Monthly Archives: November 2010

Absolute Taste Masterclass

by Qin Xie | Leave a comment

Published on Foodepedia on 9th November 2010:

Last week I was invited to try my hand at making a few “F1 quality” nibbles at Absolute Taste at Harvey Nichols. The F1 quality is not to blow my own horn of course but rather because Absolute Taste started out as a hospitality company catering to the VIP guests of Vodafone McLaren Mercedes around the world.

Founded in 1997, Absolute Taste was the brain-child of Ron Dennis and Lyndy Redding with an objective to create contemporary and delicious food that’s presented with style. The success of their venture was led by their growing reputation for stylishly good food and professional service.

Since their launch, Absolute Taste have successfully branched out into other fields including Absolute Taste Inflight, Cafés by Absolute Taste, Gordon Ramsay by Absolute Taste and most recently Absolute Taste at Harvey Nichols which opened in May this year.

Rocket pizzaOur little cookery class was led by Executive Chef Will Gould and Head Chef Andy Ritchie and took place at the kitchens of Absolute Taste at Harvey Nichols. Located on the Fifth Floor and tucked away behind the Foodhall, this was the perfect little spot to make the mistakes not normally made in an Absolute Taste kitchen.

First up was pizza making with Andy. I must admit, I’ve made a few pizzas in my time but never with so much autonomy in a professional kitchen. Andy quickly put one together and then pretty much left us to our rustic creativity. Mozzarella balls, olives, parma ham, and chorizo all went on to my hand rolled and slightly square pizza base. In fact, my entire pizza was a little “square” with its not very rustic attempt at perfection. Rest assured though, my pizza moving skills are far below par so the result is still fairly rustic. Three minutes in the amazing pizza oven and we had dinner part one. Topped with a sprinkling of rocket leaves and a drizzle of truffle oil, my pizza was looking good and tasting even better.

Absolute Taste masterclass

After a quick munch it was on to the rice paper rolls with Will. He led us through the ingredients like yellow fin tuna and of course the rice paper itself. Putting whole mint leaves along with the basil into the paper rolls helped to protect the soaked rice paper from tearing. It was then topped with the sushi grade tuna, cucumber, carrots and avocado and rolled as tightly as possible to create the rice paper rolls. The wasabi was optional but the result was very sushi like. So much so in fact, it’s sometimes served as a substitute for sushi for those who don’t like the taste of seaweed. Well I quite like sushi but these were also rather good. The mint leaves were a very unusual addition and definitely gave the whole thing a much more refreshing mouth-feel.

So what did I learn from my experience? When making pizza, don’t try to be neat – the rustic pizza will prevail. And though my efforts weren’t quite F1 quality, they did taste wonderful.

Absolute Taste at Harvey Nichols is now open on the fifth floor for breakfast, lunch, afternoon tea and nibbles from 9am-7pm on Monday to Saturday, and 12-6pm on Sundays.

Absolute Taste at Harvey Nichols, 109-125 Knightsbridge, London SW1X 7RJ www.absolutetaste.com

Adam Byatt – How to eat in

by Qin Xie | Leave a comment

Published on Foodepedia on 9th November 2010:

The first thing you should know about Adam Byatt’s ‘How to eat in’ is that the recipes are not as hard as they look.

The basis of this rather hefty book are recipes to elevate simple home cooked meals to family favourites and recipes to serve as dinner party pièce de résistance. By simply flicking through the book and looking at the photographs though, it’s difficult not to imagine the amount of work it would take to recreate some of the dishes. The introduction for beetroot-cured salmon gravadlax even states that it’s a four-day process – not a job to be taken on unless you are a seriously keen cook.

As this is his first cookbook, chef and patron of Trinity in Clapham Adam Byatt has done very well. The dishes are not only beautifully presented but some are also highly unusual like the maple-glazed belly of pork with saffron and cockles. This makes a refreshing change to the cookbooks full of staples.He has divided up his book like a menu. There are the breads, the starters, the mains, the desserts and the sauces to complement. And given the selection of recipes and a special section on outdoor food, this book is something which can be used all year round.

Having previously dined at Trinity, I instinctively looked for the food served there. The recipes revealed all the hard work that went into those delicious meals and gave me a real appreciation of the flavours. They were also a little daunting because having already spotted the salmon gravadlax recipe, I thought that all the recipes were going to be quite complex and time consuming.

Take the pig’s trotters on toasted sourdough with crackling for example, it’s a staple on the Trinity menu. The recipe itself spreads over two pages. One page is solely dedicated to the list of ingredients and instructions for preparation, some of which must be done the day before. The second page is the actual method. If there wasn’t a deliciously tempting photograph intercepting the two pages, I would surely be going crossed-eyed at the amount of work. But then after actually reading through the recipe, there wasn’t anything particularly hard. Cooking the dish still takes a lot of time and effort but at least the result is rewarding.

There is a fair selection of easy but equally delicious recipes too like pot roast loin of old spot pork with kumquats or the 10-minute banana and maple ice cream.

Perhaps what has been most daunting all along has been Byatt’s chef-approach to his recipes. That is, every recipe comes with a comprehensive preparation guide so when you come to the method section, it’s literally a matter of cooking. For the trained chef, this comes as second nature. For the average Joe, though, it seems like a lot of work.

Overall, ‘how to eat in’ has been very inspiring. It serves as more of a guide to cooking restaurant quality food at home than a day-to-day cook book. But if you love to cook and you love good food, this book would be perfect.

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