti, that knowledge is important because it means he controls the quality.

Not that he’s above controlling what his butcher gives him too. www.sohohouse.com

C O O K H O U S E 1 7

total bullocks

“My first new year’s eve here I freaked out over the beef that the butcher gave us and sent it all back. I think he was testing me.”

C O O K H O U S E 1 8

“My first new year’s eve here, we had a new butcher and I completely freaked out over what he sent me – it was all way too wet and hadn’t been hung long enough. I think he was trying to test me; I sent the whole lot back and now he knows I won’t have anything that’s been hung for less than 30 days. We work together really well now, and yes, the beef is more expensive because it shrinks as it ages, but the flavour is amazing.”

Bonetti is currently serving his favourite rib eye steaks.

“They’ve got just the right amount of chew, so they go on every day. I sometimes do a Florence-style T-bone for two with chips and bearnaise, where you just chargrill the outside really, really hard – with that one, the quality of the beef really makes the dish. I’m also doing a seasonal rib with local wild asparagus or wild garlic butter and a beef tartare with local pheasant eggs.”

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Up in London, John Pollard, head chef at Pizza East, is similarly obsessed with provenance. “Our beef is from Millers of Speyside in Scotland, a small farm with only 2000 highland cattle. I get a cote-de-boeuf rib section, hung for eight days, and serve it as delicious 225g steaks, on the bone.” Millers hang their beef on the bone for 21 days and have their own abattoir, meaning their cows aren’t stressed before slaughter – tense cows mean tough meat.

In West Hollywood, Matthew Armistead, the British head chef at Soho House there, has been amazed by the American take on steak. “Beef is a bit of an obsession. There are so many different cuts here. Steak houses here do an excellent job, but we compete. My sous-chef used to work for Wolfgang Puck, one of the biggest chefs in the US, and she really, really knows her beef. I buy full bone-in ribs of prime from Chuck (such an apt name!) at Newport Meats and cut my own steaks from them.” Depending on the time of year, Armistead serves his steaks with anything from some in-season mushrooms to bone marrow. “I like cooking classic food, things that remind people of their childhoods, so steak fits in perfectly on our menu – which, after all, also includes mac and cheese.”

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C O O K H O U S E 1 9

total bullocks

“All the meatpackers used to be where our butcher is in New York. There was blood on the cobbles and sides of beef hanging up by the road”

HOW TO FIND PERFECT BEEF

C O O K H O U S E 2 0

“Talk to other chefs.

That’s how I learned,” says Ronnie Bonetti. “You can go to seminars, sure, but when you’re actually in a good kitchen you can learn so much about quality ingredients if you want to. I do see guys in the kitchen sometimes who could learn so much but just don’t see what’s around them.”

“Talk to your butcher.

They really know their stuff. Ask questions about all the different cuts and watch them work.”

“If it’s been hung properly, for about four weeks, the meat will be a lot darker and will have shrunk. At the start, you’ll have big, red, juicy bits of meat but they’ll be wet and have no flavour.

Send it back if it’s wet.”

“Of course, check out the marbling. You want good fat running through the meat.”

“Be prepared to spend a bit more to buy aged beef.

It’s worth it.”

He’s picked up some American tricks too. “Short ribs are amazing and you don’t really find them in the UK – they’re called Jacob’s Ladder there. But they’re fantastic as a special, slow cooked.” He also loves the rib-eye cap steak.

“There’s a cap of meat on top of the eye of the steak, and I think it’s one of the best cuts – it’s really tender and because it’s exposed to the air, it ages much better.”

In New York, executive sous chef Jonah Eagen trusts his butcher because they’ve been there since the 1920s. “Soho House New York is in the Meatpacking district, which is pretty much a super high-end neighbourhood now. But even 16 years ago when I first moved here, this was where meat coming into the city was packed and all the butchers were here. You’d walk down the streets and there would be blood on the cobbles and sides of beef hanging up on hooks right there in the road. There were also transvestites all over the place.”

Debragga and Spitler, his butcher, are the only ones to have survived the neighbourhood becoming trendy over the last decade, which says something for the quality of their meat. “I get their certified Angus beef for our New York strip steaks,” say Jonah. “It’s from the striploin, a non-functioning muscle in the upper middle back. It’s really tender.” Right now he’s dishing them up with handcut French fries and a punchy herb relish featuring parsley, chervil, mint, tarragon, rosemary, thyme, capers, anchovies, cornichons and olive oil. Yum.

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What to eat now The rest of the world may see summer as the season of bikinis, cold beer and burning things on barbecues, but chefs are obviously totally above all that and instead focus solely on the amazing produce available right now. They’re not thinking about bikinis. Or beer. Of course not.

What to eat in...New York The first of the local New York strawberries have appeared. They are very small and absurdly adorable; at Soho House the chefs are making strawberry shortcake with them.

Strawbs are also hitting the farmers’ markets from New Jersey and Connecticut, along with cherries – check out the cornmeal cake with cherries and Belgian ale that’s just gone on the menu. Chef Kate has also devised an impressive cherry pit (stone) ice cream - “Cherry pits have a tiny bit of cyanide in them (which is safe in small quantities!) like almonds, so the flavour is simi crostata. lar,” she says. It goes really well with her cherry Radishes are in season and have just arrived at the Kate Union Square Farmers’ Market. Chefs Jonah Eagen and table vege er summ r are pickling breakfast radishes for thei round salad. Breakfast radishes don’t look like traditional tames radishes, they’re long and skinny and pickling them their natural bitterness. Their zesty salad includes on. sugarsnap peas and asparagus which are also in seas C O O K H O U S E 2 2

, Other goodies include fava beans, heirloom tomatoes local peas and sweetcorn.

Where else to eat this summer?

Georges ABC Kitchen, a new farm to fork restaurant by Jean ked out.

Vongerichten, which the SHNY chefs have already chec 75-5829; 212-4 ; Address: ABC Kitchen 35 E. 18th St., at Broadway www.abckitchennyc.com www.sohohouse.com

seasonal eating

How to make it Kate Goodyear’s cherry pit ice cream serves 4 4 cups (950ml) single cream ¾ cup (100g) caster sugar 6 large egg yolks (15g each) 1.5 cups (150g) smashed cherry pits (stones)* pinch salt In a large saucepan, combine the single cream, cherry pits, salt, and half the sugar. Bring to a simmer.

Remove from heat and let steep for 3 hours. Strain.

Whisk the remaining sugar into the yolks. Bring the cream back to a simmer and slowly temper the hot liquid into the yolks then add all into the saucepan. Whisking constantly, cook the mixture until it thickens and coats the back of a spoon. Remove from heat, strain, and chill over an ice bath until cold.

Churn according to manufacturer’s ice cream machine directions. *To smash cherry pits: Take a hammer, an old towel and the pits into the garden. Smash until broken up.

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section header?

How to make it

Pizza East ultimate tomato sauce

Makes 3 quantities, each serving 4 (can be frozen) 5kg ripe vine tomatoes, halved 250ml olive oil, plus 8 tbsp for drizzling 6 shallots, finely sliced head of garlic, cloves separated and finely sliced 2 red chillies, halved and deseeded 4 tbsp sherry vinegar or red wine vinegar 4 tsp caster sugar

Preheat the oven to 200°C/fan 180°C/ gas 6/400°F. Place the tomatoes in 2 or 3 large roasting tins and drizzle with 8 tbsp of olive oil. Season well with sea salt and freshly ground black pepper and roast for 30-40 minutes until really softened.

Meanwhile, gently heat 250ml olive oil in a large frying pan. Add the shallots, garlic and chillies and fry over a very low heat for 10 minutes until softened. Remove the pan from the heat and set aside to infuse for 10 minutes. Sieve the oil into a jug and discard the solids.

Pour the infused oil into a large saucepan and set over a medium heat.

Crush the tomatoes with the back of a fork and add to the oil. Simmer gently for 5 minutes, then add the vinegar and caster sugar and simmer for a further 30 minutes, stirring C occasionally, until you have a thick, O rich sauce. Check the seasoning and O remove from the heat.

K Divide the tomato sauce into three H equal portions. You can keep whatevO er you don’t immediately need in the U S freezer.

E 4

What to eat in...LONDON

Chef John Pollard is particularly looking forward to the arrival of borlotti beans and British langoustines, which he’s going to serve together, the langoustine tails simply grilled, split and served with fresh borlottis as a summery antipasti. British tomatoes are also much anticipated.

“I’m constantly revising the menus depending on what’s in the markets,” he says. “Berries are just getting to be fantastic and we’ve just started using some wonderful white peaches in our desserts.”

What to eat in...SOMERSET well in the This summer, broad beans are growing exceptionally go down Babington House walled gardens. “It’s pretty cool to es growing there and see the beans coming through, and artichok as well,” says head chef Ronnie Bonetti. one county He’s also using crayfish from the River Test, just and away, which he’s splitting and roasting, or poaching from ged fora ic serving with wild garlic butter, using garl nearby woods. anything “I know it sounds boring, but I don’t think there’s Bonetti. says ?” nicer than strawberries and cream, you know ly cold “Marinated in lemon and served with sugar and real cream, there’s really nothing better.”

How to make it Babington artichoke, goat’s curd and broad bean salad

Where else to eat this summer?

serves 4 4 artichokes, boiled and peeled 1 kg (7 cups) broad beans (fresh fava beans), podded and blanched 1 bunch mint, leaves picked lemon and honey dressing - whisk together the juice of 1 lemon, 1 tsp of honey and 100ml (½ cup) olive oil 80g (½ cup) rocket (arugula) 150g (½ cup) goat’s curd

Pollard recommends “a fantastic restaurant, a really revolutionary place”, the Dock Kitchen, where the set lunch menu changes daily and in the evening they run set-menu supper clubs, inspired by authors, places or the season.

Address: The Dock Kitchen, Portobello Docks, 344/342 Ladbroke Grove, Kensal Road, London W10 5BU; 0208 962 1610; www.dockkitchen.co.uk

Where else to eat this summer?

The Beckford Arms is a favourite of the Babington kitchen staff on precious days off.

Address: The Beckford Arms, Fonthill Gifford, Tisbury, Wiltshire SP3 6PX; 01747 870385; www.beckfordarms.com

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Quarter the artichokes and put them in a bowl with the broad beans and the mint leaves. Add half of the dressing and gently mix together.

C Place the rocket on a plate, sprinkleO over the dressed artichokes and theO broad beans. Dollop the fresh goat’s K curd on top and drizzle with extra H O dressing. Serve straight away.

U S E 5

seasonal eating

What to eat in...

WEST HOLLYWOOD Lavender might sound like an unlikely ingredient, but Dolores, pastry chef at Soho House West Hollywood, is using it in her marshmallows as well as in lavender cream and ice cream, which she’s serving with everything from shortcake to chocolate puddings.

The stone fruits are in and going strong, so head chef Matthew Armistead is stewing apricots, then roasting them, halved, with brandy and vanilla sugar. They’re then topped off with mascarpone and crushed amarettis. Apparently it’s not been a great year for Californian fruits, but the peaches are “unbelievable,” says Matthew. “Dribble-down-yourchin good. People go crazy for them when I serve them with burrata, basil, rocket and a little balsamic.”

Soft fruits like boysenberries are also being used a lot. {Boysenberries are a cross between a raspberry, blackberry and loganberry.}

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“Unbelievable. Dribbledown-your-chin good” ared, He’s also enjoying the summer squashes that have appe vari especially crookneck squash, an ugly but delicious . Wild ety, with, unsurprisingly, a long hook-shaped neck y purslane is also in, which has an unusual almost smok flavour, and is a great salad leaf – even though many Americans consider it a weed.

West Hollywood’s chefs are making the most of the oro which blanco grapefruits – a particularly sweet variety, are served with prosciutto and butter lettuce, aged pecorino and watercress; melons with mozzarella or to the prosciutto are also popular. “People love to go back simple, classic dishes,” says Armistead.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Where else to eat this summer?

Axe (pronounced Ay-shay) aims to be as low impact and sustainable as possible, buying produce from local growers, and organic where possible – they even deliver their kitchen scraps back to the farms to be composted. Plus, they play surf movies out back.

Address: Axe, 1009 Abbot Kinney, Venice CA, 90291; 310 664 9787; www.axerestaurant.com

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C O O K H O U S E 2 7

member’s recipe

seasonal eating

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

How to make it Soho House West Hollywood’s warm brioche donuts & bourbon boysenberries makes around 17-20 donuts 1 oz (25g) fresh yeast 2 fl. oz (60ml) warm water 1lb (450g) all purpose (plain) flour 2 tsp kosher salt 1½ oz (40g) sugar 5 whole eggs 6½ oz (180g) soft unsalted butter

C O O K H O U S E 2 8

In a small mixing bowl, dissolve the yeast in the warm water. Set aside.

Combine all the dry ingredients in the bowl of your mixer and attach the dough hook. Mix the dry ingredients until incorporated. On speed 1, add the eggs and the yeast/water mixture and knead until well combined. Scrape down the sides of the bowl. Increase to speed 2 and knead for 10 minutes. Add the butter, a piece at a time and knead until smooth and the dough comes away from the sides of the mixing bowl. The dough will be very soft. Heavily oil spray a medium mixing bowl and place dough in it. Boule the dough until it feels tight. Cover with plastic film and chill in refrigerator overnight.

The next morning, take the dough out of the refrigerator. Portion into

2 oz (50g) dough balls. Slightly boule each ball and place on a sheet pan (baking sheet) with parchment paper that has been oil sprayed. When all dough has been portioned and bouled, leave dough out at room temperature and prove. It will take about 20 minutes until a skin forms and won’t spring back from the dent of your finger if you press it. Fry donuts in 350°F (180°C) oil until golden on both sides. Drain donuts on paper towels then toss in super fine (icing) sugar while still warm.

Cut donuts in half, lengthwise, and fill with bourbon boysenberries and whipped crème fraiche (below). Serve and enjoy!

Bourbon boysenberries 4 pints (approx 1.4kg) boysenberries (or you could use blackberries) 1 cup (145g) brown sugar 1 vanilla bean, scraped ¼ cup (60ml) high quality bourbon Combine all ingredients in a mixing bowl and let macerate for 1 hour.

Whipped crème fraiche 2 cups (475ml) heavy (double) cream 2 (475g) crème fraiche ¼ cup (30g) sugar 1 vanilla bean, scraped Whip in a mixer bowl with whisk attachment until medium peaks form.

ENJOY!!!!!!!! www.sohohouse.com

Dan Flower’s Big Balls Although a little unorthodox, we love this meatball recipe by member Dan Flower. For the sake of accuracy we had to test it out (yes, all the steps) and what can we say? All we can remember is that they tasted great!! serves 4

FOR THE BALLS

500g (1lb 1oz) veal 500g (1lb 1oz) pork small handful breadcrumbs yolk of one egg small fist of parsley small fist of basil handful of finely grated parmesan olive oil

FOR THE SAUCE

veal bones garlic 4 cans of chopped tomatoes 3/4 tube double concentrated tomato paste basil oregano salt ‘n’ pepper handful of Parmesan

Fry the bones in olive oil for about 5-10 mins until there is a greasy mess at bottom of pan. Sling ‘em (the bones). Add 3 cloves of crushed garlic and continue to fry at low heat. Add the tomato paste and fry until it’s sticking to pan and looks like you’ve screwed it up. Add the cans of tomatoes. Add a cup of water, season and bring to boil. Reduce heat to the lowest possible and put a lid on. Leave for an hour; have a Martini.

Come back and add basil, oregano and cheese. Leave for another hour; have another Martini or go to a museum...or visit an old friend.

Meanwhile, mix all the ball ummschka up in a bowl and then shape into balls that you’d like to have in your mouth. Fry gently until all sides are browned and firm. Put them in the sauce and continue gentle cooking for another hour this time with the lid off...

Have another Martini...Come back, and take it steady now. The sauce will be reduced to a thick muck. Serve with Italian bread, rocket side salad and another bowl of cheese

...immense.

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C O O K H O U S E 2 9

afters

Farmer’s Wife Cathy Shellard, dairy farmer, 22, Somerset The best thing about this job is that being on the farm itself means being with family, and the farming community is also like a family. Of course there are people who are miserable about it, like any job, but mostly people are nice to be around, and everyone’s in the same boat.

I love it..

C O O K H O U S E 3 0

The worst thing is that you’re tied to milking at either end of the day, so even if you go out for lunch or something, you know you’ve got to come back for milking. My boyfriend and I usually have to take separate holidays, but we occasionally go for a night at Babington House. Any bad things are outweighed by the sense of community.

I got into dairy farming when I moved in with Adrian, who runs his family farm. We’d only been together three months but I came to stay five years ago and never left, so it seems to have worked out pretty well. www.sohohouse.com

“I grew up on a farm nearby – my dad has sheep, cows and horses, so I knew what life would be like”

Cathy Shellard with her dairy herd in Somerset.

We run the farm with his older and younger brother. The younger one, Liam, is eight now and has a little vegetable patch where he grows carrots which he really loves. When he was six Adrian bought him some chickens, so now he really feels like he’s part of the family effort – he has a job to do every day. We make all sorts of delicious cakes with their eggs and our cream – cheesecakes, strawberry cakes, fresh cream cakes. We can even make clotted cream on the Aga, but it’s really complicated so it doesn’t happen often.

We get up at 6am to do the first milking and we finish the evening milking at about 8pm. During the day I’m out and about, feeding calves or catching them to bring them in when they’re about two days old. Occasionally I help when a cow’s giving birth – it’s easier at the moment because we haven’t got a particularly big bull so the calves are little.

I grew up on a farm nearby – my dad has sheep, cows and horses, so I knew what life would be like. Even so, my sister came over last summer to help me when Adrian was away, and although she was great about things like feeding calves, it only took getting poo on her from one cow in the dairy to put her off. She said she’d learnt never to go out with a dairy farmer! www.sohohouse.com

C O O K H O U S E 3 1

cookhouse

join our foodie family Soho House Group is recruiting.

We are looking for the most passionate and dedicated chefs from around the world. If you want to work for a company that’s full of opportunities, that’s expanding in Europe and America and that might even give you the chance to work in different exciting locations, then please get in touch. The right candidates will want to learn as much as possible: from improving their cooking skills to finding out about local seasonal produce and what best to do with it. If you’re the right chef for us, we’ll help you develop your career and have a great time along the way.

We’d love to hear from you.

To find out more email – cookhouse@sohohouse.com

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Soho House Food Magazine

What's our beef?

summer 2010

EATING what’s good to munch & where this summer COOKING how to find the perfect steak WORKING making good chefs great