Zucca, Bermondsey St, London

Zucca is a restaurant that I have wanted to try since it opened. Given that Nicholas Lander of the FT has reviewed it twice in 3 years, it was one of his restaurants of the year and the chef wrote in the magazine and portrayed to be authentic Italian food. I had tried several times to get a table via the website without success and last weekend I had a party at Bermondsey Square and called up on the off chance and we were lucky enough to get the last table. This is what I wanted at River Cafe and half the price!

The restaurant is quite small but very light with minimalist decor. The open kitchen was quietly purring like a well looked after Ferrari in the background ably supported by the front of house staff. So good to hear the staff talking in Italian to each other and  they were very helpful and keen to check everything was ok. The selection of breads and dipping oil was very tempting and high quality.

We started with some Zucca (butternut squash) fritti. The batter was very thin, very crispy and not greasy at all; the squash was cooked to perfection – soft but with some bite. So moreish and indulgent. The other anti pasti was green asparagus with burrata cheese however I am dairy intolerant so we asked if we could have it without the cheese. The waitress came back and asked if we would like it with crushed almonds and some chilli garlic oil and it was delicious especially mopping up the dressing with the bread. 

For mains I had chargrilled mackerel with a salad of rocket and fennel – the fish was cooked perfectly – soft and yielding but with a nice char on the skin but under seasoned for my taste. The salad could have done with a little more dressing. My friend’s pappardelle with lamb ragu was a delight. Perfectly cooked pasta with just the right amount of sauce which was thick enough to cling to the pasta and with such good flavour. I wanted to have a plate myself. We had a glass of prosecco to start and the sommelier chose a glass of wine to go with our mains which were both perfect matches. The whole lot came to £47 each. If I can get a table I will be back for sure – great food, good value, easy to get to and great service – what more could you want?

River Cafe, Fulham, London

River Cafe has become a quasi institution in London. Many famous chefs started their careers there; Jamie Oliver, Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall and Theo Randall to name a few. My copy of the Blue cook book, amongst other books by Rose and Ruth, is well fingered and stained from much use after my first trip there in 1997 which was truly memorable. My mouth still waters when I remember the zuccini fritti and slow roasted cherry tomatoes on the vine from the wood burning stove.

My fine dining club selected River cafe for our third outing and despite a grumpy taxi driver and heavy traffic we made it to the restaurant on one of the few sunny evenings we have had this year so far. Unfortunately the cool breeze chased us inside which is quite bright and the tables are very close together – this is not a place for an intimate, romantic evening. The meal got off to a great start with a lively prosecco and some bread and seriously peppery olive oil – it had a real delayed kick – just how I like it. The restaurant wasn’t that busy when we arrived but the service wasn’t as attentive as I would expect for a restaurant of this stature. When I think of the service at Michel Roux where someone was there before you knew you needed something but you had no feeling of being watched or staff hovering waiting to help. It took quite a while to have our orders taken but we had barely got our prosecco poured when the starters arrived – I had the feeling of being rushed to turn the table but we hadn’t been given a time to finish the meal.

My malfatti pasta (sheets of randomly cut up pasta ) was cooked al dente with a generous helping of thin slices of artichoke and pancetta brought together with more good olive oil and grated parmesan – simple but delicious. The guest to my left ordered the grilled chilli squid which I think has been on the menu from day 1 and I could tell from where I was sitting that it was overcooked and lacking the lustre of some nice olive oil and/or lemon juice and my friend confirmed by observation. Another guest had the crostini which were soggy but the toppings were very flavoursome – school boy errors – I wish we had said something but we were too busy chatting and enjoying the company.

The mains were also a little disappointing. The same diner who had ordered the squid had scallops and these were over cooked also – you could see that the corals were quite dried and brownish rather than bright orange. Two of us had the dover sole with ciccoria and roasted tomatoes. The sole was well cooked, the tomatoes were roasted to a sweetness with a herb I couldn’t identify and moreish but the ciccoria was not bitter and looked more like the seaweed from a japanese restaurant. The dish needed the bitterness to contrast with the sweetness of the fish and tomatoes so not well balanced for me. The 4th guest had slow roast pork – they said it wasn’t very special especially compared to the slow roast pork she had had at the Ledbury on the last outing of the club. To wash this down we had a very unusual bottle of Verdiccio de Jesi which had a light brown hue to it. It had much more body than your average Verdiccio and less acid so it was a good accompanyment to the food and not that expensive at £28/bottle.

Dessert had to be had by 4 ladies dining so there was chocolate nemesis, the signature dessert – surprisingly light for something so deeply chocolately – I had one spoonful and that was enough but it was polished off and a clean plate so a big thumbs up for choc nemesis. I had the prune and almond tart – it was good but not spectacular. The other guests had ice cream which they said was excellent. All of that came to £100/each including the standard service charge. For simple food at these prices I expect perfect execution and we didn’t get that this time so I don’t think I’ll be back in a hurry especially since it’s not the easiest place to get to.

The Good Earth, Wandsworth Common and other stories

Apologies for the long absence but I have returned to work and don’t have so much free time on my hands. It doesn’t mean to say I haven’t been out there eating and assessing. This week I was out for a walk  and noticed that a branch of the Good Earth Chinese restaurant on Bellevue Rd, Wandsworth Common had opened. I seem to remember the original one got rave reviews.  

The restaurant is quite long and narrow with crisp, white table cloths and napkins, stylish wine glasses and smart looking staff. We decided to order some starters and have a tapas type meal – fried soft shell crab, pork dumplings, lamb wrapped in lettuce leaves, a quarter duck with pancakes and some choi sum with garlic and chilli to provide a contribution to our 5 a day.

The food came pretty quickly and looked really good – well  presented but was woefully under seasoned. The softshell crab was lovely and crispy, not greasy but the fried garlic and chilli sprinkled on top had no bite or spice. The lamb was very ‘lamby’ which would make me suspect it was at least hoggit if not mutton, had no seasoning or added flavour. It came with a tasteless dark yellow goo and ice berg lettuce leaves so pretty disappointing. The same could be said for the choi sum – no spice or taste in the garlic and chilli and expensive – almost £10 for a vegetable side dish. The duck was fine but nothing special. We had one bottle of sparkling water then tap and the bill with tip was almost £80 – pretty pricey and for pretty poor food.

 

I was lucky enough to be invited for drinks and dinner at the Institute of Directors this week.

I had lamb chops which were cooked perfectly to my request, well seasoned and beautifully tender and flavoursome. They came with a healthy portion of pretty good chips. The setting is rather grand and the service is very attentive however the 2 wines we tried were both very disappointing. In fact the kitchen was about to close when we asked if we could eat and they stayed on to cook our meal which was pretty impressive. There is a selection of wines by the caraf and we started with some Chablis – the strangest one I’ve ever had and my dinner partner agreed. I would expect Chablis to be light and crisp; this had more body and was dry but cloying somehow – a pinot gris perhaps? We tried a caraf of Cote de Rhone for our main course which was of little substance or fruit. If I am lucky enough to be invited to the IoD again I’ll be going for a bottle so I can see what I’m getting to drink. I suspect the chablis wasn’t. Food a definite thumbs up but jury out on the wines.

Kopapa, Covent Garden

When I booked Kopapa, I didn’t realise it was a Peter Gordon enterprise but it certainly upholds his reputation for funky fusion, great flavoured food – not scared to mix different cuisines on the same menu. The food is reasonably priced, delicious and the staff were very helpful and efficient in a relaxed, laid back way. I will definitely be back as this is my type of food and it is executed well with good service.

We ordered tapas plates to share including Tempura spicy dhal inari pockets, caramelised coconut, plantain and pickled green papaya – fragrantly spiced with a slight kick and crispy on the outside and comfortingly soft and smooth on the inside. Spring rolls of slow roasted tom yum pork, coriander and wombok with lime mayonnaise. Pork was unctuous and flavourful and crispy shell finished nicely with the mayo. The grilled flat bread with babaganoush and olives was a reasonable portion for 4.80 – the babaganoush had good texture rather than being gloopy – you could still determine pieces of aubgergine and well seasoned. They were also very generous with the grilled chorizo – probably 4, cut in half for 4.50 is good value. We also had the lamb which had a good pomegranate molases (the ‘it’ ingredient of last year) marinade but was a little over cooked for my taste. It was all washed down with a couple of bottles of a very nice malbec. Good food, good company at a good price – what’s more to want?

Results!

Well the course is finished and the results are in. Can’t believe it’s back to work on Tuesday. My overall score for the course was 79.37% so precise! So I just missed a distinction (over 80%) which I can’t say I’m happy about but in the overall scheme of things it doesn’t matter – I know I should be pleased but it’s the perfectionist in me. I got 85.4% for the practical exam (really chuffed with that) including full marks for organisation! 94% for the written exam so it was the continuous assessment that let me down.

I really enjoyed the course and I learned a lot which I can now apply to my cooking for friends. It gave me a whole new level of respect for chefs and I watch Great British menu with a new, more informed eye. I know for sure I don’t want to be a chef – cooking and the decisions on what to cook and buying the ingredients are therapy for me. Cooking to order and getting something ready at the last minute for a set time is stressful and to do that for a living is not for me. I may try to do a supper club at some point but I will see how I cope with being back at work first. I am going to make the rack of lamb in a parsley crust for Sunday lunch this weekend so I hope my family like it.

Thank you all for your comments and support, especially those who came to the practice sessions for the exam. I will try to continue to do the restaurant reviews but the Cordon Bleu experience is complete now.

Blueprint Cafe, Tower Bridge, London

A friend from Canada was coming to town and was keen to see the Lichtenstein at the Tate Modern so I decided to look for a restaurant nearby that I had’t been to before. The Blueprint Cafe was made famous by Jeremy Lee whom has moved on to Quo Vadis and I wanted to see if the standards had been maintained and the menu looked interesting from the website.

Located on the first floor of the design museum just east of Tower Bridge, the restaurant has floor to ceiling windows and binoculars on the table which was a nice touch. It had a casual, relaxed atmosphere till a table of 12 pretty drunk people arrived and sat down close to our table. The menu is very seasonal and we both started with scallops with cauliflower and wild garlic pesto. There was the ubiquitous smear of a green puree with a very smooth texture – it turned out to be the cauliflower element but was under seasoned and the texture seemed wrong – there was no granular element that I would expect with cauliflower. The ‘pesto’ had small cubes of apple (not the evenly sized brunoise expected of the cordon bleu) which brought some acidity and crunch which was welcome but the acidity wasn’t enough to cut the creaminess of the scallop and the green goo – this was also woefully under seasoned.

For the mains, I had cod with chorizo – the cod had been cooked sous vide I suspect and flaked beautifully and potentially the chorizo had been too – it was really anaemic, greasy and spongy. I would have preferred to have it crisp to give a contrast to the soft cod. This was all put on a salad of fennel, rocket and hazel nuts – I really dislike hot with cold in a main course as you finish up with tepid hot food and wilted cold food. The hot food was the victim this time round. My partner had a lamb steak which had a good minty flavour but was well done – bad, bad. The portion of ‘spring greens’ was a tiny portion of unseasoned kale – disappointing.

We had been struggling with our waiter’s ability to understand English all evening and this was brought to the fore for dessert. We asked if there was cream in one of the desserts, he went to ask the kitchen and said no then when it arrived it did. They did bring something else and didn’t charge us so they got a brownie point. The chocolate fondant was suitably chocolatey and running but the sticky toffee pudding was very poor – again a sponge microwaved to within an inch of its life which meant it was tough and quite unpleasant.

I like the location but not good enough to justify a return visit given the schoolboy errors with the food.

Last week of Basic Cuisine

Cuts:0; Burns:0
Hard to believe but after this week it will be all over for me at the Cordon Bleu, for now at least. I’ve decided to go back to work as originally planned but I hope to find time to continue to blog about the restaurants I go to.
Monday was classic French desserts – creme caramel and oeufs a la neige. These require custards made very differently with the same ingredients which I found out graphically the hard way. For creme caramel, like creme brulee, you want the custard to cook in the oven so it sets to a slightly wobbly or ‘wibbly’ consistently. Creme anglais, you cook in the pan stirring all the time hoping not to get sweet scrambled eggs. For the creme caramel I didn’t realise at the time that I had my milk too hot so it cooked the eggs while I was mixing them and so the custards never set in the oven. Chef said my caramel was good though so not a total failure (some people had to do it 3 times!)
The oeufs a la neige or illes flotant as I know it were pretty successful. Chef, who worked at the Waterside Inn at Bray for many years, said he was ‘happy’ with my creme anglais and poached meringues and that the meringues had been delicately poached – praise indeed. The Waterside Inn has 2 Michelin stars and is owned my Michel Roux Senior – one of my culinary heros. I aspire to go there for dinner some time. The poached meringues have a strange texture – like light marshmallow. We didn’t do the sugar work to go with this which made it very sweet – it needs something bitter or astringent to cut the sweetness in my book but the potwashers were very happy to eat it. Sorry forgot to take a photo.

Yesterday was the practical exam. I met people who had already finished and they had all cooked chicken so I guessed we would get fish (the tasters would be getting tired of eating chicken) and I was right and this probably saved my bacon as there’s less to do. I wasn’t that nervous beforehand but when I arrived and saw some of my group already dressed 45 mins before the exam and pacing around then waiting to go into the kitchen it started to get to me such that when I got into the kitchen and had to write the ‘bon economat’ – basically the recipe, my hands were really shaking. My post was ‘lucky 13’ – good job I’m not supersticious. After we did the bon economat, all but 2 of the group were sent out the kitchen and we went in over 5 mins intervals so I had time to calm down or fret more. Luckily I relaxed as I was going through the recipes with class mates and realised I knew the recipe pretty well which was really good as it took me way too long to prepare and fillet my fish. However, due to my relativey relaxed state, I didn’t panic although the odd expletive was issued when I looked at the clock. All my work to look at what needed to be started when really paid off as I was able to get things started to cook while still preparing the vegetables including my nemesis – turned potatoes – all 12 of them.

I am really happy that I am very unlikely (never say never) to have to turn another vegetable unless I go back to Cordon Bleu and that will certainly be a major part of the decision criteria. You have to turn mushrooms in intermediate which are even worse than potatoes! During the exam 2 chefs, and sometimes 3, were prowling around the kitchen watching everything which can be rather off putting although I was deperately trying to just focus on getting everything done. I got my food to the pass 2 minutes early and apart from forgetting to put the mushrooms in the stock I was pretty happy with the plate of food I’d made. Let’s hope the judges thought so too! Today it’s the written exam but it’s only worth 10%, the practical was 45% and you lost 2% for every minute you were over the 2 hours but unfortunately I don’t think I got an extra 4% for being early 😦 The continuous assessment is also worth 45%. Will let you all know how I do when I get my results. Thanks for your good luck messages this week.

Top Tip: Let your milk cool down before you make the custard for creme caramel. Backward planning really helped me get my dish ready on time – I had worked back from when I needed to plate up, when I needed to start cooking things and I could be doing other activities while they were ‘sweating’, boiling or whatever.

Beef and baking!

crab
Cuts:0; Burns:0
It’s been a hectic week with 2 practicals and a demo Monday, 2 demos and a practical Tuesday and a demo and practical on Wednesday so not much time to blog so thought I would just combine everything together. We made a dressed crab and moules mariniere, steak and chips, beef stroganoff and eclairs. I’ll start with the negatives: My hollandaise split – it was a bit thick but I turned round to get the herbs to add to it and when I looked back it had transformed into scrambled eggs and clarified butter. Turns out that you can add too much butter – the knack is to know when to stop. Did manage to make a second batch in the nick of time so was only 5 mins late at the pass. Also on the steak dish I would not have believed it would take so long to cook. Maybe it was the fact that so many steaks were being cooked on the griddle at the same time but it took about 20-25mins for medium rare! The potoatoes weren’t the right type of chips, hence the strange colour and they weren’t that crispy either.

My other disaster was with my creme patissiere for the eclairs. In the demo, Chef told us to add the eggs to the flour and sugar just before you add the milk however I’ve always added the dry to the wet. When I mixed them it immediately went to scrambled eggs. 2 of the chefs stood around me confering about it and then watched me as I tried to make it the second time – no pressure then! Thankfully it worked the second time. I almost took out one of the chefs with my elbow when I was making my choux pastry – he managed to get out of the way in time luckily.

All in all it’s been a really good week and the chefs have been pretty happy with my efforts. I got a well done for the eclairs and I did eat one despite the dairy issues and it was delicious – crisp, light choux pastry, indulgent, vanilla custard inside then sickly sweet fondant icing on the top. Not for every day but once in a while a real treat. The potwashers got the rest of them – they do such a fantastic job and some are quite cute. I could do with one of them for when I’m doing my practice runs for the exam which is next week!!!! Last 2 practices tonight and Saturday – I’m getting pretty tired of these dishes I must admit. I long for spicy food so it’s Thai tomorrow. Wish me luck.
Top tip: when making hollandaise, you need to whisk the eggs and vinegar reduction till you get a mousse like foam before you start adding the butter so you have a stable base which reduces the chance of it splitting. Adding warm water and whisking hard can sometimes help but in my case it didn’t despite chef’s help.

Bam Bou, Charlotte St area, London

Bam Bou sits at the end of Charlotte St and when you enter more resembles a house than a restaurant – there are several rooms on different floors and there is a Singapore feel to the place. The tables are fairly well spaced and despite our room being full, it never seemed really noisy. Service was prompt and efficient but our waiter wasn’t very friendly or cheery. To start we had Crispy Squid which was very crispy and not all greasy, the squid was cooked to perfection and the portion was quite generous; a pork and beef lemon grass skewer which was very tasty with quite a chili kick and the meat was moulded around a stick of lemongrass so it looked appetising too. The crab and green mango salad was a bit lacking in dressing but was fresh and flavourful as was the cuttlefish with lemon grass, ginger and chilli although a wee bit more chilli and lime juice would have lifted this to perfection.
For the main course we had spiced lamb which was meltingly tender but there wasn’t enough sauce which was very good what there was of it; whole crispy bream and pan fried duck breast (could have been pinker) which was ok but nothing to write home about and some morning glory (a vegetable side dish) which still had some bite – could have eaten the whole plate of it myself. We finished with coffee which came with these oriental versions of rice crispy caramel chews which were delicious plus the 2 bottles of Torrontes (went very well with the food with a refreshing acidity to cleanse the palate) and it came to 45 pounds including tip. Good value for money and would go back especially as it’s a good area for bars and people watching.

Trout aux almonds

Cuts:0; Burns:0;
Freshwater fish today and round instead of flat. Learned a much better technique for filleting these fish – the Scandinavian method which means you cut round the head then turn the blade and just take it straight down to the tail rather than cutting down from the top of the fish. We didn’t have to skin the trout but we did have to scale it carefully as it has very delicate flesh and if you press too hard, the fillets start to break up. My next door neighbour was rather ‘rough’ with his poor trout and the fillets just broke up when he tried to take them off. Good job today, even the turned potatoes went well except I forgot my lemon garnish. My Hollandaise was a success and was delicious with the trout. If you get the beurre noisette (heat butter up till it starts to go brown then stop the cooking by adding some lemon juice) and add the almonds quickly so they go really crunchy it’s a great contrast to the softness of the trout. I actually ate this in the class which is rare for me.
Top tip: When cooking delicate fish, especially if the skin is on; put some baking paper in the bottom of the pan and add the oil/butter on top of the paper then you are sure that it won’t stick to the pan. Just be careful that you don’t damage the skin when you take it out the pan as I did!