It’s the complete antidote to the endless sub culinary TV contests which mostly be-little the value of competitive cooking events, yet borrows something of the Ready Steady Cook fun in including an element of surprise ingredients for the chefs to create a dishes from. Now in its 24th year, the Roux scholarship is arguably the most prestigious competition and significantly, the most coveted among serious-minded ambitious young chefs.
The pressure is real and considerable with no double takes for the benefit of TV cameras. Dishes are invariably complex Escoffier classics. This year was no exception: the six finalists had to cook Tournedos Rachel with veal kidneys and a Roux Bordelaise sauce and a somewhat bizarre sounding macaroni cheese souffle (which inevitably sounded far more elegant in French) plus a dessert from a mystery box including pineapple, Assam tea, lime and Fruisana fruit sugar and cooked under the extreme scrutiny of the most illustrious imaginable team of judges.
Aside from the full Roux contingent Michel Roux senior and his son Alain now in charge of The Waterside Inn and Albert Roux and his son Michel junior now running Le Gavroche , fellow judges include Heston Blumenthal, Gary Rhodes, Brian Turner, Andrew Fairlee (the first Roux scholar) and David Nicholls who hosted the event at The Mandarin Oriental Hyde Park.
This year’s winner was 26 year-old Armand Sablon from the kitchen of past Roux scholarship winner Andre Garrett . I like the fact that not all finalists are from the well-known culinary A-list nor have been groomed in quite the same way as suspect Armand has been. Last year’s charming winner Pravin Sharma of Courthouse Hotel Kempinski whose spicing of a salmon and seabass coulibac made an overwhelming impression on the judges, despite the fact that he had not had a classical training and only arrived in the UK six months previously. Apart from the culinary kudos and the covetable cache of prizes from likes of Champagne Gosset, Global Knives , Caffee Musetti, and a week’s paid work experience in New York courtesy of Restaurant Associates what gives the championship inestimable value is the opportunity for the winning chef to cherry pick an expenses paid three months stage at one of the world’s top 3 Michelin chef kitchens. Easy to arrange as Michel Roux knows them all and is never refused. What’s more and is really endearing, all past winners become part of the Roux posse and really do get on-going advice, encouragement and all sorts of wonderful outings courtesy of Roux Brothers.
Significantly too the vast majority of past winners have gone on to become Michelin recipients with their own restaurants such as Steve Drake whose restaurant I found faultless when writing on restaurants around the M25 a few weeks back.
What made the evening extra enjoyable for the guests is the comedy act of the Roux dynasty who delight in publicly and affectionately teasing each other something rotten during the build-up to the announcement of the winner. And, of course, the decadent spread laid on by David Nicholls, executive chef at The Mandarin Oriental Hyde Park who knows he has most of the country’s top chefs and restaurateurs to feed. Divine canapes which showcased the current most modish ingredients to graze on included: red pepper lollipops, foie gras parfait with pain epice and apple jelly, honey glazed pork belly, tartare of sea bass, lime, sesame and chive crust, tortellini of sole, horseradish cream and caviar, scallops with cauliflower pannacotta and curried beignets, bacon and balsamic, truffle risotto balls with parmesan cheese and truffle honey and coffee cup sized raspberry souffles and madeleine’s to finish.
www.rouxscholarship.co.uk
Monday 9 April 2007
Sunday 8 April 2007
ELVERS: THE EPITOME OF AN EXTREME SEASONAL DELICACY
For self-avowed foodies like myself, it is no longer enough merely to do our best to eat in tune with the seasons. That’s as taken for read as devouring the latest mouth-watering gastro tome at bedtime (in my case Skye Gyngell’s “ MY Life in the Kitchen” and Sarah Woodward’s “The Food of France”).
What we really hanker after are those much anticipated ingredients of extreme and fleeting seasonality, which may only be around for a month or so. Their rarity, and in many cases the challenge of tracking them down, adds immeasurably to their culinary cachet.
One of the most recondite are elvers which I’ve long been intrigued to try and chefs such as Raymond Blanc and Mark Hix have raved about their fantastic, utterly distinctive sensation, but their outrageous cost and scarcity meant that the experience had eluded me for a long time, only adding to my insaitable gastronomic curiosity.
Elvers are transparent matchstick sized baby eels which instinctively make an extraordinary three year journey from the Sargossa Sea (a seaweed covered body of water between Bermuda and Puerto Rico, which is roughly the site of the infamous Bermuda Triangle) where they always spawn. No-one really understands their extraordinary migration pattern. Young eel larvae drift on the Gulf Stream for about three years travelling up to 4000 miles before reaching European fresh water rivers such as the River Severn where they evolve into juvenile elvers. They really are only fished with silk nets in estuaries of the Severn on nights with a new moon as they shy away from light. They have a barely there fishiness which has to be experienced rather like the freshest most delicate just fish anchovies.
Finally, I had my elver experience last week at The Goring’s elegant David Linley designed dining room where they’re included in a remarkably good scrupulously seasonal 3-course lunch menu £32.50 served with bacon, fried capers, crisp pig’s ear, poached egg and a lemon dressing – sensational and well-worth waiting for. (www.goringhotel.co.uk) I strongly advise all elver virgins should hurry along as they are unlikely to appear on the menu beyond April and do check they have netted a catch before counting on them. Elvers may also be found on the menu of the wonderfully glamorous seafood deluxe menu at Scott’s, re-designed by the hugely talented Martin Brudnizki (surely the next über restaurant designer). Dining at the green onyx and stingray-skin bar below the chartreuse green marble mosaics and breathtaking chandelier is as chic as snaring a table. Strictly seasonal sea vegetables such as sea beets, sea purslane, sea lettuce and slightly later in the season samphire often appear as wholly felicitous complements to sublime fish dishes. At Scott’s, elvers are currently served with Old-Spot bacon, equally extremely seasonal goose egg and wild garlic @ £35 for a starter! (www.scotts-restaurant.com)
What we really hanker after are those much anticipated ingredients of extreme and fleeting seasonality, which may only be around for a month or so. Their rarity, and in many cases the challenge of tracking them down, adds immeasurably to their culinary cachet.
One of the most recondite are elvers which I’ve long been intrigued to try and chefs such as Raymond Blanc and Mark Hix have raved about their fantastic, utterly distinctive sensation, but their outrageous cost and scarcity meant that the experience had eluded me for a long time, only adding to my insaitable gastronomic curiosity.
Elvers are transparent matchstick sized baby eels which instinctively make an extraordinary three year journey from the Sargossa Sea (a seaweed covered body of water between Bermuda and Puerto Rico, which is roughly the site of the infamous Bermuda Triangle) where they always spawn. No-one really understands their extraordinary migration pattern. Young eel larvae drift on the Gulf Stream for about three years travelling up to 4000 miles before reaching European fresh water rivers such as the River Severn where they evolve into juvenile elvers. They really are only fished with silk nets in estuaries of the Severn on nights with a new moon as they shy away from light. They have a barely there fishiness which has to be experienced rather like the freshest most delicate just fish anchovies.
Finally, I had my elver experience last week at The Goring’s elegant David Linley designed dining room where they’re included in a remarkably good scrupulously seasonal 3-course lunch menu £32.50 served with bacon, fried capers, crisp pig’s ear, poached egg and a lemon dressing – sensational and well-worth waiting for. (www.goringhotel.co.uk) I strongly advise all elver virgins should hurry along as they are unlikely to appear on the menu beyond April and do check they have netted a catch before counting on them. Elvers may also be found on the menu of the wonderfully glamorous seafood deluxe menu at Scott’s, re-designed by the hugely talented Martin Brudnizki (surely the next über restaurant designer). Dining at the green onyx and stingray-skin bar below the chartreuse green marble mosaics and breathtaking chandelier is as chic as snaring a table. Strictly seasonal sea vegetables such as sea beets, sea purslane, sea lettuce and slightly later in the season samphire often appear as wholly felicitous complements to sublime fish dishes. At Scott’s, elvers are currently served with Old-Spot bacon, equally extremely seasonal goose egg and wild garlic @ £35 for a starter! (www.scotts-restaurant.com)
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