When Ordinary Becomes Extraordinary

Words and Photography by Su-Lin Ong

A heady night of feasting in a boudoir-like salon; then that moment you half expect Adam Ant to leap up and stride down the long table to shake up the conventional.  Such was the mood when Berry Bros. & Rudd released its latest limited-edition label for its perennially popular Good Ordinary Claret.

It was natural genius to show off its fine and dandy label by artist Kate Boxer, matched up with her son Jackson Boxer’s modern cooking at the flamboyant Brunswick House – the Georgian mansion crammed with antiques and salvage to covet and buy.

This night of hospitality with gusto and intensely rich flavours cast all meekness aside.  Befitting a first full-blown feast of Autumn, it was a textured setting of draped swags and the patina of old satin polished wood, with a tumble of flora from the mantlepieces.

The Kate Boxer label is the third limited-edition design by BBR, and follows its commissioned Paul Smith label for its 2013 GOC and the 2014 GOC by design wonder Luke Edward Hall. The depicted dandy and his dog - modelled by Kate’s dog Figgy - is a chap on a mission.  He’s firing his pistol to proclaim, ‘Let the feasting begin’.

The wine is a bright and modern Bordeaux red, with notes of deep cherry and bramble.  You sense swathes of country mists and goblets filled and re-filled to the brim. It’s a wine to be generous with; an everyday indulgence.  When a designer designs, the inspiration usually comes from relishing the product and its aura.  As Kate describes her creation, you figure how much she enjoys this kind of feasting on a regular basis; she is very much part of the Boxer lineage of gourmets and chefs.

To reflect the flavours of the claret, Jackson styled a menu of jewelled beets with gutsy charcuterie, followed by succulent slices of rare, full fat roast beef – all plattered up for guests to convivially serve each other.  Even the dessert of richest, darkest chocolate and brandy infused prune loved this wine.

And yes, the dandy himself lent his full-size presence to the feast.  Kate Boxer’s original dry point etching with carborundum seemed so completely at home in the deep shadows and candlelight.

The new Kate Boxer-labelled Berry Bros. & Rudd Ordinary Claret is available from 25 October 2018.  £9.95 for a bottle.  And when the 7,000 bottles are gone, they’re gone.  www.bbr.com

The dinner:
Prosciutto, bresaola, fennel salami, mortadella, olive, cornichon and caperberry
Heritage beetroot, goat curd, pistachio dukkah and puntarella
Rare roast sirloin of beef with horseradish, Cornish potatoes, roast carrots and pound farm leaves
Chocolate pot with boozy prune, cultured cream and almond
* * *
Champagne Berry Bros. & Rudd Grand Cru by Mailly
Negroni cocktails
White Burgundy 2017 Berry Bros. & Rudd by Collovray & Terrier
Red Bordeaux 2016 Berry Bros. & Rudd Good Ordinary Claret by Dourthe

Su-Lin Ong attended as a guest of Berry Bros. & Rudd.
Twitter: @sloLondon

Wonders from Windermere at London's Selfridges

Words & Photography by Su-Lin Ong and Luiz Hara

This is dinner #4 in Selfridges’ inspired Summer series, #MeetTheMakers, and the surprises become ever more dazzling.  You’d be a lucky diner if you managed to be quick enough to book all five dinners. Indeed there have been some who have enjoyed every one in this real treat of a tour of unexpected UK culinary hotspots; the best kind of gourmet staycation, for sure.

Chef Conor Toomey and Head Sommelier Dawn Davies

Tonight’s guest chef is Conor Toomey, Head Chef at The Restaurant at Storrs Hall in the Lake District.  His usual dining room has huge picture windows and dreamy views rolling down to Lake Windermere.  His team of five have swapped it for Selfridges glossy mirrored Corner restaurant.  We are all set for six very English courses and a flight of wines from round the world to match – selected by Selfridges head of wine Dawn Davies, who is our sommelier for the night.

Conor’s written menu is a handy fast read for those of us impatient for our dinner: Avocado – Octopus – Veal – Huntsham farm pork – Peach – Coffee and chocolate.  Somehow we know that each course is much, much more than that.  These are dishes that are an artwork and feast in themselves.

Throughout this colourfully textured dinner, we can spot the tricks and tactics which Conor adores using to make each course flow.  We marvel at his imagination and skills in freeze drying and dehydrating to create airy powders and granules.  It seems he can work magic on anything – we taste almond, tarragon, raspberry and even chocolate, all creating delicate magic veils across our dishes.

Our first course is a silky milky avocado cream, aged parmesan and lacy shavings of summer truffle surrounding a precision cut spearhead of baby artichoke.  You want to disassemble the chef’s creation and savour each on its own to get the purity of his chosen flavours.

To accompany this, our wine is an uplifting Chilean that’s all fresh gooseberry and garden grassiness - Vina Litoral Ventolera Sauvignon Blanc.

The next dish has every nuance of savoury saltiness.  Slow cooked octopus, baby heirloom tomato, a smoky chorizo jam, peculiar salty fingers that pop delicate saltmarsh brininess, and a hint of anchovy.  Chef adds his wispy cress-like pennywort, foraged from the Lakes.

Partnering the octopus, we drink a deep mature Rioja viura with surprising freshness.  This 2004 has an oaky depth that balances the saltiness of the food: Bodegas R Lopez de Heredia, Vina Gravonia Blanco Crianza.

Tastes become richer and textures more diverse, as we are served roast veal sweetbread with an unsuspecting cube of beef shortrib, crunchy baby beetroots and delicate anise-like tarragon.

Our first red arrives.  The Cambridge Road Pinot Noir 2011 is a confidently rich New Zealand wine from Martinborough in the south of the north island and a great match to the roast sweetbread.

The hearty, elegant main course is pork served three ways and comes as a butter-soft bar of belly, plus 55 day aged middle white pork laid on a cushion of pulled shoulder.  Rings of barbecued onions and an intense velvety apple sauce accompany it.

With this comes an unusual South African Swartland wine: Three Foxes The Castillo 2009 Syrah.  It is a slightly cloudy style; very natural, and showing very little intervention.

There are two desserts – perfect for every dinner when it’s impossible to decide upon fruity or creamy.  An unusual peach melba experience presents us with meltingly baked peach, raspberry sorbet and pink wafer shards with the taste of pressed candy floss. The treasure is a soft crushed raspberry which lays hidden.  It floats in a pool of the most translucent, coolest custard imaginable.

Giving away no hints on the nose, but yielding explosive fragrant sweetness on the palate, is a Clos Lapeyre ‘La Magendia de Lapeyre’ 2011 Jurancon from SW France.

Finally, our Windermere dinner draws to a reluctant close with frozen coffee cream, aerated sponge and creamy chocolate Namelaka.

We sip a Sercial 10 year old vinhos Barbeito: a medium sweet Madeira which enhances the dessert flavours with a caramel lushness.

Three hours later, and we feel the evening has just started.  We’ve been busy figuring out every note of taste and nuance of skill, but that hasn’t distracted from the sheer easy pleasure of enjoying this symphony of a dinner.

Chef Conor Toomey and his team

#MeetTheMakers at Selfridges' The Corner Restaurant

The six-course dinner was priced at £75, and including wine flight, £110. For more information about the series of #MeetTheMakers dinners, visit the Selfridges website here.

Curiously white wine & chocolate at Le Vieux Comptoir

Words & Photography by Su-Lin Ong

The gourmet purveyors of Marylebone’s Moxon Street have nested themselves a charmed spot.  Within a few metres, they can slip into each others’ homes and share neighbourly feasts of their own creations.  That’s how one evening I came upon an adventurous get together, hosted by Laurent Faure of wine merchant Le Vieux Comptoir and Sam Smallman of Rococo.

And so I arrive more intrigued by the prospect of neighbourly crossfire and experimentation, than for the promise of wine & chocolate pairing made in heaven.  Le Vieux Comptoir is tucked away and looks like a discreet Georgian merchant’s house.  Inside it is brimming with ‘vins fins & délices de France’ and extends like a French farmhouse, with comfy rooms in which to sip, eat and while away time.  The evening’s fun is about the challenge of new sensations in this most unexpected setting.

Laurent tells me he tastes 10,000 wines a year to create his cellar at Le Vieux Comptoir.  You’ll notice many esoteric choices from virtually every regional corner of France.  Now for the surprise: he hasn’t chosen a single red wine for the pairing.  Sam responds with chocolates that are all about velvety textures, light herb fragrance and delicate fruit aromas. 

It takes a while for the palate to settle into the test of working hard and then to relax into savouring and contemplation.  Each wine is best sipped before tasting the chocolate - curiously the opposite way from how I tackled a recent beer and chocolate tasting.  The order of play is led by the wines; from light, minerally and grassy, progressing to aromatic and pure indulgent richness.  However the chocs weave their flavours in a more spritely and beguiling way.  You become more aware of textures; from silky liquid caramel through to an al dente Autumn berry jellied ganache.  Suddenly the harmony reveals whole new flavours, found in neither wine nor chocolate.

Trial beyond our hosts’ choice pairings might enlighten or confuse, but for me, two really hit the palate in a stand-out way.  The naturally rich Montlouis Moelleux, paired with the apricot & lavender ganache, opens into new caramelised apple notes; almost like a toasted almond topped apple crumble.  And the subtle, fragrant Gewurztraminer, with the simpler rose ganache, becomes garden fresh; perfect to lead you dreamily thinking that this is how all dinner parties should end.

On the menu:

Riesling Schieffenberg 2007, Gisselbrecht
Patrimonio 2010, Domaine Montemagni
Gewurztraminer Tradition 2010, Gisselbecht
Montlouis Moelleux 2009, Cave de Montlouis
Bugey Cerdon, Domaine Olivier Bardet

60% Grenadian dark chocolate
Passionfruit & rosemary caramel
65% dark chocolate with basil & Persian lime
Rose & cocoa nib ganache
Rose, lychee and raspberry ganache
Apricot & lavender ganache
Red berry Madagascar ganache
Blackcurrant & violet ganache

I’ll have to get back to browse Le Vieux Comptoir beers and unusual génépis soon.

Snap up a ticket for the next wine and chocolate pairing on 7 November 2013.

Le Vieux Comptoir
26/28 Moxon Street
Marylebone Village
London W1U 4EU    
www.levieuxcomptoir.co.uk/

Rococo
3 Moxon St
London W1U 4EW
www.rococochocolates.com

Su-Lin Ong (@sloLondon) visited on behalf of The London Foodie as a guest of Le Vieux Comptoir, Rococo.

A classroom lock-in of beer and chocolate

Words & Photography by Su-Lin Ong


Beer in one hand and chocolate in the other?  Never!  That’s always been my unshakable view.  So Rupert Ponsonby, the ultimate beer persuader, had a challenge on his hands.

With the front door of the Rococo shop firmly locked up for the night, we go downstairs and the class begins.  Greed is encouraged from the outset.  Things could get messy.  There is ample beer lined-up, and there is exquisite chocolate in whimsical packages stacked up high.  The long table is covered in Rococo’s signature print cloth - it would make a cheery duvet cover.  Immediately, you’re in a cocoon of comfort. 

Rupert has chosen six beers to match six types of chocolate.   These big-boy beers are not session pints and deserve contemplation in their own right.

Duvel Belgian golden ale 8.5% abv – with a bold head, hints of clove; light bodied and zesty.

Hogs Back traditional English ale 4.2% abv – malty and sweet toffee flavours.

Innis & Gunn Original 6.6% abv – this Scottish oak aged beer has deeper tones of malt, with pronounced vanilla and oak.

Innis & Gunn bourbon stout 7.4% abv – more bitter; dark and intense.

Mr Trotter’s Great British chestnut ale 4% abv – made with chestnuts and sweet Maris Otter barley, giving a nutty creaminess.

Liefmans cuvee brut 6% abv – refreshing sour cherry, with a stoney marzipan finish.

Rupert  prescribes a match with an array of chocolate; all so different in texture, intensity and flavour.

Cardamon white chocolate
Milk chocolate with salted caramelised almonds and rose
Anglesey sea salted caramel ganache
Grenadian and Islay single malt ganache
Grenada Chocolate Company dark chocolate 
Grenada Chocolate Company Salty-Licious 

There are potentially 36 beer and chocolate combinations in this feast, but that would make it too much like hard work.  

A good match has to excite the palate.  Other than that, the intensity of the beer should equal the intensity of the chocolate, but flavours mustn’t be so similar so as to go head-to-head.  Every sip of beer should merge completely with the chocolate as it melts in your mouth.  As in wine tasting, aeration in the mouth helps you sense every nuance of taste – if such a treat as a gourmet Aero bar existed, then we want to test it.  The process tonight deserves slow enjoyment and random re-tastes of beers and chocs.

The time comes to name favourites.  I vote for the Innis & Gunn Original with the sea salted caramel ganache.  For me, this is all about silky textures, punchy flavours, and the familiarity of savouriness.  

Perhaps I was really hankering after a more conventional marriage of ale & a packet of crisps?  But rather, I prefer to think I’ve now learned a thing or two about the quirky joys of matching beer & choc.

Rococo in Marylebone is at 3 Moxon St, London W1U 4EW

Su-Lin Ong (@sloLondon) drank beer at chocolate school on behalf of The London Foodie as a guest of Rupert Ponsonby, Rococo, R&R.

Sunshine Brunch

Words & photos by Su-Lin Ong

A weekend brunch fry-up calls for a sizzle with imagination.  It has to wake you up and shake you up.  You need the comfort factor, but also something bright, beautiful and zingy.

Photo: Louis Fernando

Caravan Kings Cross gives that promise from the moment you step into its lofty converted granary space.  Aromas of Caravan’s 100 percent Arabica freshly roasted coffee beans, proper meaty bacon and freshly squeezed fruit tell you that you will be in no hurry to leave.  But look beyond the classic brunch flavours and get tempted by more adventurous dishes using velvety puréed aubergines, soutzouki sausages, rhubarb, coconut and more.

On the menu there’s a sip with a difference, and it’s making a début in many other brunch hotspots around town too.
  

The place is buzzing, and at Caravan’s large communal table next to the coffee roastery, cocktail mixologist Alex Kammerling is treating his guests to his Sunshine brunch.  The table is laid with tumbling yellow tomatoes and sunny yellow peppers.  As guests tuck into brunch, Alex pours round his Sunshine Mary.  He has re-invented the classic, savoury British Bloody Mary and mixes his Kamm & Sons ginseng spirit and choicest yellow Lemoncita tomato juice from the Isle of Wight.  He has snapped up most of the season’s juice for bars and restaurants around town, but you may still find bottles in deli’s and food halls such as Selfridges.

These yellow cherry tomatoes have a delicate sweet, slight lemony flavour, and the juice is far smoother and lighter than most red tomato juices.  It won a Great Taste Gold award from the Guild of Fine Foods and it is a subtle partner for Alex’s herbal ginseng spirit.  Juggle a few spicy, sharp flavours of celery salt, green Tabasco, fresh horseradish, lemon juice, salt and pepper.  Up the heat if you will.  Alex adds a dash of devilish Dalston Chillies Original Hot Sauce.  

Savoury, sweet, spicy, and refreshingly ice cool - the Sunshine Mary has it all going on so seductively.

Su-Lin Ong  (@sloLondon) brunched on behalf of The London Foodie as a guest of Alex Kammerling.

Caravan
Granary Building, Granary Square (off Goods Way)
London 
N1C 4AA
Tel. 020 7101 7661
www.caravankingscross.co.uk

Kamm & Sons ginseng spirit www.kammandsons.com

Tripping as light as air after 18 heavenly creations

Words and Photography by Su-Lin Ong

Extraordinary eating begins when convention and caution are thrown to the wind.  Tonight’s one night stand is to enter mind-stretching realms, with the lofty promise to ‘engage all the senses, to restore, challenge and enrich’.   

Too tame!   It’s a burst of adventurous fun: stones that aren’t stones, the zingiest kaleidoscopic colours, altered states of texture, and flavours that have a piercingly natural clarity. 

So this is it; when two Michelin starred chefs partner up as in the vision of Nuno Mendes at Viajante.  One of his six selected co-hosts in his Craft season which ran in April is Rasmus Kofoed of Geranium in Copenhagen.  Rasmus is the only chef in the world to hold a gold, silver and bronze medal from Bocuse d'Or. 

Geranium in the centre of Copenhagen is set high up.  Urban meets rural as you connect with the tops of trees and windmills in view.

Viajante in Bethnal Green, East London, is in the restored art deco Town Hall Hotel (see earlier review here).  I pass pubs frequented by notorious criminals the Kray brothers and streets of faceless shops to get there.

Photo: Viajante

Choosing a late sitting tonight challenges this Viajante-Geranium dinner to prove itself all the more.   Skip forward some 18 incredible creations over three hours, and it is 1.30am when we finish eating.  I feel as if I’ve taken a trip through a dream cloud and emerged supremely energized.  Buzzing.

Each dish is presented at table in modest detail by the chefs, including Mendes and Kofoed.  It’s a seamless sequence without any ceremony.  Just as well; it’s been a stupendous week – both teams must have been up all night before celebrating their leap up the league of the World’s Best Restaurants.

As for us guests, it’s tempting to play the game of guessing whose dish is whose creation.  The real joy is experiencing how the signature style of each chef weaves round each other, emerging, re-emerging, creating a harmony with some characterful clout along the way.

The menu is a mystery, and when I finally see it at the end of dinner, the descriptions are short and stripped back – incredibly liberating.  You really want to understand the ingredients and composition, but not long into the dinner, you just want to sit back, admire and say wow at every bite.  

The dinner:

Crispy twigs with sea salt aged cheese and burnt leek.  

Razor clams with edible shells.

Crabmeat, peas, nasturtium and crab shell sauce.

Milk skin lactose and squid ink.  Space-age food.

Dill stones and separate dish of lactic acid fermented vegetables with salmon roe.

Langoustine with braised chicken skin, pine and chopped radish.

Smoked bacon & walnut sourdough and potato baguettes with beurre noisette and hay smoked whipped butter.

A fluid jelly made from ham from northern Denmark, fragrant thyme and tomato water, cooked at a constant 62 degrees C.

Charred leek heart with lobster and bitter ground elder flower.

White cabbage with shoots and stems, pickled leek flower and parsley with champagne butter sauce (our preferred substitute for oysters).

Smoked bone marrow with carrot and dehydrated carrot skin.

Brill wrapped in milk skin with vanilla and samphire.

A royally red tartare made from leg and heart of lamb and smoked pork fat, red beetroot sauce, truffle & blueberry, gel of beetroot & cherry vinegar.

Meltingly delicate Iberico pork and fermented cabbage and peppers.

Reduced milk sorbet, lemon granita, smoked cucumber, salty cucumber jelly and linen seeds.

Naked trees of crispy puréed prunes and frozen dark beer and biodynamic cream infused with beechwood.

Beetroot & caraway ice cream.

Eggs of dried pine & caramel & chocolate.

Finally, petits fours of frozen oil of vanilla and cèpes mushroom truffles.

We drank Filipa Pato Bical & Arinto 2011 Beiras and Gerhard Pittnauer Alte Reben St Laurent 2009 Burgenland Austria. 

Viajante, Town Hall Hotel, Patriot Square, London E2 9NF, Tel. 020 7871 0461.
www.viajante.co.uk  

Geranium, Per Henrik Lings Allé 4, 8., DK-2100 Copenhagen, Tel. +45 69 96 00 20
http://geranium.dk/

Su-Lin Ong (@sloLondon) dined on behalf of The London Foodie as a guest of Nuno Mendes, Rasmus Kofoed, Viajante, EightyFour.