Florek took us out last night to Brasserie Blanc for my birthday dinner.  We eat there every few weeks, it’a  a place consistently good in terms of food and service, not cheap, but always delivers. Last night was truly excellent.  Steak tartare to start to share, burger for Florek, confit duck leg for me. Super soft meat on that leg, beautifully crispy skin. Cherry sauce. The most delicious dauphinoise I’ve eaten in my life- perfect! Soft, not too creamy, perfectly seasoned. Some roasted veg on the side.  My only regret was that I was too full to finish it or to have a scoop of sorbet at the end.

Excellent service too, which Florek rewarded with a nice tip. And- I now know how to make a bellini as good as the ones they sell in BB- Amazon sells the fruit puree they use.

Truly lovely birthday dinner.

A chap called Andrew Kojima,  Masterchef finalist in 2012 opened a joint in Cheltenham, called Koj. I wanted to go for a few weeks, as I am a Masterchef fan, I am Japanese food fan and the reviews were mostly very good. So we went.  The place has a small, but interesting menu, no sushi though, as Koj reckons it is to be a place for those, who want to try Jap food, but don’t like sushi.

Hendricks, cucumber and wasabi martini to start was very good, refreshing, as we are having a heatwave this week. I’d have 3 of those easily( I didn’t). 

We had some decent sashimi, then a couple of the steamed buns, one with nice, soft pork, but the soft shell crab one was excellent. If I ever go back, I’ll just have 2 of those and  some sake and I’ll be happy.

The lemon sole little wraps were fantastic too, we had to try, as everyone on TripAdvisor were on about it.

Then we ordered more, some crispy, spicy beef (ok) and some KFC, Koj Fried Chicken.  Fairly average, we agreed.

The place didn’t excite me enough to run back in a hurry, but we’ll be popping in to Wahaca Bristol again in 2 weeks time, for that passion fruit mojito I can’t wait! 🙂

Last week I got a call from a certain Nicolo Sandrini of Dinings, who asked if I could bring my man and daughter to London on Wednesday the 17th. Dinings team were to open their second location in London and were inviting “friends and family” to join them and have dinner on the house.  Just for being considered “friends and family” more than 4 years after leaving the company, I’d have walked to London if I had to.  The idea of seeing all the lovely people again was even more appealing than the food, the Jap food heaven that Dinings has been for years. So I didn’t have to beg Florek to take a day off, we went, in pouring rain, back to Scumdon.

Nicolo sent me a video of the restaurant at about 1pm earlier yesterday, still basically a building site, expressed his doubts about the success of the coming evening and also said he wanted to die ( he’s from Verona). 🙂

When we arrived in Knightsbridge, still in pouring rain, the place was still a mess, but there was Nick, my former Chief, the most awesome and knowledgeable man in catering, as well as one of the nicest people I’ve ever met. If he ever asked me to work for him again, I’d shelve my macarons and run back, sadly all the business is either in London or Tel Aviv. There was the other Chief, Masaki, there was Fuku, with his stunning little daughter, I also saw Grace and Alex and Mika, whom I’ve not seen since Ubon.

The food took ages to arrive, but that was understandable. Probably because of the circumstances the food itself was not as mind blowing as I remembered, plus our eel and foie gras sushi roll never materialised( I was dreaming about it for a week). Our wagyu sushi never arrived- that was probably due to the girl who took our order, not sure if she knew what wagyu was. There was lovely fresh and beautifully presented sashimi, shrimps in tempura as light and fab as only these guys can do.  Lovely sake.

We had to pass on dessert, as it was getting close to 9.30 pm and Izzie was showing signs of tiredness.  Going back would be fantastic, dinner in Dinings is nothing but cheap though. Great evening!

During my very short and not well remembered career in Gordon Ramsay’s Plane Food, I served lots of these, the regular ones, with ham, their version with smoked salmon was called Eggs Royale.

We’ve spent last week in Center Parcs Longleat and finally returned for breakfast to Cafe Rouge, especially for these.  I must learn to make hollandaise and make poached eggs a regular thing, they’re absolutely delicious.

Ron’s staying with us for Easter. We went to The Montpellier Chapter this evening, as I wanted to go for a long time, since my hairdresser Rob told me about this place and “the beef that he cut with the fork, so tender it was”. I checked the menu beforehand, as usual and their tuna carpaccio starter appealed to me straight away.  We both had it, Florek and I and we both loved it. I might even try to recreate it one day. On the menu they call it tuna carpaccio, I’d say it’s more tataki than carpaccio,  but it still tasted fabulous. Light miso dressing, some kind of green vinaigrette like in a small amount. Served cold and fantastic. I’d be going back to the Chapter just for that tuna, the steaks that followed were great too, must be said.