Smoking under glass

This a cool method of wowing the guest and also for smoking to order. The cheese is a sticky blue goats cheese which is mild and ripe. I find it better to do this with a moist cheese to allow the smoke to stick to the rind.

The cheese is placed in the center of the plate. You need a bowl of wood chips soaked in some brandy and water. Take a perfectly polished red wine glass and with a blow torch start to burn the chips until a steady plume of smoke forms. Hold the glass over the bowl and fill up with smoke fumes. Trap the smoked inside the glass and moving swiftly with a waiter there ready, turn the glass over onto the cheese and send straight away.

The guest will get an aroma of hickory at the table and also a light smoky taste to the cheese itself. You can smoke with anything you want to, its your creativity, try adding sczechuan peppers or rosemary?

Beef fillet

This is on the weekly du jour menu. I was making a beef jus and when straining it found that the short riblets i was using to make the sauce had braised slowly the meat was falling off the bone it was so tender. Also the meat had shrunk back leaving a clean exposed bone. Nice!
So here is the dish containing my new best thing.
Grilled beef fillet, soy and honey glazed riblet, savoy cabbage, smoked potato puree. pickled red onion compote.

Roasted salsify

Here we have roasted salsify with a parmesan cheesecake, thyme crumble, port, balsamic and shallot reduction.

This plate is taken from a dish that was on the menu when i worked inBoston, US. My chef de Cuisine was a very accomplished guy named Jerome Legras. He did this same dish with asparagus. I loved it a took it with me. I havent changed alot only the thyme crumble on top of the cheesecake.

Fantastic dish!!!

Crunchy sauteed skate wing, leek fondue, porcini mushrooms, black truffle vinaigrette

Pigeon

This dish was on the du jour menu tonight. It is a New Forest pigeon which is roasted on the bone, then the breasts are removed and glazed with black treacle. The treacle works well with the pigeons earthyness and slight sweetness. There is seared foie gras, a spinach puree and carrot puree. Madeira jus was poured at the table.

Another classy salad

The salad greens are held by a cucumber ribbon, served with beetroot, sicilian pistachio puree, sherry vinegar and truffle vinaigrette

Cool salad

Putting a little extra thought into something so simple really makes a guests night in the restaurant. It is the WOW factor that is the first impression, next is the taste which is more important. In this salad, it is the vegetables and organic green leaves from Secretts farm in Surrey that do the talking here. Dressed with balsamic vinaigrette and served with some micro celery and a light potato spiral to add a crunch. I served a shot glass of pumpkin juice (slightly reduced to concentrate the flavour) on the side.