We decided to resurrect the dinners this year after we became involved with local charity the Manna Society who run a day centre for the homeless in Bermondsey. They feed around 200 people a day, provide limited medical care, a mailing address, showers and toilets, education, and crucially, advice to help people back in to work and homes. Like all charities, they struggle with limited resources which impacts their ability to feed those who come through their doors hungry, as well as limiting other services. Our hosted dinners this year have the sole aim of raising as much money for Manna Society as possible.
In doing this we have had much help. First and foremost, James and Sandia have given huge amounts of time and energy to make this happen. As has always been the case with our dinners, the chefs volunteer their time and take no payment other than our heartfelt thanks and a beer at the end of service. Down the right hand side of this page are the banners and links through to our partners who have helped make the dinner happen and otherwise supported the charity. They are all great people and we thank them for giving so generously, we'll talk about them more below.
Special thank yous go to Fred Sirieix and Galvin at Windows, Alyn Williams at The Westbury and Jose Pizarro who all helped us package two fantastic auction seats that raised an amazing amount of money (thanks to all who bid too). With that said, we are delighted to announce that the dinner raised in total over £5,000, every penny of which goes to the Manna Society in helping London's homeless.
All the wonderful plates that you can see the food on were donated for the night by Goodfellows and all the cutlery supplied by Robert Welch.
Salmon eschews the expensive prime cuts for the belly, very fatty and therefore loaded with flavours. Smoked over woodchips, a twist of lime and sea salt is all that's needed here; if you've not had this before and see it on a menu, it's a must try. Scottish hand dived scallops return us to prime ingredients with a twist, here, beautiful wild strawberries, chopped dill and a lemon vinaigrette. Strawberries and scallops are a new combination to everyone round the table but they work fabulously well together, the strawberries adding a complimentary sweetness, but also acidic juices and additional textures to the very best quality scallops (also served raw).
Eel is next and is a little more daring. The eel is smoked, served with horseradish cream and garnished with the deep fried spine of the eel, the skin, and the cartilage. The deep fried spine is reminiscent of the anchovy bones also served deep fried at Can Roca, and adds a great crunch to the dish.
Finally, in this first section, there's whipped cod's roe and pig skins, the skins being the super light and crispy variety, having been dehydrated before frying.
Poached egg yolk on a seaweed salad with smoked scallop roes follows. The transition back to the sea is followed by Cornish oysters (River Fowey), butter poached turbot skirts, a medley of sea vegetables (supplied by Forager) and a sauce from the roasted bones of the turbot deglazed with wine and butter. Too excited by the food, I only realised I had not taken a picture of this dish once I had finished! This is followed by a fabulous Cornish John Dory and cauliflower (roasted, butter poached and raw) and amandine.
The two meat courses continue to build on the theme of the highest quality British ingredients. The venison is first and is special for the kitchen as James helped Cornish Game shoot this a week previously. It's served with radish, asparagus, sauce from the bones and Parmesan; most agree it is the best venison they have ever tasted: tender, moist and awesomely flavoured, it's hard to believe this is not a meat that is marbled with fat. Serving venison this good from a home kitchen is a remarkable achievement, a testament to supplier and chef.
The tenderness of the beef equally surprises everyone, the quality shines. It has been supplied by Warren's of Cornwall who undoubtedly supply some of the best meat in the UK - it's Warren's beef that we have previously raved about at both Alyn Williams at The Westbury and Pollen Street Social. The cut is Jacob's ladder, it's BBQ'd raw, then cooked for 10 hours at 80 degrees and served with onions, smoked bone marrow, pickled mushrooms and the jus. Once again it's a remarkable display of great produce meets perfect cooking; as a beef dish, it would stand up to any served up in any restaurant across the country. As GBM judges might say, it's a gold medal winner.
A trio of desserts finish up: olive oil panna cotta with roasted rhubarb; pear cake, raw sliced pair, dehydrated liquorice, liquorice ice cream and sweet cicely; finally, a Baileys bon bon. All were fabulous. The ice cream was prepared using the Pacojet kindly donated for the night by ChefTools.
While Bubbledogs& opens soon, at the time of the dinner James, unlike other chefs who have cooked here, had no offsite facilities for preparation. Trishna Restaurant generously helped out in this resepct, but it also meant that the kitchen team were here much of the weekend for prep. The amount of hard work undertaken by everyone, all the attention to detail, was simply astonishing, we cannot thank them enough; we felt privileged to watch and help out where we could.
James's food is undoubtedly fantastic and Sandia is the perfect front of house; Bubbledogs& is going to be a remarkable addition to the London food scene when it opens later this year, currently expected to be July. The meal also highlighted how blessed the UK is for great food stuffs. All the main ingredients used were British: Scottish & Cornish seafood, Cornish and Devon meats, British veg (supplied by Tayshaw and natoora). And when great ingredients are placed in the hands of a master chef, this is what results.
The night was the result of many contributions, all so generous, our thanks again. The evening will for sure make a difference to hundreds of London's homeless. After the event was publicised on Twitter, we received an email from a chef which we will leave as appropriate final words:
Just over 4 years ago I found myself to be in the situation where I was too proud and too stubborn to ask for help even though I was in the most need of it!!! Due to being made unemployed for reasons of the economic crisis that was happening, I found my self homeless and in hard times to extents I never imagined but due to help from certain people who want to remain unknown I was able to piece my life slowly back together, it hasn't been easy or straight forward but today I stand with a determination more than ever to succeed and with your help many more people will have this chance! So with greatest respect to all of you please raise awareness to the homeless problem that not only affects our industry but can help so many more like my self thank you.
On Twitter, follow:
James Knappett - @jamesknappett
Sandia Chang - @watermelonchang
Bubbledogs& - @bubbledogsuk
Quality pictures
Food photographer Thomas Bowles captured the evening - view pictures here