Wonders from Windermere at London's Selfridges

Words & Photography by Su-Lin Ong and Luiz Hara

This is dinner #4 in Selfridges’ inspired Summer series, #MeetTheMakers, and the surprises become ever more dazzling.  You’d be a lucky diner if you managed to be quick enough to book all five dinners. Indeed there have been some who have enjoyed every one in this real treat of a tour of unexpected UK culinary hotspots; the best kind of gourmet staycation, for sure.

Chef Conor Toomey and Head Sommelier Dawn Davies

Tonight’s guest chef is Conor Toomey, Head Chef at The Restaurant at Storrs Hall in the Lake District.  His usual dining room has huge picture windows and dreamy views rolling down to Lake Windermere.  His team of five have swapped it for Selfridges glossy mirrored Corner restaurant.  We are all set for six very English courses and a flight of wines from round the world to match – selected by Selfridges head of wine Dawn Davies, who is our sommelier for the night.

Conor’s written menu is a handy fast read for those of us impatient for our dinner: Avocado – Octopus – Veal – Huntsham farm pork – Peach – Coffee and chocolate.  Somehow we know that each course is much, much more than that.  These are dishes that are an artwork and feast in themselves.

Throughout this colourfully textured dinner, we can spot the tricks and tactics which Conor adores using to make each course flow.  We marvel at his imagination and skills in freeze drying and dehydrating to create airy powders and granules.  It seems he can work magic on anything – we taste almond, tarragon, raspberry and even chocolate, all creating delicate magic veils across our dishes.

Our first course is a silky milky avocado cream, aged parmesan and lacy shavings of summer truffle surrounding a precision cut spearhead of baby artichoke.  You want to disassemble the chef’s creation and savour each on its own to get the purity of his chosen flavours.

To accompany this, our wine is an uplifting Chilean that’s all fresh gooseberry and garden grassiness - Vina Litoral Ventolera Sauvignon Blanc.

The next dish has every nuance of savoury saltiness.  Slow cooked octopus, baby heirloom tomato, a smoky chorizo jam, peculiar salty fingers that pop delicate saltmarsh brininess, and a hint of anchovy.  Chef adds his wispy cress-like pennywort, foraged from the Lakes.

Partnering the octopus, we drink a deep mature Rioja viura with surprising freshness.  This 2004 has an oaky depth that balances the saltiness of the food: Bodegas R Lopez de Heredia, Vina Gravonia Blanco Crianza.

Tastes become richer and textures more diverse, as we are served roast veal sweetbread with an unsuspecting cube of beef shortrib, crunchy baby beetroots and delicate anise-like tarragon.

Our first red arrives.  The Cambridge Road Pinot Noir 2011 is a confidently rich New Zealand wine from Martinborough in the south of the north island and a great match to the roast sweetbread.

The hearty, elegant main course is pork served three ways and comes as a butter-soft bar of belly, plus 55 day aged middle white pork laid on a cushion of pulled shoulder.  Rings of barbecued onions and an intense velvety apple sauce accompany it.

With this comes an unusual South African Swartland wine: Three Foxes The Castillo 2009 Syrah.  It is a slightly cloudy style; very natural, and showing very little intervention.

There are two desserts – perfect for every dinner when it’s impossible to decide upon fruity or creamy.  An unusual peach melba experience presents us with meltingly baked peach, raspberry sorbet and pink wafer shards with the taste of pressed candy floss. The treasure is a soft crushed raspberry which lays hidden.  It floats in a pool of the most translucent, coolest custard imaginable.

Giving away no hints on the nose, but yielding explosive fragrant sweetness on the palate, is a Clos Lapeyre ‘La Magendia de Lapeyre’ 2011 Jurancon from SW France.

Finally, our Windermere dinner draws to a reluctant close with frozen coffee cream, aerated sponge and creamy chocolate Namelaka.

We sip a Sercial 10 year old vinhos Barbeito: a medium sweet Madeira which enhances the dessert flavours with a caramel lushness.

Three hours later, and we feel the evening has just started.  We’ve been busy figuring out every note of taste and nuance of skill, but that hasn’t distracted from the sheer easy pleasure of enjoying this symphony of a dinner.

Chef Conor Toomey and his team

#MeetTheMakers at Selfridges' The Corner Restaurant

The six-course dinner was priced at £75, and including wine flight, £110. For more information about the series of #MeetTheMakers dinners, visit the Selfridges website here.

A Flavour of Wiltshire's Best - #MeetTheMichelin Richard Davies at Selfridges

Words & Photography by Marina Benjamin and Luiz Hara

Richard Davies is the third Michelin chef in as many weeks to take over the kitchen at Selfridges’ The Corner Restaurant for the #MeetTheMichelins dinner series. This is a fabulous initiative by Selfridges giving some of the most talented UK chefs a platform to demonstrate haute cuisine from outside London. With a beautifully balanced six-course menu (priced at £75, with an additional £35 for the wine flight), Richard Davies treated us to a taste of Wiltshire – not least its tasty locally-reared pigs.

Before the meal began Davies popped out of the kitchen to meet everyone – he informed the assembled foodies that he hoped we’d like the pork belly dish he’d selected as a main course.  As he talked, lines of waiting staff emerged from behind him with plates of curling prawn crackers and boules of lightly whipped taramasalata, they meandered around the tables pouring glasses of the store’s own-label Adami Prosecco. This was distinctly peachy, and a wonderful companion to the intensely-flavoured crackers and salty roe. You could feel diners relax, and the volume of chatter rose accordingly.

At the Bybrook Restaurant at the Manor House Hotel (part of the Exclusive Hotels Group) near Bath, Davies has become known for his French-with-a-twist leanings, and for his lightness of touch. These qualities were in evidence here in spades, beginning with the loose heap of finely chopped beef tartare – which came with asparagus shavings, a quail’s egg, and smoky charcoal mayo.

It was melt-in-the-mouth delicious, and so summery and light that the sommelier paired it with a medium-bodied white wine, a blend of viognier and sauvignon blanc by Montesco Verdes Cobardes. It worked a treat and retails for a snip in the store (£16.99).

Staying with terroir, we moved onto duck – slices of smoked breast meat and a croquette of duck leg confit cooked with pickled shiimeji mushrooms. The textures were fabulous, when combined with crunchy candied macadamias and yielding vanilla-poached pears.

We drank a perky Beaujolais (Moulin a Vent Thibault Ligerbelair) that gave off banana on the nose and was riddled with liquorice and redcurrant (£26.99).

The mackerel dish that followed didn’t quite hit a high note for me. Though the fish was succulent and sweet-cured, the watercress velouté lacked bite and the celeriac remoulade made with horseradish instead of mustard needed more heat. The flavours melded harmoniously, but I was after a marriage of opposites.

The accompanying Austrian Hirtzberger Riesling Federspiel however, was flawless (£49.99).

Davies’ pork belly did not disappoint. It was succulent and full-flavoured, and a super-intense celeriac purée and apple compote really made it sing.

Heritage carrots completed this wonderful dish, as did the complex and deep-flavoured 2012 Quadratur from Coume del Mas, Cote de Roussillon (£34.99).

After a refreshing yoghurt and blackcurrant palette cleanser, the menu was rounded off with a Valrhona Chocolate tian, with cherries 3 ways – boozy in the middle, jammy in the obligatory smear, and with a few marinated halves for contrast. It was heaven on a plate, and a perfect end to the meal.

Selfridges’ in-house sommelier Dawn Davies pulled yet another rabbit out of her hat with a delicious chilled Spanish dessert red from Mataro Alta Alella, that was neither cloying nor fortified, but had enough strength to hold its own against the powerful cherries (£27.99 for 500ml). Excellently judged wines lifted this meal to really superlative heights.

I strongly suspect that dinner bookings at the Bybrook Restaurant will be in sore demand from Londoners with a newfound zest for Wiltshire’s best.

Meeting the Michelin Olly Rouse at Selfridges

Words & Photography by Florentyna Leow and Luiz Hara

Week 2 of Meet the Michelins – a Selfridges project featuring culinary stars from the Home Counties – saw Olly Rouse take the stage at The Corner Restaurant on Monday evening to whip up a dazzling 7-course menu. All of the Meet the Michelins experiences feature a tasting menu with optional wine flight, prices for each evening varying slightly. This week’s 7-course menu was priced at £75 with matching wines by Selfridges' head sommelier Dawn Davies for an additional £45 – decent value, especially considering the top-notch drinks accompanying the food.

Rouse is the head chef at The Avenue at Lainston House in Winchester. Describing himself as ‘extremely hands-on', he would emerge from the kitchen between courses to introduce each dish, chatting with the diners, all the while sending out tasty and meticulously plated dishes.

His eye for detail was evident in little flourishes such as the feather used in presenting the menu, the beautiful cast-iron teacups used for serving the house-fermented kombucha (yeast enzyme tea), and even the dry ice in the teapots of kombucha, which lent a lovely theatrical touch during service.

The onion cracker was a stellar example of his attention to detail – his take on pork crackling contained not a whiff of pork, but was instead made of dehydrated and deep-fried tapioca sheets infused with onion stock and liberally salted. Crunchy and utterly moreish, it went down a treat with the Selfridges' own Prosecco label, and was a highly promising start to the evening.

Selfridges sommelier Dawn Davies worked her magic again this evening – her choices were often bold and unusual, but generally spot on and occasionally even sublime. Her expertise particularly shone through with her choice of the Gaia Estate ‘Thalassitis’ Wild Ferment Assyrtiko for the first starter. Tasted alone, it was brash and almost too assertive for my taste, but acquired a beautiful roundness and minerality when sampled with the crab.

Our first starter and one of the highlights of the evening, the soft shell crab, was a gorgeous medley of textures and flavours. The crab was juicy and succulent within and satisfyingly crunchy without; with the mildly bitter grapefruit, tender artichoke and radish, rocket, tomato and pea salad, it came together as a dish greater than the sum of its parts. It was a tremendously enjoyable starter.

Herring, the second starter, was served alongside pickled purple carrots, roasted shallots and mooli, and blobs of apple-vanilla and parsley purée. The young German Kabinett Riesling (Oberhauser Leistenberg) chosen to accompany this starter, undercut the oily richness of the fish with much-needed freshness and acidity.

Our third and final starter featured a surf n’ turf combination of Pig & Prawn. The confit pork belly was a little dry and not fatty enough for my liking; the raw Sicilian prawns and smoky aubergine purée were, however, phenomenal. Together with the light, juicy chilled Portuguese red (Pardusco Vinho Verde Tinto), the prawn half of the equation shone.

Onwards to the two mains: Rouse’s take on roast chicken and lamb. The roast chicken was served with a medley of accompaniments including pine nut crumbs, smoked corn stuffing, a horseradish and lemon cream and red-wine pickled mooli; individually, they were novel and interesting but when tasted together, rather confusing. The Pinot Noir (Massale, Kooyong) accompanying the chicken, however, was deliciously fresh and juicy, with cherry notes – a testament to the talented Australian producers of the wine.

Similarly, the accompaniments for the lamb tasted nice individually, but puzzling altogether. The marinated tomatoes accompanying the lamb, for instance, were flavourful, but would have been much  better chilled. The gently robust Le Soula Rouge, however, was a good pair with the lamb.

Thankfully, Rouse’s menu ended on a splendid note with the puddings. ‘Lemon’ consisted of moist, dense and intensely lemony squares of cake with basil-infused white chocolate, honey jelly and lemon sorbet.

It went down a treat with a Japanese yuzu sake (Ume No Yado Yuzu Sake), an intensely citric liqueur which stood up perfectly to the vibrant lemon dessert.

‘Raw Jersey Dairy’ showcased locally made raw cream in an indulgent crème brulée, with strawberry tarragon consommé, sabayon biscuits, meringue and strawberry salad – art on a plate, and a masterpiece on the palate.

Overall, dinner was a delightful experience. While Rouse’s approach to meats was to my taste rather conservative, he is clearly a talented chef who is willing to experiment, and who can work wonders with seafood and produce from the garden. The Avenue in Winchester should be well worth the trek out of London!

Come and Meet the Michelins at Selfridges - Olly Rouse

With two more Meet the Michelins evenings – all Mondays – left on the 28 July and 18 August (although the 18 August event, with Chef Michael Wignall, is currently sold out), don’t miss this opportunity to try some of the best cooking in England at Selfridges. For more information or to book, visit their website here.

A Glorious Journey Through The Pass at Selfridges

Words & Photography by Greg Klerkx and Luiz Hara

We all know that the UK is a global epicentre of culinary excellence; we, or many of we, probably assume most of that excellence is based in London. Over the coming weeks, Selfridges is challenging that notion in a rather elegant and special way: by bringing five Michelin-starred chefs – all based in the Home Counties – into our fair capital for an evening of culinary wonderfulness.

Meet the Michelins is part of an eight-week Selfridges foodie blitz called Meet the Makers, which features an array of pioneers working at the frontiers of culinary excellence (many of which are currently the subject of Selfridges always-inventive window displays.) There is truly something for every kind of foodie, whether your thing is bespoke gin or the emerging art of bug eating.

Meet the Michelins offers a particularly unique opportunity for diners to experience excellence that might otherwise seem too far-flung to engage with. Then again, if every Meet the Michelins experience is as stunning as the kick-off evening devised by Chef Matt Gillan, food lovers should soon be flocking to the Home Counties in droves.

Gillan is head chef at The Pass, based at the South Lodge Hotel in West Sussex, which under Gillan’s leadership earned its first Michelin star in 2011. He describes his approach to cooking as playful and, perhaps unusually, highly collaborative: during our Meet the Michelins evening, both Gillan and members of his team were front of house engaging with the diners and describing dishes.

All of the Meet the Michelins experiences feature a tasting menu with optional wine flight, prices for each evening varying slightly. Our evening’s 10-course menu was priced at £75 with matching wine for an additional £45. Considering the quality of food, drink and service, this was very good value.

The menu moved from rustic to sophisticated to playful and back again. We began with a dish called Scratching/bacon/parsley, a generous twist of crispy scratching topped with reduced bacon and apple compote that was relaxed and delicious, particularly with a cool glass of Truffler Cider.

The Scratching was followed by a lovely dish titled Beetroot/egg/lime – when oh when will this trend for linguistically Spartan menus end? – in which the creamy saltiness of a perfectly judged egg yolk played nicely with a zingy lime reduction and earthy beetroot tartar.

This dish in particular demonstrated the skill and boldness of Selfridges sommelier Dawn Davies, who paired it with a thick, almost tinny Intellego Elementis (£26.99, Selfridges), a so-called ‘orange’ wine due to the practice of leaving it long on the grape skins to produce a ringing minerality and unusual colour. Alone, the Elementis was something of a puzzle; with the Beetroot dish, it became an essential part of a small, lovely symphony.

From here the menu shifted into its fish-meat phase, mostly with success.  Langoustine/pea/mint was a favourite dish of the evening, the langoustine tender and moist and the pea and mint balancing perfectly.

Pork belly/goat’s cheese/pear (which also featured roasted hazelnuts and slightly spiced puffed rice) would have benefitted either from more pear compote or, perhaps, a light jus: it was just that bit dry, though it worked well with Reichsgraf Von Kesselstatt Goldtropfchen Riesling Kabinett (£20.99, Selfridges.).

The Halibut/celeriac/honey course saw my halibut slightly overdone, but happily this was offset by the rich celeriac puree and passion fruit honey, splendidly complemented by an unusual German Pinot Noir (F Becker, Estate Spatburgunder) that retained the expected Pinot spice but was lighter, softer, and juicier.

The evening’s final savoury was Corn fed chicken/Jerusalem artichoke/madeira, which was gorgeous, moist and balanced. It paired beautifully with one of the evening’s nicest wines, a Vins d’Orrance ‘Cuvee Anais’ Chardonnay, oak-rich yet relaxed with distinct notes of apple and vanilla. Gorgeous.

Cote hill blue/apricot/pumpkin seed functioned nicely as a combination cheese course and palate cleanser: paired with a glass of Camden Wit Beer (£2.80, Selfridges) with its strong notes of lemon and bergamot, the result was calm and convivial, a gentle and pleasant trot towards the finishing line.

Lemon/oats/honeycomb – zesty and refreshing – led the way to an indulgent finish: Chocolate/caramel/peanut, the latter being in ice cream form and the whole tasting not unlike an decadent, elegantly deconstructed Snicker’s bar, in the best possible way. An accompanying glass of Yalumba Museum Reserve Muscat was so dark, nutty and treacly that it sailed very close to Porto, but kept its balance in concert with the rich malt syrup dressing the Chocolate.

There are four more Meet the Michelins evenings, all Mondays: 14, 21, 28 July and 18 August (note: the 18 August event, with Chef Michael Wignall, is currently sold out.) For more information or to book, visit their website here.

The Corner Restaurant is a light and airy dining environment, and the whole experience is a delightful and, in truth, good value treat: a culinary holiday, without needing to board a plane or fight the motorway hoards.