Thank you dad and goodbye

I am often asked where my passion for food and wine came from and how my interest in it developed and my automatic answer has always been that it started with helping my mother in the kitchen when I was a boy, followed by heading off to university with some of my mother's recipes tucked in my bag.  In the late 1970's refectory and cafe food in the UK was nowhere near as good as it can be today so my ability to make a spaghetti bolognese or a risotto made me very popular with my fellow students.

Recently, however, I have had cause to think again about that and realise that my father was a huge influence too.  In the last ten years he had little chance to show what he could do in the kitchen as the debilitating effects of multiple sclerosis gradually eroded his mobility and eventually forced him into a wheelchair, but actually he was the one that experimented with new and exotic flavours and ever more complicated and grander dishes.  My mother cooked during the week and my father cooked at the weekend when he had the time to do so.  He travelled extensively with his job and brought back exciting food and wine discoveries which he was keen to pass on to us.

All of this is relevant because my father passed away a month ago.  It was an awful year for him.  A kidney infection brought him close to death in April.  Thereafter he was bed bound and in a lot of pain as his body slowly shut down due to the effects of the MS.  He was in and out hospital and all through the Spring and Summer I dreaded a telephone call telling me his condition had worsened again.

It was difficult living in France with my parents on Guernsey with no direct easy route between the two and clients at 42rvh and the kitchen almost every day.  The news of his passing away reached me at about 11.30am on the morning of 4th October.  I was taking a coffee with Carcassonne Kitchen clients in the Place Carnot in the middle of a buzzy market.  No matter how much one is prepared to hear bad news, it's actuality is no less shocking.  I don't know how but I managed to hold it together and finish the tour and cooking day with my clients unaware of what had happened - one of the hardest days of my life.

As Christmas approaches, there is a picture that keeps popping into my head.  It is probably 1976.  We are in the dining room in Guildford around a table laid with the best china and glasses.  The hostess trolley is keeping the vegetables warm.  My father stands at one end of the table wearing a ridiculous paper hat and holding an orange and white electric carving knife in his hand as he contemplates attacking the huge roast turkey before him.  Happy days.

Thank you dad, and goodbye x

Back to the Future

It was a staple of every restaurant menu in the 1970's and, therefore, it's reputation has suffered by association as the food revolution over the last 30 years has taken us through nouvelle cuisine, fusion food and the rediscovery of British cooking.

Some 70's classics have survived by being reinvented for the modern palate - the prawn cocktail springs to mind - although I can't see anything wrong with the original version which we still eat on a regular basis.

The dish I am talking about is duck a l'orange. It has the air of Robert Carrier and Graham Kerr hanging over it and I can't remember the last time I saw it on a restaurant menu. Yet the time is ripe for a revival because French cuisine is back in vogue in a big way with new French restaurants opening in London and New York at an astonishing rate over the last year or so.

It is a fabulous dish and has become a firm favourite at 42rvh, especially during the winter months when there is a plentiful supply of good oranges coming up from Spain and winter bitter leaves which make the ideal salad to offset the rich duck and fruity orange - and of course we always have duck to hand.

This is how I prepare it for 2 people.
- Take one large duck breast (preferably magret). Score the fatty side in a criss-cross pattern down to the flesh.
- Make a marinade with the juice and zest of 2 oranges and a tablespoon each of runny honey, ground cinnamon and soy sauce. Marinate the duck breast overnight in the fridge.
- To cook, in a dry pan fry the duck breast skin side down over a medium heat for 10 minutes to render and brown the fat. When done tip away any excess fat from the pan, turn the breast over, add the marinade and orange segments from another orange and cook for a further 5 minutes. Then remove the duck breast to a board to rest, add 25 gms of butter to the marinade and reduce a little.
- to serve, slice the duck breast at an angle and arrange on two plates (approx 4-5 slices each) and dress with the sauce and a dressed mixed salad (I like to use radicchio and frisee).

It is important to cook the duck on a medium heat - I can't remember how many I have burnt by having the heat too high or not keeping an eye on it. If you can't get hold of a large magret de canard then you may need 2 smaller duck breasts and adjust the cooking time accordingly.

Last week we found some delicious and beautiful blood oranges in the market and experimented with them in this dish. The taste was not particularly any different but the colour of the blood orange segments certainly added a spectacular dimension.

So find the Glam Rock compilation on your ipod and give it a go.