Multi-Sensory Eating

For a dish to be truly incredible, it needs to appeal to every sense. Taste, is only one tiny part of the reality of gastronomical enjoyment.

1. Sight - the saying “you eat with your eyes” is no exaggeration. This is the sense that overrides all others. If you don’t believe me, Google psychologist Paul Rozin and read about his experiments with fudge or visit Dans Le Noir restaurant and experience just how challenging it is to eat blindfolded. Our natural instincts draw us to fresh greens, red meats, vibrant fruits, natural colours – choose your dish accordingly. Also think about the size and shape of the plates - does it make the food look plentiful or stingy? If you are doing a lot of styling, how does the meal look on your chosen linen colour?

2. Smell – is biologically connected to taste, in fact smelling the food is in effect the first bite. Don’t make the food fight for attention with other smells. Consider your floral arrangements, lilies might make an incredible centrepiece but ask your florists to remove all bar a few of the stamens. For a more natural, more appetising perfume, ask your florist to use herbs in the displays. At one of our recent weddings, ribboned garlands of rosemary, sage and lavender were tied to the back of each chair releasing a soft scent of English summertime whenever guests moved. Never use scented candles or incense during the meal – it’s just too much. And of course, no smoking!

3. Sounds – one of Heston Blumenthal’s most infamous dishes is “Sound of the Sea” which is served with an iPod so that you can listen to waves crashing on a beach as you eat it. This, he believes, enhances the taste and helps people to take their time whilst savouring every mouthful. What music or sounds will accompany your meal? If you are providing your venue with an iPod for background music, make sure that the playlist avoids anything with a fast or heavy beat – your guests will be finished in seconds! My recommendation is soft jazz, gentle swing or classical guitar. If you’re printing a menu, read the food aloud (perhaps in your best impression of those M&S ads) and check that it sounds irresistible.

4. Touch – the texture of a dish is often overlooked, but it’s important to remember that your palette craves variety. If the main element of a dish is soft and creamy incorporate an element of crunch and vice versa. Think across the courses, for example a soup starter with brulee dessert is a mistake (too much liquid) as would a tomato tarte tatin starter with a lemon tarte dessert (too much pastry). Cream in every course is too much even for the most adamant Francophile. When it comes to styling, good cutlery, crystal glassware and crisp linen will all help to enhance the experience but the most important element of touch? Easy. A comfortable, wobble free chair with a good back and plush seat pad.

5. Taste - of course! In Western cultures, we describe taste in terms of four flavours: sweet, salty, sour and bitter. I prefer to use the Chinese palette philosophy with the added dimensions of spice (piquance) and savoury. This final flavour, known as “unami”, is that xfactor ingredient that makes you crave more and more. 100% natural ingredients, it’s becoming so popular that you can now buy “unami paste” in Waitrose. This is a fabulous product to have at home, it makes something ordinary food taste utterly delicious! I love using it and am thrilled that someone has captured “the fifth flavour” in a squeezy tube. Try it yourself http://www.laurasanttini.com/. Remember that whatever flavours you incorporate in your menu, good caterers will season to perfection, they may not even put condiments out (we don’t).

6. The Sixth Sense – never underestimate the power of intuitive service. Our managers have been called mind readers on more than one occasion and have the magical power to put guests completely at their ease. Meeting this final sense sets the best caterers apart from the rest.

July Big Picture

It's been a busy few weeks - Summer is always fast and fun - watch this video to see us in action! http://www.nmm.ac.uk/business-and-hire/venue-hire/weddings-and-private-events/

In Season - British Peas

I've spent many a happy half hour this month shelling fresh peas, the smell is delicious, Summer through and through. I am reliably informed that this years pea season has been a little late but also very bountiful. I am not complaining!

How to have your peas:

Simple - Green pea soup with beignets and minted crème fraiche
Fancy - long white plate of seared scallops on pea puree with crisp pancetta wafers
Rich - Ham hock ravioli with pea veloute and truffle oil
Crisp - Fresh pea tarts with pea shoots
Retro - Chicken Kiev with fluffy butter mash and a panache of peas and beans

June Big Picture

His Royal Highness Prince of Wales on his special visit to the recently refurbished Leighton House. It is always a privilege to cater for Royalty. Read and see more here on photographer Lloyd Dobbie's blog... www.lloyddobbie.com/blog

In Season - Elderflower

Last week the Bovingdons team threw themselves (literally!) into the hedgerows of Ripley and picked three huge sacks full of elderflowers. Chef David has since made bottles and bottles of syrup (about 102 litres!) and the office smells distractingly of English summertime.

Our syrup recipe is secret but you can find plenty online, it’s a very similar process to making homemade lemonade. You’ll need about thirty to fifty perfect heads of flowers (no brown ones), a kilo of sugar and some citric acid (find it in Waitrose or health food shops) plus any variety of secret ingredient depending on the chef. Once made, here are some ways to use your syrup:

- Make Bovingdons signature Apple Fez, cloudy apple juice, ginger ale, elderflower and mint sprigs.
- Whisk with creme fraiche, gooseberry compote and lemon zest for a perfect Fool
- Suspend summer fruits in elderflower and prosecco jelly
- Flavour pannacotta and serve with raspberries garnish with the flowers
- Fritter the flowers in the lightest tempura and serve beside strawberries
- Elderflowers can also be used in pork and duck recipes but I would proceed with caution here! It can be very, very sweet.
- Or simply add a drop to champagne, pink gin, vodka martini’s, Pimms … sip and enjoy...

Christmas Cracker: 45 Millbank

Here's my pick for Christmas 2010. I love Number 45 not only for its incredible riverside location but also because of its sheer size. The rooms and chic decor all point to a building steeped in history yet it has an open almost boutique hotel feel and the spaces are unexpectedly roomy.

The Banqueting Hall is the largest (and I think best) space and really comes into its own when full. It is pillar free so even with 200 people you still have clear sight across the whole room. It has a stunning and elaborate ceiling and plenty of Edwardian splendour to impress and wow.

If you still havn't booked anywhere for Christmas, you should definately consider it. Call their team direct for diary information on 020 7514 8514 or if you need any more convincing visit their website http://www.45millbank.com/.

Seven Course Summer Heaven

Every so often I am lucky enough to meet a couple for whom their special day is quite literally all about the food. Here is an example of a seven course degustation menu which I took great delight in creating for Daniel and Frank.

Some course choices are personal to their story, some were inspired by their travels, some were just an excuse for a seasonal treat. Everything was utterly delicicious and enjoyed over the course of a long midsummer's evening by sixty special guests in The Orangery, Holland Park.

Canapés

Wasabi seared beef and watermelon with pickled ginger and coriander

Ricotta cakes with oven roasted plum tomatoes and basil

Fresh herb blinis simply topped with crayfish tails and a spaghetti of cucumber

First Wine:

Lugana Doc Trentino, Tenuta Rovegelia, Italy

Amuse Bouche

Demi tasse of chilled grape and white almond soup

Starter

Ham hock ravioli with pea veloute and truffle oil

served in a saturn bowl

Second Wine:

Chablis, Henri La Fontaine, France

Fish

Stuffed sardine

filled with pine nuts, brioche, chervil and raisins

Sorbet

Lemon, parsley and gin sorbet

served in saucer champagne glass with lemon slices

Third Wine:

Gigondas Domaine de la haute Marone, France

Main

Guinea fowl filled with spinach and ricotta

on smoked garlic mash, wilted spring greens and tarragon jus

Cheese

Trio of European cheese

with membrillo, grapes and walnut bread

Dessert

Sicilian lemon cheesecake with macadamia crust,

lime mousse with frosted berries and glazed tarte au citron.

Aperitif

White sambuca shots with coffee beans

To Finish

Fine tea, cafetiere coffee and fresh mint tea

Hand made petits four

Five Unforgivable Wedding Food Faux Pas

I am privileged enough to be the food expert at The Wedding Community offering wedding specific advice to hundreds of couples in the throws of organising their big day. Here is a taster of a recent article...

I have worked on over one thousand weddings and the following choices have never, ever worked well for the guests, the couple nor the caterer.

1. Replacing Pudding with Cake
I am evangelical about this, so much so that I have dedicated a whole article about it, here.

2. Marrying Early but Eating Late
Beware the “black hole” between the end of your ceremony and the first bite of food. If you are marrying any earlier than 3pm, your guests will not have had lunch (trust me, they wont) and will need feeding twice. Some form of food should be made available within half an hour of your nuptials and guests should be taking their seats for the main meal within two hours of the confetti falling.

3. Changing Seats after the Starter
If you’re intending to play musical chairs, don’t make the first move until after the main course. As a caterer and a passionate foodie, I can think of nothing worse than a beautiful dish drying out and crusting over in a hot cupboard as the post-starter speech inevitably drags.

4. A Selfishly Whacky Menu
There is a difference between serving delicious food to delight everyone and food so unique that the majority of your guests won’t touch it. Yes you might have eaten stuffed sardines on your first date, yes I appreciate that Nigella is heralding a fois gras renaissance but what goes uneaten goes unappreciated. Oysters, veal, fois gras, offal... proceed with caution and ask you caterer for advice. They’ll know what will leave guests full versus what will leave them famished.

5. Icecream in a Hot Marquee
There is a memorable episode of BBC’s The Restaurant where one hapless duo learn the hard way that marquees don’t come with freezers. Instead of ice cream and poached pears, they end up serving lukewarm “vanilla soup” to one hundred horrified VIPs at the Hurlingham Club. Caterers can do incredible things but keeping sorbet, icecream and frozen desserts at the necessary minus 23 degrees Celsius in outdoors in the sun using only a cool box is beyond even our magic.

May Big Picture

The Orchid Room at Nonsuch Mansion as taken by the wonderful Lloyd Dobbie.

To me, this photo captures the sense of calm anticipation felt by wedding caterers like Bovingdons. It also highlights the attention to detail needed to "set the scene" before the guests walk through the door.

Just looking at it gives me pre-event butterflies!

In Season - British Asparagus

Be quick! You've not got long to enjoy this superfood delicacy. Asparagus has a teasingly short and notoriously unpredictable season which falls sometime between May and June depending on the fickle British weather. I am reliably informed by the British Asparagus Growers Association website that the 2010 season is well and truly here.

Appropriately perhaps for an aphrodisiac, the key to ensuring the best flavour is tenderness rather than length or girth. Colour is a good indicator, seek light green with closed tips and a hint of purple. British Asparagus is a hand grown crop which requires a huge investment of time and patience for a relatively low yield. Cooking it however, is almost totally the opposite case!

 - Simple: Steamed with a splash of olive oil, black pepper and parmesan

 - Hot: Fresh asparagus soup with crème fraiche and sage and parmesan bread

 - Brunch: Asparagus bundles tied with chives served with a vanilla and pomegranate mayonnaise

 - Fish: Asparagus icecream with salmon toasts - recipe here!

 - Main: Pan roast asparagus with rare roast beef, wild mushroom jus, thyme and talegio potatoes

 - Summer Buffet: Prosciutto or Parma ham involtini of chargrilled asparagus

 - Stuffed: Baby Pousin with fresh asparagus stuffing, lemon risotto, French beans and tarragon jus

 - Vegetarian: Fresh handmade asparagus ravioli with herb emulsion and micro shoots

Pull! Westminster Tug of War

Part of being a professional and discreet corporate caterer means never, ever disclosing details about a client's event before it occurs.

Not so when the event in question is the Westminster Tug of War! This event is one of the highlights of the Parliamentary calendar, and, unlike the incredible barbeque I mentioned in a previous post, everyone is invited to buy a ticket and attend. 

Held in aid of Macmillan Cancer Support, the 23rd annual Tug of War will be held on Tuesday 8 June from 5.30-10pm in the stunning venue that is Westminster Abbey College Gardens.

You can join 600 guests to enjoy an exclusive champagne reception with canapes and tasty bowl food (all delicious, I promise!) whilst you witness Lords and MPs, choristers, rival City firms, embassies, fire fighters and military teams all battling it out over a Tug of War rope.

If you have never attended, this is the year to go. After yesterday's news, it is sure to be an particularly unmissable occasion.

Click here for more details form Macmillan Cancer Support.

West End Charm: Fulham Palace

I am delighted to say that after a few weeks of anxiously waiting for "the phonecall", Bovingdons have been awarded a privileged place on the catering list at Fulham Palace.

There are so many reasons why I love this venue; its impressive courtyard entrance, the way that it nestles quietly beside the Thames, the romantic atmosphere of its wild walled gardens, its maze of achingly graceful rooms, its intriguing thousand year history, the graceful tall ceilings and elegant furnishings... I could go on. Fulham Palace is a venue that has won top awards and high praise as well as my heart.

The ink on our contract is still wet but I'm already looking forward to catering for some sublime summer soirees. In my mind, a perfect palace party would involve Courtyard canapés, a delicious dinner in the Chaplain’s Garden Marquee, a dance floor in the Great Hall and a corner for quiet conversation in Bishop Terrick's Drawing Room.

Fulham Palace has a great management team with a flexible approach to how you choose use its cluster of various sized drawing and dining rooms. For availability and more details call 020 7736 8140 or visit http://www.fulhampalace.org/, then call me to start talking food!