On
Sunday, I was invited to attend an event for Gabriel Gate’s latest book—A Cook’s
Tour of France.
Mother
Hen and I enjoyed a three course lunch with wine at the Stamford
Plaza Hotel who was hosting this event with Reader’s Feast Bookstore. I grew up watching Gabriel on day-time
cooking shows, back in the days before the flood of ‘celebrity TV chefs’. As we dined on the recipes in his book,
Gabriel gave us a talk about the dishes we were sampling and also regional
French cuisine.
For
me, French food falls into two categories – the haute cuisine that’s
characterised by fancy and painstakingly made sauces (or what I’d like to refer
to as the big white plate with a speck of nicely arranged food in the middle),
and the provincial ‘farm style’ food. It
was the latter that Gabriel’s book is about and what we were going to try.
Gabriel gives a talk on regional French cuisine.
Piping
hot savoury breads served with butter and pink sea salt
For
entrees, we had yabby salad, pear and walnut. Fresh, tender yabby meat that was bolstered
by the tart (from the vinaigrette) and sweet pear salad. Clean and simple flavours.
The
other entree was grilled duck, sautéed potatoes, curly salad. The grilled duck was reminiscent of a duck
confit – meat that was falling off, with a slight crispy skin.
In
the style of a farm style lunch, the mains were served in the middle of table,
and diners help themselves to the dishes.
The deeply flavoured lamb shank was slow cooked until it was so tender. I liked how the shank (the bone) was removed
before serving. I loved the dark red colour of the dish. This came with a sort of
ratatouille on the side.
My
favourite was the blue eye and scallop with butter sauce. Fresh, meaty fillets of blue eye that were
simply steamed, along with very plump scallops. The beurre blanc sauce was simply wonderful – I
could smell the butteriness before it was served at the table! Despite the butter sauce, the dish wasn’t
overly rich.
To
go with the mains, were Pommes Anna – soft discs of thinly sliced potatoes that
were pan fried in butter....
....and
crisp, buttered white beans.
I
was keen to try the desserts, as I haven’t had proper clafoutis or savarin (sort
of a rum baba) before. I have eaten them
before, but they were always made by someone who isn’t exactly a French cuisine
expert.....and will remain anonymous(!).
So I was curious to see what they really ought to taste like.
The
cherry clafoutis was moister than I was expecting, and was made with fresh,
pitted cherries (and not the soured cherries that you see in some recipe
books). For those who haven’t had
clafoutis before, it’s like a flat baked/steamed pudding with fruit and is
usually served with custard or cream. It
wasn’t too sweet, which was good.
The
savarin with rum was served with cream and raspberries. Savarin is a yeasty, bready cake which has
rum drizzled into it. The savarin here
was sweeter than I thought it’d be (it was sweeter than the clafoutis). It reminded me of the papercup cakes that you
get at Asian bakeries.
To
round off the meal, petit fours and a cuppa.
Verdict
Food
– 7
Service
– 7*
Ambience
– 7*
Price
– 7*
* Scores
are notional as we were guests of Stamford Plaza Hotel and this was a special
event that was held in a function room.
Overall
It
was nice to meet Gabriel Gate and to learn more about his passion in regional
French food. Mother Hen got a kick out
of getting her book signed and getting a photo with Gabriel. The food is simple and good – none of that
fussy, fiddly stuff here. No doubt we’ll
be trying a few recipes out of Gabriel’s new book!
If
you want to try some farm style recipes from Gabriel’s new book, Harry's Restaurant at Stamford Plaza
Hotel is having a tasting
menu (based on the dishes above) during 14-20 October 2013.
Address
Stamford
Plaza Hotel
Harry’s
Restaurant
111
Lt Collins Street
Melbourne
3000
Telephone:
9659 1592
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