If I'm on TV, cooking at a restaurant, appearing at a food festival, talking at or even simply attending an event - or I've got an article published (either by me or about me), here's where you'll find out more.
Alex takes a few hours away from The Hole in the Wall to appear on BBC Radio Cambridgeshire and talk food, cooking and Masterchef with Antonia Brickell
Listen Again (until Tuesday 1st November)
I cannot believe I am writing this blog post. To make the leap from aspiring food writer to Masterchef finalist was really quite something but this might just top it.
I’ve got a restaurant. Maybe it will help things sink in if that is repeated.
I have my very own restaurant. And what a restaurant it is.
The Hole in the Wall in the delightful village of Little Wilbraham, just outside Cambridge, is about as picture perfect as an old pub can be and I love it.
12 months ago my business partner and I had reached an impasse. Our grand plans to open a place of our own had hit a snag or two and we consoled ourselves with a pub lunch at a beautiful rural free house. As we sat outside, the sunshine and ale soothing our ills, we idled as to why we were having such a hard time finding a home for our cooking and how wonderful it would be if ‘we could just find a place like this’.
A year, and many more impasses later, we have found it. We’ve got a kitchen and a dining room of our very own – a home for the dishes that up until now had only been sketches and drawings and synapses firing through our brains. We’ve got a pub and open fires and wooden beams and a snug (a snug!) and all the things that make you smile when you picture an old English ale house.
Right now there is a minor refurbishment going on, a few licks of paint here and some elbow grease there, before we get into the kitchen and start doing what I’ve been desperate to do since I was 15 years old. But the doors will be open. Soon. The bar – which will be home to hearty and wholesome plates of deliciousness – is opening on July 12th. The restaurant – where I’ll be letting the imagination run wild (blue cheese ice cream might even make it onto the menu!) – will be ready just two days later.
It would be wonderful to have as many blog readers dining with us as possible over the next few weeks and as a thank you to all of you and the support you have shown since I started penning these missives five years ago, if you mention the blog when booking there will be a little treat waiting for you when you take your seat. Maybe something a little cold and fizz – you’ve earned it.
So it is with great pride I now declare booking open. You’ll probably want a telephone number won’t you? 01223 812282. I can’t wait to meet you all. Big hugs and enormous thanks.
Oh, and the name of the pub we sat outside on that frustrating summer afternoon 12 long months ago? Where we mused how wonderful it would be to have a place ‘just like this’? It was called The Hole in the Wall in the quaint Cambridgeshire village of Little Wilbraham. It’s funny how things work out.
I am delighted to announce that in July I will be opening my first restaurant in Cambridge.
Full details will be released on June 30th but in the mean time for mailing list and priority bookings please send an email to bookings@alexrushmer.com
So, it’s been a while.
Life took a turn for the busy and now it’s April. Already. There’s been a lot of cooking: a tasting menu for a shoal of pescetarians. A supper club for 40 cooked entirely on an Aga (and a barbecue once we realised the hot plate couldn’t get hot enough to sear the meat). Receipe writing for a new magazine. And plenty of menu development for Project X which is nearing completion.
Project X is currently top secret but involves a permanent home for my food after a year of searching. It would seem that finding a restaurant isn’t that easy but please do watch this space for a hugely, massively, wonderfully, brilliantly, tremendously exciting announcement in the very near future. You, dear readers, will be the first to know.
But for now, how about a recipe?
The soufflé has developed a reputation for being a nefarious and tricksy little devil, prone to collapsing in a manner that only Didier Drogba could improve upon. Myths surrounding the making of soufflés abound: don’t underwhip the whites. Don’t overwhip the whites. Don’t beat too cautiously. Don’t fold too vigorously. Don’t open the oven door. Don’t undercook. Don’t overcook. Don’t bother. Just don’t.
The reality is rather different. The making of soufflés has now become something of a minor obsession thanks largely to a chapter devoted to the topic in Raymond Blanc’s brilliant memoir A Taste of my Life – a great read for the culinary minded.
Once the basic technique has been mastered you can play around with near infinite flavour combinations, a method employed by the great Peter Kromberg who took the art of combining egg yolks and whipped egg white to a whole new level.
This recipe is a riff on the timeless ‘rhubarb and custard’ combination and is a great way to utilise the fresh sour flavour of the stem, which is cropping up in farm shops with increasing regularity now that the season is in full swing.
Make more than you think you can possibly get through because, and this is the best bit, once made they can be frozen. Uncooked, they will happily sit in the freezer just waiting to be popped in the oven where they will rise up like a glorious revolutionary hoard. A near instant dessert that carries with it a measure of mystique.
Start by stewing some rhubarb down with some brown sugar. Taste as you go – balancing the acidity of rhubarb can be a tricky task. Reduce to a consistency that means it needs a tough tap to encourage it to fall from a spoon when you stir it. Too runny and the soufflé mix will become sodden.
The next job is to make a crème pâtissière – a good skill in of itself due to the versatility of this particular custard. Add the seeds from a vanilla pod to 250ml milk and bring to a gentle boil over a low heat. Whisk together three egg yolks with 25g caster sugar until the mixture has doubled in volume and taken on a pale colour then whisk in 40g plain flour.
Pour the warm milk over the egg yolk mix, whisking all the time, then return the whole lot to a clean pan and cook over a gentle heat until the custard begins to thicken – you should be looking to take it to a temperature of about 75 degrees at which point the proteins in the egg yolk coagulate and the starches in the flour are activated.
Stir the stewed rhubarb into the custard and set aside in a warm place. Whisk four egg whites to medium peaks – a tiny splash of vinegar helps to stabilise the foam – and gradually add 50g caster sugar until you end up with something the consistency of soft meringue.
Stir a large spoonful of the egg white into the custard to lighten the mix and make it easier to incorporate it back into the whisked egg whites then, working quite quickly and assertively, fold the custard mix into the egg white.
Prepare some oven proof ramekins by brushing melted butter around the insides and coating with caster sugar. Spoon the soufflé mix into each one and level off the top with a spatula. Run a thumb or finger around the inside of the rim of each ramekin to release the mixture from the side and ensure it rises evenly then either pop in the freezer or cook in a preheated oven (200 degrees C) for about 10 minutes (depends on the size of your ramekins). A bit of trial and error is all it takes. Garnish with a thin slice of dehydrated rhubarb and serve with crème chantilly and more stewed rhubarb.
For the next two days Alex will be appearing at the BBC Good Food Show Scotland at the SECC in Glasgow – he’ll be demonstrating some culinary skills alongside Tim Kinnaird, Dhruv Baker, Lisa Faulkner and the rest of the Masterchef team.
“Join us in celebrating Scotland’s rich food heritage at the BBC Good Food Show Scotland. Packed with celebrity chefs (including Gordon Ramsay, James Martin, Tom Kitchin and Michael Caines), a tempting variety of local produce and plenty of entertainment including the arrival of MasterChef.
Don’t miss the Scotland Food and Drink Regional Village where you’ll find Scottish producers from the Highlands & Islands, to the South West and East to West, offering distinctive produce from these areas with a rich variety of fish, meat, game and fresh vegetables.”
If you’re nearby, pop along and say hello!
Click here for the Masterchef Live timetable of events
Sometimes the created memory is more powerful and endearing than the actual. Just over 12 months ago three recent friends were enjoying cool Indian beers in the thick air of a Rajasthani evening. It had been an intense few days culminating in the cooking of a banquet for a Maharajah.
Not bad for three amateur chefs whose escapades had been caught on camera and six months later would be relayed to over 8 million people via the medium of television.
Here is where things begin to get a little blurry around the edges. Perhaps it is because of the surreality of what came before – and after – but more likely it was the beer and the exhaustion. The true extent of the blanks that my little mind has filled in will never be known but that doesn’t matter. Even if what I remember may be partly imagined, what transpired as a result of it is real. Very real indeed.
I’m fairly certain it was Dhruv who first suggested it: ‘No matter which one of us wins, shall we do a pop-up restaurant?’
The enthusiasm of the consensus may have been partly alcohol fuelled but it was defiantly certain. Whatever the end result, there would be a Masterchef Finalists’ pop-up restaurant.
Without wishing to speak for the others, the image that then filled my mind was one of a short stint in a small eatery somewhere with a few dedicated fans of the show keen to taste a smattering of the dishes that had wowed John and Gregg. We would cobble together a menu, cook it ourselves for a few days and perhaps please a couple of hundred people in the process.
If someone had said at that point that we would take over a central London location, sell out twice over for two weeks solid and feed close to 150 people each night with a full brigade of chefs – the whole thing relayed to the dining room via live video link – I would have smiled gamely and called for the men in white coats.
We are now halfway through that precise scenario.
Just over 18 months ago I was cooking for friends and family and waiting to see if I’d made the cut to appear on the show. I was a struggling freelance food writer who thought he was OK when it came to cooking. I was tutoring history and politics to supplement the meagre income I was earning from writing.
And now? Now I’m doing all the things that not long ago were just daydreams.
It’s still strange to think that the food we created now comprises an entire menu in a Soho restaurant. It’s still strange to walk out into a packed dining room and see photographs of us on the walls. It’s still strange to meet people who have travelled from near and far to eat our food. It’s still strange to see a kitchen brigade cooking the dishes that before now had just been, for most people, pixels on a TV screen.
With the heat from the burners clawing its way into your back and the blisters from burns aching every time you grasp something, there are few moments of quiet reflection. But when they come they are populated by thoughts of serene and distant satisfaction, an almost out of body experience that suggests it isn’t really me that has done it all or that there must have been some mistake along the way. Perhaps this is some odd fantasy and in fact there is a normal day job waiting for me when I open my eyes…
And then the ticker jumps into life again, another check curls off the roll and you realise that there are is a whole restaurant full of hungry diners who won’t get fed whilst you’re reflecting on the clarity and reality of your good fortune. Ça Marche!
Feedback
The response to the pop-up has been truly amazing. ‘Best menu I’ve seen since the Fat Duck,’ said one diner. ‘Good food doesn’t get better than this – food heaven’ effused another. Twitter, too has been lighting up with compliments like a Christmas tree and there have been numerous requests for recipes. For now at least those are top secret but how about something just as quirky and ultra seasonal? Sound OK? Good. In that case I’ll head back into the kitchen and start cooking a quince tatin…recipe to follow shortly.
It is with great excitement that I can reveal the details of the inaugural Cambridge Cookery School Supper Club.
On October 21st I’ll be cooking a specially designed menu, complete with wine matches on the theme ‘parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme’. Precise details are a little secret but the menu has been finalised as follows:
Rosemary shortbread, goats cheese, fig and honey
Scallops, parsley, mushroom and bacon
Pheasant, sage, beetroot and butternut squash
Chocolate and thyme
As well as the promise of an excellent dinner I will be on hand to answer any questions you may have, talk you through the courses as they’re being cooked and offer some neat tips and tricks along the way.
Places are strictly limited so be quick. To book your seat click here…
Breaking news: It’s here at last – The Masterchef pop-up restaurant has been finalised and is coming to London. From 5th-16th October we’ll be taking over the kitchens at Meza in the heart of Soho and cooking up the best dishes from the series. Dhruv will be behind the stove for the whole run and myself and Tim will join him for service 7th-9th and 14-16th. Special guest chefs – all Masterchef alumni – will be announced shortly. To book your table click here. Look forward to seeing you there!
I’m really pleased to announce that from October I will be teaching a series of classes at the Cambridge Cookery School which is moving into a brand new state of the art location next month (very close to the station so just 45 minutes from London…)
This is an exclusive chance to learn some great techniques and recipes including preparing wild food, going ‘beyond the fillet’ and ‘cheffing 101′. All classes will be hands on with very limited numbers so be sure to book early.
Exact dates are yet to be confirmed but you can register your interest on the Cambridge Cookery School’s website right here
I look forward to seeing you there.
Last year’s Masterchef champ, Mat Follas, left this year’s crop of hopefuls with a tough act to follow.
His restaurant, The Wild Garlic in Beaminster, Dorset, has only been open a year but has already had the critics positively effusing with praise and is consistently fully booked – no mean feat for any eatery let alone in these stringent economic times.
During the filming of the finals, Matthew Norman’s glowing review of the Garlic appeared in The Guardian. It served as fantastic inspiration for all three of us and a great reminder of what any, or indeed all, of us could achieve on the back of the show.
So, when Mat himself invited me down for some ‘work experience’ it was with little hesitancy I agreed.
‘We’re not like other restaurants,’ he assured me. ‘We do things differently, a bit more relaxed. Come down on a Monday and you can watch a couple of services before you get stuck in.’
It being a while since I cooked in a professional environment, I was glad of the promise of a gentle introduction into life at the WG but it soon became obvious that this complacency was misplaced. Barely had I finished my coffee when I was handed a chef’s jacket and sent into the kitchen to help out with prep which was coming to an end in readiness for lunch service.
The first check came in just after midday and I watched the starters being plated just once before being given a plate of my own to dress. I was reminded of something I’d known all along: there is no room for ballast in a professional kitchen. If you’re in there, you should be doing something. So I did.
It was a hectic couple of hours, certainly for someone unused to the systems that become second nature to those who work them. It amazed me that both Mat and Terry, the sous-chef, could keep track of the tickets and knew when to fire the orders and make sure each table came together at the same time. It was like hearing a new language for the first time.
When the final check came in, Mat took a look at it, smiled and said ‘You know how to cook pigeon don’t you?’ before handing it to me and strolling out of the kitchen. He was right, this wasn’t like other kitchens. I’d read about stagiaires spending a week peeling vegetables and here I was behind the stove during my first service. It was going to be a good fortnight.
And it was. Strolling to the butchers and greengrocers each morning to pick up orders, prepping for service, cooking for happy diners and then spending a glorious few hours between lunch and dinner coming up with new dishes for the menu. Had it not been for the long days it could almost be described as a holiday.
Towards the end of the two weeks, Charlotte came down for a couple of nights and spent one evening in the kitchen with us taking photos of the service. It is a better illustration than anything I could pen, so for your viewing pleasure here is a night in the life of a (very relaxed) professional restaurant by @photolotte.
Dinner Service at The Wild Garlic from Charlotte Griffiths on Vimeo.
All that remains for me to say is a big thank you for Mat for letting me into his kitchen and allowing my creative juices to flow unencumbered. It was a wonderful experience from which I learned a huge amount. Here’s hoping I can repay the favour some day soon…
I'm Alex Rushmer: writer, chef and Masterchef 2010 finalist. Welcome to my little corner of the Web. Why not get a cup of tea, snuggle down and make yourself at home?
