New Growth and Are There Eggs in That?

I have a fantastic team of chefs around me  They rise to our daily challenges and they always overcome them.  They expand their knowledge in many ways, like reading and eating-out and they take new team members under their wings and they are pushing forwards with great focus, ensuring we can always deliver that wonderful experience that all our guests receive at The Bath Priory.  And, it’s all done with a smile... (most of the time!)

The New Year sees Winkie (aka Thomas Hine) heading back to Gidleigh Park as one of their sous chefs.
A strange silence has now fallen into our kitchens at BP.  It may be peace and quiet.  Winkie goes to learn in a kitchen that taught me much.  We all wish him the best of luck.

The best thing about hospitality has to be opportunity.  There’s always something new to learn, new challenges to conquer or obstacles to overcome.  These are incredibly exciting times. This year sees me become a chef mentor and start my Springboard Hospitality Ambassador training.   Asking someone to help to inspire the next generation of chefs is a great compliment and I’m incredibly grateful to Sue for putting me forward for it.

So, the first mentor-day with the young Jack and yours truly.  He needed help to prepare for the Future Chef comp.  But to be honest Jack already had most of it covered.  We had a play.  The main was pheasant and then a tiramisu style dessert. 

We made a lovely celeriac confit with a little garlic and wrapped the pheasant breast in a bit of smoked bacon.  We then had a go at boning out the thighs.  All went to plan.  Jack made a lovely sauce with white wine.  A very tasty main course!!  We then realised that we didn’t have then ingredients for the pudding. Damn you sponge fingers!  So dessert was an improvised and rushed together tiramisu-style dessert: amazing!

Jack was a pleasure to have in the kitchen.  He cooks with real style and confidence.  He'll be back soon for a week’s work experience with us.  Although he is still at school, he already knows the most important ingredients in the kitchen.  TOP LAD!

Talking of top lads... Young Squid (aka Craig Lunn) has been out and about flying BP’s flag high and doing us all very proud.  He entered himself into Bath’s under-23 Chef v Chef competition.  At 16, that shows some serious balls.  We worked on some dish ideas and Craig produced us some lovely plates of food, including a new and rather interesting method of making crème caramels, but we won’t talk about that now.

Young Squid didn’t win but with some fine tuning, he’ll be in with a great shout next year.  It did show his amazing drive and self belief.  Keep up that spirit and he’ll go all the way to the top.  And Gary Jones had some very nice thing to say about him, which was great to hear.

On Friday, I eventually had the call I’d been waiting ages for.  The veg grower that is Douglas has finally got something worth picking and can hopefully restart our twice weekly deliveries of freshly picked and freshly dug vegetables.  All that snow and sub-zero cold had killed all the beautiful black baby leaf kale, so it was a happy day on Saturday when fresh leaves arrived in our kitchen once more.

We are also very excited about working with Buttervilla, a Cornish company, who will also provide us with some great little micro salads.  Our first delivery looked great and was all very tasty.  There are some really interesting products here, so will keep you posted.

Creedy Carver ducks have gone from strength to strength.  They now sit proudly on our a la carte dinner menu.  It really is an incredible product.  Every one that eats it absolutely loves it.  What’s more we confit the legs and use them on the lunch menus.  Our guests love it, so much so, we need to change the menu tomorrow.

Slow cooked breast of Creedy Carver duckling, orange puree, anise jus, & then, crisp confit Creedy Carver duck leg, spiced cabbage, Puy lentils, anise jus.

A fun and fast start to the New Year was had and with Alistair coming up from Gidleigh Park to take on the sous chef role here, the future looks exciting!

Time short.  It’s the 14^th.   The ladies need to be wooed and Niall and Vike (aka Ben) can’t do it alone!!! even if the Vike has had himself a nice new hair cut!!

Onwards!

He's not a pheasant plucker, lies & mince pies!

Oh dear!  Oh dear!  Doesn’t the time fly?  I have left it a little too long. Since I last updated the goings on of the Bath Priory kitchens things seem to have swung from cold to FFFFFREEZING! and from "We've got loads of that and @ a good price" to "NO!  No can't get you any of those!" and from "coffee & petit fours" to "coffee and mince pies". 
Mince pies already!  Where has the year gone?  It has been hard work this last month but we have cooked some cracking food, as always.

First thing first.  Thank you to

http://www.thestaffcanteen.com/

Mr Mark Morris.  He came to The Bath Priory back in October and interviewed me.  We had a great chat.  Now it’s on line for all to read.  A good job!  He’s made me sound like I knew what I talked about.  A true writer Mr Morris!  And, great to see he’s included some pictures of the boys, Niall and Jauca hard at work - a rare, seldom witnessed sight!  He assures me my payment will be through in time for the Christmas sales!  The Staff Canteen website is a perfect way to spend your afternoon break... 

So what has been going on at the Bath Priory?

Matt deep in thought,
"mmm Duck fat!"

 As my mate Matt says, “Creedy Carver ducklings.  The tastiest and second fattest thing ever to leave Crediton.”

And how happy we are having them, once again, at the Bath Priory.  These are magical birds.  La Chasse, a small and relatively new fine food purveyors, first introduced me to them.  Charlie uses the ducks as their opening selling point, like a foot in the door.  And why wouldn't they?  Their ducklings are fantastic. 

They are reared at Merrifield Farm, a family run poultry farm in Crediton, Devon - so not super local to us but it's always worth a bit of travelling to get something this good!

  

We’re cooking the breast in a bag and then the legs confit.  The legs get mixed with Puy lentils and glazed onion.  Then they're gently warmed up in duck jus and finished with chopped P.  As they are dry-plucked, we we quickly fry the breast and the skin crisps up beautifully.   It's simply Simple Simon but what a cracking lunch dish!

 I had a quick chat with the farm this afternoon.  After that dreaded C word has passed, we’ll be down to  meet these lovely ducks and James the farmer, of course.  Any excuse to get out tp the Devon countryside!

We seem to have been so flat out at the hotel I hardly noticed the snow until I realised Douglas hadn’t rung all week.  I thought I’d better check in on the keeper of our beautiful Kale leaves.

Please note this lettuce was not
actually grown by Douglas!

  “Hi Sam, no no, everything’s fine, it’s just that it has all frozen solid. It’s all stuck in the ground!”
  "Aahh!   I didn’t think of that.  What a horrible game to be in."
So we’ve had none of Douglas’s vegetables for 2 or so weeks now but today he’s out his organic hair drier (the sun) and so hopes to have us something by the weekend.

David Hammerson has done a fantastic job with his turkeys this year.  Everything we get of him is pretty special.  Venison stalked off Salisbury Plain and the partridge have come into their own now that the cold weather has forced them to fatten up.  I think it’s almost a shame we have turkey on the menu for the whole of December, but that’s what the guests want.  So on this week’s lunch menu it’s Turkey vs. Creedy Carver.
There can be only one winner!  Day 1 and turkey took it 15 to 11.  We’ll see.   The last time Duck was on, we sold out on day 2.  Pressure's on Creedy!

     Mr B has dropped off the second lot of pheasants and, as ever, we’re more than happy to take them although stopping to hang 70 pheasants in the middle of a Friday night dinner service is always a bit tricky.  Craig loves it.   So they hang overnight in our “refrigerated” outbuilding.  We then send them down to our always polite and ever so helpful butcher, Dave, at Bartlett and Sons.  They skin them, hang them and then send them back to us when they're ready to cook.

    We’re making Pheasant Boudin for the Carte and serving it with sauté foie, apple compote and consommé.  The same dish proved worthy of a few Gidleigh Park menus when I first put it together there, way back when I was the CDP on hot starters.  I’s a really good example of Bath Priory meets MC‘s food - loads and loads of flavour!   

     Then, last week’s lunch menu saw us stuffing pheasants with a rather lovely mousse flavoured with tarragon, foie gras and truffle.  That was the first batch taken care of and now we’re waiting on the second. They should just be ready in time for next week’s lunch menu - Stuffed Breast of Waddeton Court pheasant, Squash and Cumin puree, braised lentils and game jus.

Thank you for the pic Radovan 

I have a new favourite fish.  Phil B has been getting us some fantastic Red Gurnard.  A bit of a pain to pin bone but wow! what great texture and flavour!  I really can’t believe I’ve gone so long without ever trying it.  Must be something to do with a certain fishing trip with the Bonnici family many many years ago but that’s another story!

    We treat the Red Gurnard like we treat Bass.  A fair lot of our guests think it is bass.  Pan fired Brixham gurnard, parsnip and ginger puree, chicken jus roti.  Beautiful!

Four weeks has turned into another month passed.  The seasons roll on and the nights are still getting longer but we’re still here pushing on together, tighter and harder and more determined with more focus than ever.  "Good night, Mr Gill! x"


 http://www.thestaffcanteen.com/heroes-of-the-hot-plate/sam-moody-head-chef-bath-priory-hotel/

Dinner with royalty, lunch menus and new ideas?

 An unusually quiet Tuesday saw me sneak a rather cheeky ½ day.  Home for 5!  I’m almost part time these days!  And what better way to spend my time out of the kitchen than to read a cookbook or two?  I’m absolutely loving "Quay".  It's hard not to just look at the pictures.  Every plate is so beautiful with such great attention to detail.  But it’s not just pretty plates.
It's food you want to eat!   

Reading always makes me hungry, and Anna had arrived home starving.  So it was to the King William for a bite to eat.  They have never failed to fill me up.  Pint of guest ale (whose name I can’t remember) while reading the menu.  Pint gone and to the bar.
"Fish and chips for Anna and the teal for me please.
Oh, and another pint, of course!"

Fantastic food.  Teal perfectly cooked, served with pate on toast and a side of beautifully cooked (and SEASONED) vegetables.  And for Anna it looked like they’d battered Moby Dick in a rather special beer batter.  The best chips I've ever eaten! a lovely tartar sauce as well!

My Chocolate

Pudding: I had to have my normal sticky toffee and Anna had the hot chocolate pot.  Again, all lovely stuff although I’m really not sure about apple ice cream with chocolate...tasty nevertheless.  Another pint and we were done.
So full!  Lovely stuff!!

Back to work Wednesday.  It was all about the new lunch menu.  Quail galantine rolled in chopped candied hazelnuts, served with pease pudding, crispy ham and apple salad. These little bird are ace.  Tim is doing a great job with them.  

Charlie delivered us some beautiful smoked garlic which made our veg store smell amazing. We then turned this garlic into a puree, to flavour mashed potatoes.  Not bad at all!

Phil B delivered his normal standard of amazing fish, including some great line-caught Pollack.  Our young leeks were washed, blanched and split down the middle, and slowly caramelised in chicken fat.  They taste amazing!  Then we’ve got a little bit of garlic mashed potatoes and pollack roasted in beurre noisette and sitting on some kale.  It's simple early winter on a plate

Roland and Emma have finshed the menu nicely with a some lovely puddings.  I managed a quick sample of the pineapple tarte tatin, coconut parfait and pineapple sorbet.  Food's far too tasty sometimes! 

.

I got talking to guest a few days ago.  He explained his love of hare and how rarely he finds it on a menu.  It got me thinking.  I’ve only eaten hare once, at Arbutus and it was really good.  And I’d only cooked hare once, with Shaun Hill at Gidleigh on a guest-chef dinner.
So Steve at Chef Direct has put our name on two hare.  Tomorrow morning it’s “Hear Hare Here” on my chopping board.  'can’t wait! 

But what to serve it with?  We’ll see...

Organic Mud, Basic Maths and Wedding Bells

The big day for the Big man was fast approaching, and I still had to write my speech!  But no time to worry about that!  It was Wednesday.  We had a MC function with 72 booked for lunch the next day, and Douglas was picking me up at 9 to show me around his farm. 

Douglas was on time. Quick cup of tea while I was introduced to Pip the super friendly Border collie and then away in an Audi estate... not sure this makes for the ideal farm vehicle? He must have been an estate agent in a former life.     10 or so minutes later and we arrived at his plot.  He quickly apologised for the weeds. He has one large tunnel and 6 acres of open beds.  In the tunnel he has little micro leaves, Mizuna, roquette, etc etc.Then out side he has all his lettuces, kales, cabbages, broccoli, beetroots, baby turnips, carrots, etc and also the baby purple kale leaves that I love so much. 

Although Pip helps out by ratting the odd kohl rabi, Douglas works alone.  You can image his task is never ending, with weeding being the biggest challenge. What he grows is fantastic and it really is a labour of love. If it’s not good enough, he won’t sell it.  He has no storage facilities at present, so all of the vegetables are picked/dug then delivered straightaway by him. 

I like the fact that a few weeks ago we were buying beet & turnip leaves, the plants are now mature and the leaves too big to eat, so now we’ll be buying baby beetroot & turnips instead.  That’s how it’s meant to be!! Douglas is just starting out and it seems to me like one almighty challenge!  Already after only 6 months he has what looks like a great base, but he’s not happy.  Everything’s behind.  His peas failed.  And the sprouts don’t look as if they’ll be big enough in time for the C word.  He’s confident that next year will be a great year.  I’m looking forward to it.  
I had to be back for lunch service.  Douglas kindly dropped me back and I set about cleaning the mud off my Birkenstocks.  Wellies next time methinks! 

Clogs cleaned and back in the kitchen.  Craig had the butternut squashes slowly roasting in the oven ready to be turned into a veloute.  The Daquoise had been glazed and the beef shoulders were being portioned.  Each feather blade had been rolled and braised the day before, then cooled and then rolled tight, and then left to set overnight.  We had 10, at least I thought we had 10.  

    “How many should I get out of each blade” says Jauca.
    “Between 9 and 10” says me.
    “I got 8 out of the first one!!”
    “That’s fine!  It’s still 80 portions.”
                                              “NO, I’ve got 9 blades here that’s 72!!”

A quick search confirmed it... someone can’t count!!  72 for 72, I didn’t like those odds!!  So it was a quick prayer to the Party Room's god (re-reading the function sheet) and there they were 4 vegetarians! A recount confirmed we had 6 spare.  Job's a gooden!!!
So we were set. 

Roast Butternut squash veloute, truffle & cumin.  Braised shoulder of beef, wild mushroom ragout and horseradish mashed potato.  And for the Veggies, Open lasagne of celeriac wild mushrooms, Cep sauce. Pudding: a Milk chocolate and hazelnut daquoise, White chocolate ice cream.   

MC arrived at around 1030 and was on great form.  Blades were in the bath and the soup was in the pan. 72 beautiful plates of food left the pass in a one smooth constant flow, followed by pudding in a similar fashion.  Chef and I did the rounds in the restaurant, and then 72 happy guests were heading home.  Easy!? 

A strange afternoon then followed.  Champagne, photo shoots and interviews with journalists.  Is this the life of the modern day chef?  To be honest, I’d of preferred a box of mousseron  to prep.  It was 5.00 and we were setting up for dinner.  Where had the day gone?  We did 40, so not bad for a Thursday, Winky assembled a rather lovely looking terrine of  poached chicken legs, black trompette and leek, ready for the next day’s lunch.  He finished the service and I headed home to write my speech.

Friday came.  The speech was written.  We were on our way up North.  Kirk was getting married.  I had worked with Kirk during my Gidleigh Park days, and we’ve been great mates ever since.  A lovely day and a lovely couple!  The meal was ace and with the hearty northern portions I nearly struggled to finish my sticky toffee pudding.  I love sticky toffee pudding!  Few beers, speech out of the way, and a few more beers.  A fantastic day was had.  

 
Back in the Kitchen for a very busy Sunday lunch, and as quickly as it started the week was over.  Next week’s lunch menu’s looking a bit special.  I spotted some rather beautiful young leeks on Douglas’ farm. We’ll serve with some Brixham Pollack.  Galantines of quail will be rolled in toasted hazel nuts then served with apples and pease pudding.  The good-old woodland belly pork are braising in oven as I write!!!  

Onwards!

_________

Past and Times

Sunday was my first day off in two weeks.  I needed to get on the bank.  Craig and I were trying to catch those impossible barbel down at Claverton Weir but all was quiet and the fish were definitely not biting. What to do? Where are those fish?  Then my mobile broke the morning's silence...

MC was calling! On a Sunday! Something was up!

The Sunday Times had released their top 200 UK restaurants and Chef was ringing with congratulations.

   “Sam, Bath Priory came in 39^th, that’s two in the top 50 !!!!”

The night before I was congratulating Chef with Gidleigh's first place.  The next morning Chef is congratulating us.  3^rd best in the West.  Not bad.

So Craig's and my spirits were lifted.  A fish or two seemed like a sure thing... but no, cook and cook well we can, but catch a fish?  Well we'll see, there’s always next time!

Straight back to it again and with a busy MC lunch on Thursday, there's no time to dwell on awards won or fish lost.  There is a small mountain of wild mushrooms to prep, shoulders of beef to braise and milk chocolate Daquoise to assemble. 

LOVE IT! 

Tempura...but not on my roast potatoes!

Sunday, a day of rest and roast beef! That is if you’re not cooking it...what a weekend to finish a whacker of a week! A mere two thousand or so plates of beautiful food were served to some very happy guests this week, great fun!

It was Friday morning and I had a saint on my board (well at least the French named it after a saint) which was a beautiful John Dory for the Martin family’s Tasting Menu. But it was Friday morning, so no time to dwell on beautiful dead fish...well not much time anyway.  

Friday's fish mountain was finished and  before I could say “Sammar my Angel, could you do the ice bags”, the weekend's game was arriving...and we’re not talking monopoly! We've got 12 brace of partridge, 6 of mallard and two saddles of Salisbury venison - cheers David, spot on.

It’s funny, but no-one ever seems to keen to volunteer for liver duties, I wonder why?? Jacob and I knocked through the partridges in no time and the venison loins were already sitting pretty in the red wine marinade, so it was just the mallards to finish. “Must remember to keep one whole, must remember to keep one whole”... Mr. Martin had asked for some game to be included in the menu, so a well seasoned mallard crown went into a sous vide bag, followed by a load of foie gras fat. The bag was then sealed and the bird was poached 'slow and low'. Craig poached some beautiful little baby pears in a light syrup, spiced with cinnamon, clove and cardamom, which we will serve with the mallard on Saturday night.

Friday’s lunch service was long and busy; with salt beef raviolo’s leaving for table 6 and club sandwiches leaving for the lounge 4. Not sure what happened to Friday afternoon as before I knew it we were in the middle of a traditional Friday night service, thick and fast! But it was a hell of good fun, with all of the boys on top form, smooth as!

Saturdays have to be simple, it’s just rude otherwise! A steady busy lunch that rolled on till 4ish, then FAT’s (Full Afternoon Tea's that is) galore. Then on to Langoustine Cannelloni duty with Niall and before we know it, Saturday night set-up is complete, job's a gooden.

Corned ox tongue with beets and horseradish was the evening appetiser, and I have to say, it was delicious! The Cannelloni flew out the door, as did the venison, with us serving nearly 30 of them. The Martin’s loved their meal, with the JD being there favourite;  pan-fried John Dory, parsnips and vanilla, chicken jus roti. Mr. Martin also loved the mallard; slow roast breast of mallard, with poached pear, ceps and game jus.

So we’d got our Saturday night service fix, kitchen was cleaned down and we were home for midnight - cheeky!

I shouldn’t work on Sundays, there’s far too much good stuff around for me to eat! Ben’s roast tats and shallots finished with a touch of Xerse (a Spanish vinegar), too good, plus the sirloin of beef Winky had roasted to perfection. Luckily he’d hidden the his Béarnaise very well so I could only manage 4 or so roasties, and he stood firm guarding over his roast sirloin...oh it looked good!

Start of Sunday's dinner service and we had five guests on their 7^th night who fancied some tempura prawns. “I don’t have enough prawns” was the call, “leave it with me” I said. Not sure how, but 30 minutes later an oriental buffet was on its way to their bedroom! We managed to conjure up all sorts of tasty treats, think I must enjoy eating at Yauatcha too much. No soft-shell crab with almond and chilli, just tempura batter everywhere. Quick clean down and then on with dinner service, weekend almost over. What a week!

Bread to make and then Jerusalem 'chokes to prep tomorrow, winter’s coming! Thursday’s new lunch menu will also be written up, with something along the lines of scallop with Jerusalem artichokes and bacon; slow-roast rump of beef with bone marrow raviolo, then we’re going to have a play with some fresh ewe's cheese for pudding - sound tasty?

Looking to the week ahead - I'll hopefully sneak a morning out on Thursday to go and meet our lovely kale leaves while they're still in the ground, growing at Eurdige Manor Farm. It seems as one busy week finishes, another starts, and all the time the seasons roll on.

What tasty treats will be gracing our back door this week?

Cornish Outlaws, cheese and beef.

The key to a good day is clear communication, at least that’s half the battle anyway! I arrived in Devon late on Saturday night to be greeted by the words "apple pie, what you talking about? It was a pear frangipane!", to which I replied “what do you mean WAS”, no pudding for me then! Dartmoor on a sunny autumnal afternoon really is perfect, where better place to spend a Sunday off than sat up on the top of Hound tor, ace.

Monday took us to Cornwall, our destination: Nathan Outlaw's 'Seafood Bar and Grill' in Rock. What a superb lunch. Beautiful local oysters and a lovely fillet of mackerel on charred toast for our starters, then Thornback ray wing with dumplings and caper sauce and Haddock with squash and parsley sauce as our mains. For pudding, one crumble and one cheesecake.  Really tasty and all cooked and seasoned perfectly. Wash it all down with a pint or two of Doom Bar ale, which is brewed just down the road - perfect!


After lunch we headed across the river to Padstow to have a look at the lobster hatchery. Although it is only small, it’s really worth a visit. The idea is that Padstow’s fleet of lobster fishermen hand any egg carrying females they have caught over to the hatchery. The lobsters are then kept in controlled tanks until their eggs hatch. The near microscopic baby lobster are then kept while the females are returned to, hopefully, carry on breeding. The babies are released once they have reached a less vulnerable size. Seems to me like a proactive and vital means towards achieving the 'near impossible' that is sustainable fishing. What lovely days off!



 I'm back in the kitchen early Tuesday morning and as ever its all go! First it was the MEP for the cheese lunch on Thursday and then on to having a think about our new lunch menus. For the cheese lunch MC has asked for beef with blue cheese, so we seamed out a rump of lovely, four-week-hung Hinton beef, which is rolled and cooked really slowly in the water bath. We then have a lovely piece of braised cheek to serve on the side, together with highland blue mashed potatoes. The amuse bouche will be a rather lovely game consommé with welsh rarebit on the side, then Goats cheese mousse with pickled beetroots & walnuts (a Gidleigh Park classic) as the starter.
  

As for lunch menu, I think it’s just about cold enough for the salt beef raviolo with parsnips to reappear as a starter. Then, how about some lovely woodland belly pork which has been rolled and braised in cider all day? Day-boat Cornish cod with bacon is staying on again this week, it’s just too good to take off, and one of my pastry chefs, Emma, has been busy all day making some rather clever little chocolate puddings; dark and white chocolate mousse on a pistachio biscuit - tasty stuff.

 Hopefully I’ll have our new vegetarian menu written up and on tomorrow evening, then I’m onto writing two Tasting menus for the Martin family, who are my perfect guests, as they truly enjoy eating. “Something with john dory and some game please, the rest's up to you” - that I can take care of!

Oh and before I forget, the quince jelly set and is fantastic! And what timing, ready for the cheese lunch tomorrow! Onwards.