London Supper Club Review - ferdiesfoodlab

ferdiesfoodlab is the latest and among the most anticipated supper club launches in London recently, and I was fortunate to be there for their soft opening last weekend. 

A spin-off from the much loved, late lamented Fernandez & Leluu,  ferdiesfoodlab is the brainchild of Simon Fernandez, a British-Spaniard, a tremendously ambitious and accomplished cook and one of the pioneers of the Supper Club movement in London.

The Location

ferdiesfoodlab is set in Toynbee Hall, a Grade II listed Arts and Crafts building constructed over 125 years ago. The venue is rather grand and contains two large halls. The Lecture Hall, where ferdiesfoodlab takes place, is an elegant wood-panelled room, with parquet flooring, impressively large latticed windows, period art work and a grand piano.

Some may argue that the space might lack the intimacy or character of a host's living room, but I was pleasantly surprised by the beauty of the room and the sense of occasion that it imparted to the evening.

Toynbee Hall is situated on Commercial Road, close to the City and round the corner from Aldgate East Station. It is also close to Whitechapel Art Gallery and Brick Lane.

The Food

Having tried Simon's cooking many times before (reviewed here, here and here), I knew I was in for a treat. What I most enjoy about his cooking is his ambition and desire to experiment with different flavours and techniques. Simon is a bold and adventurous cook, and this is what, in my opinion, makes his food so exciting.

For this soft opening, Simon kicked off proceedings with a platter of Liquorice Cured Fillet Steak Cubes w/ Baby Peppers & Pimientos de Padron served with rosemary and garlic bread. The fillet was meltingly tender with a delicate hints of aniseed, beautifully accompanied by a homemade mayonnaise infused with Simon's tomato reduction. I didn't get to eat or see any Pimientos de Padron on the platter that was shared at our end of the table, but I guess it would have gone well with the other flavours in the dish.

To follow, we had Champagne Poached Pears served with cured ham on a bed of green leaves. This is one of Simon's most popular dishes, an interesting take on the classic Melon and Parma Ham, and one I have enjoyed at F&L on previous occasions. The pears are lightly griddled and tenderised through gentle poaching in a champagne syrup.

Another excellent and rather dramatic dish was the Barents Sea King Crab with Creamed Samphire. The huge claws were served on sharing platters with samphire and were surprisingly meaty, tasting both sweet and fresh. A real winner.

The pièce de resistance was still to come. A 5-Hour Slow Roast Shoulder of Lamb served with the most sensational roast potatoes came next. Fragrant, tender, succulent and simply delicious, this was by far the best dish of the evening. This could only have been improved had there been a double helping of roasties.

For dessert, we had a lovely sorbet with passion fruit, banana & white chocolate sauce, followed by petit fours of Seville Zebras and Black Olive and Salted Orange Chocolates. These were all expertly prepared.

The People

There were about 30 of us at this launch event, a mix of young and not so young (myself included) faces, of different nationalities and backgrounds. It was lovely to see some familiar faces there like Jones of I Couldn't Possibly Eat a Whole One, Claudia of White Room Supper Club and Nathan of Mr Drink n Eat.

Helping in the kitchen were also Jen of Cook School Cat who has just completed her one year chef's training at Leith's and Robbie of NoReservations, a Fifteen-trained chef who most recently worked as Claudia Schiffer's private chef, and who joined us at our end of the table.

The Drinks

There is no corkage charge, and we were served a complementary glass of Mondelli, an Italian semi-dry sparkling rose.

Other Stuff

The first official ferdiesfoodlab event will take place on Saturday, 27th August from 7:30pm, with further dates on 9th and 23rd September 2011.

To reserve a place contact: bookings@ferdiesfoodlab.co.uk.

Cost: minimum suggested donation of £40.

Likes: top quality ingredients expertly cooked and presented, grand venue, central location.

Dislikes: None.

Verdict: There is a touch of brilliance about Simon's cooking which demonstrates an increased confidence and audacity beyond that which was evident at F&L. I see ferdiesfoodlab as a very exciting project and definitely one to watch. Highly recommended.

London Supper Club Review - Catalan Cooking

I have been following Rachel McCormack's progress with her Catalan Cooking School with great interest from its very beginning, and was pleased to hear that she had decided to start a series of supper club nights at various venues. I was lucky to have been invited along to one of these events at Bea's of Bloomsbury in Holborn in association with Codorníu.

Location

Rachel will be hosting these evenings at various locations across London, including Bea's of Bloomsbury in Holborn's Theobald Road. Her next event will be as part of our London Cooking Club series at my home in Islington on 26th February 2011, where she will be doing a cookery demonstration of several of her Catalan dishes.

Food

To start the evening, we had a selection of Tapas dishes, including olives, Iberico ham and cheese, potato tortilla among other items, served with a delicious chunky bread. A good start to the evening as these tasted authentic and of high quality.

To follow, we had an intensely flavoured "Sopa de Carn d'Olla" - a lovely chicken broth served with fresh parsley.

Rachel served a selection of main courses buffet-style. In my opinion, the stand-out dishes were the "Calamar farcit de Alberginia" (squid stuffed with aubergine), and the delicious "Conill amb Ceba" (rabbit cooked with onion).

Also very good were the "Escalivada" (roast peppers, aubergines and onions), and "Arròs al forn amb bolets" (rice cooked in the oven with wild mushrooms).

I would not claim to be an expert on Catalan cooking, but the dishes were flavoursome and hearty, and I enjoyed them a great deal. This was an introduction to a cuisine I look forward to learning more about from Rachel.

For dessert, we had "Crema Catalana" (Catalan cream) which was a delicious vanilla custard with a burnt sugar crust, followed by Bunyols del Emporda" (Catalan doughnuts) similar to Spanish Churros, and "Sopa d'avelianes amb el seu Cruixent" (hazelnut soup with crocanti and ice-cream) which was rich and nutty. The best hazelnuts in the world are said to come from Tarragona, the southern province of Catalunya.

Drinks

One of the interesting areas we learned about at the WSET Advanced Certificate Course was the various methods of production of sparkling wine. For example, the traditional method perfected in Champagne is also used by some other good quality sparkling wines in France (the Crémants), and also by law in Spain for the production of Cava.

Other well known sparkling wines such as Prosecco and Asti Spumante, while often delicious, are produced by a completely different method and are not a substitute for Champagne or Cava as they present other flavour characteristics. Traditionally, Cava is made from three indigenous Catalunyan grape varieties - Parrellada, Xarel-lo and Macabeo. More recently, Champagne grape varieties are being incorporated into the blend such as Chardonnay and Pinot Noir for extra complexity and elegance.

All the wines for this supper club were provided by Codorníu. I was surprised to learn that Codorníu has been making wine since 1551, and for Rachel's supper club evening, we were offered four sparkling wines from its range.

On arrival, we were served a glass of "Anna de Codorníu Brut" @ £9.99. This was a delicate and fruity wine and the first in Spain to have Chardonnnay as a varietal in its blend. This was a good accompaniment to our selection of tapas.

The "Codorníu Selección Raventós Brut" @ £9.99 was served next with the "Sopa de Carn d'Olla". Coming from selected vineyards, this wine had slightly more intense fruit aromas than the first offering, with hints of citrus and stone fruit.

For our main courses, we had the "Codorníu Reina Maria Cristina Blanc de Noirs 2008" @ £17.99. Just released in 2011, this is Spain's first ever Blanc de Noirs (a white sparkling wine made from black grapes). By far the star of the evening, this wine had unmistakeable Pinot Noir characteristics including red fruit with excellent structure and length, as well as some toasty notes akin to Champagne.

"Codorníu Pinot Noir Rosé" @ £10.99 was served with desserts. Also made entirely from Pinot Noir, this wine had an attractive pale pink colour and good fruit intensity.

People

Originally from Scotland, Rachel McCormack spent most of her 20s living in Spain, mostly Barcelona. She runs fortnightly Catalan Cooking classes at Bea's of Bloomsbury on Theobald's Road.

For the supper club, Rachel works with Franz Schinagl the former executive chef of Asia de Cuba who also runs his own Austrian supper club at Bea's.

Other Stuff:

In addition to her participation in our forthcoming London Cooking Club in Islington on the 26th February 2011, Rachel's next Supper Club Evening will be on the 20th March 2011. Her next Catalan Cooking Classes will be on the 8th and 22nd March 2011. For more information on her classes, visit the Catalan Cooking blog here.

Cost: The London Foodie was a guest of Catalan Cooking and Codorníu. Prices for Rachel's supper clubs vary between £30 and £35 depending on the menu offered.

Likes: introduction to an exciting regional Spanish cuisine which is novel to London, flavoursome and hearty dishes, great wine matches.

Dislikes: in my opinion, the elongated café setting made the evening feel more like a pop-up restaurant than a homely, more intimate supper club.

Verdict: Homely and very delicious Catalunyan cooking by Rachel, expertly partnered with a range of Cavas by Codorníu. The evening was a great introduction to a cuisine I would like to learn more about, and the wines (especially the Blanc de Noirs) opened my eyes to a whole new range of exciting Cavas to be enjoyed. Highly recommended.

London Underground Restaurant – Cucina Cinzia

Cucina Cinzia (UPDATED on 1st March 2011)

Few if any Supper Clubs can boast a chef especially flown in from Italy, their suitcase loaded with local produce and an inexhaustible enthusiasm for their regional cuisine. That is what is on offer at this innovative partnership between the delightful Jill and chef Cinzia of Florence, Tuscany.

Last Saturday, Dr G and I headed to well-heeled Fulham for the first supper club evening of Cucina Cinzia. We had a real sense of excitement; being their first event, it was hard to know what to expect.

We arrived at the elegant home of Jill, an American who has lived in London for the last 11 years with her husband and two children. First impressions were good – we were soon welcomed into Jill’s beautiful family home, offered a glass of Prosecco and personally introduced to each of the other guests.

It felt as if we were taking part in an old friend’s dinner party, such was Jill’s personal welcome, except that we did not know any of the guests or the host!

Cinzia joined us in the living room where we were served the “Stuzzichini” (or aperitifs).  These were dainty cheese pizze and parmesan cheese straws; they tasted fresh and delicious and were the perfect accompaniment to our Prosecco.

Cinzia speaks little English, but her enthusiasm to communicate goes beyond any language barriers, although Jill is fluent in Italian is always at hand to translate. Being half-Italian, I learnt a little about the language from my grandmother and more recently in Genoa as part of my Business and Italian degree. I loved being an Erasmus student there despite carelessly blowing my whole year’s budget in about 3 months eating out. It didn’t bode well for a career in Finance…

I put my rusty Italian to some good use. Despite my faltering grammar I was soon chatting to Cinzia about Tuscany, her passion for food (she greatly admires Japanese food), her beloved Tuscan cuisine, and about the dishes we were about to sample that evening. Her enthusiasm was contagious.

We were then served our antipasti “Tris di Crostini” – a trio of Crostini Toscani (made from chicken livers), Leek & Gorgonzola Crostini, and Dittini di Mousse al Finocchiona.  The latter, and my favourite of the three, was a delicate pastry filled with a mousse made from Finocchiona.

Finocchiona is a cured Tuscan salami, marbled with fat and flavoured with wild fennel seeds. It is aged between 5 and 12 months, and is made of 50% lean meat (pork belly & shoulders) and 50% fat (pig cheeks).  The flavour of this salami was intense and utterly delicious, and it worked remarkably well in the mousse and pastry.

Our next course was “Zuppa di Farro” (Spelt Soup with Cannelini beans and Leeks) – I was initially intrigued by this dish but was pleasantly surprised by how creamy and delicately flavoured it was. It was a deliciously hearty soup with the cannelini beans and fried bacon giving it a real lift. I loved the delicate but wholesome flavours of this soup.

“Pennette al Frantoio di Marco” was served next. The pennette pasta was accompanied by a delicious sauce made with olives from the grove of Cinzia’s brother-in-law Marco. We were also offered some highly concentrated olive oil to drizzle over our pasta. This had also been pressed from olives at Marco’s grove.

 

This was one of the simplest but also one of the most sensational dishes of the evening – it encapsulates what for me is the essence of Italian food – the very best ingredients cooked in the simplest possible way.

A gorgeously decorated platter of “Frutta Fresca” (fresh fruit) was served prior to dessert and worked well as a palate cleanser.

“Torta di Ricotta e Pinoli” (ricotta and pine nut cake) was served with “Mousse al Caffe”. The cake was deliciously moist and creamy. This was also a clever combination as the delicate sweetness of the ricotta cake contrasted well with the light and slightly bitter flavour from the espresso mousse.

 

 

I felt privileged to have experienced Cinzia’s cooking, Jill’s generous hospitality and the company of some very charming diners. Cucina Cinzia is a real gem of a supper club, and one that I am certain will be over-subscribed in no time.

 

 

Verdict – One of a kind, I cannot think of any other supper clubs offering such authentic and delicious Tuscan dishes as Cucina Cinzia. For real Italian food in London this is definitely the place to go. A great addition to the underground dining scene in London. Highly recommended.

...What Others Are Saying...

By Tiffany Morris on 1st March 2011: The London Foodie review of this restaurant sounded absolutely incredible. I was excited to try it and invited along two friends from Cambridge that both love Italian and were intrigued by my enthusiasm for London underground restaurants.

We arrived at Jill’s home and were greeted with Prosecco and led to the garden to meet the other guests on what was a beautiful sunny Friday evening. The aperitifs included fried zucchini flowers with a very light batter that were absolutely delicious. The rest of the dinner flew by and while the atmosphere was relaxed and lively, the food was unfortunately not memorable.

The main was filletini of pork with spaghettini di verdure (very fine julienne of sauteed veggies twirled on top). My friends’ compared it to Tesco value pork with some chopped veggies. As we were leaving Jill and Cinzia gave us each a little jar of Tuscan herbs to take away. They were lovely hosts, and despite my love for the simplicity of Tuscan cooking we felt this was just too simple. I know Cinzia brought many of the ingredients from Italy, but it just wasn’t obvious in the meal. The meal was nice and we enjoyed the atmosphere, but we wouldn’t be quick to go back.