The next Chef Eats Out event will be at Claude Bosi's restaurant, Hibiscus in Ludlow, Shropshire on Monday 10 November. Application forms will be available in the 9 October issue of Caterer & Hotelkeeper.
Le Gavroche, Chef Eats Out
The chef who sat down next to me at Le Gavroche spoke of his trip to London as being a "pilgrimage". And when he ventured that he had come to "pay homage", there were reverential nods from the rest of the table. No one, it seemed, was going to argue. The place is iconic.
Le Gavroche, the venue for the third Chef Eats Out lunch held by Caterer & Hotelkeeper, in association with British Meat Foodservice, quite simply commands an enormous amount of respect. The room itself helps. All red upholstery and green walls (think Victorian gentlemen's club), it is laden with a photographic history of two of modern Britain's gastronomic heavyweights and myriad other top chefs who have passed through the famed kitchen.
It's enough to make any junior chef tremble. But not Michel Roux Jnr, Albert's son, who took over the reins of the restaurant in 1992 and who charmed the guests with his own take on classical French cuisine.
We started with a deep-fried tiger prawn, lightly battered to give a crisp outside, accompanied by a light mango salsa. The salsa was an easy balance of chillies and sweet fruit, just right, in the words of Roux, "to open up the appetite".
Not stagnating
Its other function, he told his attentive audience when he popped out before service to welcome us, was to demonstrate by means of non-French ingredients that the menu at Le Gavroche was not stagnating.
French classicism is what Le Gavroche is famed for, but Roux's menu was obviously designed with contemporary influences in mind. What made it work was that the alien influences were not overplayed.
French tradition is built on, not abused, by the likes of the pan-fried scallop with a five spice sauce, which scored a hit with many of the visiting chefs. The sauce, with both sweet and acidic notes, matched the sweet succulence of the scallop - and, as with the prawn, the accompaniment was delicate enough not to overpower its senior partner.
Guest diner Paul Ripley, chef-proprietor of Michelin-starred Ripley's restaurant in Padstow (a fish Mecca), was also impressed by the texture. "It's so soft, it's almost as if it's been steamed," he said.
Between those two fish-based dishes was one using more obvious Mediterranean ingredients - a small salad of asparagus with pata negra ham and Parmesan splashed with a vinaigrette stuffed with truffle. The wine matched to this was a surprising Austrian Grner Veltliner, supplied by Richards Walford, as were all the wines for this occasion. Mark Walford, a partner in the company, explained that this grape was similar to Chardonnay, but vinified without the oak ageing, giving it less of a vanilla flavour, but far more citrus-like elegance.
Next came grilled red mullet in a creamy pastis-bolstered sauce (see recipe) - "frothed up," said Roux with a smile, "with one of those favourite stick things that everybody uses nowadays".
Far more powerful in the mouth was the main affair of the day, medallion of pork. Roux used three different breeds - Tamworth, Gloucester Old Spot and Saddleback - to highlight the range of breeds available in this country. (On Roux's advice, there was a fair bit of pork comparison going on across the tables.)
The medallions sat on a rich rago–t made from the pigs' trotters and morels, and each plate came with a very fat pork sausage, or caillette. What appealed to the chefs were the three textures on the plate, offering three different flavours. Another nice touch was the lettuce, braised to bring the sweetness of the leaf out alongside the bitterness.
Rounding off the meal was a feuillantine of red berries for pudding, served with a luxurious marscapone ice-cream - "a different class", according to Stuart Attridge, head chef at Heston Blumenthal's Riverside Brasserie in Bray.
The experience of the food was very special but, as everybody lucky enough to attend the lunch agreed, that experience was underpinned with great style by a superb front-of-house team under the invisible rein of legendary maŒtre d' and Gavroche director Silvano Giraldin. "It all lived up to its reputation - it was professional and organised," said a happy Sheila Ryan, director of Bistro on the Beach in Bournemouth, who was there with two of her chefs.
There's no doubt about it: the restaurant was an oasis of calm. And, unlike several of the guests, for whom getting to the restaurant in mid-heatwave meant hot collars and flustered faces, Roux was relaxed to the point of being laid back, signing menus and discussing food. He didn't even bat an eyelid when many of the guests were still nosing around the kitchen 10 minutes before we all sat down. Now, how many of you would allow that?
THE MENU
Le Mesnil Blanc de Blancs NV
- King prawns "mango salsa"
- Asparagus salad and Spanish pata negra ham, Parmesan and truffle vinaigrette
Grüner Veltliner "Smaragd" 1999, Nicolaihof
- Pan-fried spiced scallops
- Red mullet fillet with a fennel fondue
Puligny Montrachet "Les Enseignères" 1999, Gerard Prudhon
- Pork medallion with a faggot and a trotter stew with morels, braised lettuce, pot-roasted potatoes
Château la Croix des Moines 1999, Lalande de Pomerol
- Feuillantine of seasonal berries and mascarpone ice-cream
Château Rabaud Promis Premier Cru 1996, Sauternes
THE SPONSOR
British Meat Foodservice is delighted to sponsor Chef Eats Out, which provides a unique forum for caterers from all sectors of the industry to meet, exchange ideas, and experience for themselves how red meat dishes are being incorporated into the menus of some of the best restaurants in this country.
Michel Roux Jnr's pork medallion with a faggot and a trotter stew with morels, braised lettuce, pot-roasted potatoes provided an excellent example of the way in which traditional breeds of pork can be used with great creativity and imagination.
Grilled red mullet with fennel (serves four)