Words & Photography by Florentyna Leow and Luiz Hara
Week 2 of Meet the Michelins – a Selfridges
project featuring culinary stars from the Home Counties – saw Olly Rouse take
the stage at The Corner Restaurant on Monday evening to whip up a dazzling 7-course menu.
All of the Meet the Michelins experiences feature a tasting menu with optional
wine flight, prices for each evening varying slightly. This week’s 7-course
menu was priced at £75 with matching wines by Selfridges' head sommelier Dawn Davies for an additional £45 – decent value,
especially considering the top-notch drinks accompanying the food.
Rouse is the head chef at The Avenue at Lainston House in Winchester. Describing himself as ‘extremely
hands-on', he would emerge from the kitchen between courses to
introduce each dish, chatting with the diners, all the while sending out tasty
and meticulously plated dishes.
His eye for detail was evident in little
flourishes such as the feather used in presenting the menu, the beautiful
cast-iron teacups used for serving the house-fermented kombucha (yeast enzyme
tea), and even the dry ice in the teapots of kombucha, which lent a lovely
theatrical touch during service.
The onion cracker was a stellar example of
his attention to detail – his take on pork crackling contained not a whiff of
pork, but was instead made of dehydrated and deep-fried tapioca sheets infused
with onion stock and liberally salted. Crunchy and utterly moreish, it went
down a treat with the Selfridges' own Prosecco label, and was a highly
promising start to the evening.
Selfridges sommelier Dawn Davies worked her
magic again this evening – her choices were often bold and unusual, but
generally spot on and occasionally even sublime. Her expertise particularly
shone through with her choice of the Gaia Estate ‘Thalassitis’ Wild Ferment Assyrtiko
for the first starter. Tasted alone, it was brash and almost too assertive for
my taste, but acquired a beautiful roundness and minerality when sampled with
the crab.
Our first starter and one of the highlights
of the evening, the soft shell crab, was a gorgeous medley of textures and
flavours. The crab was juicy and succulent within and satisfyingly crunchy
without; with the mildly bitter grapefruit, tender artichoke and radish,
rocket, tomato and pea salad, it came together as a dish greater than the sum
of its parts. It was a tremendously enjoyable starter.
Herring, the second starter, was served
alongside pickled purple carrots, roasted shallots and mooli, and blobs of
apple-vanilla and parsley purée. The young German Kabinett Riesling (Oberhauser
Leistenberg) chosen to accompany this starter, undercut the
oily richness of the fish with much-needed freshness and acidity.
Our third and final starter featured a surf
n’ turf combination of Pig & Prawn. The confit pork belly was a little dry
and not fatty enough for my liking; the raw Sicilian prawns and smoky aubergine
purée were, however, phenomenal. Together with the light, juicy chilled
Portuguese red (Pardusco Vinho Verde Tinto), the prawn half of the equation
shone.
Onwards to the two mains: Rouse’s take on
roast chicken and lamb. The roast chicken was served with a medley
of accompaniments including pine nut crumbs, smoked corn stuffing, a
horseradish and lemon cream and red-wine pickled mooli; individually, they were
novel and interesting but when tasted together, rather confusing. The Pinot
Noir (Massale, Kooyong) accompanying the chicken, however, was deliciously
fresh and juicy, with cherry notes – a testament to the talented Australian
producers of the wine.
Similarly, the accompaniments for the lamb
tasted nice individually, but puzzling altogether. The marinated tomatoes
accompanying the lamb, for instance, were flavourful, but would have been
much better chilled. The gently robust
Le Soula Rouge, however, was a good pair with the lamb.
Thankfully, Rouse’s menu ended on a
splendid note with the puddings. ‘Lemon’ consisted of moist, dense and
intensely lemony squares of cake with basil-infused white chocolate, honey
jelly and lemon sorbet.
It went down a treat with a Japanese yuzu sake (Ume No
Yado Yuzu Sake), an intensely citric liqueur which stood up perfectly to the
vibrant lemon dessert.
‘Raw Jersey Dairy’ showcased locally made
raw cream in an indulgent crème brulée, with strawberry tarragon consommé,
sabayon biscuits, meringue and strawberry salad – art on a plate, and a
masterpiece on the palate.
Overall, dinner was a delightful experience.
While Rouse’s approach to meats was to my taste rather conservative, he is
clearly a talented chef who is willing to experiment, and who can work wonders
with seafood and produce from the garden. The Avenue in Winchester should be
well worth the trek out of London!
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| Come and Meet the Michelins at Selfridges - Olly Rouse |
With
two more Meet the Michelins evenings – all Mondays – left on the 28 July
and 18 August (although the 18 August event, with Chef Michael Wignall, is
currently sold out), don’t miss this opportunity to try some of the best cooking
in England at Selfridges. For more information or to book, visit their website
here.
