Category: Robert

Dinner at the Northall: Puds

  Though these two desserts didn’t really work together in total harmony, they were both divinely decadent. On the right is a rasperry smear with vanilla ice cream and little blobs of meringue. I am a great believer in the elegance of small plate dining but I would have been...

Dinner at the Northall: Mains

  For the main I had the hake with mussels, beans and velouté sauce. The fish was perfectly cooked: soft and flaky without losing its structure, and the crispy skin was marvellous. I would have liked more mussels as they added a more pungent note of the sea to the...

Dinner at the Northall: Starter

Madsen and I went for a delicious three-course dinner at the Northall restaurant at the Corinthia Hotel on Whitehall Place a few weeks ago and it was so marvellous I have decided to write a post for each course. The menu included a glass of Laurrent-Perrier non-vintage which had...

Coq d’Argent (part three)

  For dessert we moved to the terrace and my friend had the cheese which came with grapes, biscuits and chutney. Neither of us managed to eat the extremely pungent stilton, though I had a good crack at it. On the table’s horizon you can see my mound of...

Coq d’Argent (part two)

  My friend and I both chose the duck leg braised in duck stock and olives for our main. The taste was intense and delicious. Wonderfully sticky meat fell meltingly from the bone and the bed of cabbage was perfectly cooked. The fondant potato was scrummy, too. All in...

Coq d’Argent (part one)

Last week I had dinner with a photographer friend at Cod d’Argent at 1 Poultry just across from Bank station. The restaurant has gained a reputation as the Beachy Head of London with a few notable instances of diners flinging themselves from the fifth floor terrace. Whatever their reasons...

Yet more things to do with parma ham and cheese

  In this instance I grilled cheese, topped with sweet chilli chutney and wrapped in prosciutto parcels served up with toast and garlic vinaigrette. It’s the third time I’ve listed this dish but each is slightly different in presentation and the type of cheese used. It just goes to...

Playing around with my croque monsieur

  I bought a little extra hot mexicana cheese today and thought I’d try it out with prosciutto and a garlic vinaigrette as a variation on my croque monsieur. The vinaigrette has to be quite pungent to stand up to the cheese full of chillies, but it went well....

Creme brûlée

  To me a dessert means one thing: fruit or custard. This French classic is based around my favourite of the two. Custard is so simple to make, simply remember the ratio of 100ml cream per egg yolk and just eyeball the sugar (If in doubt I always find...

Burgundian chicken pie

  Nothing better than a cosy pie! This was made by frying chicken and bacon then deglazing the pan with a white burgundy. I added cream and stock to this mixture and fried the mushrooms separately. I put all the filling into the pot and then topped with puff...