Despite the volcanic ash cloud, our latest winemaker’s dinner was a huge success, although the odds were stacked against us... 

Firstly we had a group of 15 guests coming from Belgium who were grounded.  Then due to the no flight situation all of the American east coast lobster hadn’t made it over, so the French and Spanish had bought out all of our British stocks.  The one plus side was that Paul Boutinot, who had recently sent his regrets having been called away to his vineyards in South Africa, was able to host the dinner again.      

At the last minute the ash cloud lifted, the Belgians made it and I managed to get my hands on some delicious Cornish lobster.  Paul Boutinot did jet off to South Africa, but he left us in the delightful hands of his master sommelier Nigel Wilkinson.   

We had a picture of Nigel last time so here’s picture of the Fifth in all it’s glory! 

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.

 

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!

Excitement is growing as we get ready to open our new extension on Hope Street.  The new kitchen is operational and is a joy! How ever did we manage before?

Simon Salt the winner of North west young chef in 2008 and so the first chef to receive the bursary from the Home Grown book has just returned from San Sebastian and a ‘life changing’ two weeks. Simon was at Mugaritz (2 Michelin Stars) and then with my own favourite, Berasetgiu (3 Michelin Stars). Simon’s two work experiences just made the whole the project from the book so worthwhile and it was great to be able to see first hand the excitement and energy Simon brought back with him.

Just had a Chef’s Adopt a School day with Andy Pimberely from Claremont farm at Brookhurst Primary school on the Wirral. He brought the asparagus and watercress and talked about their growth.  I made a barley risotto with some natural smoked haddock, celery, asparagus, carrot, onion and garlic with low fat crème fraiche. Parents had arrived by this time and we were able to eat and celebrate the school achieving Healthy Food Status. The scheme 'Chefs Adopt a School' is the Academy of Culinary Arts charitable long term project, they have set days per year in school and bring a the hands on approach that focuses on respect for foods, understanding taste, the provenance of produce and how we turn ingredients into a dish. A previous session had been a trip to Claremont Farm where the children picked the vegetables themselves and learnt about the wildlife in the fields. Later in the day we cooked everything they had gathered.

On a recent weekend in Dublin for the Six Nations Match. I managed to make eight rugger buggers into gourmands for a day. For a birthday treat among us I suggested we go to Richard Corrigan’s Bentleys. I had great enjoyment with watching big boys wince and pucker in the face of an oyster. Five hours later these guys, fearless crushers on the field, overcome some pretty wimpish eating fears and tucked into a fantastic menu from fish pie to scallops becoming bon viveurs by the Irish cheese board and vintage port finish. Over the port we decided to create a Six Nations dining club and eat out every month, with TLCW. For our second lunch last week, a 5 course taster menu with my own personal bottle of Wiesse & Krohn Colhieta 1966 port. Serious eating and enjoyment had by all.

What’s in the fields and what’s in the trees and what is coming out of the ground now that’s exciting!

Asparagus season has arrived at Clarmont farm - in my view a great local producer of asparagus - And it’s an absolute pleasure to be working again with this fantastic ingredient. The arrival in the TLCW kitchen heralds the change in menus towards spring and summer and the process of removing the winter influences to make way for the lighter more subtle dishes of spring and summer.

I was visiting last week to see the new growth and saw that the asparagus also coincided with  the delivery of the ‘strawberry bees’, literally boxes of bees which are let loose to pollinate every flower of every plant all spring and summer long. Apparently this (exhaustive) natural lovefest ensures the quality and shape of the many fruits on the farm, from strawberrys, to gooseberrys.