Menu, Liverpool Daily Post food and drink guide, April 2009

MENU THE DAILY POST FOOD AND DRINK GUIDE April 09

Chocolate is good for you

The expert advice we’ve all been waiting for

League Champion

Everton’s award winning chef

Easter treats Great ideas for a memorable holiday

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DAILY POST Tuesday, April 7, 2009

fresh

Worth his Salt A BUDDING Jamie Oliver is to bring his talents to the boil in two of the world’s best restaurants, thanks to a book celebrating the best produce in Merseyside.

Simon Salt, 24, from Darwen, Lancs, received a bursary provided by the sales of Home Grown.

He’ll travel to San Sebastian, in the Basque region of Spain, with London Carriage Works chef/owner Paul Askew, where he’ll work at the Martin Berasetegui and Mugaritz restaurants, which between them boast five Michelin stars.

food facts

COCONUT water can be used (in emergencies) as a substitute for blood plasma, because it is sterile and has an ideal pH level

try it . . .

THERE’S no need for anyone to miss out this Easter. Dogs can feast on a gluten and cocoa free carob egg, from £1.99, and cats a yoghurt and catnip flavoured egg for £1.99, at Pets at Home.

If you’re far from family, send an expertly packaged goody from Betty’s Cafe Tea Rooms of Harrogate, like the 315g milk chocolate Bunny Egg on the front cover, £19.25. Go to bettysbypost.com Allergic to dairy products? Indulge in a gourmet 260g dark chocolate egg by Celtic Chocolates filled with dinner chocolate mint crisps. From Coop, Holland & Barrett and Waitrose stores, at £6.49.

Ease your conscience with the Co-operative’s Truly Irresistible Fairtrade Milk Chocolate Easter Egg & Truffles, 210g for £5.99.

Taste of the wild ■ NORTH Wales farmer Daphne Tilley put a tempting deal on the table at the G20 summit last week – her own Welsh lamb and hand-picked wild garlic.

Daphne, who owns Plas Isaf farm, in the Elwy Valley, Denbighshire, told how she provided the lamb served up to Barack Obama, right, et al by Jamie Oliver.

“Jamie was keen to have some wild garlic, which grows in shaded woodlands, so we spent the weekend picking it from a site next to the River Aled,” she revealed.

President Obama also tucked into Shetland Isle salmon with samphire and sea kale, and Bakewell tart and custard for dessert.

■ CHEFS at 60 Hope Street, which celebrates its 10th anniversary on April 23, have given the menu a spring clean and are offering a three-course seasonal meal for just £18.95.

The Don’t Be Daffed offer includes a bottle of Rivers Edge Shiraz or Rivers Edge Semillon Chardonnay, to share between two people, and runs until April 18 lunchtimes and evenings.

For booking and more information, please call 0151 707 6060 and quote “spring menu”.

food facts THE earliest archaeological evidence for the consumption of soup, above, dates back to 6000 BC – and it was hippopotamus soup!

Dinner date Who would you invite?

Matthew Horne, James Corden, Katie Price and Catherine Tate.

Who would be your nightmare guest?

Victoria Beckham – she’d probably just sit there with a pout

Gary Brunt, 27, general manager at Circo on her. I like to see people enjoying themselves, and she doesn’t look like she’s had a good dinner in a very long time.

What would be the topic of conversation?

That we’re all glad Victoria Beckham couldn’t make it!

We’d talk about what everyone is talking about – the recession. And gossip from Hollywood from Katie.

What would you all drink?

Beer, Candy Floss Martinis and Jammie Dodger shots.

Who would do the washing up?

James and Katie or Matthew and Catherine. Anyone but me.

Katie Price – ideal for Hollywood gossip and dish washing

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DAILY POST Tuesday, April 7, 2009

Chef’s Table

A league champion William Leece talks to the man who has brought a new trophy to Everton FC

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ARETH BILLINGTON can’t resist a mischievous dig at Everton Football Club.

As head chef at Goodison Park, he takes great pride that the club’s catering has won the Directors’ Choice Award for the Premiership in the annual Football Hospitality Awards.

And that, he says with a hint of a grin, is one more award than the team has won on the pitch this season.

Quite what David Moyes and his staff think of this little bit of oneupmanship is not recorded, but the fact remains that Everton is top of the catering league right now.

And with 30 chefs and 30 more kitchen porters producing up to 2,000 meals on a match day, it is most definitely a team game – but one spread over days, rather than just 90 minutes.

Kick-off is on Wednesday for a Saturday game.

“That’s when we get the deliveries,” says Gareth. “We start preparing the veg on a Thursday, we peel the carrots by hand, make the potato dishes, soups, sauces, and the like.”

The level of catering depends on exactly which lounge or restaurant within Goodison – from the de luxe boardroom and Dixie Dean suite downwards – but the aim is to provide what the client wants, which can be anything up to 360 fillet steaks cooked to order.

It’s a big task, but Gareth has an impressive CV behind him. Like many in the business, he started in his teens helping out at local hotels in his native Nantwich.

“At 13, I started washing up at a local hotel. They got a bit short of chefs one night, and they got me cooking. I decided it’s the sort of career I wanted.”

He studied for a while at a local catering college, then borrowed £25 from his father to see what work he could find in London simply by knocking on doors.

He was offered a job as a junior chef – a commis chef – working under the highly-respected Steve Latimer, at the Garrick gentleman’s club, in London’s West End. Two years later, he was with the QE2 for a two-year stint of 17-hour days, followed by work in hotels and clubs in the Caribbean and at home, before arriving as head chef at Goodison with Sodexo, the company responsible for Everton hospitality, about two years ago.

There is a lot more to the operation, though, than simply providing refreshments and hospitality at Everton.

A winning team – executive head chef Gareth Billington and Everton FC

Picture: GARETH JONES/ grj250309achef-2

Chocolate toffee cup with chocolate chip cookies Method

TOFFEE SAUCE Method 1. Put an unopened 400g tin of condensed milk in a pan of boiling water and allow to boil for 2 hours. You should put a lid on the pan to prevent all the water boiling away.

When done, remove the tin to cool.

2. When cool, open the tin to see that the condensed milk has caramelised. Spoon out into a bowl and add a couple of tablespoons of water to thin the toffee sauce.

3. Place a spoonful of the toffee sauce in the bottom of a small coffee cup.

CHOCOLATE POT Ingredients 280ml Double Cream 200g Plain Chocolate (minimum of 70% cocoa solids) 2 Egg Yolks The club puts a big emphasis on training, and at any one time there are likely to be three or four youngsters on work experience, often from the nearby Alsop High School, or the Hugh Baird College, in Bootle.

“If they like the catering industry, we usually take them on a parttime basis,” says Gareth.

“It’s quite an intense training we give them. In a structured training course, we do everything from

menu planning to ordering, storage, to preparation and service.”

All, of course, against a background that is uniformly Blue. But one thing that will not be found in the Goodison kitchens is the air turning blue. Gareth will simply not allow it. Certain television chefs may curse and swear as the heat goes on in the kitchen, but the message at Everton is that big egos are out and that a little politeness works wonders – and is, indeed, expected.

1. Bring the cream to boil, then remove from heat.

2. Add crumbled/broken chocolate to the cream, stirring all the time to combine the two ingredients to a smooth consistency.

3. Add the egg yolks and beat lightly to combine with chocolate mixture.

4. Pour the chocolate mix on top of the toffee in the coffee cups.

Place in the fridge for two hours.

Remove from the fridge and pipe a thin swirl of toffee on top of set chocolate pot.

CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES Ingredients 115g unsalted butter, softened 50g granulated sugar 70g light muscovado sugar ½ teaspoon vanilla extract 1 large egg, lightly beaten 160g plain flour

It’s an area in which Gareth is happy to lead from the front. On match days, he wears a name badge proclaiming him to be the head chef, but in the run-up he is one of the team, showing the way and running the operation by respect, rather than with a big stick.

The kitchens even manage to run smoothly with football banter thrown in. Believe it or not, there are loyal Reds beavering away quite happily to keep Everton and its

¼ teaspoon bicarbonate of soda 100g plain chocolate (minimum of 70% cocoa solids) Method 1. Preheat the oven to 180C/Gas 4. Lightly grease a baking tray.

2. Cream together butter and sugars, until pale and fluffy. 3. Gradually beat in vanilla and egg.

4. Gradually mix in the flour, bicarbonate of soda and a pinch of salt.

5. Add crumbled chocolate to the mixture.

Mix to a softish dough.

6. Put teaspoons of the dough onto the greased baking trays, spaced well apart.

7. Bake for approx 8 mins, or until light golden brown.

8. Remove from oven and leave to cool.

9. Serve with the chocolate pots.

Strawberries can be used as a garnish on the plates to complement this dessert.

That’s one more award than the team has won on the pitch this season

guests fed and watered on match days, and, as for Gareth himself, well, he looks just a little hesitant over his football loyalties.

Eventually, he admits to his secret support.

A bit obvious, when you think that he’s a lad from mid-Cheshire: Manchester United. But that’s football only – when it comes to cooking, he’s a Blue through and through. billleece@liverpool.com

DAILY POST Tuesday, April 7, 2009

4

Reaping the rewards

Marcus Wareing – says he prefers to be a hands-on chef in the kitchen

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T’S 8:30am and guests at the Berkeley Hotel, in London’s Knightsbridge, are enjoying a leisurely breakfast. But step away from the relaxed calm of the restaurant and through the doors of the kitchen, and it is a very different scene as some 21 chefs beaver away to create the mouthwatering food that has earned Marcus Wareing two Michelin stars and made him the toast of the restaurant industry.

The lad from Southport has done good, and he couldn’t be happier than he is here now, in charge of his own restaurant, Marcus Wareing at the Berkeley (formerly Petrus).

In person he is charming, quiet and unassuming. But his passion for his food is undeniable.

As he pours me coffee in the kitchen, we are seated at a table where diners can watch their meals being made, and all around us the team of chefs are prepping and creating some of the best food available in London and, indeed, the UK. Marcus is keen to get back to his station and start preparing some fresh fish, which has just come in. His working day, he explains, varies depending on what is happening.

Before he gained ownership of his own restaurant at the Berkeley, a lot of his time was spent in meetings or with solicitors, he says.

Last year, 38-year-old Marcus hit the headlines following his acrimonious split with F Word star Gordon Ramsay.

Merseyside-born Anne Benson He had worked with Gordon since 1993 when he took a job as sous chef at the Aubergine restaurant, serving under the Scot. The pair became friends and Gordon was even best man at Marcus’s wedding.

They continued their successful partnership when Marcus launched Petrus, with the backing of Gordon’s company.

Marcus, who has been very outspoken about his former boss in the past, can’t talk much about the split today due to legal issues. But he describes the experience as like getting a divorce. He is glad to be through it.

“Now it is all about the kitchen,” he says. “There is the preparation for our two services, lunch and dinner. It is just generally about making sure there are no slip-ups, that we have brought the right food, quality, checking standards.

“Our customers are very aware and are not going to accept sub-standard.

We cook differently nowadays, we cook at low temperatures, we are pushing the boundaries at the moment, so buying the best ingredients is crucial for us.”

His kitchen serves 35 to 40 covers at lunch and 65 to 70 in the evenings.

Though he could leave it up to his chefs to create the day’s menus, Marcus

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DAILY POST Tuesday, April 7, 2009

s of hard work New name and a new era – Marcus Wareing is now master of all he surveys Picture: BEN STANSALL

Cupboard love KEEP anything from biscuits to your secret stash of Easter chocolates in this brightly coloured ceramic jar from Marks & Spencer's Fab Chicken collection, £7.50.

Just put it up somewhere really high to keep the kids out!

RUNNY, soft or hard-boiled – all the family will be in egg heaven with these yummy egg cup buckets. There are Three, Four & Five minute eggs (two of each) so you can get yours just how you like them.

Set of 6 Egg Cup Buckets from Roullier White, £15. Stockists 020 8693 5150 or www.roullierwhite.com IT ISN’T exactly cheap, at £19.95 for the cup and saucer. But how sophisticated will you feel sipping tea or coffee from this elegant set by Rorstrand, at House of Fraser?

Blundell Street

n top chef Marcus Wareing invites n into the heart of his exciting world says he prefers to be hands-on in the kitchen.

“I would start to feel disjointed from the job, I love to be in tune with it. I could let them get on with it but you can get further and further away from the food and one day I would walk in the kitchen and I would not recognise my own food, and that would scare me,” he explains.

Marcus’s passion for cooking started back home, where his father ran a vegetable business. As a youngster, his evenings and weekends were spent in a warehouse packing potatoes or delivering to local restaurants and schools.

But it was having a brother, seven years older, who was a chef that was the real inspiration.

“It was important to me to be following in big brother’s footsteps.

Brian still runs a fabulous catering company doing a really good job. Brian pushed me into food, it gave me the interest in what chefs deliver. It was either that or go and work for dad,” says Marcus.

People may consider him lucky to be where he is now, but he is keen to stress that it has not been achieved without sacrifice.

“You’re 17 years old and your father

puts you on a train. You’re sick as a dog because you miss home and your family and you hate London. Your stomach is churning with fear at going back, but your father takes you back and puts you back on the train time and time again. But he was always there on the end of the telephone,” he recalls.

Working hard is something Marcus accepts as part of the job and the way to get on.

“You do not go out, you do not have a social life, you just cook day after day and then you sleep and come back into the kitchen,” said Marcus.

Recently, the rumour mill has been rife with speculation that Marcus, who lives in London with his wife, Jane, and three children, is about to make a return to the North-West to open a restaurant. But it looks like food fans are in for disappointment.

“No, sadly, it is not true,” he reveals.

“I don’t know the North as well as I did.

“I have just finally found my feet here. Though I have been here for 10 years, I am finally my own boss and it has now become mine. It has sort of recharged and regenerated me into the next era of my career.”

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Blundell Street, Liverpool L1 OAJ 0151 709 5779 (Opp Echo Arena)

Website: www.superclubliverpool.com

DAILY POST Tuesday, April 7, 2009

6

Easter fun

Chocolate is good for you We’ve all watched him struggling to set up his business – now you can meet this cocoa evangelist in person. Emma Pinch reports

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FTER years of grinding, tasting and blending, he’s finally hit on the winning formula for what he considers the best chocolate in the world.

Willie – star of Willie’s Wonky Chocolate Factory – HarcourtCooze can now stroll though the aisles of his local Waitrose and revel in the proof he’s one of the first Britons since Cadbury to successfully grow, process, package and sell his own chocolate.

It’s a wrap – well, almost.

After the TV series, he went on to source 1920s machines and build a new factory in Devon. His trials and tribulations had only just begun.

“I had 25 tons of the wrong beans delivered and machines breaking down,” he says.

“One of our biggest bridges to cross was that we don’t have a wrapping machine because we were let down by the company refurbishing it. We’ve had to wrap by hand, staying until 12am.” He sighs: “That has huge financial implications because it affects supply.”

Willie’s message to the country is to not to hold back when it comes to chocolate. It’s contrary to the Government’s demands that we ditch the simple pleasure, drowning its enjoyment with statistics about artery-clogging fat and calorie content.

“I’m not talking about chocolate with vegetable fat added or milk powder added, which is really fat, and lots of sugar,” he explains. “If you eat chocolate, it should be good for you, because it is full of vitamins and minerals.”

So far, Willie’s made 10,000 of his Venezuelan 72% Rio Caribe bars and “a few thousand” of his Peruvian 70% San Martin bars.

Although Britain is becoming more curious about different types and qualities of chocolate now, he says, our tastes for the substance have largely been dictated by the limited choice on the market.

He’ll be sharing his findings about the pleasures and health benefits of quality chocolate twice a day at the Liverpool One Easter Chocolate Fair, running from Wednesday, April 8-11.

“People have taken the lead from what’s available,” he says. “There used to be hundreds of brands, whereas now just a couple dominate the market.”

Willie’s own cocoa beans are sourced from his own estate in Venezuela. After growing up in Cork, Ireland, he spent much of his 20s travelling with his wife, Tanya, and became determined to buy a hacienda there called El Tesoro – Spanish for treasure.

As well as cocoa beans, they grew ginger and cashews and set up a hotel. But it was the cocoa that captured Willie’s imagination.

Chocolatier Willie Harcourt-Cooze and his Venezuelan chocolate

It’s like a wine. It has flavours from the area it comes from

“Chocolate had never been a big thing for me, but I’ve always had a passion for food and flavours.

Indirectly, I suppose my passion started many years ago. When I came across cocoa, I realised how exciting it was as a sweet and savoury flavour, and a flavour enhancer. It has a different hat however you use it. In Venezuela, they use it for moles (sauces – as in guacamole), or you can use it in gravies.

“Chocolate used to be a highly sought-after foodstuff. For the Aztecs, it was so important that they used it as currency. Cortes said: ‘A soldier can walk all day on a cup of chocolate’.”

Single-estate chocolate is the cream of the crop, according to Willie. He sources his beans from three places – El Tesoro, from his farm in Venezuela, Carenero and Rio Caribe, from different parts of the country “Chocolate is like a wine,” he rhapsodises. “It has flavours from the area it comes from. Ours has a distinctive berry flavour.”

Willie’s chocolate mission has removed him from ordinary working life and routine. He regularly works 18-hour days and weekends.

But it’s been time well spent, it turns out.“There are times and places in life when you have to get things going,” he reasons, of the toll his business takes on his family. “If things weren’t going well, it would be worse. It makes life more exciting when things are turning out well and you are

achieving for your family.”

And whenever the stresses of turnover and broken equipment threaten to overload, or he’s hurtling between cities on the train as he is now, he turns his thoughts to El Tesoro.

“I’m there in my head now,” he admits.

“That’s where my home is, as much as we’re living here. It’s a national park and has 7% of the world’s bird species. There’s every tropical fruit you can imagine. It’s like paradise.”

■ WILLIE HARCOURTCOOZE’S TV show, Raising the Bar: Willie's Chocolate Revolution, is on Channel 4, from April 7-9, at 8pm. emma.pinch@liverpool.com

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DAILY POST Tuesday, April 7, 2009

Sommelier – Mathew Sloane

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DON’T like change. I don’t like change and I particularly despise change that might be good for me, my fellow earthlings or the universe as a whole.

Therefore, I have always found the concept of organic wine to be abhorrent, I have treated it with such a violent apathy usually reserved for such terrors as London, drawn-out break-ups and stylish bars. It was with much trepidation I agreed to attend a tasting event featuring solely organic plonk. It wasn’t just the wine I was worried about but I was quaking at having to deal with a sandal-wearing beardmonger, twittering away from a soap box of selfrighteous doom.

Now, before the inevitable turnaround, allow me to clarify – there is never an excuse for a man of any social standing to wear sandals, I repeat, never.

I arrived at the hub of all things wonderful, Yuet Ben, Upper Duke Street, to be greeted not only by the ever charming proprietor, Terry Lim, but a chuckling gang of well groomed mad hatters, offering some decent banter before insisting that I had a firm gargle with around eight wines from the treebothering universe of Organia. For the first time since that certain night in Istanbul, I found myself utterly flabbergasted. The swag on offer from these lovely nut jobs at Vintage Roots was astounding, all of it.

There was an outrageously decadent sparkler from the biodynamic vineyards at Champagne Fleury; a stunning, Spanish, white, Xarel Lo, from Albet I Noya, that tasted like liquid jelly tots and a blinding red blend from the same producer, Lignum Negre, which sat so well alongside Terry’s phenomenal crispy duck I almost wanted to give up

all my worldly goods and join a commune. I said almost.

The evening was rounded off by three cheeky little blighters from French genius, Jean Bousquet who had discovered a few acres of perfection in Argentina and decided to knock out some seriously orgasmic laughing water.

At some point during this smart little love-fest, we were informed that, due to the lack of wacky chemicals in our booze, we could look forward to a mild or even non-existent hangover the following morning – a rude claim that needed some serious consideration. Ever the trouper, I risked life and limb to fully investigate this wild theory, I tested it to its harshest possible limit and am chuffed to say I awoke at the cock’s crow and could have run a mile, on stilts, blindfolded – magic.

So, it seems that this organic lark might have a thing or two going for it.

The juice was definitely helped along by some of the finest food you’ll eat in this lovely old city of ours, but I am not ashamed to admit that I am converted.

As long as I don’t see a sandal, a rucksack or a water-powered moped within a hundred miles of the stuff, I’ll heartily recommend it till the end of time, or thereabouts.

Best bar none

Zeligs, Liverpool One, Thomas Steers Way, Liverpool Tel: 0151 709 7097 KOROVA has built its name with big bold themes, quirky to the point of unnerving.

The latest addition to its stable is slap bang in the middle of a shopping centre and, while the out-and-out weirdness is toned down, the fairytale flavour hasn’t.

Bar/restaurant Zeligs, in Liverpool One, is named after fictional Italian-American proprietor, Leonard Zelig, who is said to want to create a bit of the old country in New York/Liverpool.

In flamboyant Italian style, the walls are lined with snaps of him and every celebrity who has

I

DO my utmost in this monthly rant of mine to throw in the odd bit of useful information with all the shouting but I feel there may be some of you out there who’d actually like to learn some actual gubbins about the old vino.

A very nice lady, Caroline, is running a boss little wine school down at Vinea, Albert Dock. Log your inquisitive selves onto www.vinealiverpool.co.uk and have a sneaky peek at the course on offer.

Mention this fantastic publication and they may even sort you out with a bit of a discount, you never know.

visited – from Winston Churchill to Russell Brand.

The ground-floor interior is cavernous, but intimate with acres of dark polished wood, candlelight, overblown antiques and giant leather armchairs, with the odd boar’s head thrown in.

It’s setting its hat at large parties, and it could accommodate at least 100 in the bar.

Extensive beer fridges reflect its New York leanings, with bottles starting at £3 and draft at £2.60. A bottle of wine starts at under £14, a pizza at £7.25, and pasta at around a tenner.

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DAILY POST Tuesday, April 7, 2009

The James Monro

A taste of New York in the city

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FAR cry from the grease-laden dishes of American fast food eateries, Manhattan’s uber-fashionable dining scene is a true culinary experience – with talented chefs taking inspiration from the melting pot of different cultures and cuisines within the vibrant city.

Keen to push the boundaries of Liverpool’s culinary fare, one city centre restaurant has brought New York’s cult dining scene to Tithebarn Street, with a menu designed to take your tastebuds on a gastronomic journey across the Atlantic.

Taking inspiration from Manhattan’s rich eating history and burgeoning restaurant scene, The James Monro takes amazingly fresh ingredients and gives them an innovative, New York-style twist.

Opened in November, The James Monro has been an instant hit with adventurous “foodies” keen to experience Liverpool’s own version of Manhattan’s uber-trendy dining scene.

A vibrant fusion of flavours and the freshest ingredients, the innovative menu includes appetisers like Hudson Valley rabbit with sweet tomato sauce on a bed of tagliatelle; and entrees such as Cajun catfish steak served on a bed of wilted spinach and sauteed Yukon potatoes, with fresh caper and dill salsa.

Those with a sweet tooth can also indulge in the likes of pecan and bourbon pie with fresh berries and vanilla pod ice cream; or plum tart served with vanilla mascarpone and

toasted almonds. Equally, the restaurant’s lunchtime menu features New York snacks like roast pumpkin ravioli with Aragula pesto; and signature sandwiches such as the New Jersey Turnpike, with roasted bell peppers, red onion, zucchini, melted Monterey Jack cheese and basil pesto.

Plus, if you’re in a hurry, you can simply log on and pre-order your lunch online.

Tables can also be reserved online, and an array of weekly specials, such as New Hampshire lamb with pistachio crust, ensures there’s always something new to tantalise your tastebuds.

Additionally, The James Monro can cater for coeliacs and other dietary needs.

The James Monro takes inspiration from Manhattan’s rich eating history There is a new head chef, Scott Gavin, who previously worked at the West Tower Hotel, in Aughton.

To complement the mouthwatering menu, the eatery serves an extensive range of American beers, wines, spirits and expertly blended cocktails.

The service is relaxed, unpretentious and friendly yet fast and uberefficient in true New York fashion.

Named after the fifth President of America, The James Monro is the second restaurant venture from the owners of renowned Duke Street eatery The Monro, which serves

modern British food fused with Mediterranean flavours.

■ THINK you know American food?

Think again, experience true New York-style dining at The James Monro, 69 Tithebarn Street, Liverpool, L2 2EN, log on to www.themonro.com, or call 0151 236 9700 to reserve a table.