Anniversary indulgence, The Hand and Flowers
Mrs Stuffy and I are irregular followers of the Professional Masterchef series as you'll know from my Michel Roux Jr post and we also enjoy the Great British Menu (particularly this year as one of the runners-up was Mary-Ann Gilchrist from Llanwrtyd Wells, someone whose cooking I think easily merits the 300 mile round trip).
But I digress, Mrs Stuffy (like many ladies in this part of the world apparently) has become a bit of a fan of Tom Kerridge, chef at the Hand and Flowers in Marlow, a larger than life figure who is pretty much ubiquitous in both those cookery programmes and indeed most culinary broadcasting on the tellybox at the moment. As is ever the case with her ladyship, no sooner the thought than the action and she promptly leapt to the phones and secured a 9:00 pm dinner reservation on our 13th wedding anniversary at his 2** Michelin starred pub in Marlow, some forty minutes up the road from us.
Nine of an evening is late dining for us but getting this reservation was no small achievement and required military grade anticipation and planning, they're booked solid on Fridays and Saturdays till November 2014 and weeknights aren't much better. With tastebuds a tingling we set off on a wild and wet and windy weeknight to celebrate 13 years of wedded bliss. (total lack of sarcasm there by the way).
It's billed as Britain's only Michelin starred pub and I'm not sure where the line is between restaurant, pub and gastropub, they also have some bedrooms apparently so go-figure as our American chums say, however whatever it is it's a welcoming establishment, the staff were young, from many corners of the world and competent,calm and cheerful, one suspects that Tom, if you do a good job, is probably a nice guy to work for.
Despite his claims that it's simple food it isn't really, it's very high quality dining served in a relaxed setting, this is not just well-executed pub grub. You can see the menu here, so I won't go into detail but I'm happy to admit that I was blown away by the flavours in my starter, a clever alternative scotch egg, using salt cod as the meat wrapping and a perfectly cooked bantam egg at it's core. My main course of pork was sublime but it's the dessert we've been boring people to death with for the past fortnight.
I was replete and not drinking so demurred when asked to plump for a sweet but her ladyship bullied me into sharing a Chocolate and Ale cake with a muscovado and salted caramel ice cream.
The cake, tried on its own, was just a little too bitter, the ice cream, on its own, too salt. Together, they blended into distinct but complimentary melt-in-the-mouth deliciousness, beautifully presented, exceedingly clever, a sign of a great palate and perfectly executed.
Many top restaurants deliver flawless food, but perfect delivery can all too often be less than exciting, this meal was a series of small delights. It wasn't a cheap supper but well worth it, I'm glad we saved up for 13 years for it.
Her ladyship chatted to the man himself in the bar afterwards, service having ended and told him how much better than Le Gavroche it was, good timing since he and Michel Roux Jr were on the radio together next morning, I hope Tom was polite enough to keep Mrs Stuffy's observations between the two of them.
But, you know, I reckon she was right...
If you can, go there.... enjoy
Labels: blog, blogfromthebarn, chocolate and ale cake, cookingfromthebarn, gastropub, hand and flowers, marlow, Michel Roux Jr, Michelin stars, pub, restaurant, Stuffy Oakwood barn, tom kerridge, wedding anniversary
I'll make you Roux the day that ...
Every year for birthdays, Christmas, anniversaries my lady wife and I go through a complex and often confusing (to outsiders) process.
Mrs Stuffy buys me something that I would love to have but could never justify buying for myself whilst I buy her something that she hides in a wardrobe until she thinks I've forgotten about it (I never, ever, do).
As a result we now try and identify things like breaks, holidays, trips, weekends away, transient experiences that show we care but don't hang around if we get it wrong. Our recent Maldivian excursion was my attempt to please my birthday girl.
Last April, as yet another birthday dawned to the sound of church bells and urchins taunting me in the street, I discovered that I was enrolled in a cookery school session with that chap off Masterchef, not the plump, pugnacious one, the skinny, skillful one, Michel Roux Jr.
I was delighted, I love to cook, I love to learn, he's obviously no slouch in the kitchen and he comes across well on his many TV appearances.
His signature restaurant is Le Gavroche, still one of the top UK restaurants, in that there, shabby London ghetto of Mayfair* and I'd not eaten there for some 20 years so it was fortuitous timing that chums Scot and Rosie shared a sumptuous (and very reasonably priced**) supper with us there a couple of weeks ago. I'd sort of hoped that Monsieur Le Chef would be there but it seems that "going to the rugby" justifies a night off from the pass.
So to my birthday present, an intimate day cooking fine food with certainly one of the most respected (and to be honest, intimidating) chefs in the UK. The venue is the top floor cookery school at Cactus Kitchens in Clapham, it's part of a complex that also houses the studios for a number of cookery programmes including Saturday Kitchen, not a show I often see but I think I look at home on the set.
I joined the other students, (I think 'mature students' is appropriate), inevitably a mixed bag of mostly middle-aged keen foodies, chatty, knowledgeable and seemingly passionate about food, in some cases blessed, as I am, with a partner who will pay handsomely to get them out of the house for a day.
We coffee'd, we danish'd, we broke the conversational ice, we laughed nervously, we were mollycoddled by the lovely ladies who run the place and then we trooped upstairs into the eaves to meet the man.
I've done a cookery school at Raymond Blancs gaff, Le manoir aux quat' saison which was enjoyable but made notable by an absolute lack of Raymond. This was very different.
We gathered around Michel and he effortlessly kicked off the day, the format was fun, he'd demo some techniques all the while chatting about chef stuff, TV stuff, food stuff, personal stuff, encouraging questions, interaction and creating an easy informality.
We then scurried off to our well-appointed stations to try and replicate what he'd shown us. As we exercised our respective culinary skills Michel circulated enthusiastically and guided, pointed out, complimented, enthused and in the case of my beurre blanc, rescued.
We made fougasse, it's an easy bread but great fun, we cooked artichokes, a new experience for me, creating an artichoke cocotte filled with baked egg, ham, cream and chorizo. It was an interesting dish and obviously chosen to enable the demonstration (and subsequent exercise) of many skills, knife work, stove and oven use, palate, timing, concentration and a little instinct. It's a dish I'm now very happy with and will be delighted to inflict on family and chums here at the Barn.
We also prepped and cooked some exceedingly fresh scallops, poached in a leek stock and served with leeks julienne on smoked salmon. Again, out of my comfort zone, I'm not a shellfish fan but I was delighted with the results, the techniques and information imparted and will be more than happy to deliver this dish to whomsoever is here next for supper.
All the clients seemed to be at least competent in the kitchen, apparently that's not always the case, they do have folk show up with no kitchen skills but I can't help thinking that would be a waste of some great instruction and insight.
Overall I find it hard to fault the day, the venue, the organisation or the host. As those who know me will probably attest I'm not prone to praise but he seemed to be a genuinely nice bloke and I'm now moved to break all my rules and congratulate my better half on a great gift and a great day.
With Christmas on the horizon, no pressure there then***.
*sarcasm
**more sarcasm
***panic
NB Click on the Cactus kitchens logo for a link to their website.
Labels: artichoke, blogfromthebarn, Cactus Kitchens, clapham, Cookery School, fougasse, le gavroche, Michel Roux Jr, saturday kitchen, scallops, simplystuffycooking, Stuffy, whatsdadcookingnow
Mrs Stuffy and I are irregular followers of the Professional Masterchef series as you'll know from my Michel Roux Jr post and we also enjoy the Great British Menu (particularly this year as one of the runners-up was Mary-Ann Gilchrist from Llanwrtyd Wells, someone whose cooking I think easily merits the 300 mile round trip).
It's billed as Britain's only Michelin starred pub and I'm not sure where the line is between restaurant, pub and gastropub, they also have some bedrooms apparently so go-figure as our American chums say, however whatever it is it's a welcoming establishment, the staff were young, from many corners of the world and competent,calm and cheerful, one suspects that Tom, if you do a good job, is probably a nice guy to work for. 
I was replete and not drinking so demurred when asked to plump for a sweet but her ladyship bullied me into sharing a Chocolate and Ale cake with a muscovado and salted caramel ice cream. 
