Joel Robuchon was one of the chefs, along with the likes of Marco Pierre White who inspired me to be a chef. I have never been in a situation where I have been able to dine at Michelin Star restaurant. After saving our pennies for several months we was able to sample award winning food. We were not let down.
This past weekend my wife and I travelled to London to visit a restaurant. We had booked a lunch a L'Atelier The meal was phenomenal. We went for the 4 course lunch and a bottle of Graham Beck sparkling wine.
To start, after my vodka tonic which was served with perfectly crystal clear ice cubes, we were served with our Amuse Bouche. This was a little shot glass of foie gras, port wine reduction and a parmesan foam. Immediately we were both smiling like kids. My wife has never had foie gras before. She was impressed!
In short the meal went on. Two starters each, Gravlax, oeuf en cocotte, chesnut soup and a Chicory, apple and stilton salad. Then for our main courses Abby went for the super tender Lamb while I indulged myself with the Lobster. The smiles just kept getting bigger and bigger!
The desserts were soooooooo good that we ordered another one. I was totally overwhelmed by the quality of the food I was eating an forgot to take photos until quite late on into the meal. So apologies for the empty souffle pot photo.... it was too darned yum! Anyways enjoy the pictures I did take.
L'Atelier de Joël Robuchon is the name of eight French gourmet restaurants, located in Hong Kong, Las Vegas, London, New York, Paris, Singapore, Taipei and Tokyo. Owned by chef Joël Robuchon, the restaurants serve his French haute cuisine in a stylized environment. Many of the seats are arranged to overlook the meal preparation in the kitchen.
Robuchon's signature dishes include a cauliflower cream with caviar and potato puree, "Pommes Puree Truffee" truffled potatoes, and his "La Caille Farcie de Foie Gras et Caramelisee", free-range quail stuffed with foie gras.
In 2009, the Paris location was voted 18th best in the world in Restaurant magazine's Top 50.
A summery Wednesday afternoon around 1 pm. The kids pulled out of the school and the teacher had me in to cater an end of term/retirement event. Full barbecue with salads and desserts.
The sun stayed out for the duration and my brother and I cooked up a storm. Adi was on the vegi grill, cooking kebabs and halloumi stuffed mushrooms. While I was using the 6ft, propane powered bad boy barbecue.
The event was the culmination of weeks of planning and 2 days solid cooking and preparing.
The guests were all very happy. The feedback from them makes it all worth while. I love being able to serve food with confidence. The knowledge that everything being eaten was made by or hand picked by me.
The 4oz burgers were a particular success. moulding and pressing almost 100 was no easy task. but like I said, being able to know exactly what is in the burger (salt, pepper, egg to bind.... and pure steak mince) inspires confidence.
The only hand picked products were the sausages. The main sausage was Proctors, Cambridge range which I selected based on flavour plus they are gluten free. Dietary requirements were not specified, but try to cover all angles just in case.
The salads were brown rice, pea and broccoli; peach, mozzarella and pomegranate; cucumber, onion and bean, orzo, aubergine and pomegranate; and the ever popular butternut squash, chilli and pine nut.
It's almost comical how much time goes in to making these salads. But the results are always worth it.
If you are looking to host a barbecue please get in touch for a quote. Several packages and options available.
Last Friday I ventured into the world of Pop-Up catering. A local boxing event required food vendors and I thought this would be an opportunity for me to test out an idea for a product I wished to launch in 2016. Going in with Bajan pulled pork or barbecued chicken, both served with rice and peas, bread and salad. I had every confidence in my food. The unfortunate part came with the overall ticket sales to the event. initially, I was expecting 600 but it was closer to 350/400 on the day. Of which we served a percentage of. Knife of Brian was the only food vendor there on that evening. My brother and my son were both helping me out. The banter was good and the steady stream of customers kept us busy all night.
Overall, I really enjoyed the event and have learned a lot. I have ideas to take with me through to the next similar event. But I won't rush into anything.
This Friday will see the launch of my "pop up street food" part of the business.
I've called this part "islands". The name symbolises the style of food and the character of business itself.
The dishes provided are inspired by travels to the Caribbean and the Balearic islands.
The business itself stands apart from other types of street food vendors with its flavours and personality.
Friday evening I bring a taste of the Caribbean with some Roast Pork, Fried Chicken rice n peas with salad.
This will just be a test event. I will be trailing some products to gauge public feedback.
Thou Shalt Not Worship False Idols?
When my wife suggested going to Marco Pierre White's restaurant in Cambridge for her birthday, I got pretty excited. The man is a legend and hailed as the godfather of modern cuisine. The restaurant was inside the Double Tree Hilton hotel overlooking the river Cam. A stunning location for any restaurant.
On arrival my guests and I decided to sit in the garden to take in a drink and some sunshine.
The first clue that this was not going to be the elite dining experience I had anticipated, was the lack of choice of available draught beer. They were all unavailable apart from the Becks Vier.... I'll just have a half for now thanks!
As 12.30 arrived we headed to the restaurant, which had pictures of our hero everywhere. Some may say a little too much, but hey, he's a good looking chap! We chose a table in the corner which was beautifully laid. A drinks order was taken. I hadn't noticed, but my guests pointed out that the waitress didn't seem very confident. I joked that it was probably the Monday staff.
As the meal went on this became more and more apparent. This is not to say she was bad, she just didn't exude the confidence associated with high end food service.
We ordered starters. I went for a prawn cocktail. I'd never normally go for this, but I was keen to see what Marco Pierre White had chosen to do with this classic and at £9 something I thought it would be great.... It wasn't. It was pretty normal. In fact I've had more impressive prawn sandwiches from Morrisons. It was this point the penny started to drop with me and my guests. Our starters were all "just ok". Being a fan of Marco for years, I realised that this establishment was more like a tribute act, not the real deal. Akin to thinking you were going to see U2 and then finding out its "You Too". Marco would not approve of what we were served. We had all ordered steaks. We were all under the impression that MPW steak house would be the best steak we'd ever eat, cooked to perfection. I ordered a medium rare Rib eye steak as did my friend, our wives went for medium well done steaks.
My steak was cooked perfectly but lacked seasoning. My Friends was closer to medium well and as for our wives steaks.... Both closer to medium rare, if not rare. Did we get the Monday chef too?
Our meals were not hot, seasoned well or impressive. I felt let down. This was, for me, a once in a lifetime experience. We can't afford to eat out like this very often.
The wine was great though and the company was brilliant. The social side of the day far exceeded the meal. We were all on the same page when it came to our view on the meal. Some hotel had paid Mr Pierre White a lot of cash to use his name and image, but not enough cash to pay for his ethos, passion or quality.
We were offered desserts, which we declined. Once we acknowledged to ourselves that this was not what we were expecting, my wallet closed. We mentioned the issue with the steaks to the young waitress when she asked if all was ok? We didn't want to make a fuss at all. But she did apologise and gave us 4×£10 vouchers. Which we though were a lovely gesture... until we read the small print. (one voucher between two people per visit) what?!
The lesson learned here is. Do research on who owns a restaurant? I wasn't expecting MPW to be at MPW but maybe his "belief" could have been.
"when I go out to eat, I'm the ideal customer. I eat the meal and go home and don't complain.
I'd never make a fuss. But the difference between me and the other customers is that my expectations are realistic" - Marco Pierre White - White Heat.
But the difference between me and the other customers is that my expectations are realistic.
This weekend saw the first major event of the year for me and my business. They don't come much bigger than a wedding. High pressure for any caterer or event organiser.
All the planning had been done, the moment had arrived for me to deliver. Loading the car ready for an early start, it all became very real. I was very excited. No nerves, just pure adrenaline. The alarm was set for 5.45am.
By 7am I was at Cracknell's Butcher to collect my pig all 65kg of her! Loaded her into the trailer and set of to Hadleigh Town hall to set up for the day. Buy 8 am the Hog was roastin'.
My team arrived later in the day to help put the finishing touches to the tables. After a quick briefing we were ready to go!
The salads were set on the table 10 mins before the guests arrived. They were. Butternut Squash, Chilli, spring onion and toasted squash seed. Orzo with Aubergine, pomegranate and basil (with saffron Yogurt dressing) and The Brown and black rice salad with peas and tenderstem broccoli.
These were ideal for the very hot day and once all the guests were seated the team proceeded in with the large platters of roasted hog, crackling and a little bit of stuffing which I'd knocked up as a little bonus.
I was so proud with how the day went. We all worked well together. Everything went to plan.
The desserts were supplied by another caterer but served and cleared by my team (after several speeches).
This weekend I'll be tackling one of my first big events of the summer. A tradional hog roast but served with whole foods Salads, inspired by Ottolenghi. The bride and groom are fans of the cookbooks and wanted to share this with their guests. I arranged to meet them with some samples and armed with cook books these salads were created.
The salads are; English rice and peas with Tenderstem Broccoli, Roasted Aubergine, Orzo and pomegranate salad and finally a butternut squash, chilli and pine nut salad.