My Restaurant – The Hole in the Wall, Little Wilbraham

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.

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The Wild Garlic

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.
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Just Cooking It for Radio 4

Since leaving the world of the office behind two and a half years ago and starting off on the long road to self-employment as a writer, Radio 4 has been something of a near constant soundtrack to my days. It is minimal effort companionship that never fails to inform, educate or entertain  – sometimes all three at once. I am proud to say I adore it.

So when a call came through from one of R4′s producers asking if they could record a show right here at our own house, it didn’t take me long to decide. Myself, Charlotte and the team from On Your Farm spent a delightful day exploring the culinary treats we had grown or foraged from the local hedgerows before heading back to the cottage to cook up a tasty summer lunch.
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Cooking at Peel’s

A huge ‘thank you’ to the entire team at Peel’s, Hampton Manor for letting Tim, Dhruv and myself into their kitchen for three days last week to cook up a full menu for paying customers.

(photo credit: Birmingham Mail)
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‘Still got the cake’ – Life after Masterchef

It’s all over. Those weeks and months of hard work and secrets. The challenges, the travels, the interviews and (just occasionally) the cooking.

My time as a Masterchef finalist is done and I can look back with pride at what we all achieved: heaving hot boxes through the courtyard of a thousand year old castle; working alongside some of the best amateur chefs in the country and then progressing to the final and running a restaurant with two of the nicest chaps I could ever have hoped to meet; cooking Alain Ducasse’s own signature dessert and serving it to the legendary man himself (not to mention a table full of Michelin starred chefs); transforming offal and other seldom used cuts of meat into dishes fit for a prime time BBC1 cooking show. To name but a few of the once-in-a-lifetime challenges that we faced.

Except it’s not over. It’s only just beginning.

By Thursday morning my inbox was registering almost 700 unread emails that had come in since Wednesday’s final episode. Amongst them were job offers, enquiries from agents and, most lovely of all, messages from people I have never met. People who were kind enough to take the time to write and say how much they enjoyed the show and send their congratulations at my reaching the final.

Thank you to you all. I will reply, I promise – but I may be some time. In a real sense rather than an ominous Captain Oates sense.

There are a number of very exciting projects in the pipeline, amongst them a book and a restaurant – both of which, I must add, are in the very early stages of development. But as soon as there is more news, it will be announced right here on my blog.

So watch this space.

In the mean time, the chocolate and coffee pot recipe that dazzled the critics is available here, on the BBC Food website (but don’t freeze the espuma!). However, if you’re looking for something more hearty and warming, might I suggest this lamb breast recipe, which is currently slow-roasting in my oven, albeit a more spiced version. It’s amazing what you learn from cooking in India for a Maharajah.

Oh, and I’m on Twitter: please drop by and say hello.

Wicked-cool spaghetti pics by the amazing @photolotte

A little more trumpet blowing…

For the first time in the history of Just Cook It, you can now read one of my recipes on the BBC Food website.

The roasted lamb rump with spiced date puree, glazed carrots and cinnamon cous cous that I cooked for the critics is available right here. Here’s hoping you like it as much as Jay Rayner et al did.

If you do try the recipe, don’t feel the presentation has to be fine-dining: it can easily serve as a hearty lunch or supper for a hungry mob – a big pile of cous cous topped with pink lamb and glazed carrots then smothered with a sticky lamb gravy. A nice twist on an Easter classic.

If you’ve still not had your MasterChef fill, there is also an interview with the three finalists in today’s Express.

The final starts tomorrow at 9pm on BBC1 with the most incredible on-location challenge that the show has ever featured: cooking breakfast al fresco battling 40 degree heat in a 500 year old mountain top castle. In Rajasthan, India. Oh, and we cook for some royalty, too. Don’t miss it.

Masterchef Celebration Steak

As weeks go, the last seven days have been quite surreal.

There’s not much that can prepare you for making your debut on national television. It’s a little like getting onto a rollercoaster in the dark with no clue as to how the ride will pan out.

Thankfully, there have been no major hiccoughs. The heats and quarterfinals have been safely navigated and I’ve come out the other side as a MasterChef semi-finalist. It’s truly wonderful to be able to write those words.

The response has also been fantastic and genuinely heart warming. Thank you to everyone who has phoned, written, texted, emailed, tweeted or shouted across a car park. Thanks even to the person who suggested I might be Chris Martin and Stephen Merchant’s offspring (but only because you’re a Radio 1 DJ).

But my favourite response has been this:

It was quite a surprise when we pulled up in the car park at the butcher/farm shop/deli/food nerd’s nirvana that I go to and saw that sign, usually reserved for far more important matters like proclaiming the arrival of the season’s first rhubarb or new potatoes.

We were there to pick up a meal worthy of a celebration – and to my mind few things shout ‘hooray’ better than a whopping great steak. Whilst individual pieces are all well and good, practicality, economy and taste favour a shared piece of beef, especially if cooked rare and sliced tableside.

A hearty single rib (côte de boeuf if you wish to get all Gallic about it) from a Red Poll raised a mere four miles away was ideal. Aged just over four weeks the meat was dark red and looked tender enough to eat as was. Instead it was liberally seasoned, vacuum packed and submerged in a water bath to bob around merrily for a couple of hours at 52 degrees.

The logistics of the operation presented some slight problems: on realising that my largest pan was not big enough the bone had to be trimmed away and the rib-eye seared on both sides for about five minutes in order to put a tasty crust on the outside.

It was served with chips, an artery-clogging amount of béarnaise sauce and a heap of steamed broccoli as a concession to health – although once dipped into the rich buttery sauce the beneficial effects were possibly negated.

After waiting two and a half hours for a steak there was little that could have prevented us from falling on it like a pack of wolves hence the distinct lack of well composed, perfectly lit photographs.

In this case the lack of picture says a thousand words.

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The MasterChef quarter final can be found here, on the BBC iPlayer and the first of the semi finals will be broadcast on BBC1 on Friday 26th March at 7:30pm.

And I’m also on Twitter.