Tips and tricks for the Kitchen – Day Two

by | May 14, 2013 | Paul's Blog |

Why the customer is always right.  I have always answered 99 per cent of our customer feedback, whether they are letters of compliment or of complaint, and recently we had a couple of adverse comments regarding our Heathcotes burger in the Olive Press. I found it difficult to understand as it seemed that we were doing all that we had done previously. Nonetheless, this was a good opportunity to revisit ourpast recipes and through a lot of hard work and a lot of tasting, we have changed our burger recipe, which has inspired me for today’s tip. The product or the ingredient is always the most important but sometimes what you do with it can then make a difference. If you want to cook a steak – or a burger, for that matter – brush with a little oil, season with salt and pepper, then cook on a hot pan and fry on one side only until near the end, before finally turning over to cook the other side of the meat. Cooking mainly on one side in a smoking hot pan is the key. Here’s some guidelines for timing: Blue: 90 seconds, flip over for 30 seconds Rare: 2.5 minutes, flip over for 30 seconds Medium Rare: 3.5 minutes, flip over for 30 seconds Medium/Well done: 4.5 minutes, flip over for 30-60 seconds And finally, here is the second course for our June 5th wine evening featuring Fiona Beckett: Scallops “just cooked” with lime and caviar Tomorrow, another tip and another course, and I will let you know what Fiona matches with this at the end of the week. In the meantime,...

Tips and tricks for the Kitchen – Day One

by | May 13, 2013 | Paul's Blog |

Many are fascinated by how menus are compiled; what we sell, how we cook and prepare enough for each day – hopefully without running out. Well, I can tell you – it’s no secret – we occasionally do run out of certain dishes. But after a while, you build up an understanding of what sells and what is slow or less popular. It’s also useful to have a number of common ingredients on dishes so if, for example, you buy a box of wild mushrooms, you might feature it on two dishes but in fact you use it on three or four dishes, including a starter, not always naming the ingredients in the dish. So here’s today’s tip for any budding amateur cooks: If you have ever made a sauce and you’ve added enough salt and pepper but it still doesn’t taste right, try adding a few drops of lemon juice. We all know what lemon juice does to your palette – just try licking a lemon. So how does this work? That little bit of acid that you’ve added to your sauce changes its characteristics and livens your taste buds. It’s a tip I learned from Raymond Blanc at Le Manoir aux Quat’Saisons. Finally, on the 5th of June, we have one of the the UK’s finest food & wine matchers and author of 20 books, Fiona Beckett, as guest speaker on our Wine Evening. I’m looking forward to working with her again and over the course of this week, she will be matching wines to go with a five course meal. Our starter features burrata, the king...

St. George’s Day

by | Apr 11, 2013 | Paul's Blog |

I remember my first few years at catering college back when I was 17. The restaurant business looked very different back then. English cooking had a very poor reputation; all-day breakfast was the highlight. In those days, to try and think of any British chef would stretch most diners’ imagination. How things have changed. These days, if the general public was asked to name a celebrated or well-known chef, the chances are the same names would repeat over and again, and the vast majority of them would be English. So I think it only fitting that our St. George’s Day menu pays homage to some fine English chefs. I’ve had the pleasure of eating all of these dishes at some time or other during my career and I think they are truly worthy of a St. George’s Day menu. You can view our special menu below, and book online by clicking here. Menu Cream of tomato, apple & celery soup ‘Miller Howe” (v) Heathcotes black pudding with sweetbreads, bay leaf & baked beans Parsley pie “George Perry Smith” (v) Marinated salmon “Sharrow Bay” *** Roast scallops, pea puree with mint “Rowley Leigh”, tomato & gem salad Faggots & mash “Gary Rhodes” Goosnargh duck, cider potatoes, baby turnips & carrots, caramelised onion puree Wild mushrooms on toast, poached egg, wild garlic “Terry Laybourne” *** Chocolate tart with honeycomb ‘Bruce Poole”, malted milk ice cream Heathcotes bread & butter pudding Plate of Lancashire cheese Treacle tart “Heston Blumenthal”, vanilla cream *** Coffee & mini Eccles cakes  ...

Gerard Basset Wine Evening

by | Apr 4, 2013 | Paul's Blog |

European Sommelier of the Year in 1996, World Sommelier in 2010, Decanter Man of the Year 2013. Our evening with Gerard Basset, a man undoubtedly at the very top of his profession, was a real highlight for me at Heathcotes Brasserie last night. Gerard is a humble man with a knowledge second to nobody when it comes to wine. Gerard shared anecdotes from his his storied career, some useful tips about wine tasting and perfectly matched a menu cooked by my chef, Carl Noller. It all added up to one of those great evenings that can be rarely repeated. Kevin Sambrook, our next guest, has much to live up to when he joins us on May 1st to share with us his his travels through Northern Spain. I’m also greatly anticipating June 5th’s speaker, Fiona Beckett from http://www.matchingfoodandwine.com, who is one of the best food and wine matchers in the country. So what’s in store for today? Tonight we launch our new menu at Heathcotes Brasserie. We look forward to seeing you enjoy dishes such as Fillet of beef with 62° duck egg, asparagus, Béarnaise sauce, Heathcotes black pudding with sweetbreads, bay leaf sauce, baked beans or our 15 minute Rhubarb and Custard Soufflé. You can view our newly launched Heathcotes Brasserie menu here, and keep an eye out for more news and information about our wine events here....

Spring, bake-off and man of the year

by | Mar 11, 2013 | Paul's Blog |

March has already been a busy month. Today I am judging UCLAN’s great bake-off. I often work with the university since I’ve been an honorary fellow since 1994. I will give a lecture in the evening. I have just finished writing the menu for the visit for my friend Gerard Basset OBE, who will be with us on the 3rd of April. Gerard will now match the wines. You can view the menu in progress at the bottom of the page. Gerard is, without doubt, one of the people I admire enormously. His wine knowledge is second to none and it will be a privilege to work with him again. And congratulations to him; he has just won Decanter Man of the Year for 2013. You can see more details about our wine event here.  He is in some esteemed company. Looking forward, we have our Easter menu at Heathctotes Brasserie which will run Thursday, Friday and Saturday of Easter Weekend. You may want to check the menu here. And our new a la carte menus for both the Olive Press and Heathcotes Brasserie are nearly completed. I’m just waiting for the Chancellor, like all of us, to see whether he’s increased duty before we go to print. For those of you who want to sample the menu in the Brasserie before, we’re running a shortened preview in our Shoots of Spring menu. It’s only on for seven days. We thing it’s a bargain and would really appreciate your feedback on the new dishes Carl Noller, my head chef, and I have created. Another hectic month; nothing changes other than...

Coronation Street and…

by | Jan 3, 2013 | Paul's Blog |

What a nice evening last night at the Brasserie. As well as a whole lot of fun, we certainly will repeat the Call My Bluff evening later in the year by request. Our next Wine event is Wednesday, February the 6th, when Sean Wilson, actor turned cheese maker joins me for a cheese and wine pairing with a difference. Myself and Sean go  back a very long time. In fact both he and Helen Worth, who plays Gail in Coronation Street joined me on the opening evening of Heathcotes Brasserie back in 1995. They were not only regular customers, and big foodies, but have since become friends. Sean has taken a change of direction in life and has become a renowned cheese maker, winning many awards, but he’s also now back in television with a new programme on Channel 5 called The Great Northern Cookbook, a programme for which I’ve supplied a recipe for. As for the recipes on February 6th, I will be writing the menu this week and I’ll share it once we’ve matched the wines to go with Sean’s award-winning fromage. I will have to carefully weave the ingredients into some dishes and make sure they perfectly match the wines. Should be a great evening. You can view the event here and buy online...