Fifteen

May 1, 2014

Jamie, Tom and Jon & the Westcombe Truffle Cheddar Experiment

Spring has sprung and what better way to celebrate than to be invited to Jamie Oliver’s restaurant Fifteen in London to sample a seasonal menu based around a very intriguing artisan cheddar experiment. It’s not every day that such an invitation comes along; particularly as the ‘experiment’ in question involved 1 kilogram of Italian white truffles, valued at around £3-£4,000 per kilo. The truffles had been given, some eighteen months earlier, to Jamie Oliver who passed them onto his friend Tom Calver at Westcombe Dairy in Somerset, whom Jamie describes as being one of “the best known cheese makers on this planet!” Tom’s challenge was to use the white truffles to make Westcombe Truffle Cheddar, based upon the hand-crafted cheese-making methods used by the Calver family over on Westcombe Farm. Jamie hailed the truffle-cheddar marriage as “a fantastically bonkers experiment” and extended the challenge to Fifteen’s executive chef Jon Rotheram and his team, to create a glorious Westcombe Truffle Cheddar tasting menu.

The menu itself showcased both the very best of British seasonal and artisanal produce, alongside the brand new truffle cheese, whilst raising money for the Jamie Oliver Food Foundation which also supports young trainees through the Fifteen Apprentice Programme. We were also served an impressive selection of British, Italian, French and Spanish wines. The tables were set, the lights were dimmed, Jamie introduced the evening and welcomed his guests and Tom told us about the cheese. Out came the courses (officially seven) on the tasting menu, although we were also treated to some additional truffle cheese tastings and some sweet chocolate truffles at the end of the meal. The only downside for me? At eight month’s pregnant I couldn’t sample any of the wines – though I did relish every mouthful of the accompanying truffle tasting menu!

To start, we tucked into cured meats from Cobble Lane, matched with a British wine; Nyetimber Classic Cuvee, 2009, made in West Sussex. The cured meats were also British made, in London, by Matt, Mat and Adam and they’d easily rival anything made elsewhere in the world. Next, my favourite course of the evening, featuring Wye Valley asparagus with a light and tasty mushroom mayonnaise and Westcombe Truffle Cheddar. This course was served with an Italian wine; Filipi Soave ‘Castelcerine’ (2012) from Veneto. The truffle cheddar, asparagus and a Venetian Soave made an exquisite trio. I adore Venetian wine having sampled much of it on a trip there last year, so I happily tapped into those memories whilst sipping my water.

Wye Valley Asparagus and mushroom mayonnaise with Westcombe Truffle Cheddar – photo credit Fifteen’s Jacques Dejardin.

Midway through the evening, we were served a slow cooked Roscoff onion, with almonds, nettles and smoked Westcombe Truffle Cheddar, whilst Jamie, Tom and Jon did the rounds and chatted to their guests. A little French wine was served with this; a Maison Deux-Montille Pouilly-Fuisse ‘En Vergission’ (2008) from Burgundy. This was also my first taste of British nettles this season – both whole and in a pureed form. Get out and grab them while you can! My grandmother always told me that she survived the war by making nettle soup, with just a handful of nettles and one potato.

More British seasonality, this time in the form of wild garlic, with sweet and sour Westcombe Truffle Cheddar, served with with ‘gnudi’ – a delicate type of gnocchi made with ricotta and flour. This course was accompanied by an Italian wine; Castello di Cigognola Barbera ‘1212’ (2011) from the Lombardy region that I’ve yet to visit.

Another highlight arrived next – grilled veal, with a Welsh truffle rarebit toast. Head Chef Jon had said earlier on that he would have happily eaten the Westcombe truffle cheddar as a Welsh rarebit alongside a good British beer – but that he thought Jamie’s guests would be expecting something a little more elaborate. The rarebit was indeed, very good. Interestingly, the veal was served with a red wine; an Aster Crianza Robera del Duero (2008) from Spain. Lots of guests asked for re-fills of this wine, so I take it from their requests that it was particularly smooth and drinkable. My partner-in-crime, Katie from Feeding Boys certainly told me so!

Just as we were getting full, along came an explosion of freshness, colour and flavour from a blood orange sorbet with a mint granita – definitely now on my ‘must make at home list’- I’d probably try something along the lines of this Lemon, lime and peppermint sorbet, substituting the lemon and lime for fresh blood orange juice.

Towards the end of the evening, now extremely well fed, we sampled some more of the Westcombe truffle cheddar, this time served with thin and crispy oatmeal biscuit and Isle of Bulk Honeycomb. Again, this took me back to eating and drinking in a small cantina in a small village in the north of Italy where cheese, cured meats and honey along with a good bottle of red wine were pretty much all that the locals needed in life. At Fifteen, this course was served with an Italian dessert wine; Pieropan Recioto di Soave ‘Le Colombare’ (2009), also from Veneto.

All in all, this was a truly enjoyable evening; the white truffles had a very intriguing effect on the cheese, breaking it down and giving it a really lovely texture. The flavour wasn’t too overwhelming and was matched perfectly with a menu bursting with seasonality; in keeping with the daily-changing and creative menu at Fifteen.

For more of a glimpse of the evening in photo form (I must learn how to use my camera in low-light settings!) pop over to read Matthew’s account over on The List.

Although the Westcombe Truffle Cheddar is unlikely to be available to buy, original Westcombe Unpasturised Mature Cheddar is stocked by Waitrose and by Neal’s Yard, as well as being available in the Westcombe Dairy Farm Shop.

With thanks to the editorial team at JamieOliver.com for the kind invitation to this event.

November 18, 2013

A seasonal pheasant masterclass

It was all things pleasant and pheasant inside the Fifteen training kitchen last Tuesday evening. I must have been reasonably well-behaved at the last blogger’s supper at Jamie Oliver HQ, to receive a second invitation, this time to a pheasant masterclass with Jon Rotheram (Head Chef Fifteen London), Andy Appleton (Head Chef Fifteen Cornwall) and needs-no-intro, Gennaro Contaldo. Very rarely do you get the chance to watch three great chefs at work at close call and so when the invitation arrived to celebrate British game, I was intrigued and immediately hungry.

British game is in season right now and the JamieOliver.com team were keen to cast away any game-related fears and open our eyes and our taste buds to some great British pheasant; wild, naturally organic and free range. I recently visited Borough Market in London, where I saw plenty of pheasant and rabbit on offer. I confess to wandering straight past it without giving it much thought. And that’s what many of us do; walk straight past it, perhaps at the butchers or in the shops, which means that so much game is being shot and then wasted.

Many of us are also quick to dismiss game, perhaps because of fears that the meat may taste too ‘gamey’ or simply because we don’t really know what to do with it or how to cook it. Happily, the pheasant masterclass did much to dispel many of my previously held misconceptions and I now have a better idea of flavour combinations that I know will work. I learnt that game works with many well-known flavours; chilli, garlic, fresh herbs, such as rosemary and thyme, or sweet and sour combinations, such as a sprinkling of raisins steeped in balsamic vinegar, or a red wine reduction spiked with cinnamon – as showcased within the three dishes we tried. Whilst the breasts need hardly any cooking at all, the legs benefit most from being slow-cooked.

A pheasant masterclass at Jamie Oliver HQ — Gennaro Contaldo demonstrates his pheasant dish

First to cook for the intimate crowd of hungry food bloggers was Gennaro Contaldo; the man noted for mentoring and now business-partnering with Jamie Oliver – soon to return to our screens as one half of the Two Greedy Italians. I adored watching Gennaro and Antonio Carluccio as they foraged, cooked and ate their way around Italy and can’t wait for them to reunite in the third series. As animated and exuberant as he is on-camera, Gennaro invoked his deep-rooted love for hunting, foraging and simple food, inspired by his childhood in Italy. Gennaro is most at home when cooking with game and he was quick to thank and credit Jim, Jamie’s Website Editor, for shooting the birds in Essex ahead of the masterclass.

A quick quip about ‘Essex Birds’ ensued, whilst Gennaro prepared a side dish of sliced potatoes, de-seeded tomatoes, salt, oregano and olive oil for the oven, called Patata Arragante. We were then shown how to remove the breasts from the bird, ready to be flattened out and seasoned up with rosemary, sea salt, garlic and chilli. The pheasant was quickly pan-fried in a very hot pan. The only extra ingredient needed was a splash of good-quality white wine to deglaze the pan and to create a little sauce. As he served up his homely and rustic dish, Gennaro humbly added:

“When I am 100 years old, you can call me a chef!”

Gennaro’s top tip:

Use a ceramic bowl, with just a little olive oil rubbed into the bottom, to push down the pheasant once it hits the pan. This helps the chilli and fresh herbs to penetrate the meat. You can use whatever you have to hand – a brick will even work fine!

We quite literally devoured Gennaro’s dish and it was a huge privilege to taste his flavour-charged yet uncomplicated food first hand.

Pheasant Masterclass (12 of 26) — Gennaro’s Flavour Packed Dish

Next to cook for the group was Jon Rotheram, whom some of us had met at the previous supper club above the restaurant itself. Jon showcased an example of the sort of dish he happily cooks at Fifteen, always ensuring that he maximises the bird. Jon said that he always makes use of the legs and the breast and that he very often pan-fries the hearts. He also made a pork and pheasant sausage from the offcuts. Jon served his pheasant and sausage with kale (cooked in the same pan that he’d roasted the bird and cooked the sausage in), onions that had been slow-roasted overnight in a low oven, game chips, pickled quince and a smooth and very moreish bread sauce.

Jon’s top tip:

Ask the butcher or your local game supplier for pheasant hens, as they have a little more fat on them. Jon prefers his game to have a shorter hanging time (up to a week), but to be hung with the guts in to improve the flavour of the meat.

A pheasant masterclass with Jon Rotheram — Next to cook, Jon Rotheram, Fifteen London

Third to the stove was Andy Appleton, who had travelled all the way from his kitchen at Fifteen Cornwall to impress us with his dish of pheasant with Cornish squash, fresh thyme, cherry tomatoes and chestnut caponata. Andy’s cooking is largely inspired by the Italian kitchen and his flavours were equally stunning. Andy had soaked some raisins in balsamic vinegar and also pan-roasted his pheasant on the crown to keep the flavour in. He also made a red wine and cinnamon jus.

Andy’s top tip:

Game goes really well with sweet and sour flavours, so try some fruity sauces, or add some raising seeped in Balsamic vinegar to your finished dish.

Pheasant Masterclass — Andy Appleton, Fifteen Cornwall

As if we needed any additional treats, Jamie’s editorial team had also set out some fine cheeses, pâté, fresh sourdough and rye bread and charcuterie with plenty of red wine to accompany our pheasant-led feast. Of course, the ladies flocked around Gennaro, catching a few shots for our photograph albums, whilst Gennaro shared his personal iPhone albums of seasonal chestnut and mushroom hunting with his family. I think we can safely say that we left with a warm glow, eager and more confident in experimenting with some game recipes during the season and in particular, over the Christmas period ourselves at home.

JO4 — Left – Leyla Kazim, Top – Jim Tanfield, Gennaro and me!

If you are looking for some game recipes to inspire you, look no further than Jamie’s selection here. Likewise, there is a great scast of Christmas recipes on offer to inspire you over on JamieOliver.com, too.

Jamie's Book Shelf — Inspiration in the Fifteen Training Kitchen

Where to buy pheasant and game

I spotted plenty of pheasants at Borough Market recently. More locally in Hertfordshire, I can recommend my local butcher, A&C Meats. I also read an article on The Foodie Bugle recently using produce from The Wild Meat Company, although I’ve yet to try their service. Game, including venison, rabbit, quail, partridge, pheasant and grouse is also becoming more widely available through supermarkets. The pheasant season usually runs from October to April.

For more hints and tips, search the hashtag #pheasantmasterclass on Twitter or follow the team on @JamieOliverCom

Other #PheasantMasterclass posts

Leyla – The Cutlery Chronicles

Annie – Mamasaurus

Rachel – The Food I Eat

You can also catch my weekly blog for JamieOliver.com here.

With many thanks to Jim, Merlin, Subi, Jon, Andy and Gennaro for the invitation to join them for the evening for the pheasant masterclass. All thoughts and opinions my own.

August 7, 2013

Jamie Oliver Warmly Welcomes Food Bloggers

The summer is in full swing and it’s been so hard to ignore the sunshine in order to sit down and write. There have already been many food-related highlights to share with you, but one sunny evening that stands out in particular was an invitation to a ‘blogger supper’ above Jamie Oliver’s Fifteen. The evening promised to be an exclusive event with “eating and drinking and merriment” – with the JamieOliver.com team very keen to extend a friendly hand to some of their favourite food bloggers. Needless to say, it was a huge privilege to have been on the list and to be able to spend the evening finding out a little more about the team behind Jamie’s ever-flourishing empire.

Jamie Oliver is many things, but he’s no fool. For a boy who left school with just two GCSE’s, his success in building such a vast and globally-recognised ‘brand’ is nothing short of phenomenal. Ever since hitting our screens with The Naked Chef, Jamie’s mission has been clear and very specific – to help people to become better cooks. Staying true to his original character, he continues to share his message in his very own relaxed, laid-back, Essex-boy trademark style. I very much remember watching some of his earliest episodes and most, if not all, of his books have been used and splattered with sauce in my kitchen in one way or another over the years. In a very pleasant twist of fate, I’ve recently found myself writing for the JamieOliver.com site – something which still fills me with both a sense of fear and excitement each time a post gets published.

Jamie has always struck me as someone who is keen to keep up with current trends and so it was perhaps by no accident (with my food blogging hat on this time) that I found myself sitting at a mismatched chair at one of his tables. Although Jamie himself was unable to attend, we watched a specially pre-recorded message from him, during which he welcomed us all and wished us an enjoyable evening. It was nice to learn that Jamie has a good amount of respect for food bloggers – recognising perhaps that we’ve helped change the traditional food writing landscape – if nothing else, into something instant and very fast-paced that he’s keen to keep up with!

Jamie was very happy to place us into the capable hands of Merlin Jobst, who had bravely taken the lead in organising the evening. I had already met Merlin once before on another sunny day at Food Blogger Connect and it was great to see Jamie’s online Editor Jim Tanfield again, as well as meeting lots of other new and equally friendly faces.

It’s always exciting to get a little peak behind the scenes of where ‘things happen’ – if not a little surreal to be helping ourselves to food from a table perhaps used in a food shoot by David Loftus (a food photographer I adore) or standing by the kitchen counter used by Jamie in some of his video’s and TV shows. I can happily say that we took very well to our new environment for the evening. It was, at times, as though the food paparazzi had descended upon the floor-to ceiling windowed room, as we poked our heads around the corner into the side kitchen to see some of Jamie’s ‘Fifteen’ graduates – zooming in and snapping away at every detail. Luckily, we were surrounded with people who seemed to ‘understand’ us and who didn’t mind our food blogging focused curiosities and appetites.

The recipes that we tried throughout the evening were simple recipes that can be found on the JamieOliver.com website. I’d made a couple of them before, but it was nice to try some of the other recipes that were new to me. The starters included a huge plate of sustainable prawns (Jamie’s Pint of prawns recipe with a flavourful Marie Rose sauce) served alongside a tasty Herb salad with goat’s cheese. Both recipes I’d say are really easy crowd-pleasers. I was inspired to pick up some lovely fresh prawns by the Llyn Peninsula just a few days after my visit to Fifteen to make a similar recipe myself.

Whilst nibbling, we were introduced to Jamie’s new head chef Jon Rotheram, who had popped in to see us from the recently refurbished Fifteen restaurant downstairs. Jon demonstrated his recipe for deviled lamb’s kidneys and talked to us about his experience of working as a sous-chef to Fergus Henderson at St John. Whereas Jon had previously faced the challenge of nose-to-tail dining (a concept he’s keen to expand upon at Fifteen) he now faces an altogether different adventure; heading up the team of apprentices from disadvantaged backgrounds at Fifteen – a restaurant from which all the profits continue to be poured into the Jamie Oliver Food Foundation charity.

A little later on, we took to devouring some more of Jamie’s recipes – a Keralan veggie curry and a very moreish Southern Indian crab curry, both served with aromatic Lemon rice. I’d made the Keralan curry before (from Jamie’s Fifteen Minute Meals) and even the kids loved it. I whizzed mine a little with a handheld blender so that the veggies were more manageable for the kids. The crab curry was new to me and was probably the stand-out dish of the evening – definitely on the ‘make for friends list’ – along with the cheesecake – more about that later!

The evening was very much a group effort – with Jamie’s online team, including Jim, Merlin and Danny having done much of the prepping and cooking, with help from Jamie’s graduates, Joe, Merci and Tyrone.

Jamie’s former online editor, Danny McCubbin also took the floor and spoke to us about his latest role heading up the San Patrignano UK London association – a ‘not for profit’ organisation providing support and counselling to anyone struggling with drug addictions. The UK branch of this organisation echoes the amazing work done at the original San Patrignano Institute in Rimini, Italy. In fact, the wine we had been drinking that night had mostly been made by the trainees at San Patrignano in Italy, as part of their rehabilitation programme to learn new skills and artisan trades.

We also heard from Joe Gray, a former graduate of Jamie’s Fifteen, who has also been encouraged to spread his wings, starting a catering business of his own and now a second business called Slovely. Joe now imports products from San Patrignano in Italy as well as from Slovenia, including some of the hand harvested, unrefined Slovenian sea salt, or piranske soline that we tasted and were given to take home. You can buy the salt in Selfridges.

To wrap thing up (well, for the evening upstairs at least – a number of us made it downstairs for a cocktail at Fifteen) we demolished Merlin’s recreation of Jamie’s Bloomin’ easy vanilla cheesecake with a boozy cherry compote. This was such a treat – as you would expect, a smooth cheesecake, with the perfect crumbly base, jazzed up with a cherry compote. I’d actually recommend trying any of Jamie’s cheesecakes – I’ve got my eye on the cherry and chocolate cheesecake recipe, particularly as British cherries are in season now, too.

All in all, this was a really enjoyable evening with lots of us making new friends and the JamieOliver.com team showing great keenness to build relationships with food bloggers. I can also recommend the ‘Run n Tings’ cocktail at Fifteen – complete with a striking treacle-rimmed glass!

You can read some other accounts of the evening here –

Sally Prosser for My Custard Pie
Leyla Kazim for The Cutlery Chronicles
Selina Periampillai for Yummy Choo Eats
Amy Jones for She Cooks She Eats
Rosana McPhee for Hot & Chilli

More to be added…

If you find yourself making any of Jamie’s recipes – whether from his books or online – the editorial team at JamieOliver.com (@JamieOliverCom) are always keen to re-tweet, share and connect with us all so do make sure you say ‘hi!’ and let them know.

With many thanks to Merlin Jobst, Jim Tanfield and the JamieOliver.com editorial team for the invitation to join them for the evening and to Jon Rotheram at Fifteen, Danny, Joe, Merci and Tyrone for their tasty cooking. All thoughts and opinions my own.

Fifteen

Where to buy pheasant and game

Are you a fan of Jamie Oliver’s recipes? Do you have a favourite?

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