The Chefs' Forum: Inspiring the next Generation

Scott Goss from The Twenty Six at The Chefs' Forum lunch at The Yarrow Hotel

The Yarrow Hotel at East Kent College was the latest venue to host a Chefs’ Lunch to raise vital funds for The Chefs’ Forum Educational Foundation. The assembled chefs and industry experts had the chance to sit back and relax for a change as they tucked into a delicious ‘Pay as You Can’ lunch which raised over £1400 to support 14-25 year olds entering the hospitality industry.

The Chefs’ Lunch gave hospitality students at the college the opportunity to work with some of the best chefs in the country and an impressive number of East Kent College alumni were present, showing their support for the college and The Chefs’ Forum Educational Foundation.

The meal began with Scott Goss (The Twenty Six) cooking a dish of pigeon tartare, apple and foie gras. The fish course  of mackerel with beetroot and horseradish by Will Devlin from No Fixed Abode, followed. Cooking the main course was Bobby Brown of The Kentish Hare with a breast of duck with potato fondant, celeriac and Roscoff onion. Masterchef: The Professionals finalist Petrus Madutlela created a pre-dessert of buttermilk and calamansi iced parfait, white chocolate and baobab, influenced by his South African heritage. John Bingley of the Hythe Imperial Hotel rounded-off lunch with a lemon tart.

Scott commented: “It was a pleasure to be back in my old college and to be able to share some of my skills and knowledge with these young people.  The future of the industry depends on these students and based on the talent I saw today, I am very impressed.”

Founder of The Chefs’ Forum Catherine Farinha said: “The Chefs’ Forum was created with the aim of making a positive change in the hospitality industry. It aims to connect chefs with education, suppliers with chefs and education with suppliers to help the industry unite and work towards the shared goal of showcasing the incredible talent we have here in industry whilst raising money for young chefs via The Chefs’ Forum Educational Foundation."

Photography credit to www.kentfoodphotographer.co.uk

The Chefs’ Forum holds 36 chef events a year across 9 regions.  Its main objective is to bridge the gap between education and industry, bringing together top chefs, hospitality students and market-leading suppliers to trade.

All the pies from a pastry obsessive

Calum Franklin, executive chef at Holborn Dining Room, Rosewood London

Calum Franklin, executive chef at Holborn Dining Rooms, Rosewood Hotel, at The Twenty Six

Calum Franklin from Holborn Dining Room at Rosewood Hotel, London is guest chef at The Twenty Six on Sunday, 3 December. Calum’s pies - which have fair claim to the biggest restaurant Instagram sensation in London - are the work of a man obsessed with pastry and will be main emphasis of his menu at The Twenty Six. The menu includes White Pudding and Mangalitsa Scotch Egg; Rabbit & Bacon Pâté en Croûte; Lobster Thermidor Tart; Braised Octopus, Chorizo Aioli; Squab Pithivier; 50 day dry-aged Beef Wellington and for dessert, Lemon Tart.

Drawing on a wealth of culinary experience, Calum worked at a variety of renowned restaurants before taking the position of Executive Chef at Holborn Dining Room. His career began at Michelin-star restaurant, Chapter One in Kent. It was here he learnt the fundamentals of cooking and developed his culinary knowledge.

Calum has focused on British cuisine for the last eight years and in doing so, it has become his speciality. He is passionate about using the best produce the country has to offer and feels strongly that British food needs to be championed so that diners “can be wowed by ingredients as well as cooking.” In the industry Calum has become recognized for his work in pastry, crafting pâté en croûte, savoury pies and seasonal offerings at Holborn Dining Room. Rosewood London won Best London Hotel 2017 at the GQ Food & Drink awards and recently launched The Pie Room, adjacent to the main dining space, which will sell fresh pies to passers-by via an open street-side hatch. Calum is also launching weekly pie making masterclasses in April 2018.

Calum’s 6 course menu at The Twenty Six is £60 per person and will be served in one sitting for dinner on a long communal table to 26 guests. Guests to arrive at 7.30 for drinks to be seated for dinner at 8pm. Reservations are open on www.thetwenty-six.co.uk or call The Twenty Six on 01892 544607 to book. A deposit will be taken at the time of booking.

Calum’s event is the last in a series of guest chef events during 2017, which has also included Gareth Ward from Ynyshir Restaurant and Rooms, Wales and Luke Richardson from Wreckfish, Liverpool. A new series for 2018 will be announced in the new year.

www.holborndiningroom.com

Wreckfish at The Twenty Six

Gary Usher and Luke Richardson from Wreckfish, Liverpool

Luke Richardson, head chef of Wreckfish, is cooking an 8-course guest chef menu at The Twenty Six on Sunday, 19 November.  

Wreckfish is the much anticipated fourth restaurant in Gary Usher's Sticky Walnut group, a former derelict building in Liverpool, that was renovated with a £200,000 crowdfunding campaign. The restaurant launched in late October 2017, with dishes such as caramelised pork cutlet with chorizo; cashel blue arancini with port poached pears; pan roast skate wing with brown butter dressing and gin cured trout with pomegranate molasses. Desserts include salted caramel tart; marmalade sponge and a matcha tea mousse.

Luke began his career with Gary Usher in 2013, where he worked his way up to head chef of Sticky Walnut and now at Wreckfish. During Luke’s time at Sticky Walnut they were named the AA Guide’s Restaurant of the Year and are regularly listed in The Sunday Times Top 100 Restaurants.

Cooking alongside Simon Ulph, head chef at The Swan Wine Kitchen and Scott Goss, head chef at The Twenty Six, Luke’s eight-course menu is £60 per person and will be served in one sitting for dinner on a long communal table to 26 guests.

Baguette
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Chicken wing and melon
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Moroccan mackerel
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Skate, brown butter, cabbage
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Lamb rump, burnt onion and Shichimi Togarashi
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Comte 24
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Toasted Porter
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Salted caramel tart

Reservations are open on www.thetwenty-six.co.uk or call 01892 544607 to book. A deposit will be taken at the time of booking. As this is a special dinner the restaurant is unable to cater for dietary requirements. Guests are to arrive at 7.30 for drinks to be seated for dinner at 8pm. Further events in The Twenty Six guest chef series include Calum Franklin from Holborn Dining Room, Rosewood Hotel, London on 3 December.

Toasted Porter

Ynyshir Restaurant and Rooms at The Twenty Six

Gareth Ward, chef patron at Ynyshir Restaurant and Rooms, Wales

Welsh ingredients, landscape and locality

Gareth Ward, chef Patron of Ynyshir Restaurant and Rooms is cooking a nine-course tasting menu at The Twenty Six, Tunbridge Wells, Kent on Sunday, 17 September.

Tucked away between the golden sands of Borth Beach and the rugged mountains of Snowdonia National Park, Wales, Ynyshir is a Michelin star, four AA rosette restaurant with rooms, and is number 12 in The Good Food Guide 2018. Gareth’s menus reflect seasonal availability of Welsh and British ingredients from both sea and land, including Dyfi Valley Welsh lamb, wild deer, duck and partridge, foraged sea herbs at Ynyslas beach and wild garlic in the Cumbrian mountains. The kitchen garden provides a bounty of herbs and vegetables throughout the year.

Ynyshir is about landscape and locality and the driving force in Gareth’s food is flavour. His menus take the guest through clearings and forests, sea and beach, mountain and pasture. It is seasonal in the traditional sense - using ingredients when they are ready and pickling or fermenting, salting or preserving to carry the kitchen through winter and into Spring. Cooking at The Twenty Six, Gareth and his team will create a dining experience to showcase Ynyshir, that takes guests on a creative journey through Wales and the British Isles.

Gareth’s nine-course tasting menu at The Twenty Six is £60 per person and will be served in one sitting for dinner on a long communal table to 26 guests. Guests to arrive at 7.30 for drinks, to be seated for dinner at 8pm.

Reservations are open on www.thetwenty-six.co.uk or call Jenny Cook on 01892 519882 to book. A £20 deposit will be taken at the time of booking.

Further events in The Twenty Six guest chef series include Nathan Eades, Simpsons on 22 October; Luke Richardson, Sticky Walnut on 19 November and Calum Franklin, Holborn Dining Room on 3 December.

An early Autumn feast

I ate all of this in about 5 minutes.

Black treacle pork chop, black pudding crumble and pickled blackberries

When the lovely folk at Good Things magazine asked for an Autumn recipe from The Twenty Six, Scott Goss knew immediately what he wanted to cook. Being the dedicated publicist I am, I volunteered to help on the shoot. Anyone who knows me really knows that my dedication is a thin disguise for 'gimme that plate of food'. It's so good and easy to make at home and is already a firm favourite.

This is a hearty, family style dish with big flavours. Add a big bowl of mash (celeriac maybe?), a decent bottle of wine (Australian Pinot Gris for me please) or more of the Kent cider and this is a delicious and slightly different take on a Sunday roast.

Serves 2 (but can be easily scaled up)

2 bone-in pork chops, roughly 300g each. Ask your butcher to remove the skin
100g black pudding, cubed
75g cobnuts (or hazelnuts), roasted, skinned and roughly chopped
50g pumpkin seeds
5 or 6 large sage leaves
2 tablespoons black treacle
2 tablespoons wholegrain mustard
75g blackberries
50ml cabernet sauvignon vinegar
4 shallots, skin on, halved lengthways
300ml cider
Tablespoon of butter

Method:

The night before, or 24 hours in advance, mix the blackberries and cabernet sauvignon vinegar together and leave to pickle.

Rub the skin for the crackling in rapeseed oil and salt and blister in a hot oven at 210 degrees for 20 mins. Turn the temperature down to 120 degrees for a further 2 hours.

When ready to eat, season the chops and fry in a hot pan until golden brown on both sides. Put in the oven at 160 degrees for 12 minutes for medium.

Mix the black treacle and wholegrain mustard together and spread on the chops while still hot from the oven. Rest for 10 mins.

For a simple gravy, deglaze the roasting tray with the cider and reduce by two thirds and finish with a tablespoon of butter. Check seasoning and keep warm.

Leaving the skin on, cut the shallot in half lengthways. In a non-stick pan with a little rapeseed oil, char the cut side of the shallot until blackened. Flip over and cook for a further minute. Turn off the heat and let the shallot cook in the residual pan heat.

Chop or crumble the black pudding and fry in a little rapeseed oil in a hot pan until crispy. Add the chopped cobnuts or hazelnuts and the pumpkin seeds to lightly toast. Tear in the sage leaves, crisping in the black pudding oil for a further minute.

To plate:

Pile the black pudding crumble on top of the black treacle chop with the crackling, roast shallot and pickled blackberries on the side and a spoonful of cider roasting juices.

Japanese desserts

Smoked Chocolate Pave by James Campbell in Japanese Patisserie

Guest chef lunch with Japanese flavours
 

The concept of fusion in food can be magical - when cuisines and cultures collide, combining flavours, ingredients and methods from around the world, creating new classics, the best of which become staples in our everyday lives. Pâtisserie master, James Campbell will be cooking a selection of desserts and petit four from his new book Japanese Pâtisserie at The Twenty Six on Sunday 23 July. The book and menu is a stimulation to the senses with a range of delicious and contemporary pâtisserie with a Japanese twist using ingredients such as yuzu, sesame, miso, matcha and wasabi.

Michel Roux OBE, describes James as ‘a simply stunning pastry chef’.

James Campbell has worked as a chef in Michelin-starred establishments across the world. In London, he was Head Pastry Chef at Gary Rhodes’ Michelin-starred restaurant and the award-winning Mandarin Oriental Hotel. It is in his current position as Product Development Manager for Marks & Spencer, that James’ passion for Japanese culture and ingredients truly developed through research and in-depth visits to Tokyo and Osaka. James was recently a semi-finalist in BBC Two’s Bake Off: Crème de la Crème.

Tickets for James’s guest chef lunch are £45 for 6 courses including a glass of dessert wine and available online at www.thetwenty-six.co.uk or calling 01892 544607.

Summer salad

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Poached salmon, cucumber and brined kohlrabi

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Tea-smoked duck

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Sancho peppercorn & strawberry eton mess with matcha meringues and yuzu

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Smoked chocolate pave with yuzu, miso and chocolate soil

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Sesame peanut cookies
Matcha madeleines with pink peppercorns and frais de bois
Caramelised miso and chocolate truffles

Desserts are served with a glass of Salice Salentino Aleatico Dolce (Candido, 2010)

Japanese Pâtisserie is by James Campbell (Ryland Peters & Small, £16.99) and photography by Mowie Kay.

Cabrito Sunday Lunch Club at The Twenty Six

James Whetlor from Cabrito Goat Meat

Roast Leg of Kid for Sunday lunch

Each month, the I'll be Mother group hosts the mother of all roasts, with the menu reflecting the quality and provenance of one beautiful piece of meat.

On 21 May, James Whetlor from ethical goat meat supplier Cabrito, is hosting the Sunday Lunch Club at The Twenty Six. Former River Cottage chef James has won an Observer Food Monthly Award for Best Ethical Producer, Good Housekeeping’s Champion Meat Producer, is a finalist in BBC Radio 4’s Food and Farming Awards and recently appeared on Channel 4’s Hidden Restaurants with Michel Roux Jnr.

On the table, head chef Scott Goss has created a menu full of new spring ingredients and roast leg of kid goat. Kid is similar to spring lamb and has a delicate, sweet and musky flavour. It is a strong enough flavour to stand up to the spice and heat of Middle-Eastern and North African recipes, but subtle enough to respond brilliantly to the herbs, garlic, wine and lemon of European cookery.

Snack

Kid faggot, artichoke and wild garlic crumb

To start

Kent asparagus roasted on Kentish cherry wood
Morels, cured egg yolk, aged parmesan

To follow

Leg of Kid goat, broad beans, confit shallots and lemon
Ratatouille, kid pomme anna, thyme gravy

To finish

Flavours of sherry trifle
Pistachio sponge, panna cotta, raspberry and sherry ice cream

Coffee and Chocolates

Places are £40 each and also include wine paired with the goat. Call 01892 544607 to book or visit the website. Sign up to I'll be Mother's Sunday Lunch Club newsletter to be the first to know about new date #SundayLunchClub

Scott Goss, one of the UK's most influential chefs

Pleased as punch that Scott Goss, Chef Patron at The Twenty Six, part of the I'll be Mother group of restaurants in Kent has been included in food and travel magazine Olive's list of most influential chefs in the UK and 'one's to watch' in 2017.

The Twenty Six is my test kitchen. There are no rules. 

Scott's food is deceptively simple, big on flavour and technique, with a passion for ingredients and integrity. There's always a surprise of something unexpected or untried before. He's a big talent and one I'm sure the Michelin inspectors are looking at very closely!

See Olive's full list in their January issue or see this link.

One to watch. Grab a table while you can!

Guest chef supper series at The Twenty Six

Scott Goss, Chef Patron of The Twenty Six, is to host a series of supper clubs with guest chefs, who all have strong connections to Kent. Andrew Clarke of acclaimed restaurant Brunswick House, London, will cook the first supper with Scott on Thursday 13th October.

Scott and Andrew, with a shared passion for fresh flavours, colours and seasonal produce, will each cook 3 courses for a 6 course menu, including a cheese course and paired wines. Tickets for this exclusive, one-off event are £60 and can be purchased by calling The Twenty Six on 01892 544607 or www.thetwenty-six.co.uk.

The 6 course menu will also have an accompanying wine flight, included in the price.

Cep and bone marrow gougères (AC)
Gruner Veltriner Yealands Estate, New Zealand

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Raw salmon, devilled crab, cucumber and sea rosemary (SG)
Herdade Do Rocim Amphora, Portugal (white)

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Salsify, razor clam, fennel, trompette, radish (AC)
Herdade Do Rocim Amphora, Portugal (red)

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Goatober faggots, parsnip, burnt butter, Cornish ale gravy (SG)
Cote du Rhone La Petit Caboche, France

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14 day-aged Challans duck, green olives, red chicory, mint (AC)
Barbaresco Conti Speroni, Italy

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Malt ice cream, espresso stout affogato (AC)
Pedro Ximénez, Spain

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Chocolates and a night cap (SG)

Andrew and Scott have known each other for over 10 years. Both favour British food with European and other worldly influences with an emphasis on flavour, colour and texture. Andrew is now Chef Director of Brunswick House, situated in Lassco, an antique dealers and architectural reclamation yard in Vauxhall, South London. Previously Head Chef at Salt Yard and more recently Rita’s Bar and Dining, Andrew’s food is bold, fresh and full of character. London restaurant critic Fay Maschler described a dining experience at Brunswick House as ‘Like a treasure hunt with clues, a piece of music with reflective melodies or a tapestry with tight intricate stitches, the menu is woven together in a way that is enticing and also sensible.”

Further dates and chefs in The Twenty Six series to be confirmed in due course.