The New Boys Are In and The Festivals of Fun

Well! 

What’s been happening?  Where has the time flown?

A hard couple of months have passed.  It has been all heads-down and getting.
So now with the new team members settling in and the core pushing harder than ever, I’ve finally the time to realize in words, just what we’ve been up to.  Where to start?

Niall and the morel

Food.

Our Spring menu is in full stride.  It is almost impossible to keep up with the ever-changing ingredients that Spring brings us.  From the first garlic leaf and morels to the last of the St Enodoc asparagus, the new sun’s energy has created some really amazing flavours and spectacular growth.

Fingers crossed 

Douglas, the veg man, has grown us some fantastic young cauliflowers.  We’ve turned them into cous cous, seasoned with cumin, sesame and olive oil.  On the menu as Seared Brixham scallops, cauliflower cous cous and cumin veloute,

Steve, Chef Direct, came up trumps when he delivered a carcass of big and beautiful Berkshire pork which had been reared in Bath.  Niall made short work of baking it down, slow-cooking the loins and confitting the belly and serving it with hispi cabbage and calvados sauce.  The shoulder was turned into crispy rillettes and served with apple compote, sorrel and bitters salad.  The head was brined and turned into brawn.  The legs sat in a whole lot of salt and now are hanging in our cellar...to be continued.

Roasted veal sweet bread, lemon confit
Apple & Hazelnut salad 

Steve has also been sending us some fantastic local veal sweetbread which we roast: roasted veal sweetbreads, confit lemon, apple and hazelnut salad.

We also have grelot onions and smoked bacon with Turbot and slow roasted crown of squab pigeon, wild garlic puree, morel and asparagus fricassee and madeira jus..  And, on our lunch menus, lamb rump with fennel, caper and anchovies, tapenade jus.

Rhubarb! Rhubarb! Rhubarb for dessert!  Then, if you’re rhubarbed out, we pay homage to the greatness of sticky toffee, with salted caramel fondant, apple parfait: pure heaven, sweet and rich!

The first soft stone fruit has arrived.  Our box of apricots was turned into an apricot and caraway chutney to be served with the Berkshire pork. With strawberries ready any day summer must nearly here.


Our eloquent friend, Dave the Butcher swears (trooper-like) that his British white beef will be the best we’ve ever seen.  Dave’s new shop opens this month… at last!  Our first delivery arrives on Monday evening.  The fillets and hind quarter should keep us busy for a while.

We’ve also been busy away from the Bath Priory.  The Exeter food festival has been and gone.  It kicked off on the Sunday with the first of my demos for this year. What a way to start, Head-to-Head versus Gidleigh Park’s head chef, Ian ‘Asparagus’ Webber.  We had a fantastic time and, of course, the score is now Gidleigh 0 Bath Priory 2.  Victory was ours as I had shown off our scallops with cauliflower and the sweetbread with lemon confit from the current carte, along with the plate of rabbit, smoked ham, pease pudding from our recent menu.

Ian and I do Battle

The Exeter festival is a wonderful celebration of the West Country’s magical produce and the collection of the people that make it the Best Country.  Cornish oysters and Somerset cider; Devon hog roast baps and Teignworthy Bitter!  What more could you ask for?  What more do you need?

The good stuff 

My family had come along to enjoy the festival.  We all had a great day, wandering around for hours, eating far too much and chatting to a few of the many characters that help create the wonderful and friendly atmosphere.  It’s a shame that I only got to be there on the last day.  I could happily spend all 3 days exploring the food tents and to be fair there are just too many beers and cider on offer to taste in 1 day. 

2 Nil BP 

From Exeter I was Horley-homeward bound for a demo next day at The Foodies Festival in Hove Lawns in Brighton.  Niall and Craig ‘the Squid’ Lunn got the train from Bath and we picked them up at Gatwick and headed for the pier and beyond.

     The Foodies Festival was not exactly a celebration of local food like Exeter, which is a shame, but it was still enjoyable nevertheless.  We arrived early and with an hour or so before Niall‘s and my demo we had time to pick up some ingredients and mingle and of course grab a cheeky cider. 

food at foodies

Our search for produce took us to Sam’s of Brighton, where we borrowed some asparagus.  We also grabbed a loaf of local rye bread.  I had earlier picked up some eggs from Simon’s Free Range Eggs in Hookwood, Surrey.  

The plate of local food  to wrap off our demo was sorted so we went back to Sam’s tent.  The smell from the spiced sticky braised belly pork were too good to miss, as was his asparagus with wild garlic butter.  Great food on paper plates.  

The demo went well but with Mr E.H.O. forbidding anyone a taste of anything it seemed a bit pointless!  Anyway, a good afternoon was had by all and it was great to see more family and friends there.  Niall and I tried to introduce Craig the Squid back to his natural environment but a wave got the better of us, so with our now wet Birkenstocks it was time to say goodbye to Brighton and make dinner arrangements.

Freeing the squid 

To Ockenden Manor, where the welcome is always warm, the food fantastic and your glass always full!

to good to take a before
photo

We checked in and regrouped in the their beautiful oak-panelled bar. Vinny cooked us a wonderful tasting menu.  We all agreed that the sole with potato gallette and tartar sauce was simple perfection.  The guinea fowl and boudin blanc was seriously flavoursome.  Vinny's menu then finished with the best lemon tart I’ve ever had.  A great meal!
Back to the bar, for cheese.  We chatted and drank far too much into the early hours of the morning.  A brilliant evening!  Then with bacon sandwiches in hand.  Five sorry looking campers pretended to read the morning papers as we planned our journey back west.



And what great time we had…

Next time