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What's our beef?

summer 2010 EATING what’s good to munch & where this summer COOKING how to find the perfect steak WORKING making good chefs great

S o h o H o u s e F o o d M a g a z i n e

Soho House Group is recruiting. We are looking for the most passionate and dedicated chefs from around the world. If you want to work for a company that’s full of opportunities, that’s expanding in Europe and America and that might even give you the chance to work in different exciting locations, then please get in touch. The right candidates will want to learn as much as possible: from improving their cooking skills to finding out about local seasonal produce and what best to do with it. If you’re the right chef for us, we’ll help you develop your career and have a great time along the way. We’d love to hear from you.

To find out more email – cookhouse@sohohouse.com

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a taste...summer 2010

We l c o m e t o t h e f i r s t S o h o H o u s e f o o d m a g a z i n e – a f o o d m a g a z i n e f o r c h e f s a n d p e o p l e w h o l o v e t o e a t .

T h i s m a g a z i n e c e l e b r a t e s t h e u n i q u e f o o d p h i l o s o p h y o f f i v e o f t h e S o h o H o u s e G r o u p r e s t a u r a n t s : S o h o H o u s e N e w Y o r k , B a b i n g t o n H o u s e i n S o m e r s e t , S o h o H o u s e W e s t H o l l y w o o d , S o h o H o u s e B e r l i n a n d P i z z a E a s t i n L o n d o n .

W e w a n t t o t e l l y o u w h a t w e ’ r e a b o u t : t h a t f o r u s , c o o k i n g i s n ’ t j u s t a j o b , i t ’ s a w a y o f l i f e . W e f o l l o w o u r f o o d f r o m f a r m t o f o r k a n d a r e d r i v e n b y t h e s e a s o n s . C h e f s w h o w o r k w i t h u s g e t g r e a t o p p o r t u n i t i e s t o m a k e r e a l l y g o o d f o o d – w h e t h e r i t ’ s g o i n g o n f a n -t a s t i c t a s t i n g t r i p s t o f i n d n e w i n g r e d i e n t s , l e a r n i n g f r o m b r i l l i a n t g u e s t c h e f s o r g o i n g o n s t a g e s a r o u n d t h e g r o u p .

W e h a v e s e r i o u s f u n w i t h o u r f o o d – s o c h e f s l o v e w o r k i n g w i t h u s a n d p e o p l e l o v e b e i n g f e d b y u s .

E d i t o r R e b e c c a S e a l

D e s i g n a n d P r o d u c t i o n D o m i n i c S a l m o n

t h a n k s t o D a n F l o w e r , K a t H a r t i g a n , J u l i a T a y l o r - B r o w n ,

M a t t h e w A r m i s t e a d , R o n n i e B o n e t t i , A n t o n e l l a B o n e t t i ,

A m a n d a M i d d l e b r o o k s , J o h n P o l l a r d , K e l l y T a y l o r , S i m o n e G o b b o ,

K i r s t e n S t o n e r , M a t t G r e e n l e e s , A s h e y L e n t , K a t e G o o d y e a r ,

S h e l l e y A r m i s t e a d , P i e r r e D o u r n e a u , J o n a h E a g e n a n d C a r o l i n e B o u c h e r

News from around the foodie world plus events to look out for across the houses

DIGEST THIS4Babington House head chef Ronnie Bonetti on what

life in and out of the kitchen has taught him

WHAT I KNOW

6Where do chefs go to get inspired? Markets, restaurants, smokeries and, erm, hedgerows...

WATCH OUT - CHEF’S ABOUT8Matthew Armistead on how a boy from Blackburn, England, ended up head chef of Soho House West Hollywood

HOW I MADE IT

1 4We take a look at how each house sources their all-important beef – from an old-school New York meatpacker to a tiny Highland herd

BEEFCAKES1 6SEASONAL EATING2 1 What’s in season and on the menu in LA, New York, London and Somerset, plus how to cook it

Member Dan Flower shares his favourite recipe, which includes

some slightly unusual methods...

MEATBALLS FOR MUNCHIES

29Finally, there are more women in farming than ever. One of them, Cathy Shellard, shows us around her dairy

FARMER’S WIFE30

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NIBBLESLittle Heifers

Sign ofthe times

food news from around the world

In what the makers say is an advertis-ing first, a North Carolina billboard not only has a massive picture of a rib-eye on it, it also reeks of grilled beef too. The aim is to lure drivers into a nearby grocery store by wafting the smell of cooking out across the road. Local resi-dents have complained about fake eau de steak, which is actual-ly created by blowing fragranced oils with an electric fan.

Mini cows? They sound like a mad scientist’s genetic experiment right? Wrong, actually – miniature cattle as found all over America and increasingly Australia too, could be the answer to the question of how to find environmentally-friendly meat. The bovine dwarves, who are about three feet tall, are descended (via 10 genera-tions of careful breeding) from smaller British cows and generate more meat per acre than normal cattle. They’re less, um, gassy, too – so more meat, less methane. Doesn’t hurt that they’ve been bred to look like pandas, either.

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EVENTS

NEW YORKLater in the summer, look out for the 100 mile dinner, when all the ingredients used will have come from within a 100-mile radius of Soho House New York. This will be a huge challenge for the chefs who are already trying to fig-ure out what on earth to cook with no sugar, few spices, no vanilla, no olive oil – maybe even no flour. (Chef Kate Goodyear admits she’s had a few nasty looks since she suggested it...)

July sees the launch of beer and cheese pairing classes – using the new season’s cheeses chosen by the chefs. Bever-age director Nicolas is working hard (our hearts just bleed) on finding great local beers to pair them with.

Members who want to see how seriously the chefs take finding the right ingredients can take a trip out to some of the New York State dairy and vegetable farms that supply the restau-rant. After a hard day of trying fresh produce and touring the farms, chefs and members will head to nearby North Fork Vineyard to recov-er from their exertions with a wine tasting.

LOS ANGELESMeatball Mondays are a huge success, so look out for the next one – and don’t forget, members can submit their favourite meatball recipe for the chefs to judge, so if you fancy risking competing against the experts, send one in (see last month’s on page 29)

BABINGTON HOUSEThe Babington chefs are going fishing, and you’re invited. Members can spend the day on the water, setting off from Weymouth and the catch will later be expertly cooked. This year, general manager Matt won’t forget the beers...

BERLINIf you can’t wait for Oktober-fest, try the Berlin Beer Festival in August, which will involve a mile of beer stalls – many of which will be run by small inde-pendent brew-eries, as well as a few from Britain, Poland, Belgium and the Czech Republic.

Whether you’re a chef or a member, there are foodie events to get your mouth watering wherever you are.

The Cook to Bang blog is one of the best food blogs out there and is so good it’s just been turned into a book of the same name. It does what it says on the tin: the site is full of recipes designed to get you in the sack. All the dishes are priced out (in dollars) so you can figure out how much to spend on your date, and despite the more than dodgy puns (condom-ments anyone?), it’s defi-nitely worth a look. www.cooktobang.com

Is this why you want to be a chef?

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what i know

starters

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My motto is that the more I give, the more I’ll hopefully get back. It doesn’t exactly work all the time, but I stick with it.

My best ever date was a couple of years ago, with my wife Antonella, who is Italian. We went to Venice and Verona and saw the opera Aida at the Colosseum. That was pretty special.

The best thing about being a chef is travelling and being able to express myself. Does that sound stupid? I just mean, I grew up in rural Australia, and now I’m here. It’s pretty amazing.

I buy a lot of recipe books and never read them. But the best one that I do use is the Cook’s Companion by Stephanie Alexander. All the recipes are easy and they work.

“The best thing about being a chef is travelling and being able to express myself. Does that sound stupid?”

Head chef of Babington House, Ronnie Bonetti.

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Ronnie Bonetti, head chef, Babington House

When I was a kid in Australia I wanted to

be a motorbike racer. When I got old enough

I worked as a kitchen porter Monday to Thursday and raced at weekends. But then I fell

off and some female chefs who worked in the kitchens told me

I was wasting my life and that I should be a chef.

The women chefs at Bather’s Pavillion, Sydney, kicked me into

touch when I worked there. I was always out on the razz, had

a mullet and talked with a thick Aussie ocker accent. We went

away for a weekend to Byron Bay and they told me I couldn’t

come back to Sydney until I had a haircut.

I can’t stand heights. I’m terrified of falling. I went up the

Sydney harbour bridge once and nearly had to crawl on my

stomach across it.

The worst job I’ve ever done was packing shopping for old

ladies at a supermarket in my home town in Queensland. I got

paid almost nothing, the bags would break on the way to the car

and they’d always get mad at me for putting cold with the hot,

or tins with the soft. I’d sleep in the back on sacks of chook

feed. I also washed buses for a while. That was pretty rubbish.

I cannot choose a favourite food. That’s impossible. Italian is

where my heart is, in a way, because of working at the River

Cafe. But what about Chinese? Japanese? I can’t choose. No way.

to find out more about how you could become part of the soho house group team contact cookhouse@sohohouse.com

to find out more about working for soho house group contact cookhouse@sohohouse.com

SOUND

GOOD?

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chefs on tourCOO K H O U SE9

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mains

All chefs love a good skive (all humans

love a good skive) but there’s nothing quite

like a skive in the name of work. Getting

chefs out of the kitchen and tasting other

people’s cooking and produce means they get

better at what they do. It also gets those

pasty faces out in the daylight, which is

why good head chefs know tasting trips are

a great idea.

“We get most

of our meat in

nearly whole,

lambs and

stuff, and

it’s just the

best way to

learn about

cuts of meat,

butchering it

yourself.”

Whole carcasses are delivered to be butchered in

the kitchens.

www.sohohouse.com

mains

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“I try and make sure that my chefs get to go to the

fantastic farmers’ markets here as much as possible,” say

Matthew Armistead, head chef at Soho House West Holly-

wood. “It’s important to encourage all of us to be aware

of seasonality.” Of course, it helps that in LA the seasons

for fruit and vegetables are long and the weather just

right for growing an amazing array of goodies.

Pastry chef Kate Goodyear, who has recently moved from

LA to Soho House New York agrees: “All the chefs in LA

go to Santa Monica market on Wednesdays, so you can get

a sneaky peek at what everyone else is making. It’s a

bit competitive but it’s also great because you get to do

things like try all the different kinds of strawberries.

It’s nice to have a break from working a 16 hour day and

you can ask the farmers themselves, ‘What’s good right

now?’ You develop relationships that mean someone might

whisper to you, ‘I have morels coming in next week’ and

you can make sure they put some aside for you!”

A group of the chefs recently went to see London-based

chef Fergus Henderson do one of his legendary nose-to-

tail eating demonstrations, and Armistead has big plans

for future trips too. “I’m taking the chefs sea fishing

next month, and we’re going to catch all kinds of great

stuff,” he says. “I’m also going to arrange some trips to go

oil tasting in the Napa Valley too, just like the trips I

used to go on to Italy when I worked at the River Cafe.”

Soho House, West Hollywood

Pizza East, East London

LA’s sunshine makes sneaking out of the kitchen on the pretence of working particularly special.

Borough Market in London - just don’t

go on Saturday with all the tourists.

“It is a bit more difficult in London to find great local producers to visit,” admits Pizza East head chef John Pollard. “But we have still managed to do some excellent trips – I do at least one a month. Recently we went to visit the Foreman smokery in north east London, where they’ve been smoking salmon in the same way for over 200 years. They’ve had to move because of the Olympic developments, so they’re now right on the edge of the Olympics site. They use a friction smoke method where an oak wheel is turned – it means the salmon smokes much longer and slowly. Delicious! We’ve also done tastings at W&F smokery, which is tucked away among all the trendy bars and clubs of the Chalk Farm area of London – they’ve been on the same site since 1936.”

Pollard also organises trips to Borough Market. “A lot of our Italian suppliers have small stalls down there, so it’s great for all us chefs to be able to go and meet the people behind the produce we use.” They also go to the legendary Billingsgate fish market, so that the chefs can see for themselves what fish would be good on the menu.

He often sends chefs away to other restaurants in the group: “Some of the guys who work with me rarely get the chance to get out of London, so I like to send people to Babington House in the country when I can – it’s like a fantastic working holiday where they can do things like shooting and fishing.”

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mains

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Being out in the countryside means the range of foodie trips for the chefs who work there is almost limitless – and there’s the walled veg garden as well, so ingredients in the kitchen have probably yanked out of the soil that very day. Head chef Ronnie Bonetti takes new recruits out there as soon as they arrive. “We’ve got nettles and elderflower, wild garlic and all sorts round the boundary of the garden as well as what we’re actually growing. You can see them going ‘Wow’ as they take it in. We’ve got elderflower champagne on the brew just now.”

One chef, South African Kyle Knight, remem-bers a brilliant trip out pheasant shooting: “We drove deeper and deeper into the country-side and I couldn’t help but notice the sheer beauty of the landscape – I realised then this was going to be very different from back home.”

“I was well chuffed with the hunt. You never really know where things like pheasant come from until you go and get them yourself,” says Bonetti. “The guys were totally buzzing afterwards.

“My team have also been out picking wild asparagus. They go before work, totally under their own steam and come in with bunches and bunches of it, and ear-to-ear grins,” says Bonetti.

He’s also about to sample the first of the prosciutto they made last year when all the chefs got together to butcher a pig in a day. “We made sausages, chorizo, salamis and brawn as well as all the cuts. We’ve got five pigs on the go right now, and the moment the apples start to drop is the moment the team will do it again with them. We get most of our meat in nearly whole, lambs and stuff, and it’s just the best way to learn about cuts of meat, butchering it yourself.”

Last month Babington also hosted the first of a series of dinners for the West Country Committee, which involves getting together chefs from within the group and from Fifteen Cornwall, The Rising Sun Inn, Tresanton Hotel, Rick Stein Restaurant and the Bath Arms plus appearances from locals Frank the Farmer and Tom the Cheesemaker. True to form, the pasta served was stuffed with nettles foraged that morning.

Soho House, New York

Babington House

Murray’s cheese store in New York.

“There’s a great cheese shop called Murray’s on Bleeker

Street, which we’ve been working with,” says chef Kate

Goodyear. “They do local cheeses and we’ve done some

great tastings there for our East Coast cheeseboards. I’ve

learnt so much – like I did not know that cheese was

seasonal, with three of four ‘cheese seasons’ a year. Now

we really focus on seasonal cheeses. We worked with their

cheesemongers and have created some great cheese and beer

pairings for the House. Plus their Tarentaise, which we

use, has a charitable aspect too, as they help get city

kids out of town to experience life on a farm.”

Goodyear has also been taking regular trips out for ice-

cream tastings. “We needed an ice cream to go with our new

desserts, especially a cherry crostata. We found a lo-

cal gelato place who helped us develop the most delicious

toasted almond ice cream with buttermilk. It’s amazing.”

The New York team also head out to the farmers’ markets

regularly, and sometimes to the farms themselves. “When

you see what people go through to create the ingredients

you use, you learn to treat it all with respect,” she says.

“These guys don’t take vacations, they work hard and have

real integrity. It makes you proud when you put their

work on the plate.”

Nettle picking.

Chefs swap ideas at Babington.

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how i made it

careers advice

Babington was my first real head-chef position and it was a big thing – before, I’d been able to turn to other people above me and I’d never been responsible for all the food costs, the themes of the menu and a whole team.

We came out to LA a year and a half ago to help Nick open Soho House West Hollywood. We wanted to keep moving and Shelley and I had talked about Australia or South Africa, but LA is a great option. We live in Venice Beach with our kids which is just bril-liant, and there’s a family farmers’ market on Sundays, plus I go to Santa Monica farmers’ market on Wednesdays, where all the chefs in town go for ingredients.

We’ve now opened two restaurants here and had a second child, so we’ve had a lot on our plates – it’s been an interesting time! I like to fill my kitchens with people I get on with so I brought several of my team from England to work with me here. Being here has broadened my horizons and I love working with such a diverse range of people. There’s a real Californian-Cuisine movement here and it’s been so interesting learning how other chefs take in the Mexican and Asian influences that you find here.

“I’m just a bloke from Blackburn. I never ex-pected to get to go somewhere like this”

Matthew Armistead

in the kitchens with

Nick Jones, CEO of the

Soho House Group.

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Matthew Armistead, 38, is head chef at Soho House West Hollywood

I always knew I’d end up doing some-thing with my hands but I didn’t know it would be cooking. I grew up in Blackburn in northern England, which doesn’t have much of a food culture, and I left school with nothing.

I tried art college, furniture making, skiing in

Europe in winter and bar work in the summer, but

nothing really fitted. In the end I headed to

Australia; I wasn’t sure what to do and I was just

bumming about, but the food culture was amazing. I

was always looking for great restaurants, and then

I’d knock on the door and ask if they needed anyone.

I came back to the UK, decided to get serious about

food and managed to get an interview at the River

Cafe, but I was so green – I’m not trained or any-

thing – so when Rose Gray asked me why I wanted to

work there, I replied “I just want to cook!” Rose al-

ways liked to take on projects and she nurtured peo-

ple; fortunately she saw something in me.

It was a great place to work. After two or three

years they’d take you on one of their trips to Ita-

ly to source their olive oils. We stayed at ancient

vineyards and olive groves and I’d stand there in

these beautiful places and think, “I’m just a bloke

from Blackburn – I never expected to get to be some-

where like this”. I still come back to those trips as

a point of reference.

Nick Jones (CEO of the Soho House Group) asked my

wife, Shelley — who I met at the River Cafe but who’d

left by then — if she would help him open the Elec-

tric in London back in 2002. She worked at Cecconi’s in London, and then Nick asked if we’d both like to work

at Babington House, his hotel in Somerset, south west England.

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beefing up

“Our beef comes from a mile and a half up the road,” says Ronnie Bonetti, head chef at Babington House. “It doesn’t travel far to slaughter and I know ex-actly what farm it’s from – I know that the calves start off on mum’s milk, then grass, and that later they’re fed grass, a little maize and a bit of brewer’s grain.” For Bonetti, that knowledge is important because it means he controls the quality. Not that he’s above controlling what his butcher gives him too.

Beef. There’s nothing quite like it – oozing blood onto the plate, making your

chips go soggy, clogging up the arter-ies. That’s why it’s always on the menu in all the Soho House restaurants, as a burger, as steak tartare, as a bloody great Florentine hunk of meat dripping

all over the place, or simply with fries

and bearnaise. Hard to get right, easy to get wrong, chefs spend a worrying amount of time fretting over cattle.

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total bullocks

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total bullocks

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Up in London, John Pollard, head chef at Pizza East, is similarly obsessed with provenance. “Our beef is from Mill-ers of Speyside in Scotland, a small farm with only 2000 highland cattle. I get a cote-de-boeuf rib section, hung for eight days, and serve it as delicious 225g steaks, on the bone.” Millers hang their beef on the bone for 21 days and have their own abattoir, meaning their cows aren’t stressed before slaughter – tense cows mean tough meat.

In West Hollywood, Matthew Armistead, the British head chef at Soho House there, has been amazed by the American take on steak. “Beef is a bit of an obsession. There are so many dif-ferent cuts here. Steak houses here do an excellent job, but we compete. My sous-chef used to work for Wolfgang Puck, one of the biggest chefs in the US, and she really, really knows her beef. I buy full bone-in ribs of prime from Chuck (such an apt name!) at Newport Meats and cut my own steaks from them.” Depending on the time of year, Armistead serves his steaks with anything from some in-season mushrooms to bone marrow. “I like cooking classic food, things that remind people of their childhoods, so steak fits in perfectly on our menu – which, after all, also includes mac and cheese.”

“My first

new year’s

eve here I

freaked out

over the

beef that the

butcher gave

us and sent

it all back. I

think he was

testing me.”

“My first new year’s eve here, we had a new butcher and I com-pletely freaked out over what he sent me – it was all way too wet and hadn’t been hung long enough. I think he was trying to test me; I sent the whole lot back and now he knows I won’t have anything that’s been hung for less than 30 days. We work together really well now, and yes, the beef is more expensive because it shrinks as it ages, but the flavour is amazing.”

Bonetti is currently serving his favourite rib eye steaks. “They’ve got just the right amount of chew, so they go on every day. I sometimes do a Florence-style T-bone for two with chips and bearnaise, where you just chargrill the outside really, really hard – with that one, the quality of the beef re-ally makes the dish. I’m also doing a seasonal rib with local wild asparagus or wild garlic butter and a beef tartare with local pheasant eggs.”

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total bullocks

He’s picked up some American tricks too. “Short ribs are amazing and you don’t really find them in the UK – they’re called Jacob’s Ladder there. But they’re fantastic as a special, slow cooked.” He also loves the rib-eye cap steak. “There’s a cap of meat on top of the eye of the steak, and I think it’s one of the best cuts – it’s really tender and because it’s exposed to the air, it ages much better.”

In New York, executive sous chef Jonah Eagen trusts his butcher because they’ve been there since the 1920s. “Soho House New York is in the Meatpacking district, which is pretty much a super high-end neighbourhood now. But even 16 years ago when I first moved here, this was where meat coming into the city was packed and all the butchers were here. You’d walk down the streets and there would be blood on the cobbles and sides of beef hanging up on hooks right there in the road. There were also transvestites all over the place.”

Debragga and Spitler, his butcher, are the only ones to have survived the neighbourhood becoming trendy over the last decade, which says something for the quality of their meat. “I get their certified Angus beef for our New York strip steaks,” say Jonah. “It’s from the striploin, a non-functioning muscle in the upper middle back. It’s re-ally tender.” Right now he’s dishing them up with handcut French fries and a punchy herb relish featuring parsley, chervil, mint, tarragon, rosemary, thyme, capers, anchovies, cornichons and olive oil. Yum.

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“Talk to other chefs. That’s how I learned,” says

Ronnie Bonetti. “You can go to seminars, sure, but when you’re actually in a good kitchen you can learn so much about qual-ity ingredients if you want to. I do see guys in the kitchen sometimes who could learn so much but just don’t see what’s around them.”

“Talk to your butcher. They really know their stuff. Ask questions about

all the different cuts and

watch them work.”

“If it’s been hung prop-erly, for about four weeks, the meat will be a lot darker and will have shrunk. At the start, you’ll have big, red, juicy

bits of meat but they’ll be

wet and have no flavour. Send it back if it’s wet.”

“Of course, check out the marbling. You want good fat running through the meat.”

“Be prepared to spend a bit more to buy aged beef. It’s worth it.”

“All the meatpackers used to be where our butcher

is in New York. There was blood on the cobbles and sides of beef hanging up

by the road”

HOW TO FIND PERFECT BEEF

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What to eat now

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seasonal eating

The rest of the world may see summer as the

season of bikinis, cold beer and burning

things on barbecues, but chefs are obviously

totally above all that and instead focus

solely on the amazing produce available right

now. They’re not thinking about bikinis. Or

beer. Of course not.

The first of the local New York strawberries

have appeared. They are very small and

absurdly adorable; at Soho House the chefs

are making strawberry shortcake with them.

Strawbs are also hitting the farmers’ mar-

kets from New Jersey and Connecticut, along

with cherries – check out the cornmeal cake

with cherries and Belgian ale that’s just gone

on the menu. Chef Kate has also devised an im-

pressive cherry pit (stone) ice cream - “Cherry pits

have a tiny bit of cyanide in them (which is safe in

small quantities!) like almonds, so the flavour is simi-

lar,” she says. It goes really well with her cherry crostata.

Radishes are in season and have just arrived at the

Union Square Farmers’ Market. Chefs Jonah Eagen and Kate

are pickling breakfast radishes for their summer vegetable

salad. Breakfast radishes don’t look like traditional round

radishes, they’re long and skinny and pickling them tames

their natural bitterness. Their zesty salad includes

sugarsnap peas and asparagus which are also in season.

Other goodies include fava beans, heirloom tomatoes,

local peas and sweetcorn.

Where else to eat this summer?

ABC Kitchen, a new farm to fork restaurant by Jean Georges

Vongerichten, which the SHNY chefs have already checked out.

Address: ABC Kitchen 35 E. 18th St., at Broadway; 212-475-5829;

www.abckitchennyc.com

What to eat in...New York

How to make it

Kate Goodyear’s cherry pit ice cream

serves 44 cups (950ml) single cream¾ cup (100g) caster sugar6 large egg yolks (15g each)1.5 cups (150g) smashed cherry pits (stones)*pinch salt

In a large saucepan,

combine the single cream,

cherry pits, salt, and half the

sugar. Bring to a simmer.

Remove from heat and let steep

for 3 hours. Strain.

Whisk the remaining sugar

into the yolks. Bring the

cream back to a simmer and

slowly temper the hot liquid

into the yolks then add all

into the saucepan. Whisking

constantly, cook the mixture

until it thickens and coats

the back of a spoon. Remove

from heat, strain, and chill

over an ice bath until cold.

Churn according to manufac-

turer’s ice cream machine

directions.

*To smash cherry pits: Take a

hammer, an old towel and the

pits into the garden. Smash

until broken up.

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section header?

COO K H O U SE5

COO K H O U SE4

Pizza East ultimate tomato sauceMakes 3 quantities, each serving 4

(can be frozen)5kg ripe vine tomatoes, halved

250ml olive oil, plus 8 tbsp for

drizzling6 shallots, finely sliced

head of garlic, cloves separated

and finely sliced2 red chillies, halved and deseeded

4 tbsp sherry vinegar or red wine

vinegar4 tsp caster sugar

Preheat the oven to 200°C/fan 180°C/

gas 6/400°F. Place the tomatoes in 2

or 3 large roasting tins and drizzle

with 8 tbsp of olive oil. Season well

with sea salt and freshly ground

black pepper and roast for 30-40

minutes until really softened.

Meanwhile, gently heat 250ml olive

oil in a large frying pan. Add the

shallots, garlic and chillies and fry

over a very low heat for 10 minutes

until softened. Remove the pan from

the heat and set aside to infuse for

10 minutes. Sieve the oil into a jug

and discard the solids.

Pour the infused oil into a large

saucepan and set over a medium heat.

Crush the tomatoes with the back of

a fork and add to the oil. Simmer

gently for 5 minutes, then add the

vinegar and caster sugar and simmer

for a further 30 minutes, stirring

occasionally, until you have a thick,

rich sauce. Check the seasoning and

remove from the heat.

Divide the tomato sauce into three

equal portions. You can keep whatev-

er you don’t immediately need in the

freezer.

Chef John Pollard is particular-

ly looking forward to the arriv-

al of borlotti beans and British

langoustines, which he’s going to

serve together, the langoustine tails simply grilled, split and served with fresh borlottis as a

summery antipasti. British toma-toes are also much anticipated.

“I’m constantly revising the menus depending on what’s in the

markets,” he says. “Berries are just getting to be fantastic and

we’ve just started using some wonderful white peaches in our desserts.”

Pollard recommends “a fantastic res-

taurant, a really revolutionary place”,

the Dock Kitchen, where the set lunch

menu changes daily and in the evening

they run set-menu supper clubs, in-

spired by authors, places or the season.

Address: The Dock Kitchen, Portobello

Docks, 344/342 Ladbroke Grove, Kensal

Road, London W10 5BU; 0208 962 1610;

www.dockkitchen.co.uk

What to eat in...LONDON

How to make it

Where else to eat this summer?

What to eat in...SOMERSET

The Beckford Arms is a favourite of the Babington kitchen staff on precious days off. Address: The Beckford Arms, Fonthill Gifford, Tisbury, Wiltshire SP3 6PX; 01747 870385; www.beckfordarms.com

Where else to eat this summer?

This summer, broad beans are growing exceptionally well in the

Babington House walled gardens. “It’s pretty cool to go down

there and see the beans coming through, and artichokes growing

as well,” says head chef Ronnie Bonetti.

He’s also using crayfish from the River Test, just one county

away, which he’s splitting and roasting, or poaching and

serving with wild garlic butter, using garlic foraged from

nearby woods.

“I know it sounds boring, but I don’t think there’s anything

nicer than strawberries and cream, you know?” says Bonetti.

“Marinated in lemon and served with sugar and really cold

cream, there’s really nothing better.”

Babington artichoke, goat’s curd and broad bean saladserves 44 artichokes, boiled and peeled1 kg (7 cups) broad beans (fresh fava beans), podded and blanched1 bunch mint, leaves pickedlemon and honey dressing - whisk together the juice of 1 lemon, 1 tsp of honey and 100ml (½ cup) olive oil80g (½ cup) rocket (arugula)150g (½ cup) goat’s curd

Quarter the artichokes and put them in a bowl with the broad beans and the mint leaves. Add half of the dressing and gently mix together. Place the rocket on a plate, sprinkle over the dressed artichokes and the broad beans. Dollop the fresh goat’s curd on top and drizzle with extra dressing. Serve straight away.

How to make it

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seasonal eating

COO K H O U SE27

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

“Unbelievable. Dribble-down-your-chin good”

Lavender might sound like an unlikely ingredient, but Dolores,

pastry chef at Soho House West Hollywood, is using it in her marshmallows as well as in lavender

cream and ice cream, which she’s serving with everything from

shortcake to chocolate puddings.

The stone

fruits are in and going strong,

so head chef Matthew Armistead is stewing

apricots, then roasting them, halved, with brandy and vanilla

sugar. They’re then topped off

with mascarpone and crushed amarettis. Apparently it’s not been

a great year for Californian fruits,

but the peaches are “unbelievable,”

says Matthew. “Dribble-down-your-

chin good. People go crazy for them

when I serve them with burrata, basil, rocket and a little balsamic.”

Soft fruits like boysenberries are

also being used a lot. {Boysenberries are a cross between

a raspberry, blackberry and loganberry.}

He’s also enjoying the summer squashes that have appeared,

especially crookneck squash, an ugly but delicious vari-

ety, with, unsurprisingly, a long hook-shaped neck. Wild

purslane is also in, which has an unusual almost smoky

flavour, and is a great salad leaf – even though many

Americans consider it a weed.

West Hollywood’s chefs are making the most of the oro

blanco grapefruits – a particularly sweet variety, which

are served with prosciutto and butter lettuce, aged

pecorino and watercress; melons with mozzarella or

prosciutto are also popular. “People love to go back to the

simple, classic dishes,” says Armistead.

What to eat in...WEST HOLLYWOOD

Axe (pronounced Ay-shay) aims to be as low impact and sustainable as possible, buying produce from lo-cal growers, and organic where possible – they even deliver their kitchen scraps back to the farms to be composted. Plus, they play surf movies out back. Address: Axe, 1009 Abbot Kinney, Venice CA, 90291; 310 664 9787; www.axerestaurant.com

Where else to eat this summer?

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seasonal eating

COO K H O U SE28

Soho House West Hollywood’s warm brioche donuts & bourbon boysenberriesmakes around 17-20 donuts 1 oz (25g) fresh yeast2 fl. oz (60ml) warm water1lb (450g) all purpose (plain) flour2 tsp kosher salt1½ oz (40g) sugar5 whole eggs6½ oz (180g) soft unsalted butter

In a small mixing bowl, dissolve the yeast in the warm water. Set aside.Combine all the dry ingredients in the bowl of your mixer and attach the dough hook. Mix the dry ingredients until incorporated. On speed 1, add the eggs and the yeast/water mixture and knead until well combined. Scrape down the sides of the bowl. Increase to speed 2 and knead for 10 minutes. Add the butter, a piece at a time and knead until smooth and the dough comes away from the sides of the mixing bowl. The dough will be very soft. Heavily oil spray a medium mixing bowl and place dough in it. Boule the dough until it feels tight. Cover with plastic film and chill in refrigerator overnight. The next morning, take the dough out of the refrigerator. Portion into

2 oz (50g) dough balls. Slightly boule each ball and place on a sheet pan (bak-ing sheet) with parchment paper that has been oil sprayed. When all dough has been portioned and bouled, leave dough out at room temperature and prove. It will take about 20 minutes until a skin forms and won’t spring back from the dent of your finger if you press it. Fry donuts in 350°F (180°C) oil until golden on both sides. Drain donuts on paper towels then toss in su-per fine (icing) sugar while still warm. Cut donuts in half, lengthwise, and fill with bourbon boysenberries and whipped crème fraiche (below). Serve and enjoy!

Bourbon boysenberries4 pints (approx 1.4kg) boysenberries(or you could use blackberries)1 cup (145g) brown sugar1 vanilla bean, scraped¼ cup (60ml) high quality bourbon

Combine all ingredients in a mixing bowl and let macerate for 1 hour.

Whipped crème fraiche2 cups (475ml) heavy (double) cream2 (475g) crème fraiche¼ cup (30g) sugar1 vanilla bean, scraped

Whip in a mixer bowl with whisk attachment until medium peaks form.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

ENJOY!!!!!!!!

How to make it

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COO K H O U SE29

Fry the bones in olive oil for about 5-10 mins until there is a greasy mess

at bottom of pan. Sling ‘em (the bones). Add 3 cloves of crushed garlic and

continue to fry at low heat. Add the tomato paste and fry until it’s stick-

ing to pan and looks like you’ve screwed it up. Add the cans of

tomatoes. Add a cup of water, season and bring to boil. Reduce heat to the

lowest possible and put a lid on. Leave for an hour; have a Martini.

Come back and add basil, oregano and cheese. Leave for another hour; have

another Martini or go to a museum...or visit an old friend.

Meanwhile, mix all the ball ummschka up in a bowl and then shape into

balls that you’d like to have in your mouth. Fry gently until all sides are

browned and firm. Put them in the sauce and continue gentle cooking for

another hour this time with the lid off...

Have another Martini...Come back, and take it steady now. The sauce will be

reduced to a thick muck. Serve with Italian bread, rocket side salad and

another bowl of cheese

...immense.

serves 4

FOR THE BALLS 500g (1lb 1oz) veal500g (1lb 1oz) porksmall handful breadcrumbsyolk of one eggsmall fist of parsleysmall fist of basilhandful of finely grated parmesanolive oil

FOR THE SAUCEveal bonesgarlic4 cans of chopped tomatoes3/4 tube double concentrated tomato pastebasiloreganosalt ‘n’ pepperhandful of Parmesan

Dan Flower’sBig Balls

member’s recipe

Although a little unorthodox, we

love this meatball recipe by member

Dan Flower. For the sake of

accuracy we had to test it out (yes,

all the steps) and what can we say? All

we can remember is that they tasted great!!

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Farmer’s Wife

afters

We run the farm with his older and younger brother. The younger one, Liam, is eight now and has a little vegetable patch where he grows carrots which he really loves. When he was six Adrian bought him some chickens, so now he really feels like he’s part of the family effort – he has a job to do every day. We make all sorts of delicious cakes with their eggs and our cream – cheesecakes, strawberry cakes, fresh cream cakes. We can even make clotted cream on the Aga, but it’s really complicated so it doesn’t happen often.

We get up at 6am to do the first milking and we finish the evening milking at about 8pm. During the day I’m out and about, feeding calves or catching them to bring them in when they’re about two days old. Occasionally I help when a cow’s giving birth – it’s easier at the moment because we haven’t got a particularly big bull so the calves are little.

I grew up on a farm nearby – my dad has sheep, cows and horses, so I knew what life would be like. Even so, my sister came over last summer to help me when Adrian was away, and although she was great about things like feeding calves, it only took getting poo on her from one cow in the dairy to put her off. She said she’d learnt never to go out with a dairy farmer!

“I grew up on a farm nearby – my dad has sheep, cows and horses, so I knew what life would be like”

Cathy Shellard with her dairy herd in Somerset.

COO K H O U SE31

COO K H O U SE30

Cathy Shellard, dairy farmer, 22, Somerset

The best thing about this job is that being on the farm itself means being with

family, and the farming commu-nity is also like a family. Of

course there are people who are miserable about it, like

any job, but mostly people are nice to be around, and everyone’s in the same boat.

I love it.. The worst thing is that you’re tied to milking at either end of the day, so

even if you go out for lunch or something, you know you’ve got to come back for milking. My boyfriend and I usually have to

take separate holidays, but we occasionally go for a night at Bab-

ington House. Any bad things are outweighed by the sense of community.

I got into dairy farming when I moved in with Adrian, who runs his family farm. We’d only been together

three months but I came to stay five years ago and never left, so it seems to have worked out pretty well.

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What's our beef?

summer 2010 EATING what’s good to munch & where this summer COOKING how to find the perfect steak WORKING making good chefs great

S o h o H o u s e F o o d M a g a z i n e

Soho House Group is recruiting. We are looking for the most passionate and dedicated chefs from around the world. If you want to work for a company that’s full of opportunities, that’s expanding in Europe and America and that might even give you the chance to work in different exciting locations, then please get in touch. The right candidates will want to learn as much as possible: from improving their cooking skills to finding out about local seasonal produce and what best to do with it. If you’re the right chef for us, we’ll help you develop your career and have a great time along the way. We’d love to hear from you.

To find out more email – cookhouse@sohohouse.com

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