The Cube by Electrolux - Sat Bains

A few days ago I saw this (re)Tweet from Sat Bains: ‘@Electrolux Looking for bloggers to review #TheCube on 6 June. Email, telling us why you'd like to join us!’

I thought to myself…. I’m a blogger… I have nothing planned for Wednesday… If only I could think of a reason to join one of Britain’s top chefs, the two-Michelin-starred Sat Bains for a meal in the Electrolux cube, sat on top of the Royal Festival Hall with breathtaking views of London and the Thames.

I struggled… but I managed to think of something and sent a hopeful email.

I had not heard about The Cube until I saw that tweet but it turns out it has already visited some grand locations in Paris, Brussels and Milan and will be in London until the end of September.

During this time, a number of top chefs will be taking it in turns to wow lucky diners with their food. Those involved include, two-Michelin starred chefs Sat Bains, Claude Bosi and Daniel Clifford as well as the winners of ‘Ramsay’s Best Restaurant 2010’ and Michelin star holders Jonray and Peter Sanchez of Casamia in Bristol and Scotland’s youngest recipient of a Michelin star, Tom Kitchin.

I’m guessing in exchange for the invitation Electrolux would expect like me to tell you how fabulous their equipment is - but as the supplier of choice to 50% of Europe’s Michelin starred restaurants I think this speaks for itself. What I can share is my experience and pictures of the venue and food.

There has been a bit of backlash on Twitter and in some quarters of the print media about bloggers and people who post reviews on sites such as Trip Advisor – or rather a small minority of bloggers and people who post reviews on sites such as Trip Advisor that give ‘genuine’ users a bad name - Not all bloggers are blaggers and not all Trip Advisor posts are by malicious malcontents.

Anyone who thinks I am about to give a ‘positive review’ in exchange for a ‘freebie’ - consider the fact that after nine hours driving (three and a half going to London and five and a half to return); a tank and a half of petrol and a day’s parking in London, it would have been easier and of a similar expense for me to have had a lunch at Sat Bains’ proper in Nottingham (something I plan to do in September).

Instead, I am about to give a ‘positive review’ because, as expected, the food was exceptional, the location amazing and the whole once in a lifetime experience, a complete joy.

Food and venue aside (which I will come to) one of the best parts of a meal in The Cube for me was the interaction with the chef – seeing the team cook and plate up, talking to them, picking their brains and having banter. Something that is much harder to do at each of the featured chefs’ restaurants.

For the chefs, I’m guessing the experience is about exposing their food to a new audience… perhaps in the hope that some or all of them will visit or recommend their actual restaurants. Also, it must be exciting for a chef to cook in this environment – up close and personal to the customers and within view of The Thames, The London Eye, Cleopatra’s Needle and not to mention the Houses of Parliament and what has to be the world’s most famous kitchen timer Big Ben.

I took my seat amongst members of the print media and blogging royalty including The Critical Couple and Niamh Shields from Eat Like A Girl – the table seats eighteen and can be booked in twos, by small groups or in its entirety. One end of the table saw the guests seemingly hovering over the Thames David Blaine stylee or the end near the kitchen overlooking one of the country’s best chefs – I bagged the chef’s table.

NG27 2SA : an unusually, yet cleverly named amuse bouche that comes as standard on Sat Bains menus. All ingredients having being sourced from what is seasonally available within the restaurant’s postcode.  This one featured a subtle horseradish panacotta with a wild garlic velouté

Scallop – vanilla – tomato – strawberry : outside The Cube sunshine was desperately trying to break through the grey clouds that hovered above London’s skyline; inside The Cube summer came to life through Sat’s tomato and strawberry topped scallops.

The scallops themselves had been lightly seared on one side, allowing the residual heat to finish them off to perfection. An olive oil sauce added a delightful peppery note whilst a vanilla and elderflower mayonnaise lifted the whole dish with another spectacularly summery swish.

Jersey Royals – dashi – onion juice – ham : the potato dish was stunning, with a gentle Japanese dashi broth and sweet, pickled shallots. The ham air-dried in Nottingham was up there with the best British charcuteries that I’ve had. Wild garlic flowers added a pretty as well as tasty touch but the component that really wowed in this dish was the flavoursome cubes of pork belly – sublime.

Spring Lamb – leek smoked – charred : featuring a goat’s cheese purée with ash, lemon curd, charred leeks  and a caper sauce. The British spring lamb was  served in a delicious slow cooked ragù with seaweed and a meltingly tender braised shoulder.

I loved this dish and polished it off pretty quickly which triggered a bit of jokey repartee with Sat saying he now knows why I am called ‘Hoss’ – at first I joked it was more to do with the small portion sizes as opposed to my greediness but conceded that it was because it was just so delicious.

Banbury Cake – Beauvale cheese – port syrup : for those that have not yet heard of ‘Beauvale cheese’, it is a continental style by the Cropwell Bishop Stilton manufacturers. It was my first time to taste this new blue and I’d like to make the bold statement that it was at least as good as the best Dolcelatte, Roquefort and Gorgonzola cheeses that I’ve tasted.

Luckily for me, with the banter over the lamb Sat decided to tease and give me a double helping of the cheese. Of course, I now joked that the dish was ‘unbalanced’ and that I ‘needed’ another slice of the Banbury cake – Sat laughed and then hooked me up with another piece – result.

To go with the fruity and nutty Banbury cake we were served a Smith Woodhouse Fine Tawny Port – I love Port but have not come across this one before. Smooth and mellow fruit flavours complemented the dish perfectly – this had also been used to make the syrup.

(Wine pairings had been served throughout, as well as champagne on arrival – due to the fact that I was driving; I literally had just a sip of each. As usual with my posts, I’m not an expert on wine so prefer not to comment.)

Chocolate – yoghurt – cumin – lime : after the ‘cheese course’ the first dessert was a chocolaty hit from a delicious smooth ganache. Sat explained the process but it was too complicated to jot down or remember – the results however were memorable with an exotic twist coming from the set yoghurt, cumin, lime and coriander.

Treacle sponge – lemon – pine : using Albert and Ferran Adrià’s microwave technique to make light as a cloud sponge cake with treacle, lemon and Douglas-fir. On it’s own this course did not particularly wow me as much as the others… until I tasted it with the paired Sparkling Lachamte Sake – a fruit filled revelation that really elevated the sponge.

The petit four was Sat’s take on the childhood favourite Mivvi ice-lolly with a beetroot parfait, with white chocolate and freeze dried raspberries – a wonderful, playful and tasty end to a fabulous meal in an awe-inspiring setting.

To book this unique experience visit www.electrolux.co.uk/Cube/London

I can’t wait to visit Restaurant Sat Bains in Nottingham and will hopefully get back down to The Cube to experience one of the other chef’s food before it moves on to another city.

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Meat Market, London

Meat Market is a burger joint located on a mezzanine that overlooks “London’s famous Jubilee Market” in Covent Garden.

Despite growing up in London, prior to my recent burger and fries, I had never been inside the Jubilee Hall. In my ‘yoof’ in the late eighties and early nineties my friends and I spent many a day hanging around Covent Garden – usually bothering the good people of Slam City Skates and Rough Trade Records.

On occasion me and ‘my crew’ would even take a piece of 'lino’ up and bust a few break-dancing moves – our attempt to join the street entertainers never went down too well… mainly because we were useless!

In the late nineties I’d moved away from B-Boy and thanks to a couple of friends owning post club crash pads in and around Soho and Covent Garden many more halcyon days would be spent mooching around amongst the tourists – yet the Jubilee Market Hall, still did not call.

Never being a place to attract ‘locals’ I bet the traders could not believe their luck when Meat Market opened and started to draw a whole new crowd – to be fair amongst the touristy tat there are now some good little stalls, selling all kinds of crafts including the fabulous Aramica (see here) who make interesting, useful and funky objects from recycled glass.

With Meat Market, MEATliquor, Pitt Cue, Goodman, Hawksmoor, Opera Tavern, Lucky Chip, Burger & Lobster and even trendy chains Byron and the Gourmet Burger Kitchen, there is undoubtedly ‘junk food’ or burger renaissance™ / burger revolution™ going on in the capital at the moment.

(I’ve trademarked the ‘Burger Renaissance and Burger Revolution names ‘cause, at the rate they’re opening, it’s inevitable that some bandwagon jumping entrepreneur will want to use them sooner or later.)

Personally, I blame Jamie Oliver… (although, before his lawyers contact me… I could well be, and probably am wrong) but several years ago ‘Jamie's School Dinners’ challenged the junk-food culture by showing schools they could serve healthy, cost-efficient meals that kids enjoyed eating – a worthy mission, but…

What I think has happened is, those poor kids that were being ‘deprived’ of their right to junk food so much so that ‘caring and concerned’ parents had to pass chips through the school railings are now in their late teens and early twenties and need to readdress the balance.

Cue the high quality gastro-burger/BBQ joints such Meat Market, Pitt Cue et al offering these trendy, grease and fat deprived young things their ‘dirty burger’ fix that they so desperately need.

They say one man's meat is another man's poison. I know some will see the picture of the burger below and think they’ve died and gone to heaven – for me, it was just a burger.

I ordered the Dead Hippie - you may be disappointed to hear that no hippies are actually harmed in the making of these burgers… but it did include two beef patties, lettuce, cheese, pickles, minced white onion and ‘dead hippie sauce’

The meat was a tad dry, the bun disintegrated and the lettuce soggy as opposed to crisp… other than that, it was thoroughly enjoyable – the well melted cheese and thick slices of pickled gherkin being particularly pleasing.

The ‘secret recipe’ Dead Hippie Sauce was also very good – I’m guessing there was some kind of vinaigrette with Worcestershire sauce in there, onions, mayonnaise (or a Russian or Thousand Island dressing), sweet pickles and a smack of mustard.

The fries were spot on and the soda bottomless – all good!

Burgers I suppose are just not my thing… however, I do like a bandwagon and it was good to climb aboard – albeit for a short trip. 

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Fraiche – Menu Black

Having have visited Marc Wilkinson’s Michelin-starred Fraiche on the Wirral in Oxton close to a dozen times and blogged about it on several occasions you might expect that there is little I could add in another post on the same subject…

If you have been on onto Fraiche’s website (see here) however, you may have seen the mysterious ‘Menu Black’ tab.

For those in the know, the ‘Menu Black’ experience is an ‘invite only’ special event that Marc now runs once a month.

Menu Black features many of Marc’s favourite dishes, seasonal specialties, a few extra premium ingredients and the usual boundary pushing and innovation that diner’s at Fraiche have come to expect as the norm (I say this as it struck me when watching much of this year’s Great British Menu that Marc has been using many of the ‘new’ ideas for years!)

Spiced Pecans – since my last visit, a few things had changed: the tables were graced with plush new chairs and laid out differently. Some things remained the same however, and it was good to receive a bowl of utterly moreish familiar Fraiche favourites.

Charcuterie – some good quality charcuterie is hard to beat and the excellent chorizo and Ibérico ham were a real treat.

Squid Ink Lollies – the recent discovery, in England, of preserved ink sacs from a fossilised giant cephalopod has revealed that the melanin pigment is identical to that of a modern day squid; suggesting that cuttlefish, squid and octopuses have not evolved since the Jurassic period. Of course, after mentioning ‘innovation’ and ‘boundary pushing’ I’m not suggesting Marc’s recipe is over 160-million years old – I’m pretty certain no one in those times was making delicious, sweet lollies.

Calamari Tempura – following the squid ink, we were treated to a perfectly crisp tempura of baby calamari - exceptional cooking to get the textures of the calamari and batter so faultlessly.

Turnips in Soil – next, we got to eat the table decoration. The raw baby turnips were set in a ‘soil’ simply made from chocolate – I must admit this combination didn’t really work for me, although my wife loved it.

Potato Espuma with Caviar – this next dish, we both loved. I’ve recently grown to appreciate caviar more and more and the Ebène Caviar (from www.finefrenchcaviar.co.uk) is wonderful quality and a real treat. Whilst some chef’s and restaurant’s commitment to only using British produce is laudable, when you are eating at the finest restaurants (such as Fraiche) it’s a privilege to be able to enjoy some of the finest ingredients from around the world. Another one being the cubes of Japanese ‘yuzu’ jelly that lay hidden beneath the amazing espuma.

Breads (round 1) – consisting of cheese, five nut, mixed seed and as always, my favourite, granary and treacle.

Textures of Carrot – the carrot sorbet was absolutely wonderful and had perfect synergy with a purple carrot purée, carrot meringue, and a carrot and sumac meringue the sweetness of the carrot components was balanced with the peppery, spiciness of watercress and its flowers.

Seared Scallop – set on top of compressed cucumber and a Meyer lemon purée with a sourdough toast and cucumber espuma, this exceptional dish was complemented by the always-amazing oyster leaves (this time served with their flowers).

Breads (round 2) with Truffle Butter – a dinky white roll and a sweet, brioche were served with a lavish and indulgent house-made truffle butter. So good… I would have asked for more but I know Marc’s profit margins are already slim!

Sweetbread – this was a serious contender for my favourite dish of the evening; perfectly coated in a crisp golden crumb and served with duxelles, shimeji and thinly slices mushrooms with a white port jelly and button mushroom sauce.

Textures of Beetroot – a real celebration of flavour and texture: roasted beetroot; golden beetroot purée; sliced raw beetroot; the welcome addition of smoked almond; olive oil powder; a fresh tasting yoghurt mousse; sea buckthorn purée topped with pain d'épices.

Poached Brill – served with asparagus, buttermilk, purslane and peppery rocket cress with a piece of ‘coal’ that I think was made from bread that had been soaked in a black olive stock and dehydrated. Brill aside, the best thing on the plate was the aubergine that had been cooked in apple, soy and ponzu sauce – it may not sound all that special on paper but it tasted fantastic!

Anjou Pigeon – the top quality Anjou pigeon breast was sublime enhanced by the leg and confit of bones weighing in with an additional hit of flavour. The red cabbage, baby leeks and morels added a classical touch but it was the cocoa crisp that surprised and delighted in equal measure.

Cheese Board – as always, a fine selection of mainly British and French cheeses served and explained with expert knowledge from maître’d James. Standout cheeses included a Tomme de Savoie, Pont-l'Évêque, Camembert au Calvados, Munster and, my favourite, Livarot that James, informed me is often dubbed ‘barnyard’ because of its smell.

Fizzy Pineapple – fizzy grapes have been a long time Fraiche favourite but I enjoyed this tropical variation.

Lemongrass Panna Cotta with Sour Cherry – topped with flakes of dehydrated grape, this is another Fraiche (and personal) favourite; treated to funky new glassware.

Tamarind Sorbet – I love tamarind and this was the first time I have tasted it in a sorbet; it worked really well for me with the orange, mango, nut brittle and crumb.

              

                          

Blackcurrant Sorbet – another interesting combination; this time Marc had cleverly used the subtle licoricey tasting tarragon in the tempered white chocolate to pair with the blackcurrant. A lemon curd added a citrus note whilst the nut crumb provided texture – flavour-wise, a stunning dish.

Rhubarb ‘Hobnob’ – I’m not sure of the legality of using the ‘Hobnob’ name but this oaty digestive biscuit sandwich with its vanilla cream and rhubarb filling was so good I’d be surprised if McVitie's don’t start begging Marc for the recipe.

Fresh Mint Tea and Petit Fours – great fresh tea and delicious petit fours, featuring a berry meringue, an ‘after eight’, a passion fruit marshmallow and popcorn lollies.

For my wife and I, Fraiche has always been a ‘great’ experience… Menu Black was ‘exceptional’. We can’t wait to return… assuming we will be re-invited. 

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