Sunday brunch is the epitome of a happy, lazy weekend. Because I work full time and run pop up restaurants, it's often the case that I work 6+ days a week, so Sunday becomes my only day off. Therefore, what I do on and who I spend my Sunday with is even more important. So a late brunch (basically a late lunch) with my man, at one of my favourite chefs' restaurants is a pretty good way to celebrate Sunday. On the hottest day of the year so far we headed over to Roux at the Landau to sample their "Farmhouse Sunday Brunch" - a feast of epic proportions that is as delicious as it is generous. The whole restaurant is transformed, with huge buffets of colourful starters and puddings, and a guitarist playing and singing throughout the meal.
After being shown to our seats by the ever so attentive, and plentiful, staff, and being offered a choice of bubbles or Bloody Mary (both choosing the latter), we were invited to help ourselves to starters. These included beetroot "remoulade" with egg mimosa and watercress, Cornish oysters "mignonette", whisky cured salmon, pate en croute, charcuterie, Jersey Royal potato salad, green bean and smoked duck salad, black quinoa and caper salad, and octopus carpaccio. We picked our favourites from the selection and devoured plates stacked high with salads, meats and salmon. My personal favourite was the beetroot, and the French bean and smoked duck, though it was all excellent.
When the lovely people at The Langham Hotel got in touch and asked if I'd like to come and test out their restaurant Roux at the Landau, I already knew the exact date I wanted to go... last Friday, on our way to Paris. What better way to start a girly weekend in the French capital than a three course meal at the restaurant owned by one of my favourite chefs before we jumped on the Eurostar. Despite the big names in the kitchen and the very grand setting, there's an excellent and affordable lunch menu - 3 courses, half a bottle of wine, coffee and petit fours for £45 - that we tried out.
The three course lunch deal gives you three of each course to choose from. A limited but truly mouth-watering menu, it was hard to choose what to have. While we were trying to make up our minds we were brought some lovely little amuse bouche.
For starters, I'd been eyeing both the game terrine, chestnut, pear, rosemary brioche and foie gras butter, and the cod brandade and confit, grilled squid, preserved lemon, monk’s beard. Luckily, Lucy wanted the terrine, so I had the cod and squid, knowing I'd get to try some of her terrine too! The cod was perfect - the most delicate of flavours married together in a dish that was just divine. Each element shone through without overpowering the other. The squid was cooked exactly as it should be and was so tender, and the lovely gentle citrus notes from the preserved lemon elevated the whole dish.
Lucy's starter was also sublime. The terrine was packed full of different cuts of different meats, again, all perfectly cooked, and still so juicy, unlike many dry terrines I've had in the past elsewhere. The only disappointment of her dish was the brioche which I found too dry, maybe even a little stale, though a good dollop butter and it was less noticeable!
Mains were a choice of seabass, crab bisque, Calasparra rice, fennel and lime; roast guinea fowl, Vacherin glazed gnocchi, king cabbage and hazelnut granola; or butter poached pork belly, three corner garlic, pickled mustard seeds and mead. Lucy had the seabass with crab bisque which was good, but it was my main of pork belly, as recommended by the waiter, that was the winner. The pork itself was melt in the mouth, while the sauce had incredible depth of flavour to it and the barley was the ideal grain to mop it all up.
I adore rhubarb - I love the flavour and versatility of it as an ingredient, and also the fact that it's in season from January, when little else that's exciting is! So for pudding we shared a selection of the cheeses, and the stem ginger pavlova, poached Yorkshire rhubarb, sherry and rhubarb sorbet, which turned out to be one of the best desserts I've had in a while.
Roux at the Landau is fine dining at its best. Yes, it's a formal restaurant, with a big name chefs on the door, but the quality of food and standard of service you get for less than £50 a head including booze is ridiculously good. The menu changes almost weekly, so check it out and get yourselves down there for a seriously good lunch.
It's not every day you receive an email asking if you'd like to send some interview questions through for Michel Roux Jr, but that's exactly what happened last Friday, much to my surprise and excitement. I love the Rouxs as chefs and always have done. I watch little live TV - only Attenborough, football and cooking shows - but have always loved what I've seen of Michel Roux Jr on shows such as Masterchef and Food and Drink, which I have on catch up in the background on Saturday mornings when I'm cooking for my pop ups. I was asked to provide questions for this interview as Michel is fundraising for a really great charity that he is a patron of, VICTA - a charity that fundraises to provide support and activities for visually impaired and blind children - by trading from an initial budget of £2,500 with City Index and trying to make as much money as possible - as stressful as a day in the kitchen I'm sure, just not half as tasty! Michel is a long term supporter of VICTA and has run several marathons for the charity too. I've enjoyed reading Michel's answers to my questions so much, and I hope you do too - he really seems even lovelier than I already thought he was:
1. Who has inspired you the most in your career?
My first boss when I was an apprentice pastry chef, he was a man that led by example and rarely shouted. He was the first person in, in the morning and the last one out at night.
2. What is the first thing you remember cooking?
The first thing I remember cooking wasn’t actually cooking it was making ice cream as a child. My father had made the custard and I must have been about six and had to churn it by hand as we didn’t have an electric machine. It was churned on ice and was a very hard job. I was rewarded with a scoop of freshly made ice cream.
3. What is your favourite restaurant in London?
My favourite local restaurant is The Dairy in South London. I think it would be wonderful if every local restaurant was like the dairy. It’s affordable, run by a husband and wife team, and has a real homely feel. It ticks all the boxes of what I look for in a restaurant.
4. What is your can’t live without kitchen gadget?
At the moment this would be a pressure cooker, I think they’re back in fashion now, when you say pressure cooker you usually think of your granny or old cabbage but these days they really are state of the art.
5. What are your top three can’t live without ingredients?
These would have to be venison, truffles and chocolate.
6. What is your newest ingredient discovery?
A forgotten vegetable, cardoons.
7. What is your worst food intolerance to cook for?
Working in a restaurant you have to cook for lots of different intolerances, but the one I have the most sympathy for has to be gluten, as I really couldn’t give up bread, pasta or any wheat products.
8. Why did you choose to fundraise for VICTA today?
Visually Impaired Children Taking Action - I’ve run marathons for VICTA for 16-18 years now. It’s about taking blind or partially sighted children out-and-about and getting them involved in sporting activities. It’s a small charity and I believe the smaller the charity the more of the money actually goes to the cause. I’ve had over four operations on my eyes myself and they really do deserve a little bit of help.
(I'm completely with Michel here with regards donating to smaller charities as I also believe that more money gets to those who need it this way)
9. What is the best piece of advice you would give to someone wanting to start a career as a Chef?
The advice I would give is for someone in a job or apprenticeship to take notes - not necessarily recipes but just little notes as you go along, in the form of a little diary. I still look back at my notes I made when I was apprentice and it really is an inspiration to look back and to learn.
(This is such a nice answer from Michel. So many chefs answer this question with "don't become a chef" which is really unhelpful for those who've already decided that they do want to be a chef!)
Such interesting answers! The first thing I did when I read them was look up cardoons - it's a vegetable known as the artichoke thistle, and both the stalks and leaves can be eaten, and have an artichoke flavour to them - something to consider for my pop up menus!
There was one question on my list I'd sent through that Will didn't have time to ask for me, which was what Michel thought of supper clubs, and would he like to come to mine one day?! So if you're reading this Michel, why don't you come and try it out?!?
