Sunday 11 May 2014

The French by Simon Rogan, Manchester’s Midland Hotel – May 2014

These pictures record my twelfth meal at The French by Simon Rogan. With each visit, the food and service remains exceptional and it’s wonderful to see and taste what their Cumbrian farm produces as the seasons change.

As with all of Simon’s restaurants, the love and care that goes into each ingredient from planting and nurturing to cooking and presentation is evident on every plate and in every mouthful.

Just as dishes that have remained on the menu for some time are always a joy to eat, new dishes are exciting to taste for the first time.


The fabulous Ox dish aside, one of my favourites from this most recent meal was the new crab course – a lovely balance of flavours and textures: white crab meat and a light, airy brown crab mousse, crunchy crab croutons and crispy sea herbs; rounded off by an uplifting burst of flavour from an intense crab apple jelly.  

For the rest of the meal I’ll let the pictures do the talking. (For a more detailed write up of some of the dishes, check my recent ‘Restaurant Wars’ post.)


Baked potato with cheese


Rye, eel, lovage


Celeriac with apple


Trotter, ham fat cream, sage


Brown crab, apple and perilla with hazelnut biscuit


Quails egg in brassica, kale, leeks mustard


Swede dumplings, duck yolk sauce, nasturtium


Ox in coal with pumpkin seed, kohlrabi & sunflower


Caramelised cabbage with mussels, pickled mushrooms, chicken skin and garlic


Baby beets, Ragstone cheese with artichoke, cresses


Roasted hake with seeded breadcrumbs, cauliflower


Mount Grace hogget, hay baked carrot, hen of the woods with yarrow



Selection of British cheeses


Cheshire rhubarb, chamomile, puffed rice & Yorkshire sorbet


‘Lancashire coals’ with liquorice, fennel & milk



Sass ‘n’ soda





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