Jamie Gives The Game Away

Jamie Gives The Game Away

I watched the final episode on TV, last night, of Jamie Oliver's tour of Italy.

During this series he has taken a film crew with him, as he tours Italy in an old camper van; his objective, to learn more about regional cooking in Italy.

Last night, as he sat in a lemon grove picking fresh leomns, he extolled the virtues of the natural lemon; with all its "nobbly bits".

He went on to say that these natural lemons were far superior to the sanitised, uniform variety that are sold to us in the UK.

He almost used the word supermarkets, but stopped himself short; as he remembered that he in fact is paid a hefty sum by Sainsburys to sell us their uniform, sanitised products.

Pierre White Lambasts British Food

Marco Pierre White, the first British chef to receive three Michelin stars, has lambasted British cooking and the diners who tolerate it.

White, in an article for Waitrose Food Illustrated, said that Britain could not claim to have "the world's best restaurants"; he claims that British food is "depressing" and "totally unacceptable".

Whilst this to me seems a rather large generalisation, he possibly makes a valid point; in noting that young chefs "all just want to be celebrities", and that restaurant owners are "greedy".

Britain's Best

Britain's Best

Birmingham's Maharaja Restaurant has been named the best in Britain by "Olive", a BBC food magazine.

The Maharaja is Birmingham's oldest and finest Indian restaurant, it was established in 1971.

It was chosen from hundreds of Indian restaurants for its "superb curries" and "excellent tandoori specialities" served in "an elegant and civilised setting".

Nat Batt, the restaurant's proprietor, said:

"We are delighted to receive this accolade by such a prestigious publication.

It confirms our commitment to serving the finest authentic Indian food using a tandoor oven from India and spices prepared on our premises".

Britain's Booming Booze Sales

Britain's Booming Booze Sales

It seems that the British are developing a taste for fine wine; that is at least according to figures released, which show sales of fine wines are soaring.

Majestic Wines have reported a 43% rise in sales of wines costing more than £20, supermarkets have also revealed a surge in demand for their "top end" bottles.

The rise in high end consumption stems from an increased confidence of the British consumer, coupled with increased disposable income.

Needless to say, the fact that restaurants overcharge by up to 300% on their wines has encouraged people to stock their own cellars at home.

However, Wine Intelligence report that less than one in 1,000 of the 14.4 billion bottles sold each year cost more than £10.

There is still some way to go then, before Britain loses its taste for the "Blue Nuns" of this world!

Tiffin Club Formed

Over 50 British MPs, from all parties, have formed the first-ever "All Parliamentarian Tiffin Club" to select the best South Asian restaurant in the UK.

This event will be held every year, and the proceeds raised will be donated to charity.

The Club will be jointly headed by Keith Vaz, MP, former minister for Foreign and Commonwealth Office, John Barrett, MP and Michael Fabricant, MP.

It was formally launched at the Gaylord Indian Restaurant, one of the top five Restaurants in the UK at yesterday.

MPs present on the occasion included John Barrett, Janet Anderson, Crispin Blunt, Peter Bottomley, Dr Vincent Cable, Philip Davies, Andrew Dismore, Simon Hughes, Anne Mcintosh and Derek Wyatt.

Roast

Restaurant

Roast
The Floral Hall
Borough Market
Stoney Street
London

Phone:- 0207 940 1300

Website: www.roast-restaurant.com

Overview

Eva and I decided to try out the newly opened Roast restaurant in Borough Market last Friday.

Roast is the brainchild creation of Iqbal Wahhab, who founded The Cinnamon Club in Westminster. Roast has 120 seats, and is constructed on the site of Britain's oldest surviving food market, by London Bridge.

Edward Barry designed the Floral Hall in 1858, to house flowers for resale by the market traders; the upper floor now houses Roast, whilst the ground floor will house market traders.

Roast serves traditional British food in a modern lively setting, and is open for breakfast, lunch and dinner.

I would advise you to book, as the restaurant was packed when we went there.

Ambience

Roast is situated on the first floor of the Floral Hall of Borough Market. It consists of a large split level dining room and open fronted spit roast kitchen, together with a bar placed mid centre of the main part of the dining room.

The building has been given a stunning frontage in the form of the portico of the old Covent Garden flower market, which offers diners views onto the market on one side and over into St Paul's Cathedral on the other.

If you like the colour scheme white, then you are in for a treat; white is the order of the day for the walls and high ceilings, together with the linen napkins and tablecloths.

This, coupled with the large glass windows, gives Roast an airy and spacious atmosphere.

The layout of the restaurant means that those diners who are placed on the upper split level by the windows are afforded an excellent view of the market and St Paul's, whilst many of those on the lower level are afforded an excellent view of the bar and kitchen.

I would therefore advise you to specify your preference when booking your table.

As noted the restaurant was very lively, bright and spacious; as such it may not be first choice for a romantic cosy meal for two.

We were given a very good table on the "upper deck" by the window. I was more than pleased to note that, despite the fact the restaurant has a high ceiling and large glass frontage, it was not cold.

Menu

The menu was unashamedly British, and contained a variety of traditional dishes such as; roast pork with black pudding, potted shrimps, roast pheasant, steak and fish.

However, rather bizarrely for a restaurant that calls itself Roast, the one dish that was missing was Roast Beef!

I find this omission to be more than a little daft, and indeed said as much to the staff.

I really would suggest that this dish, that is widely regarded as the national dish of Britain, should be included on Roast's menu as soon as possible.

One other point that I would suggest that Roast address, is the fact that their website does not at the time of writing have a sample menu uploaded. The key feature of any well designed restaurant website is the menu page.

Service

We were warmly greeted, and promptly shown to our table.

The staff were very friendly and efficient. The service and attention to detail was smooth and well co-ordinated as it needed to be, given the number of covers.

Eva's dropped butter knife, was replaced immediately without prompting.

Food

I started with the green split pea soup with salt beef and vegetables. This was a little too thin and watery for my taste; I have been brought up eating yellow split pea soup, which had a much thicker consistency.

I would also suggest that the split peas and vegetables could have benefited from being cooked for a little longer; as they were, to my view/taste, a touch underdone.

I chose the roast suckling pig with black pudding for my main course.

This consisted of several slices of good quality pork, a good cut with just the right amount of fat and crackling, served with a thin slice of black pudding which had been placed atop half an apple.

The pork was very good, the taste and texture was first class.

I would, however, make two observations:

• The majority of the crackling did not crackle



• The pork was luke warm rather than hot, I suspect that it had been left a little too long on the plate before being taken from the kitchen to our table

I chose roast potatoes and roast pumpkin to accompany the dish. These were both excellent, the potatoes had been cooked in dripping and were crunchy on the outside, but soft and yielding within.

Unlike the pork, they were hot.

The slices of roast pumpkin were splendid, and had been roasted to perfection.

Eva started with the potted shrimps, which came with a lemon wedge and a little toast. They were delightfully indulgent, rich, tasty and filling.

Eva then chose the roast pheasant for her main course, she chose mashed potatoes to accompany it.

The pheasant consisted of a generous portion of both breast and leg, served on top of sherry glazed parsnips. The bird had been well, but not over, cooked. It was succulent, tender and had a delicate game flavour. The size of the portion defeated Eva; so we made off with the remainder in a doggy bag, and had it the next day in a sandwich.

The mashed potatoes were smooth and creamy, and had a better taste and consistency than many that we have had elsewhere.

The meal, which included a bottle of Pinot Grigio (unaccountably they had no Chablis on the wine list) and a liqueur, came to £100 including service.

Overall Opinion

We enjoyed our evening; once the few “teething” issues that I have raised above are addressed, Roast will enjoy commercial and culinary success.

Would You Like Some Ham With Your Water?

Would You Like Some Ham With Your Water?

Which? reports that some brands of ham contain just over 50% of meat, the remainder of the contents being water and chemicals.

Seemingly, Ye Olde Oak ham is the worst; containing 55% meat and 37% water.

The World's Saltiest Lasagne

The World's Saltiest Lasagne

Eva and I were in Brighton yesterday, and popped into Donatello for an end of day pizza and pasta.

There, I had what I can only describe as the world's saltiest lasagne.

Message to the chef...way too much salt in your lasagne.

Ixxy's Hot Salt Beef Bagel

Ixxy's Hot Salt Beef Bagel

Those of you who fancy a nice hot salt beef bagel, whilst waiting for your train at London's Victoria station, should not bother buying one from Ixxy's Bagel Shop (owned by the Compass Group).

I tried one yesterday:

- The beef was reheated in a microwave, instead of being cut from a joint

- The beef was luke warm and bland, instead of being hot and tasty

- Ixxy's advertise that the hot beef bagel comes with mustard; I had to remind the girl behind the counter to put mustard in, after she had made the bagel. Thus she had to disassemble the bagel

- The bagel itself was dry

- The counter girl forgot the use of the phrases "please" and "thank you", and indeed how to smile

- The cost of this gastronomic disappointment, together with a can of fizzy sugared water, came to £5.99

Bottom line: if you want a tasty hot salt beef bagel, that is good value for money, don't go to Ixxy's.

The World's Most Expensive Restaurants

The World's Most Expensive Restaurants

Forbes has put together a list of the world's most expensive restaurants.

Top of that list comes Aragawa, in Tokyo, where the average meal for one runs about ¥1,672 (approximately $277).

The list can be viewed on Forbes.

The question is though, are they value for money?

A Bad Start

A Bad Start

We all know that breakfast is meant to set you up for the day, and according to tradition the best start to the day is an English breakfast.

Unfortunately, those of you who stay in some of Britain's hotels may find their start to the day to be less than perfect.

That at least is the view according to the 2006 edition of The Good Hotel Guide of Great Britain and Ireland.

It claims that some guests have experienced "watery porridge and cold eggs," "toast with the texture of cardboard," as well as bad service and overpriced meals.

The best hotels for a good English breakfast appear to be small independent ones.

The guide in particular recommends Bark House Hotel in Bampton, southwest England; for its "superb" breakfast of, "moist muesli, exceptional porridge with honey and brown sugar, meaty Bampton bangers, tasty mushrooms, dry-cured bacon, free-range eggs, crisp fried bread."

Quote from the Bark House website:

"All meals are cooked by the proprietor, Alastair, who is a largely self-taught cook. Strong emphasis is placed on sourcing produce from high-quality West Country suppliers. Most fish comes from Cornwall whilst meat comes from a handful of known local farms. Breakfasts are treated seriously, too..."

It definitely sounds like it is worth a visit.

Smoking U Turn

Smoking U Turn

Smoking is set to be completely banned throughout pubs and restaurants in England, after cabinet ministers decided to ask for a U-turn on plans for a partial ban.

The Prime Minister, Tony Blair, has caved in and let it be known that he will not block Health Secretary Patricia Hewitt's calls to overturn the current plans; under which smoking would be banned only in places where food is served.

Those of you who enjoy smoking after a meal, may have just a short time left to enjoy the last gasps of nicotine in public.

Pasties Go Mexican

Pasties Go Mexican

It seems that the traditional Cornish Pasty, once the staple diet of Cornish tin miners, has now become the staple diet of Mexican silver miners.

The pasty is now classified as a local delicacy, alongside tacos and beans.

There is of course a Mexican twist to the dish that normally contains meat, potatoes and swede; they have added a few chillis.

Those of you who wish to try out the Mexican version should go to Real del Monte in Mexico, where the pasty was first imported by Cornish tin miners in the 19th century.

Traditional Cornish Pasty Recipe

Cornish Pasties originated in Cornwall as a handy way for miners to take their lunch to work.

Shortcrust pastry encases a mixture of finely chopped meat and vegetables.

Ingredients

10 oz flour
A pinch of salt
4 oz of cold butter
1 to 3 tablespoons of water

8 oz of cubed beef
2 potatoes 1 swede/turnip
1 medium onion
salt & pepper
2 tablespoons of fresh parsley
1/4 teaspoon of mustard
2 teaspoons of tomato sauce / ketchup (optional)
1 egg

Short Pastry

In a large bowl or food processor sift the flour and salt, cut the cold butter into small cubes and add to the flour.

Rub the butter into the flour with your hands or using the food processor, until it resembles fine breadcrumbs.

Make a well in the centre and add sufficient water to mix to a firm dough.

Handle as little as possible as this prevents the pastry from becoming hard when it is baked.

Roll into a ball, cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 30 minutes.

Filling

Preheat oven to 200 degrees C.

Put the cubed meat into a large bowl.

Chop the onion finely, and add to the meat.

Peel the potatoes and swede turnip, cut into very small cubes.

Mix thoroughly with the meat, add the seasonings (a little water may be added to moisten) and cover.

On a lightly floured bench or board roll the pastry out to around 1/8 inch thick.

Cut 6 rounds, using a 6 1/2 inch diameter plate as a guide.

Arrange the filling evenly in the centre of each round.

Lightly beat the egg and glaze the edge of each round with a pastry brush.

Lift the two opposite edges of the pastry and pull together over the filling.

Pinch at regular intervals along the edge to form a frill.

Brush each pasty with egg and place on a baking tray.

Bake for 3/4 to 1 hour.

Eat hot or cold.

Eating In, The New Eating Out

Eating In, The New Eating Out

A new dining fad appears to be coming to Britain.

Those with money to spend and a nice kitchen, but with no time or energy to cook, can now hire in top name chefs to do the work for them.

Jamie Oliver is the latest "name" to get on the "hire a chef" for home dining bandwagon. Although he is unlikely to ever turn up to your house himself, for a fee of around £80 per head, one of his chefs from his restaurant Fifteen will come and do the cooking for you.

"Fifteen to You" will offer such dishes as scallop crudo cured in lime.

Personally speaking, half the fun of dining is going out and enjoying the ambience of a restaurant.

When we invite friends round for dinner, we enjoy doing the cooking ourselves; to hire chefs in, just seems plain rude and lazy.

Big Bill

Big Bill

An unknown City banker spent £36K on drinks in the Aviva bar in the Baglioni Hotel, in Kensington last Thursday.

He was celebrating a £3M deal.

So were the staff, they received a £4.7K tip.