The London Cooking Club Goes to Brazil!

Revista Gula, Brazil's most popular gastronomic magazine, sent Fernanda Meneguetti to participate at one of our London Cooking Club events in Oct 2010 "Thai by David Thompson".

Fernanda wrote a two-page article about it which was featured in the magazine's 2010 Christmas edition - Sociedade Gastronomica: "Cooking Club is new gastronomic sensation in London, thanks to a Brazilian who opens his house and kitchen to readers of his blog".

Many thanks to Fernanda and Revista Gula for the amazing article and to everyone who participated in the London Cooking Club's Thai event and helped to make it such a special evening.

London Restaurant Reviews – Bar Boulud with a Sneaky Peek at Mandarin Oriental's Royal Suite

Much has been written about Bar Boulud since its opening in May 2010. Few London restaurants have attracted so much media attention, some may even argue, to the point of exhaustion. This review however has a twist - I made my way to this popular restaurant by Mandarin Oriental's Royal Suite!

My chance to visit Bar Boulud came as an invitation from Travel Onion, an American website that searches the web for travel/review blogs from around the world. Travel Onion lists the favourite blogs they find according to their various locations and their readers will find through these links the recommendations they need when planning their foreign trips. In addition to London, some other destinations include Paris, Tokyo, and New York, with Shanghai and Berlin soon to be added.

I personally use blogs whenever I travel and find them useful especially for restaurant recommendations and for things to do which are off the beaten track. I very rarely use a travel guide these days. Earlier this year in Seoul, through Daniel Gray's blog "Seoul Eats", I was fortunate enough to meet him and a bunch of his friends for a "makgeolli" tasting at a bar specialising in this native Korean rice wine. It was a fantastic evening - I met some very interesting people and learnt more about Korean culture, food and drink that evening than I would have by myself in a month.

Back in London, and more precisely, at the luxurious Mandarin Oriental, I met Cal Simmons (Travel Onions CEO) and Holly Johnstone, the hotel’s PR manager who were to give us a tour of the hotel before our lunch at Bar Boulud.

Few hotels have impressed me as much as the Mandarin Oriental - the rooms we saw, particularly the spa and ballroom were very beautiful and elegant. However, the show stopper was the hotel’s Royal Suite - at a staggering £11,500 per night, the Royal Suite was one of the most luxurious rooms I have ever seen. It was more like an apartment than a suite, and exquisitely decorated with walk-in closets, marbled bathrooms, and original art work.

 

Heston Blumenthal is opening a new London restaurant "Dinner" at the Mandarin Oriental and we had the chance to see a large poster featuring the famous chef during our visit. It is interesting to see that like in many other countries, particularly in Asia, London hotels are increasingly becoming a restaurant destination for locals as well as travellers.

After our quick tour of the hotel, we headed to Bar Boulud for our much anticipated lunch. The restaurant has a rather casual decor but still retains a certain elegance, and is not nearly as stuffy as I feared.

We shared platters of "Degustation de Charcuterie" (small @ £14 and large @ £28) - one of Bar Boulud's most popular dishes, they were filled with delicious cuts of ham, salami, and various pates, terrines and pickles.

We also had the "Aioli" platter (small @ £9.50 and large @ £18) - a lovely chilled selection of poached cod, shrimp, mussels, baby vegetables (French beans), quail eggs and sweet garlic dip.

For the main course, I ordered a DB Burger (Daniel Boulud) @ £20, only served on Sundays and Mondays, this is the fanciest burger I have ever tried - ground sirloin beef patty stuffed with boned short ribs, foie gras, and preserved black truffle. It was truly delicious, and the foie gras gave a real depth of flavour, although I could hardly taste any truffle in it.

Head sommelier David Vareille was at hand to match our food with four great wines including an 07 Bonny Doon Le Cigare Blanc (California), an 08 Argentinean Malbec by Achaval Ferrer, an 07 Pinot Noir from Domaine Cantin in Irancy (Burgundy), and a fantastic 1995 Chateau la Fontaine de L’Aubier (Bordeaux) which was a perfect match to my "posh" burger and chips.

I truly enjoyed my visit to the Mandarin Oriental - it was a bitter sweet experience as I know I am unlikely ever to be able to afford staying there. I will however return to Bar Boulud (most certainly not via the Royal Suite!) for another burger and to sample some more of their extensive wine list.

Thanks to Travel Onion, Mandarin Oriental and Bar Boulud for a most enjoyable visit and lunch.

London Restaurant Reviews - Brawn

Terroirs Goes East...

Brawn is the much anticipated new offshoot of Terroirs in the East of London, on trendy Columbia Road, E2. Terroirs has become a regular haunt (reviewed it here) for its great quality and excellent value cooking in the West End. So I was thrilled to hear of their new venture a stone's throw from my home.
 

Brawn has a more laid-back feel than Terroirs, being more like a cafe-style restaurant. It has whitewashed brick walls, wooden floors, mismatched tables and chairs and some eye catching art work.

The menu is divided into 6 sections containing mainly smaller dishes to share but also some more substantial choices. "Taste Tickler" had such items as Maldon oysters @ £1.50 each and Parmigiano Reggiano @ £3. The section on "Pig" had Lardo di Colonnata @ £8 (cured pork fat) among others, while "Plancha" had Dorset Palourde Clams & Manzanilla @ £8 or Red Mullet & Chanterelles @ £13. The other sections were "Raw", "Slow Cooked" and "Pudding and Cheese".

It was noteworthy that provenance of most items was shown on the menu from their Hackney Wild Sourdough by the E5 Bakehouse to the cheeses purchased from Androuet in Spitalfields. Dr G and I ordered one dish from each section (apart from Plancha).

"Cervelle de Canut" @ £3 - a speciality of Lyon, this was a soft white cheese dip seasoned with freshly chopped herbs, shallots, olive oil and vinegar and served with toasted soldiers.

"Suffolk Pork Rillettes" @ £6 - is rustic French cuisine at its best - the meat is cubed or chopped, salted heavily and cooked slowly in fat until it is tender enough to be easily shredded. It is then cooled with enough of the fat to form a paste. It is normally spread on bread and served at room temperature.
 

"Garfagnana" (from the Bellandi Family, Tuscany)" @ £8 - a traditional Tuscan cured salame, Garfagnana is made from various pork cuts and offal such as brawn (head meat), lungs, kidneys, heart and tongue meats as well as lard and blood. The meats are seasoned with cloves, cinnamon, nutmeg, fennel seeds among other spices, and stuffed into pig's stomach. It is slowly boiled for many hours and then cured in lard for about 6 months. It appeared to be an acquired taste!
 

"Hand Chopped Tuscan Style Beef" @ £8 - this was my favourite dish of the evening - roughly chopped pieces of ultra fresh raw steak seasoned very simply with rosemary and sea salt crystals. Delicious served with bread and drizzled with some extra virgin olive oil.
 

"Soft Polenta with Wild Mushrooms" @ £7 - I love polenta, particularly deep fried for polenta chips. Brawn's was soft but still very delicious and creamy. I also liked the addition of fried chanterelle mushrooms.
 

Dr G and I also had a couple of their cheeses - there are only 3 available. We had "Gouda" (from Utrecht, Holland) @ £3.50 and "Saint Nectaire" (from Auvergne, France) @ £3.50. These were both good but at those prices I would have expected a more generous serving.
 

The wine menu is very good (around 120 bottles) although it is not nearly as extensive as Terroirs'. We ordered a bottle of 09 Marcillac @ £20 (Dne du Cros, Philippe Teulier, Marcillac) which went well with most dishes we ordered. We also noted with approval that the mark up on this bottle was less than twice the High Street price. This is unusual when a mark up of 4, and sometimes 5 fold, seems to be the norm these days.
 

Cost: £65.81 for two including wine and 12.5% service (or just over £30 per person) which I believe to be relatively good value.

Likes: the Tuscan style raw beef and soft polenta dishes were excellent. I also liked the laid back atmosphere and the very attentive, charming service by our French waiter.

Dislikes: the selection of cheeses on the menu (3) is very limited for a French wine bar. I wish they had a Chez Bruce style cheese board or at least more choices.

Verdict: simple but quirky menu, authentic French and Italian produce expertly served at reasonable prices. Very good, predominantly French wine list with sensible mark ups. Highly recommended.

Christmas Aboard the Orient Express

At the beginning of July, I was invited aboard the Orient Express for a preview of their Christmas Lunch menu. It was a sweltering summer's day when I made my way to London Victoria to board "Vera", one of the 11 British Pullman carriages making up the Orient Express train.

The trip was named "The Golden Age of Travel". In keeping with this, at the check-in desk, a Jazz band welcomed travellers, while actors, elegantly dressed in period costumes, were there to greet us. The nearly 4-hour journey was circular, passing through the suburbs of London towards Guildford and along the North Downs to Redhill before returning to London Victoria.

Vera, built in 1932, is a stunning carriage - lined with diamond-shaped panels of sandalwood with a mahogany border, the carriage has some impressive Art Deco features. Dining tables are beautifully set with white linen, crested crystal glasses, crockery and silverware. It feels luxurious without being intimidating, and very glamorous. For this occasion, it was also decked out in full Christmas regalia.

Actors were milling around through the carriages talking to us and telling us a bit of the history of the train, which gave us a real sense of place and occasion.

The Christmas Menu, devised by head chef Matthew Smith, was rather autumnal - hearty and flavoursome. We had a 5-course menu in addition to the canapés, including a starter, soup, a main, cheese and desserts.

"Duo of Salmon and Crayfish Parcel" accompanied by a lemon and grain mustard dressing.

"Roasted Pumpkin Soup" served with chives and cinnamon crème fraiche.

"Roasted Stuffed Quail, Chicken and Chestnut Sausage" served with creamed leek and broad beans, caramelised swede and roasted potatoes with a red wine jus.

"British Cheeseboard" served with homemade chutney. Despite loving cheese, I felt this was the weakest course - the cheeses were simple varieties lacking in complexity or depth of flavour.

"Trio of Orient Express Desserts" - Christmas pudding served with a brandy sauce, apple and mincemeat pastry stack and Cranberry junket.

The Christmas Lunch trip is priced at £330 (steam-hauled) or £290 (electric) per person. Clearly, £600 on lunch for two is extravagant and better, more reasonably priced food is available elsewhere. However, in my opinion, this price reflects a unique experience which is about much more than just the food. There is a great sense of theatre, history and occasion about the whole event which I think is unparalleled.
 

Like the Carnival in Rio or a visit to the Grand Canyon, a trip on the Orient Express is one of those lifetime experiences I think everyone would treasure. Personally I would find it hard to justify spending this amount of money on myself but think this could be a fantastic gift to celebrate a special occasion for a loved one.

On the day we were travelling, a wedding reception was taking place in the carriage next to ours. We stopped by and had a brief chat, it looked like a wedding to remember.

UK Day Trips are priced between £180 and £350. Meals, wine and sometimes Champagne are included in all trips on the Orient Express. Some of the trips I thought interesting were "Murder Mystery with Lunch" @ £300, "Brunch and High Tea" @ £250, "Valentine's Day Dinner" @ £275, or New Year's Eve @ £350 (5-course dinner with wine and champagne, departing at 19.30 and returning at 1.15am). For more information on the available trips and prices, click here.

If you enjoyed reading this, you might be interested to know that there is a one hour documentary being aired on ITV1 at 21:00 by David Suchet, details below.

DAVID SUCHET ON THE ORIENT-EXPRESS

Sunday 19th December 2010

21.00-22.00 - ITV1

“I am on a journey of a lifetime. I’m travelling across Europe, in the footsteps of Agatha Christie’s Poirot, on the Orient-Express. But this is not just a train ride – I’m on a journey through time. And the Orient Express is not just a train – it’s a legend.” David Suchet

David Suchet boards the world's most iconic train to unravel the mystery of the Orient-Express for a brand new ITV1 documentary. ‘David Suchet on the Orient-Express’ features the actor immersing himself in the romance and escapism of a train immortalised in the Agatha Christie novel, Murder On the Orient Express, whose protagonist, detective Hercule Poirot, David has so memorably portrayed on screen.

David resolves to uncover why the Orient-Express has been the world’s most talked about train for over a century and why Agatha Christie, the world’s most celebrated crime author chose the train for her most ingenious murder mystery. On a journey that takes him from London Victoria, through Austria and Switzerland to Venice and finally to Prague, David experiences the glamour, history and luxury of the train, while making new friends along the way.