Happy New Year From London

This year, I am not going to be in London to celebrated New Years ( sigh!),
But here is ( to dream about) the New Years Menu at the best hotel in London, The Goring Hotel.

Hosted by the affable managing director

Mr.David Morgan-Hewitt

Champagne cocktails.

Canapés

 *

Oak smoked salmon with a smoked salmon mousse and caviar

Hot Californian asparagus with hollandaise sauce

Carpaccio of cauliflower with a caraway dressing, tomato tartare, tomato sorbet and chervil

Tartare of Leyburn venison with marinated beetroot and black pepper soured cream

Roast parsnip and heather honey soup

* * *

Grilled fillet of sea bass with a wild fennel sauce

Poached fillets of Dover sole in a lobster sauce

* * *

Breast of Yorkshire pheasant with caramelized apples, braised red cabbage,

Calvados sauce and fondant potato

Fillet of Castle of Mey beef with spring greens, wild mushrooms,

a red wine sauce and fondant potato

* * *

British cheese with fig chutney

* * *

Dark chocolate ganache with caramelized banana and tangerine sorbet

* * *

Coffee and petits fours

Bollinger, Special Cuvée, Aÿ

Here also is the celebration on BBC1 from last years New Years Eve to get you in the mood

                                Hope you and yours have a fantastic 2010!
                                                          ~ H.E. Lewis

Happy Christmas....2009

The Dining Room at Rules Restaurant (London) for Christmas

It is strange that the word 'comfort' does not appear in any modern architectural curriculum: you can go to lectures ad infinitum on new technology, flexible living spaces, sustainable development and demographic trends, but none on comfort. I would have thought it was a fundamental element of creating a desirable house, let alone a desirable restaurant. Students could well study Rules Restaurant for a definitive explanation. Not only is it utterly comfortable in the purest sense of the word, but, in the lowering gloom of December, it is also deeply comforting. You feel safe there. Everyone looks happy- the clients and the waiters-and isn't that, after all, the point? Try one of the latest clickety-clackety restaurants, with tile floors and chrome fittings rendering mobile-phone tunes cacophonous, and test the level of contentment. Its not there and willnever be there!
'There are some restaurants that give one a sense of being at home,' wrote author Graham Greene about Rules, 'more at home than in a friend's house, welcome, at peace'...
To me, Rules is not just cozy, it has an air of voluptuous indulgence that makes the whole experience of going there feel slightly illegal. Having tramped long sunless streets on the edge of Covent Garden you come off gaunt Maiden Lane into a wave of warmth. Even though it's only lunchtime, it already feels like twilight. Everything is effortless: unobsequious waiters and waitresses hover discreetly, slide off your coat and take your shopping bags.
You sit on a half-moon shaped red plush banquette, linen falling heavily on our laps, a swirly red and gold carpet underfoot. There are swaggy red velvet curtains at the windows, marble busts in black niches, dried hop vines trailing over a huge gilt-framed looking-glass, and stained glass in the lantern above. The walls are painted in old Great Western Railway cream, with every cornice, arch and piece of woodwork picked out in black and gold; everywhere there are oil paintings, prints, caricatures, playbills, layer upon layer of Rules' mementoes and relics from the past 200 years.In the end, Rules is home to me and will always be, especially at Christmas time.
I hope someday, that  you my readers will be able to experienced it, if you have not already! It is paradise found!
Happy Christmas
~ H.E. Lewis

A BBQ Brisket for the Ages!

Today, it’s windy and cold in Beverly Hills and my mind is wandering, not on my work (it wanders most of the time; an affliction of old age I guess?) and I feel like some BBQ. Now if you don’t know, I am a Master Certified BBQ Judge with the Kansas City Barbeque Society (with over a 100 contests under and “over my belt!”), and also a certified Table Captain. When my Los Angeles/Beverly Hills friends ask me what’s the best BBQ in Los Angeles, I seem to go mute, because once you’ve had completion BBQ in the South, from such BBQ luminaries like Bad Byron, Johnny Trigg, Mike and Debbie Davis, Myron Nixon, and John and Kathy Swift (these names may not mean anything to you if you are not on the competition BBQ circuit,) but these names are legend within that BBQ community as the best of the best in cooking BBQ. So to be honest with you, I can’t really give you a good BBQ joint that I recommend for great BBQ, since I tasted the best of the best.

A typical BBQ Contest Turn In Tray for Brisket

Well that was true until this past weekend. Although not a joint, it was the effort of one person -a dear friend and someone who does not compete, but just cooks for himself and his friends. His name is Dr. Sanford G. Koyama, but affectionately known as Gerry

He attempted (first time mind you) to smoke a whole brisket and if you are at all familiar with BBQ Circuit Competition (you need to cook – chicken, ribs, pork and brisket) cooking/smoking a brisket is the hardest thing to pull off. Since to begin with, it’s a very tough piece of meat, one needs to smoke/cook it for many, many, many hours and in most cases, when presented at contests, it’s either to hard or too mushy, and nothing in-between and that’s the devil of it, it is really a hard piece of meat to keep- moist and tender. Most competition cooks do agree, it’s the hardest thing to cook/smoke correctly.
What this is all leading to is this: Dr. Koyama (aka Gerry) attempted to cook a brisket using his Weber Grill (as a smoker) and finished it off in the oven. Now in BBQ competition, an oven is certainly outside the rules, but that said, when Gerry served up his brisket (it even had a decent smoke ring) I was flabbergasted. As I said, I have eaten and judged brisket for over 10 years and in most cases, I found most of the entries wanting (fellow BBQ judges will agree with me on this), But here something just done at home, on a simple Weber grill and it was outstanding. No!, it was more than outstanding, it was as if Providence came down and anointed this brisket to be one of the best ever and it was. It pulled apart with just a slight tug, and was very moist and very flavorful. It was within my memory, one, if not one of the best BBQ briskets I have ever had and that’s saying a lot, since I’ve have hundreds to sample. It was truly magnificent. So magnificent, that I had over 15 pieces and wanted more! I’m sorry that the public will never be able to sample his brisket, his day job keeps him busy enough, but for a few of us, his loyal friends and family, we are the lucky recipients for years to come (I hope!), to enjoy an incredibly cooked BBQ brisket.
In closing, all I can say is:
Genesis has got it all wrong. We never left the Garden of Eden, Look about you. Paradise is right here, I know that for sure, because I have tasted…………….
                                               Dr. Koyama’s BBQ Brisket!

Friday the 18th of December Thoughts

"I like long walks, especially when they are taken by people who annoy me" - Noel Coward.

Cheese - France has over 350 kinds and is still counting!

Anyone who knows me, knows my love for cheese, especially French cheeses. For lunch and dinner in France, for me, NOT to have a cheese course (served as they do in France – right after the main meal and before dessert) it is because I have no doubt died! In fact my dream is that if I should die, that I die in France right after the cheese course! It would be a happy death!

I am always on the outlook for a new cheese I have not tried and this past November, during my travel in the Brittany region (they do not really produce any cheese there of note) I happened to try a cheese known as Boulette d’Avesnes and fell in love with it. The cheese is produced in Northern France.Boulette d'Avesnes is a cone shaped gourmet cheese with a natural rind given a dark red color by the use of annatto or paprika. It has a very strong taste. Its nickname is 'suppositoire du diable' (the devil's suppository - an awful name for a great cheese).
The soft curd is kneaded and mashed with parsley, tarragon, pepper and paprika and shaped by hand into a pointed pear. This gourmet cheese is typical for spicy texture. Maturing takes two to three months.I recommend eating the Boulette d'Avesnes with rich bread, and a cold beer ( or an ice-cold Martini in the USA) and you will experience that the spiciness and creaminess of the cheese .

When The Going Was Good - Christmas Aboard The Queen Elizabeth 2

As Christmas is soon upon us, as my tradition every year, I do two things. First, I watch the 1951 film Classic, ‘Scrooge’ (A Christmas Carol) starring the inimitable Alistair Sim ( as Scrooge) and then a few days before Christmas itself, I start to read the unabridged version of A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens finishing late on Christmas Eve.
Although written some 166 years ago, it still holds up and the language is as glorious as ever. I think even as a child, the language captured my imagination long before the story itself did. What can I say, I was a strange child.

As Christmas approaches this year, I remember with great fondness, about 20 or so years ago, I was sailing from London to New York on Christmas aboard the Cunard liner, the Queen Elizabeth 2 (one never says QE2!..Its very NON-U).

On that particular Christmas Eve, dining in the Queens Grill, having had my fill of Champagne, lobster and unlimited scoops of Osteria caviar (that’s right, scoops), I made my way to the theatre and was pleased to find out that there would be no movie that night, but instead, as the English company of the Ole Vic was on board ( heading to New York to perform), that one of the cast was going to read, Dickens “A Christmas Carol”. That evening proved to be one of the many highlights of my life.

As I sat back (well sated on food and drink), sitting there in the dark, for the next 1 hour 1 /2, I was to be captivated by a reading of A Christmas Carol by an actor; a Shakespearian actor mind you, to boot, of my favorite book. The language of that book had not tarnished with time and in fact with his reading, seemed to have grown more and more in my mind as the most wonderful thing I have ever heard.. That hour or so was magical, I wish I could describe it, but is was a mothers hug, a lovers embrace, all the food and drink one desires- all rolled into one. I am sure we have all had magical moments like this, but this is high on my list, next to my first visit to Paris.
I did not wish the reading to end and I did not wish the ship to ever port, but to sail on forever!
Traveling on a ocean Liner, such as the Queen Elizabeth 2 (and other ships of that ilk), dressing for meals (I loved that!), being around interesting and well behaved fellow passengers was the best of times for this young man.
That era has gone, long gone, and one can not live in the past (except in ones mind) and I was lucky to have had the opportunity to experience it.

So as Tiny Tim says at the end of the book, I say to all of you readers on this run up to Christmas……..                 “"God bless us………. every one”

Hail Caesar - Salad That Is!

Last night, I made one of my favorite meals (and one of America’s greatest classic dishes) a Caesar Salad. I have been eating and making them since I was a child (we are talking here about the late 1940’s).
If there is a thing of a, so called comfort food, then the Caesar Salad certainly ranks high on my list.
I make, will continue to make and I eat, and will continue to eat only a classic Caesar, because chicken, shrimp nor beef does not, a Caesar Salad make.
My Caesar contains an egg (coddled it if you wish, but mine is raw!), No Vinegar (where the hell did that come from?) lots of salty anchovies (anyone who does do not add anchovies – I don’t wish to talk to!) fresh lemon, fresh garlic, fresh shaved Parmesan, Romaine, Dijon mustard, Olive oil, pepper (fresh ground), Worcestershire sauce and homemade croutons and that’s it! No more and no less. Perfection in a bowl!

Along with my Caesar, I also entertain a classic glacier, ice-cold, Gin (6 to 1) Martini. Has there ever been a better combo? I think not!

Like Proust eating his Madeline and dreaming of times past; a Caesar Salad serves as the same time travel for me.
As a child I was first introduced to the classic salad at one of the many ‘continental’ restaurants my parents use to take me too. It was made tableside (a lost art and one sadly missed by me) in a wooded bowl, rubbed with a clove of garlic and then with a certain flourish, mixed all the ingredients ( listed above) together. It was and still remains one of my eating memory highlights.
Even as a teenager, on the weekends, my parents allow me to go around the corner to a lovely ‘continental’ restaurant by myself (always dressed to the nines) and my greatest pleasure was to order a tableside Caesar Salad. To my dying day, I will never lose the memory of that hallowed occasion. Today my Caesar salads border on the over-served size, enough for 3 or 4 people (I must admit, I eat it all) and it’s a meal to satisfy both,
………………………… the Gourmet and the Glutton!

                                                      Hail Caesar!

A Thought For A Rainy Friday in Beverly Hills

"There is no pleasure worth forgoing ,...just for an extra three years in the geriatric ward"
                   - John Mortimer, Author

La Mare Aux Oiseaux - France - Not Just For The Birds!

Located between Nantes and La Baule, the little Saint Joachim archipelago is a magical place for all those who love nature and beautiful landscapes...Within this phenomenal area, just between nantes and Le Baule, (Brittany) is the Grande Briere Park ( a wild reed and multi-water canal 99,000 acre park) is the tiny island/village of Ile de Fedrun. Here in this tiny village are housed hundreds of reed-thatched roof homes, very reminiscent of charming English cottages. The whole area is surrounded by reed canals, and is home to a multitude of birds of all kinds and descriptions.
Here also, is the 1 star Michelin restaurant called La Mare aux Oiseaux ( The Pond Of The Birds). in the heart of Brière, on the charming and pretty Fédrun island where la Mare aux Oiseaux reigns among lakes and marshes. This establishment perfectly suits the décor surrounding it, it is a traditional thatched reed-roof house for the region.

Inside the settings are rather modern, with a taste for ducks when it comes to decoration items and bird cages with live birds scattered all over the dining room .

On the terrace you will be able to enjoy your meal ( in the summer) while enjoying the park where chickens, ducks and birds run and fly around. The name of the restaurant is clearly well chosen! In the kitchen is where you’ll find a Chef whose reputation is well known, a passionate young man, Eric Guérin, offering inventive cuisine while respecting the traditions of the region. He mixes products of the sea with those of the land, and his talent equals his passion. Those who like a quiet meal will be happy to enjoy an ideal gourmet menu, reflecting the Chef’s best compositions.
I had the tasting menu, La Mare Aux Oiseaux and I knew I was hooked, when the bread basket came and I was serves a fluffy, roll stuffed with a puree of sardines ( sardines are famous in the nearby coastal area – in fact the best in the world). It may sound an odd combination, but let me tell you, it was heaven and I could have stopped right there and then and never eaten the rest of the lunch and I would have been satisfied.
But it only got better from there; foie gras beef stew mix with fig and pickle stock reduction, then shrimp filled potatoes raviolis with a cep (eggnog) poured in, then Roasted partridge ( my favorite game bird) and pork rib confit with butternut squash, then scallops, beet and mango combo with duck black pudding on the side and madeleines filled with Roquefort cheese!
All the time, the sweet chirping of caged birds and viewing larger birds just outside the picture window.
Watch out for the future of chef Eric GUERIN, you’ll see his name a lot in the future, I can tell you.

A Thought For A Tuesday

It is only shallow people who do not judge by appearances.

The Unique and Special Women Who Where Our Grandmothers..Remembered

Every once and a while, I pull out a wonderful book by Ellen Perry Berkeley entitled "At Grandmother’s Table". It is a collection of 68 friends who share deeply moving stories of their grandmothers. I read it, because my grandmother (and grandfather) instilled in me ,the love of food and dining (among other things).

My grandparents were Edwardians and thus, at least to their children, rarely showed emotion of any kind. This was especially true of my grandmother. She seldom laughed and almost never touched, kissed, hugged or demonstrated any tenderness or love. Her personal standards were high and immutable and everyone who came in contact with her was expected to follow her practices she considered basic to civil living.
When any one of my brothers came over to her home, the first thing we had to do is sit down and recite our times tables. To someone like myself, who hated mathematics, it was a time of great emotional strain, but somehow I got through it. But I always looked forward to eating at grandmothers home.
All meals were served in her dining room, never in the kitchen, on a table set with a luxurious, starched tablecloth, cloth napkins, full china ( and very expensive) and silver service (shined to a luster) and water glasses. We always had soup, either consommé or cream soup and always served in the proper type of soup dishes. The main course was duck with turnips or leg of lamb or a slow roasted chicken or long simmering stew and always served with lots of in-season vegetables; many from her back yard. Table manners were strictly enforced and one sat there until everyone was done ( that could be a good hour). Dessert was served, along with a bowl of nuts that you had to open with a nut cracker and the meal was finished with glasses of tea.
I love eating at grandmothers, I loved the ceremony, the dining for dining sake, the company always well dressed - ties and jackets of course, even for my brothers and I and always the great conversation from the adults. I was a grateful listener.
Today I approach my dining when I travel in the same way and always measure it against my grandmothers table. Dining at her home has always stayed with me as a warm and treasured memory. Whenever I dine like I did at her house, I think of her and just smile.
Towards the end of her life, ( she lived to be over 90) she had a series of strokes and was hospitalized and I well remember seeing her one afternoon and although she could not talk, she had an alphabet board made up so she could spell out what she wanted to say. As I entered the room, she took the board and quickly spelled out something, that her nurse read to me. The nurse said, "Your grandmother says your shoes are not shined!" That was my grandmother!

My Comfort Food - This gray and rainy day in Beverly Hills

When I was young and spent the weekends with my Edwardian grandparents, my grandmother use to serve me for breakfast either asparagus on toast or finnan haddie (smoked haddock). Eggs and bacon were NEVER on her menu.

Today, it’s raining and cold in Beverly Hills and I am dreaming of those days of eating smoked haddock for breakfast. It was my comfort food and still is. Its not found in too many homes and any restaurants that I am aware of in the United States. So....I long for London and eating Parker Bowles Smoked Haddock at his St James restaurant, Greens Restaurant and Oyster house.
Smoked haddock Parker Bowles’ is prepared: , a nice piece of undyed haddock topped with a scoop of chive-flecked mash, crowned with a soft-poached egg and this along with a glass of Vintage Champagne is heaven. just heaven.......ah! To Be in London This Evening!