Readers of our blog will know that we have been huge fans of Simon and his food since we first ate at L'enclume in 2011and we were absolutely delighted when Simon agreed to cook one of our charity dinners. Simon and all of his team gave their time without charge to support Manna Society, a Bermondsey based charity that provides a day centre for the homeless, feeding around 200 people every day of the year as well as providing basic help and medical care. Due to the generosity of many people and organisations, the dinner raised over £8,000 for Manna making a world of difference in the help they can provide to those in need.
As before, we auctioned two seats over Twitter for the dinner, and our thanks to the following who helped us put together some magnificent packages: The Ledbury and Pollen Street Social for tables at their restaurants, Le Manoir and the Raymond Blanc Cookery School for donating a prize and Infusions 4 Chefs for offering a fun filled day of molecular wizardry, Richard Vines of Bloomberg for volunteering to take our winners for a guest review and Inka Grill for sponsoring a dinner at The Church Green by Aiden Byrne. We remain massively grateful to Glenfarclas whisky and Dom Perignon who have supported the dinners from the start and continue to do so.
We must also say a hug thanks to Goodfellows who supplied all the plates for the evening, they can be seen in the pictures below how beautiful they are, and Robert Welch for supplying the cutlery.
And as immensely talented as Simon is, these events are never one man projects. Joining Simon in the kitchen was Dan Cox, Roux Scholar, farmer, chef; Kevin Tickle, sous chef from L'enclume, and from London, the Roganic kitchen team of Andy and Matt. Roganic were also represented front of house with Richard Cossins and James.
There were two other special things about the evening's food and proceedings. First, all the veg that was being served had been taken from L'enclume's own farm in Cumbria. Simon and Dan had picked the veg from the ground on Saturday morning and driven it down themselves. Dan as noted has charge of the farm and therefore had planted this, nurtured it, picked it, prepped it and cooked it - the ultimate in vertical integration. Second, Simon likes to be as close to the diners as possible to provide yet stronger links to the food and that saw us bring the kitchen out the kitchen so to speak, creating a pass next to the dining table as well as workstations with water-baths, a Pacojet, induction stoves and a liquid nitrogen display right there in front of guests. Brave, and very special.
The other amuses were equally brilliant and included a crab and potato ball in crispy pork fat, a stunning looking mushroom bread, a gingerbread sandwich 'buttered' on one side with spiced strawberry jelly, on the other a tarragon mayonnaise, and the middle filling being a semifreddo of bay leaf and rapeseed oil. And as if this weren't enough treats to start, there's a poached oyster and chicken liver parfait too.
For some, the next dish is one of the real highlights, mackerel in coal oil. The coal oil intrigues, Simon explains that it's achieved by pouring oil over red hot coals allowing the oil to infuse with the coals to give a smoky barbecue flavour. Simon uses this on a number of meats and it recently featured paired with beef tongue at Roganic. The quality of the veg really comes through here also with the own farm peas noticeably contributing to the dish, as does the mustard like dittander.
It's impossible to communicate in the post just how much hard work went in to making this meal happen but our sincere thanks to Simon and his team and all the sponsors who contributed to the success of the night. The evening, without doubt will make a difference to hundreds of people supported by Manna Society over many months to come.
If you want to try Simon Rogan's food, Roganic continues to deliver an amazing food experience Tuesday to Saturday while a trip to Cartmel Cumbria will be rewarded with food perfection at L'enclume. If you want a similar experience to the dinner above, consider dining at Aulis where Dan Cox will cook you a meal right in front of you allowing you to enjoy a very personal and up close experience.
For a personal view of what's going on in all of the above you can also follow Simon Rogan on Twitter @simon_rogan