So finally Wednesday had arrived, we were on day one of the two day cookery course and on the itinerary, Lobster Risotto, the same dish I ate in The Rick Stein Seafood Restaurant the previous evening, what a result!
There were some obvious differences like the quantity of Lobster meat, the colour of the Risotto stock, the reduction, but I was chuffed, it was a good rendition of the ‘professional’ version I had had the previous evening. Mine is on the left in case you were wondering!
I had received a lovely message from St Petrocs reminding me of my breakfast sitting, whaaaat, surely I had booked the evening meal, what a pillock! A quick call and within minutes I was back on track and booked for Wednesday evening at 19:45, phew that was embarrassing!
The informal Bistro was only a 5 minute walk from the hotel, very convenient, as I arrived the friendly front of house team welcomed me, and showed me to my table, the place was buzzing with excitement and anticipation as guests ordered their food and expectantly awaited its delivery.
As before I made my choices and constructed a ‘wine flight’, a glass of wine to match each dish (hopefully)! The comprehensive menu was very good indeed, with dishes like Pear and Rocket Salad, Oyster Charentaise, Turbot with Bone Marrow Gravy and Truffle Oil, certainly lots of choice and definitely French influenced.
So what to start with, hmmm, yep, Pidgeon, love Pidgeon, served with Watercress and Potatoes and the wine match was Malbec Classico, Kaiken, Mendoza Argentina 2018.
Using the internet: “The grapes were hand picked and sorted, and then cold soaked for seven days to extract aroma and colour. After that the grapes were fermented for 10 to 12 days, and then kept on their skins for 10 days to give colour and structure. Following fermentation, 40% of the wine was transferred into French oak barrels for six months, of which 10% were new and the rest second and third use. The rest of the wine was unoaked to retain the fruit flavours and aromas in the finished wine. The wine was naturally fined and gently filtered before bottling.” Whatever they did it was very very nice!
Now, the Pidgeon, something I have eaten many times, it was cooked perfectly, but if there was one criticism, the dish was a bit too acidic, it needed some sweetness (IMHO). Later that evening (much later), I was chatting with the Head Chef Mark on Instagram, and highlighted my observation which he embraced admirably, this was the 1st of several interactions, something that made my week evermore enjoyable, thank-you so much Mark for your virtual conversations.
Now to mains, another favourite, Plaice, a whole one, with roasted Red Peppers, Chilli, Garlic and Oregano served with buttered Potatoes, wine match was a Rick Stein White Burgundy Macon France 2020, nice.
There is something about Plaice, it has a unique (yes I know all fish,….unique..) flavour, slightly sweet, but different, delicate but with strength at the same time so can stand up to bold additions like Peppers and Garlic, well that’s what I believe…. It was extremely tasty and Ricks Burgundy was very good too.
The front of house had been very attentive all evening, allowing gaps between courses as I had also eaten at the cookery course during the day so definitely needed some respite to get though nights culinary adventure.
I’m really not a dessert person, I tend to find them too much after a big meal and usually go without, honest, I prefer cheese. But, this was a celebration of ‘Padstows Finest’ week so got my courage up and ploughed through, it had to be done!
So the Wednesday night Finale was a Chocolate Pave, Peanut Crumb and Salted Caramel Ice Cream, washed down with a delicious Sauternes Cypres De Climens Barsac Bordeaux 2014, so what can we find on the internet about this beauty: “Cyprès de Climens is the delectable wine for aperitifs, good food and epicureans. It expresses a spring-like character, a gushing temperament. Its nose is redolent of white flowers, mint, lime blossom, citrus fruit, apricot and spices. All delicacy and sensual seduction, it gives itself simply, showing a graceful and youthful lightness.” oooooohhhkaaayy in my opinion it’s very tasty and not too sweet!
So, another epic night, great front of house, extremely competent chefs in the kitchen, delicious food, delicious wine and topped off with chatting to Mark later that evening, another awesome evening.
………………………………Until next time…………………………..L8ers……………………..
(The Finale of the week comes next, it’s very special so watch out if you want to see what happened!)
The morning started with the communal breakfast outside as the weather has been fabulous, with fresh everything, Fruit, Bread, Jams, Cheese, Ham, Tomatoes, Croissant, Tea or Coffee and always needed to set you up for a very busy day!
So, what about Chocolate Brownies and Coconut Panacotta, what’s that all about, taking what seems very simple and elevating It was the order of the day.
As is usual with my reviews of personal trips on cooking vacations and the like, I won’t divulge the complete experience as it really will not do justice to what goes on and what you experience, suffice to say we all learnt lots about presentation, flavour mixing and how to turn the ordinary into the extraordinary and it was enlightening to say the least! This is my 3rd trip to the French House Party and I will definitely be back for more.
After lunch and a brief rest we headed out for the town of Limoux.
The tour of the cellars and its history are great fun and really interesting, the produce is exceptional and awesome value, you cannot get it in the U.K. except by mail order as they limit production. The other stuff in U.K. supermarkets marketed as Crémante and Blanquette is mass produced by other local ‘Maison’ and they do not use the same old traditional methods which you will find about if you come and visit. Guess what, my suitcase is a bit heavier, oops.
New York has strong ties to Italy (amongst other countries) and that was very evident from some of the restaurants we ate in, although one of the stand out dishes came from 
The menu seemed endless, Hot Endamame, Chefs’ Sushi, Chicken Gyozas, Pan Roasted Halibut, Dry Aged Sirloin and Broccoli Drunken Vegetable Pad Thai the flow of food just didn’t seem to stop. It was all beautifully presented and very tasty indeed. The restaurant was huge, and floor walkers with radio communications kept in contact with the Chef’s to ensure the food was cooked at the right time and that no table was left waiting for the next course.
All the food was good but one dish was just amazing, the ‘Satay of Chilean Sea Bass with Miso Dressing’. It does not look much but the texture and flavour was sublime, perfectly cooked fish (to the point as Rick Stein might say), it was silky, moist and packed with flavour, my favourite of the whole evening and in the top three of the trip.
The following night we were at 
This was Saturday evening and I had spent the day eating on the Brooklyn Culture and Food Tour, the location of 
Cecconi’s was a typical Italian restaurant, homely, cosy and carb heavy with Risotto and Gnocchetti but luckily there was Chicken on the menu so I was sorted, the starters included Calamari Fritti with Lemon Aioli and Chilli which was very tasty.
Now onto 
I went for the Veal Scaloppini for mains, it was very tasty but I think the Veal could have been cooked less, it was a bit to over for my liking but still nice.
The stand out dish was definitely the Capellini with Peas and Prosciutto, it was amazing, absolutely stunning and the picture is the featured image of this post, you have to visit just for this dish, its that good.
I did gain a few ounces over the 4 or so days and had the chance to taste some great food. New York is mad, manic and full-on, but you do slowly get used to it, the range of cuisine is enormous and you can get fed for not a lot if you know where to look.
I was sitting in Cafe Lucca in Bath and my heart was pumping for a couple of reasons, I had just walked up the hill from the station which is something not attempted before, and I was going to be spending a day learning from a food hero Angela Hartnett MBE, who also happens to have a Michelin Star, no mean feat!
It was a really tasty plateful, Pancetta, Boiled Eggs that had been coated in Parmesan and stuck under the grill, Roasted Tomatoes, Toast and Marmalade with a pot of Assam Tea, it was all very tasty.
So the menu for the day included Pumpkin Tortelli, Partridge with Turnip and Mushrooms and Plums with Ricotta, seasonal dishes that as we found out, would require a lot of skill and technique to prepare, no ready made Pasta, that was to be done by hand along with preparing the Partridges, they were whole, Heads, Wings and Guts!!
Angela is an absolute delight, taking the 12 of us students through the process of making the pasta by hand, understanding the look and feel once it was ready to roll, cut and shape as required, imparting lots of tips on the way it was great fun. We were grouped into fours and encouraged to interact our group starting chatting away sharing experiences as we went on.
I have made Pasta by hand before in Italy, but it was over four years ago (sorry, my food experiences have meant that I am never trying a particular country or region for that long)! It was a really good session, I had never used a Pasta Machine before similar to others in the group so it was interesting to see the difference not having enough Flour in the mix made, it was slightly too wet and produced interesting results when put through the Pasta machine.
I’d never heard of Tortelli before, they are like a rectangular Raviolli, where you place the stuffing close to the edge nearest you, flip over, egg or milk wash the front and sides, and in between the covered filling and flip over the other side like a blanket, mine were by no means perfect but the looked ok once finished.
Before preparing the Pasta, we had quartered a Pumpkin, seasoned and placed on oiled baking trays for a session in the oven to soften. Angela encouraged us to answer questions and shared many of the experiences working with the likes of Gordon Ramsey and Marcus Wareing which was really interesting and very amusing indeed !!
I LOVE Partridge, in fact our 11 year old son loves Partridge too, and cooks it himself when available (with parental assistance of course). We were each given one to prep after being shown how to do it by Angela, removing the legs in the right place, (you can go further down the joint towards the body which makes for an unstable cooking experience as it wobbles in the pan)!
We were prepping and cooking for several hours, it was hard work but really good fun. One of the students had come all the way from Norway to attend the 1 day course, she owned a Bakery and had been to the school before to learn advanced bread making techniques which the owner Richard Bertinet is a master at, this is an awesome cookery school and Richard attracts some seriously good chefs to come along and share their knowledge and experience.
We worked tirelessly from about 10:00 till 12:30, then a break for refreshments, and a quick snack of Cheese and Ham Toasties with Bechamel using Richards famous Bread, they were very tasty indeed. The ‘Baker Girls’ or Bertinet Backstage are the great team that assist, wash up, clean and generally help things go smoothly and as usual, they did an exceptional job.
Earlier, we had removed the legs from the Partridge ready for a bath in Duck Fat, Garlic and Thyme, we were going to confit the legs and add to a Salad with Pickled Walnuts. Before the ‘Duck Fat Bath’, the legs were fried in Olive Oil to colour, there was lots going on during the course, loads of different cooking techniques were learnt on the way it was excellent value for money and everyone was sweating in the heat of the kitchen.
The Partridge Crowns got the Pan treatment, in LOADS of Butter and Thyme, a few minutes before hitting the oven for finishing off.
Angela was more than happy for us to video, take pictures, selfies and was a real joy to spend time with, her knowledge and experience is just something you don’t often get the chance to access, I need to practise my photography from a selfie perspective although we were right by the hob, and everything was hot in the kitchen.
Where to go to celebrate my Birthday? It took less than 10 seconds to reach a decision and a booking at the local Michelin starred restaurant, ‘The WoodSpeen’ was completed online. I’ve eaten here before with a good friend, but only for lunch and we had their lunchtime special which was very good, this time it was to be the ‘Full Monty’ a la carte.
Sat at our table an Amuse Bouche arrived, Courgette Soup with Black Olive. I am not sure about Courgettes, I eat them a lot but they tend to be part of a dish and not going solo, the soup was really very tasty, quite a surprise but a good one. We had been given some lovely home made bread and polished off the dish before more bread arrived, very good attentive service.
For starters I opted for the Roasted Scallops, with Chicken Thigh, Cauliflower and Hazelnut, OMG it was so very tasty. The Scallop was perfectly cooked, the Chicken tender as it could be and really rich the whole dish just sung ‘eat me’.
My partner in crime opted for the Woodspeen Smoked Salmon, Beetroot, Goats Curd and Apple which was apparently delicious and was demolished quite effortlessly, with a big smile of satisfaction to finish.
We were then surprised with another Amuse Bouche, Buratta with Heritage Tomatoes and Olive Crumb, another exceptional taste bomb that really cleansed the taste buds, this was going really very well indeed.
I adore fish and the Bass did not disappoint, with Clams, Squid Ink Gnocchi, Fennel and Champagne Sauce. Everything was cooked perfectly and the Champagne Sauce is THE best I have ever had, seriously tasty and moorish, I could have drunk it out of a cup it was that tasty.
Steak was the choice for Mrs R, with Garlic Mushrooms, Onion Ring, Triple Cooked Chips and Bearnaise. We usually find steaks are ‘OK’, either the meat is not the best or the cooking is not quite right, this was spot on perfect, and the chips, oh my we thought we had found the best chips locally and they are very good, but these WERE the best, praise indeed.
It was my birthday so I WAS having a dessert, the Pina Colada sounded really nice. Coconut Parfait, Macadamia Crumble, Pineapple and Lemongrass Sorbet. I was in heaven, it was yum yum yum the tastes and textures dancing around on the tongue it was a perfect end to a perfect meal.
Julian Rolfe 