This past Saturday, for the annual Hope Street Feast, we thought we would contribute lusciousness to the theme The Big Nosh. We set up our stall and served that great national crowd pleaser the ‘clotted cream and jam stuffed scone’. MMMMmmmmm, if we say so ourselves they were utterly luvverly, but they would be because our Bernie made them. 

Our delightful duo Howard and Maria did not stop all day from the first batch till the last, ‘it was like selling hot cakes’ said an exhausted finely sugar dusted Howard.  We hope we introduced a lot of people to the Afternoon Tea at TLCW (9.50 per head, 3pm – 5pm daily, book to make someone happy), it really is a lovely little social event, special and relaxing, delicious and filling.  Look out for our Christmas themed Afternoon tea, we are thinking mince pies, brandy butter and icing on the cake or was that robin on the log? 

P.S.  Anyone wanting a master class in Bunting, just call.  

As part of National Tackling Drugs Week, I recently judged a competition between 3 catering trainees from Alternatives (Lighthouse Projects Training and Education Programme) and 3 full-time catering students from Liverpool Community College.   

The students’ task was to produce a 3 course ‘fine dining’ menu consisting of a starter, main course and dessert.  The Alternatives courses were; “With All My Heart and Sole”, “Italian Sunday Lunch”, and “Sweet Clarice Cliffe”.  The standard of composition and technique demonstrated by both teams was really impressive, with a few tweaks the “Italian Sunday Lunch” could be good enough to serve in The London Carriage works!  

Although the Alternatives were pipped at the post by the team from LCC, it’s really good to hear that one member is now progressing onto a full-time catering course, whilst the other two are continuing their development with Alternatives.   

My Highlight of the August Bank Holiday Weekend is the Wirral Food and Drink Festival which I go to and demonstrate at every year.  I love this festival, not just because I’m a Wirralian, but also to celebrate all of the great produce the Northwest and the Wirral have to offer.   There’s always a great atmosphere, not just because of the beer and cider tents, but the live music and free tasting at all of the stalls.  There's also the opportunity to buy some of the best meat, fresh fish, vegetables and prepared products like preserves, marinades and oils that our region has to offer.  People find it hard to believe that all of this fantastic produce is right here on our door step. 

If you have time see you on the main stage at 1pm on Monday where I’ll be cooking some dishes from our current seasonal menu and if you have time come a little bit earlier to see Tom Lee, my Sous chef, who is The Young Merseyside Chef of the Year 2009.  Tom will also be doing some seasonal innovative cooking from The London Carriage Works Menu, watch out though, he’s so fast, if you blink you’ll miss him!  Failing that, if you miss both the demos, you’ll find Tom and I in the Beer tent relaxing after a busy week in the restaurant. 

The Festival takes place on Sunday 30^th and Monday 31^st August at Claremont Farm, near Spital on the Wirral. Last year we had a record 22,000 visitors over the 2 days. This year, weather permitting, we’re hoping for even more. Find out more at www.wirralfoodfestival.co.uk

I’ve just returned from a trip of a lifetime!  I was delighted to be invited along with the Academy of Culinary Arts for a tour of the Prince of Wales’ Highgrove Estate and Homefarm.

We started by touring the beautiful gardens at Highgrove.  Every inch of the place is completely breathtaking, from woodland gardens to wild flower meadows, cottage gardens and lavender orchards.  Every area is filled with colour texture and scent and the whole space just fills you with a kind of calm with each separate garden exuding a different feeling and atmosphere.  There’s a very Victorian feel too, you can tell the gardens designs were very much influenced by the Queen Mother. 

I had a couple of favourite spaces; firstly, of course, had to be the walled (kitchen)garden.  When the Prince of  Wales moved to Highgrove this garden was virtually derelict and had previously been used to grow little more than potatoes.   Now the beds are formerly edged with box hedges and are packed with an array of completely organic vegetables and fruit trees.   I also loved the Carpet Garden, which was inspired by a Turkish carpet and had been created with geometric shaped beds filled with roses, olive and orange trees and ceramic tiles, the whole area edged with beautiful cypress trees.  Highgrove is completely organic and the gardens are as self-sufficient as possible.  Nothing is brought in, all seeds and compost come from the estate.  There’s even a reed bed sewage system where all of Highgrove’s waste water is treated.  I really adore gardening and this place is simply amazing, if I didn’t cook I would garden!     

After Highgrove we went for lunch at Trouble House Inn, a gastro pub serving really good simple food.  The owner and operator, Martin Caws, previously worked for Marco Pierre White.  To start I had the goats cheese and beetroot tart which was really good.  We’re currently serving Scottish hake in The London Carriage Works, so I thought I’d try the Trouble House Inn’s Cornish Hake for my main, the quality was fantastic.    

Next we went on to Home Farm.  This really is a most incredible place.  We were shown around by the farm manager David Wilson who, having worked with the Prince of Wales on the farm for the past 24years, had a vast wealth of knowledge.  At Homefarm they are passionate about preserving rare UK breeds; Ayshire dairy cattle, rare breed pigs including Saddle Backs and Gloucester Old Spots, and rare breed Hebridean and Cotswold sheep.  The Prince is enthusiastic about restoring mutton to dinner tables hence the launch of The Mutton Renaissance Campaign.  (We use Hebridean mutton through the season from Callum Edge Butchers, Wirral.)  Again everything at Homefarm is completely organic and all designed to encourage as much wildlife as possible; there are butterflies, bees and dragonflies everywhere.  The whole place is just perfect, even the tea rooms and the shop.  It’s been a long time since I’ve been somewhere where everything has already been thought of, and I really wouldn’t change a thing.

 

They’ve done it! Orla and Sarah were beautiful and brave all the way down; Dave was cool and sat on a ledge to wait for Mary who was petrified.  Sue, our Outside Catering Manager, and Bernie, our Patisserie Chef, were there to meet all the guys at the bottom.  They brought ice and glasses to make Negronis, (the tense and terrified Mary’s favourite aperitif), accompanied by Bernie’s famous and perfect Victoria and berry sponge! A fun day was had by all and the team has managed to raise around £600 for The Stroke Society.

 

We planned this Barbeque on a warm and sunny day in March little expecting in our very English way that it would pour down in the middle of July.  Pentagon Fine Chemicals, based in Widnes, held their annual Oscar Awards evening at which they treated all of their employees to a sumptuous feast, alfresco.  They munched their way through steak, guinea fowl, Asian marinated king prawns, halloumi and vegetable kebabs, and although the rain was incessant, guests were able to enjoy the evening dashing between the marquees and their festively decorated club!  We are looking forward to welcoming the winner of the business contribution award who has won a stay at our hotel, now that we’re all home and dry back on Hope Street.

On Sunday 19^th July 600 brave supporters will take part in the ‘Liverpool Rocks’ Abseil down The Royal Liver Building to raise funds for The Stroke Association.  Five of us across the company, have plucked up the courage to take part:  Sarah Maylor - Restaurant Reservations, Matt Cook - Bar Manager, Orla O’neill - Front Office Manger, Mary Colston - Creative Director and Dave Brewitt - Owner.   All, except Dave, have admitted that they are really really scared of heights so Dave has promised, if allowed, to go down with each member of his team.    So will they go through with it?   Tune in next week to find out.

One of my colleagues recently came across some fabulous tomatoes whilst on holiday in Provence, he brought me back a sample and they were the best tomatoes I’ve ever tasted; they were really juicy and bursting with flavour and I knew they would be just perfect for the restaurant this summer.  The problem is that I’m passionate about reducing food miles and getting produce at its best and freshest, ‘just picked’ is really all we want.   The solution we came up with was to persuade local farmer Peter Jones, who set up Wirral Watercress, to grow them in his glasshouses for us. Peter has already developed a great niche market growing his watercress and pea shoots for Merseyside restaurants at his farm near Willaston in South Wirral.   So, I arranged for some seeds to be shipped over from Provence and Peter has been cultivating and caring for them in time for this summer’s season.  We’ve had an update from Peter and the tomatoes are looking good, they are all different shapes and colours, from very dark black right through to orangey yellow.  We can’t wait to incorporate them in our Summer Menu.

I've just judged the Northwest Producers Awards at Ewood Park, the home of Blackburn Rovers.  I was one of 30 judges including Nigel Howarth, Andrew Nutter, Matt Nugent and David Gale.  We had a fantastic time tasting everything from cheeses and beef to chocolate; we picked winners and networked with the other 'madmen' from our lovely industry!  The winners will be announced at a glittering awards ceremony later in the year.  Again it was a really good standard for the Northwest!