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February/March bites: Connaught hotel, Gymkhana, Afternoon tea at Browns, Claudia Roden, Paul A Young

March 29, 2014 5 Comments Filed Under: Food, Recipes, Uncategorized

This is where I’ve been spending most of my time the last few months, writing, at this rather messy, book-jumbled desk, in my nightie. Sometimes I attach an apron to my body, over the nightie, and go to the kitchen to test some of my recipes. (My nighties are all stained with food). As a freelancer, I don’t need any proper outdoor clothes, I see-saw from nightwear to apron. But writing several books on the trot since last summer, I’ve practically got night blindness, so seldom do I leave the house. But here is a brief diary of what I’ve been up to in London in February and March, (aside from visiting South Africa and Botswana which was a welcome break).

Breakfast at the Connaught:
I won a night at the Connaught Hotel as a prize at the annual ‘galette des roi’ party hosted by chef Helene Darroze. I thought it was the perfect place to celebrate my daughter’s 20th birthday, The Teen no more. They really pushed the boat out, giving us a suite, champagne, a cake. In the room, there was a mirrored lit cocktail cabinet, a telly in the bathtub, large heavy expensive art and photography books to leaf through, a George Clooney coffee machine with a dish of chocolate covered cocoa beans. Below is our butler. He told us a little about the history of the hotel; it was named after the Duke of Connaught, formerly Saxe-Coburg, a son of Queen Victoria, who changed his name into something less Germanic after the first world War. In fact there is an error in the book ‘Birdsong’ by Sebastian Faulkes, where one of the characters refers to staying at the Connaught, when the name at the time would have been The Saxe-Coburg. On each dark pannelled, gold embossed stairwell, there is a portrait of a dog. The staff wear small pewter badges of a hounds head, to signify fidelity and service. Later we went downstairs to swim and use the steam room. We met two gentlemen in the steam room. I was so curious about the other guests, what did they do? How can they afford this hotel? It’s such a different world for me. I asked these men ‘what is your job?’ and they hesitated a long time before proferring ‘dentistry’. Are dentists that rich?
It was interesting to see London from a visitor’s point of view, albeit a rather well off visitor. The Connaught is a time capsule, a Victorian hotel, in the centre of an area of London the ordinary Londoner never visits, Mayfair. Around the corner was the restaurant Scott’s, the scene of the end of Nigella and Charles Saatchis marriage last summer, and the regular haunt where he is taking his new girlfriend, Trinny Woodall. But blanching slightly at the Mayfair prices of the main courses, we went to the local Spaghetti House, where I had spaghetti vongole which was really pretty good, but, as usual, not enough white wine in the sauce.
The next morning we had breakfast in the crescent shaped sunlit breakfast room at the front of the Connaught Hotel. You could have a Japanese breakfast for £36, a champagne and caviar breakfast for just under £500, and various other options. I chose the healthy ‘well being’ breakfast, very unlike me, but even that was extravagant and luxurious: a tiered stand of home-made yoghurt, home-made granola bars, creamy porridge, exotic fruit salad, and freshly squeezed carrot juice. Behind us a table of businessmen were having a morning meeting. Amazing really that some people are so busy they can only meet for breakfast. I kept trying to eavesdrop to see how it was going. I don’t think the meeting went well, as the person who came to meet them left quite quickly.

Lunch at Gymkhana:
After the Connaught I walked around the corner to have lunch at Gymkhana, the latest project of chef  Karam Sethi, owner of Trishna, where I had one of the best Indian dishes of my life, a coriander crusted sea bream. This Edwardian style dining room with wooden booths was very elegant, but they did that usual thing of trying to shove us down in the dark basement but I insisted on eating upstairs. I don’t want to eat my food in the dark, nor do I appreciate noisy music. This is a real issue for me in restaurants, if I’m meeting someone, want to talk, I don’t want background music unless it is very low and unobtrusive. I always feel the music is there to entertain and stimulate the staff rather than the guests who end up exhausted after spending a couple of hours bellowing at each other, as in a nightclub. My mother, who is very deaf, chooses restaurants nowadays on the basis of acoustics rather than food. Food may be the new rock n roll but let’s not take it too far. I want an assault on my taste buds not my ear drums. Plus I like to see my food, I want daylight not murky darkness, because I like to photograph my food for this blog. (Any chefs who are arguing with that are moronic. If I instagram my food, I’m publicising your restaurant.)
That said, lunch was incredibly reasonably priced: £20 for two courses, £25 for three for very good quality cooking, including wine although there is also a decent wine list. I ordered the potato chat for starters, a street food, crunchy mouthfuls, into which you pour tamarind coriander water from a jug. I repeated my favourite, the coriander sea bream for mains and had a really good Rose Kulfi with basil seeds for dessert. I loved the chinaware, all pastel willow patterns and antiqued silver. I would like to go back to try the dinner menu.

In March, transport union leader Bob Crowe and veteran MP and campaigner Tony Benn died. Felt very sad about both of them, it was like the passing of a certain kind of proper left-winger. You knew what you were getting with both of them, none of that PR/spinning bullshit. Here is a touching tribute I spotted at Green Park station on the way back from Gymkhana.

Tea at Browns:
I used to love afternoon tea at Browns because they did hot buttered tea cakes. I believe all teas should have a hot element, and my forthcoming book will certainly be banging the drum in that regard. Browns not only have forgone the tea cakes, but serve rather disappointing Victoria Sponge which was, frankly, stale. Plus the tea pot stand was too far away and I got the feeling one had to wait for the staff to serve. I want regular top-ups of fresh tea, not stewed stuff. I expect to down at least four cups during an afternoon tea party. The rooms are still cosy, with an old school Gentleman’s club vibe, including roaring fires, in contrast to the pastel and gold flecked elegance of the Ritz, but the food was a disappointment, especially at the 40 odd quid you have to spend. The very least you require from an afternoon tea is excellent baking. The scones were ok, small enough to pop in your mouth, but the sandwiches were unimaginative and the petits fours passable.

Chocolate with Paul A Young: 
From Browns I walked to chocolatier Paul A Young’s Soho premises where he was doing a talk and demonstration of his new chocolate bar. Paul is always fascinating to listen to, passionate and knowledgeable about his subject. He’s been working on forming relationships with growers to produce his own chocolate, roasted and ground on his premises in London, using the whole bean, shell and all. #Bean to Bar. The results are intense: slightly gritty but not unpleasantly so, with a deep fermented flavour and acidity. He gave me some cocoa beans and I immediately set to work on trying to grind them in my Vitamix at home. I’m working on some recipes.

A visit to Hampton Court and the newly discovered chocolate kitchen:
Paul A Young is a modern day chocolatier in a grand tradition. I’m surprised he doesn’t have his own little room in Buckingham Palace where he alone, of all the kitchen staff, is allowed to take up a daily silver handled pot of hot chocolate to the queen. If I were queen, this is definitely a custom I would reinstate. For years at Hampton Court they used these rooms as store rooms, fortunately the shelving and ovens were left in good condition, they have now restored them to their 17th century grandeur.
Also in attendance during the chocolate making demonstration, was author Neil Davey, who has just brought out a book on chocolate, a perfect present for Easter ‘The bluffer’s guide to chocolate’. Here he is below, discussing chocolate techniques.

Please Hampton Court, start reproducing some of this stuff as homeware.
This wooden ‘whisk’ is remarkably similar to the ‘Molinillo’ that they sell in Mexico today for the same purpose. 

A pretty picture of the Hampton Court entrance. You really must visit, nowadays you can see all the kitchens, and there are mini reenactments of tudor scenes.

A selection of hot chocolate: Georgian, Victorian, Aztec and modern day white chocolate with pomegranate seeds.

Do love a gift shop. 

Supper with Claudia Roden and Tim Anderson:
Square Peg, the publishers of my forthcoming book ‘MsMarmitelover’s Secret Tea Party’ held a supper club at The Ship pub in Wandsworth, the meal cooked by their authors. Myself, Masterchef winner Tim Anderson and the great Claudia Roden made dinner. We all did mini-speeches before serving our course: Claudia talked about how she used to work for Air Italia for £6 a week and a few free flights. This gave her the opportunity to visit Italy often, learn about their food. A new edition of her classic book The Food of Italy has just been published. Claudia made a squid salad and pepperonata as a starter.
Later, when I was prepping my course, I asked the kitchen at The Ship if they knew who she was. They didn’t, so I explained ‘basically you’ve had one of the top food writers, ever, in the world, in your kitchen’.

American chef Tim Anderson won Masterchef in 2011. He’s very influenced by Asian, particularly Japanese food but for his first book he will be creating ‘Japanese soul food’, a more country style version of Japanese food, unpretentious, full of flavour, and achievable for the western home cook. For the main course, he made ramen with tea pickled eggs, gorgeous stuff.


I made dessert, a camp pud, an arctic baked alaskan roll with sour cherry icecream. A high risk dish  which I transported from Kilburn to Wandsworth, an hour away, terrified it would melt. People seemed to enjoy it. The recipe for this will be in the book.

Dinner at Vijay, Willesden Lane:
Kilburn is not great for restaurants. But Vijay is an exception, a southern Indian restaurant at the beginning of Willesden Lane. I went there on a Saturday night with my sister and daughter, it was packed. The food is all freshly made and the sheer vivacity of the flavours bear testament to that. That’s all I ask of a restaurant really, that it be freshly cooked. Try the uthapam, a Southern Indian spicy crumpet thing. My recipe for it is here. 

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Comments

  1. caramelnibbles

    March 31, 2014 at 2:27 pm

    I'm going to have to check out this Vijay restaurant. Are there other favourite indian restaurants of yours in London? Perhaps you could do a blog post on this.

    Reply
    • Kerstin Rodgers

      March 31, 2014 at 11:53 pm

      I love your user name! I can think of three off the top of my head: Trishna, Vijay and Tayyabs

      Reply
  2. Helen

    March 31, 2014 at 8:18 pm

    I am so happy that you won this, it sounds amazing. Again, happy Birthday Sienna! Also, yes, dentists are that rich.

    Reply
    • Kerstin Rodgers

      March 31, 2014 at 11:53 pm

      Thanks Helen. Wow. I did spend all the money my nan left me on 3 implants so maybe they are.

      Reply
  3. Vanessa Lantigua

    April 4, 2014 at 6:17 am

    Oh that hotel sounds like a dream!!! Glad you enjoyed

    Reply

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MsMarmiteLover aka Kerstin Rodgers.

Chef, photographer, author, journalist, blogger. Pioneer of the supperclub movement.

This is my food and travel blog, with recipes, reviews and travel stories. I also stray into politics, feminism, gardening.

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Kerstin Rodgers/MsMarmiteLover
My next supper club 17th June london tickets £50 My next supper club 17th June london tickets £50 BYO book here: https://msmarmitelover.com/product/midsummer-supper-club-tickets-june-17th #london #supperclub #msmarmitelover #midsummer
For tonight’s event I had to push the boundaries For tonight’s event I had to push the boundaries. Here is how to prepare goose neck barnacles or percebes which are a very expensive and rare delicacy, hunted down from cliffs. It’s quite dangerous to forage them. #canapes #eventcatering #satanicfood #percebes #grossfood #seafood #devilsfood
Midsummer supperclub 17th June book tickets here h Midsummer supperclub 17th June book tickets here https://msmarmitelover.com/product/midsummer-supper-club-tickets-june-17th at London’s pioneering supper club. Tickets £50 BYO. Scandinavian inspired summery food. #supperclub #msmarmitelover #midsummer #northwestlondon #londonevents #popups
Tina sweating through a gig at Brixton academy cir Tina sweating through a gig at Brixton academy circa 1987 pic: kerstin Rodgers #rip #tinaturner #rockphotographer #kerstinrodgers #teenagephotographer
Attended an incredible talk with @frenchpete_1 on Attended an incredible talk with @frenchpete_1 on war photography in the Ukraine . Go to the exhibition @thebppa @thebargehouse in SE1 last few days 
Had to stop filming cos I was told off. The photographers would be less forthcoming if they were filmed I was told. 
Anyway @frenchpete_1 should be followed by a camera crew cos he’s a star.
For yesterdays lunch I made a blue cheese puff pas For yesterdays lunch I made a blue cheese puff pastry quiche and a little one with less blue cheese & no salt for my 7 month old granddaughter. She absolutely loved it. I’m enjoying seeing her experience and explore new foods with baby led weaning. Avocado, strawberries, kiwi & buttered crumpets are a hit. Pasta less so. Who is this child? Are we even related? #babyledweaning #quiche #homemadepuffpastry
Nice to be featured as The Great Read in The natio Nice to be featured as The Great Read in The national newspaper again. These are the stories I love to do: I go off on an adventure, take my time, interview people (especially women), photograph them in their environment and create recipes on site. This story cost me a lot more than I made as I had an accident and lost my excess. My own damn fault though! Loved loved loved having a campervan. Thanks for lending me it @camperdays.international and sorry about the hole in the side.  https://www.thenational.scot/news/23505593.foraging-seaweed-western-isles/
My terrace on a sunny May morning. The builders @l My terrace on a sunny May morning. The builders @lk.general.building left yesterday. They’ve been working since January. I had the awning installed, the encaustic Minton tiles removed and put back with green grout. The terrace was causing damp so this had to be done. My calamondin plant is looking lovely. The benches which I repaired with hard wood & I repainted using a mix of 2 colours. The marble table I bought in Suffolk at a car boot. Everything is still dusty & I’m waiting for the window cleaner to arrive.
Last but very heartfelt thankyou to @cideriswine f Last but very heartfelt thankyou to @cideriswine for their contribution of these beautiful dry ciders for the coronation street lunch. Gorgeously illustrated labels. #stcuthbertsrd #kilburn #london #cider #artisanaldrinks
When it comes to vodka I much prefer potato vodka. When it comes to vodka I much prefer potato vodka. It’s smoother. Artisanal distillery @devoncovevodka contributed some bottles to my coronation lunch which gave everyone a feeling of being at a classy party. Thanks so much. And also @rawfoodanddrink for arranging. If you want to read my blog post about how and why I organised this event, copy and paste this link: https://t.co/GWNNW2XKba #coronationstreetparty #biglunch #community #kilburn #london #forthepeoplebythepeople
I’ve been a fan of @luscombedrinks for years now I’ve been a fan of @luscombedrinks for years now. They sent a selection: elderflower bubbly, st. Clements orange 🍊 Sicilian lemonade, @belvoirfarm_uk lemonade, which were all delicious and just the tickets for the fortuitous mini-heatwave that occurred on the Sunday coronation lunch. #thankyou #community #coronation #streetparty #biglunch
Our street party. Double page spread in The Sun! T Our street party. Double page spread in The Sun! Tiny bit in the guardian. Decent pic in the Mail and The Star credit @asproider #coronationlunch #kilburn #stcuthbertsrd #kingscroftrd #fordwychrd #templarhouse
My coronation quiche with Broad beans, tarragon, s My coronation quiche with Broad beans, tarragon, spinach, cheddar. I used crème fraiche and blind baked puff pastry shells. I was up at 11 last night making these for todays street party, which featured in the mail, telegraph, mirror, metro courtesy of photographer Gavin Rodgers @asproider
Seaweed foraging at Spring tides in the Outer Hebr Seaweed foraging at Spring tides in the Outer Hebrides with @outerhebrideanforager Fi bird. She’s cutting sea spaghetti. I drove my campervan @camperdays.international from london to the Hebrides- using my gas stove to cook foraged and local ingredients. A real food safari. With the sea spaghetti I made a sea spag vongole with giant parlourdes picked up from the sand at the same time. Great fun, beautiful weather and, the day of the full moon, a wonderfully low tide. This was on south Uist.
More flavours, the flavour thesaurus is a plant-ba More flavours, the flavour thesaurus is a plant-based version of the original. Beautifully constructed, designed and written by @nikisegnit it’s vegetarian rather than vegan but recommended for both. She widens the sensory vocabulary around plant flavours in this book- encouraging new delicious sounding combinations. Now she includes new categories such as flower & meadow, caramel roasted, zesty roost- just the words make me salivate. #foodbooks #bookstagram #newbooks
Yesterday I attended @marmaladeawards @dalemainman Yesterday I attended @marmaladeawards @dalemainmansion I found out so much about marmalade. I’m going to make it this winter. I found out the worlds best maker is Japanese, in fact I was most impressed by the Japanese marmalades in general. Everyone wore orange. I must have tasted 50 marmalades. I met Paddington’s sister, karen jankel who is michael bond’s daughter, born in the same year as Paddington. She gave a charming talk on Paddington, mentioning how the queen insisted on having real marmalade sandwiches in her @launerlondonofficial handbag during the shoot. The house itself is Tudor and Georgian. I stayed in my campervan from @camperdays.international in the car park, cosy in the rain. Another freewheeling adventure. #yorkshire #marmalade #travel #food #ontheroad #campervan
I had a piece in @thetimes on Sunday about being a I had a piece in @thetimes on Sunday about being a vegetarian rather than a vegan. How I still need butter. And how restaurants & plane meals are now vegan rather than vegetarian. But, there are still more the double amount of vegetarians as vegans in the UK. I’ve written a vegan cookbook V is for vegan (link in bio) and am a big fan of vegan foods. I’ve not eaten meat for over 40 years. This is a sustainable diet, in terms of longevity. Vegans that I knew from the early noughties have reverted to meat eating. #newpuritanism? #vegetarian #vegan #foodwriter
Scrambled croft eggs (bright yellow yolks) with a Scrambled croft eggs (bright yellow yolks) with a seaweed that tastes just like truffle. Just done a little kelp foraging at low tide with @thetempleharris’ Amanda Saurin. Isle of Harris. Turquoise sea, white sand, cloud hovering just above. @camperdays.international @roosterpr
I went to Wembley in north west london to talk to I went to Wembley in north west london to talk to Sophie of @tobia.teff she uses the iron-rich, gluten free teff grain from her homeland Ethiopia. She showed me how to make injera, the Ethiopian flatbread which is fermented. She also talked about the coffee ceremony, 3 cups, which they pair with toasted barley or, currently, popcorn! I’d love to visit Ethiopia and find out more about their ancient food culture, history, 3.5k year old monarchy and religions.
Doing a spring budget recipe cooking demo for @bre Doing a spring budget recipe cooking demo for @brentcouncil Willesden library. I’ve been doing this a few times a year for the last few years. Wouldn’t it be great if they had a kitchen set up permanently. Libraries are community centres and could be used to teach how to cook from scratch.
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