LAST week, The French at The Midland hosted Simon Rogan’s Chef Week from 7 - 11 June, an annual opportunity for guests to enjoy special menus devised by Rogan and his protégés, under one roof. Each night the chefs heading up the kitchens of Rogan’s group of highly esteemed restaurants took over the pass with their own multi-course set menu.
Tom Barnes from L’Enclume kicked off proceedings, followed by Rogan himself on the following evening. On Thursday it was the turn of The French’s own head chef Adam Reid, Friday, a menu prepared by Dan Cox of Michelin starred Fera at Claridge’s, while the final evening was devoted to food prepared by the efficiently Germanic Marcus Noack, who took over the executive chef role at Rogan’s Umbel restaurant group after the departure of Mark Birchall.
We would have happily eaten and drank our way through each evening, but at £100 a pop (with £20 donated to Hospitality Action) plus £60 for a matching wine flight, we limited ourselves to two events; Simon Rogan’s, which Deanna Thomas went along to, and Adam Reid’s, attended by Gordo. Here’s what they made of it:
Adam Reid & Simon Rogan
SIMON ROGAN by Deanna Thomas:
I’ve always been loathe to get caught up in a giant clap-along, so whenever I’m lucky enough to go to dinners by Michelin starred chefs, I always try and have few preconceptions to experience the food from a fresh perspective. That’s why I invited a friend who’s not directly in hospitality and had never eaten at The French or any of Simon Rogan’s restaurants before. Although she was a bit wary about the menu, of which we had to Google some of the ingredients, she was up for anything.
...his food seems to retain a kind of simplicity, as though he’s extracted the very essence and purity of each ingredient
Rogan’s flagship restaurant L’Enclume in Cartmel, Cumbria, was awarded its first Michelin star in 2005 followed by its second in 2013. It has also achieved five AA rosettes, while the Good Food Guide gave it a full 10/10 and named it as The Best Restaurant in Britain 2015.
Rogan’s dishes centre staunchly around the best of British seasonal ingredients, mostly from the North West. 90% of the fruit and vegetables are sourced directly from his own managed farm in the Lake District along with wild edibles such as herbs and flowers. Despite the fact that his development kitchen contains cutting edge gadgets worthy of a science lab, his food seems to retain a kind of simplicity, as though he’s extracted the very essence and purity of each ingredient, leaving you realising how, say, beetroot or cabbage is supposed to taste. Eating through one of Rogan’s menus is comparable to some kind of four dimensional experience, to be savoured, enjoyed and pleasantly surprised by, rather than to intimidate.
The first course involved three dishes. 'Beetroot leaves' (main image), made from extracted and dehydrated juice, pressed and reformed into a light crisp leaves, topped with dots of sharply vinagered puree. 'fermented red cabbage juice', was like drinking the liquid that collects at the bottom of a bowl of good coleslaw and the delicate 'prawn puff' removed any fear of eating raw seafood. 'Whipped broad bean, cured ham and egg yolk' was a perfectly crispy, buttery take on ham and eggs.
.JPG)
Prawn puff with fermented cabbage juice
Halibut'Abalone mushrooms with frozen oyster, celtuce heart in smoked beef broth'. The hot and cold elements melted together into a somewhat fishy, somewhat meaty, bowl of total umami.
'Aged veal with anchovy and broccoli stem grilled tomatoes and claytonia. It turned out that aged veal in this case wasn’t simply beef, but Cumbrian Rose veal that had been aged until it had almost Parma ham like qualities. Wikipedia revealed that Claytonia is a salad leaf.
'Halibut, courgettes, salmon roe, red orache, nasturtium butter'. The green butter sauce was so intensely creamy, we abandoned the stuffy conventions of the dining room to mop it up with Simon’s deliciously crusty, warm bread.
'Herdwick Lamb loin with spinach and smoked cherry, goat’s cheese and sweet woodruff'. My friend’s concern about musky and overpowering goat’s cheese was appeased by its appearance merely as light foam. Smoked cherry with lamb was a revelation. This came not as a puree, but a thick, glossy and intense gel. The lamb had a satisfyingly chewy texture, less sous-vide baby food, and more actual cooking.
'Iced artichoke, walnut, butterscotch'. Two more revelations here; Globe artichokes make delicious ice cream and Rogan is not averse to keeping something like a good butterscotch sauce simple and unadulterated.
'Preserved gooseberries, mint and meadowsweet'. My gooseberry loving friend loved it but I thought it was too sweet. Preserving gooseberries removed their characteristic tartness as it did with the yoghurt tuilles.
They were happy to let us share the wine flight, which was in itself a delicious and interesting journey. Each fine wine came with a back-story too long for my allotted word count. Starting with sparkling Kentish wine, then a highly regarded South African red from Sequillo family vineyards, followed by Singulier Trousseau 2014, a red from Jura (between France and Switzerland, not Scotland.) With the fish we had the intensely elegant ‘meditative wine’ Italian Vintage Tunina, followed by Le Tense Sassella DOCG Nebbi olo with the lamb. Domaine de Rancy Rivesaltes Ambre 1993 from Langedoc, was the sweet and nutty winner of the Decanter trophy in 2013 and to finish, with the gooseberries, the lusciously sweet Chateau la Variere, Bonnezeaux.
Preserved gooseberries
The French
ADAM REID by Gordo
Mega chef Simon Rogan keeps an iron grip wrapped in a velvet glove with his menus and chefs across his mini state of restaurants. His disciples, which include the good looking head chef at The French, Adam Reid, take part in the development of his dishes and then execute them faithfully across the group. Thus, quality is maintained, with Rogan's two starred L'Enclume flagship up in Cartmel, Cumbria, recently joined at the Michelin table by the sumptuous restaurant Fera in the world famous Claridge's hotel in London.
Reid is well capable of being his own man
The argument will rage on as to why The French didn't get their own. Chef Reid, in Gordo's not-so-humble opinion, delivers the sermon perfectly, whilst it would not be possible to separate Fera and The French's delivery by a playing card.
The only true difference in the two is the elephant in the room. Several botched, meanly-funded refurbishments over time at the Grand Dame that is The Midland have left her looking like a slightly barmy, down at heel old lady who has forgotten how to apply her make-up properly whilst hoping the addition of a scarf from House of Fraser will save it all. It hasn't, they should have bought from Hermes at the very least.
Claridge's did it properly. The experience of stepping from a taxi at the front door to be greeted by world class doormen (who really can 'walk with Kings, nor lose the common touch') then float on clouds through the lobby to a restaurant that allows fantasists like Gordo to pretend, for two or three hours at least, they really are characters from an Ian Fleming novel.
The experience currently at The Midland is a deal more Coronation Street. The food in the two Rogan restaurants is at the top of its game, but not unlike two of the finest Geisha Girls from the Japenese Emperor's court in 1878 made to ply their trade today in the middle of Primark.
The breakfasts are, or were the last time Gordo tried, shocking. Afternoon Teas are booked out, bizarrely, whilst being so poor Gordo wouldn't feed them to chimpanzees for fear of getting throttled in front of children at the zoo.
Neither are under Rogan's thumb, it should be said.
MackerelNow then, what about Chef Reid's evening in the restaurant, which now boasts a refurb and the addition of it's own loos.
It was a game of three halves. Currently, the Fat One is sat at 4:30 in the morning in his new house with no broadband nor mobile signal. So, the old litmus test needs to be applied when commenting on the dinner. Were the dishes so good that he can describe each one of the eleven from memory? And what of the service. Oh, and the wine?
Service from Kamilla, the Front of House gaffer, and her team, as ever, was immaculate; smiling, knowledgeable and bustling. The wine flight taught Gordo a few things, including a white Rioja which was a revelation from a bodega that, forty years ago, fatty and his pals used to brush their teeth with in Magaluf. Oh my, how things have changed.
But what of the food? Two dishes in particular were memorable. A mackerel course had so many flavours going on it's not possible to recall the overall taste. There was an unremitting march of emulsions assaulting the palette with no texture to separate them. The mackerel had been turned into baby food. This dish was, well, unpleasant.
Herdwick LambThen the Herdwick lamb, from a herd that delivers real lamb with punch and flavour. This didn't disappoint. The main constituent was pink, floating on the plate, with the gentle texture delivered via the sous vide method. Although Gordo can't attest to that actually being used. The jus, sticky and lush, did nothing more than support, in a beautiful way, the cut of lamb, which possessed a covering of fat that returned a huge smile from the diner. Then a most extraordinary finish. The outside of this gently handled cut had been crisped to a fabulous crunch. This is what that mackerel needed, to some extent. A walnut sized lump of sweetbread sat on the opposite side of the plate, with a near-lacquered coating delivering, once again, flavour and a tiny bit of crunch with an opium-like smoothness. The creamy sweetness of the sweetbreads nearly sent Gordo into a long, fitful dream.
This dish made up for the rest of the dinner which unfortunately missed the mark. But after a deal of debate with himself the lamb gets a 10/10. It was the best lamb Gordo had eaten for a long, long time.
The cheeseboard too is outstanding. But the homemade biscuits were a bit strange, very, well, greasy? Gordo can't remembered them being like that in the past.
Now, Gordo had better be locking his doors at night for a while. Chef Reid, aside from having the looks of a Portuguese footballer, looks like he can use a boning knife to great effect. But what needs to be taken on board here is the need, when given room to breath, to move out of the Rogan comfort zone. Reid is well capable of being his own man. Just trying to add and subtract a little from the main sermon doesn't do him any favours. Gordo for one would book months in advance to eat a menu by this chef which is truly his own.
Powered by Wakelet
