kent-life.co.uk January 2015

£3.25

Meet our winners from Shipbourne to Sandhurst

The renowned textile artist at home in Tunbridge Wells

FOOD & DRINK

CHAMPSANNE

KELLYFrom Dartford’s Orchard Theatre to Hollywood star

MACKENZIE

CROOK

Fairfield Frost by Louis Neville

IN THE COUNTY

AshfordGateway to Europe

ChislehurstTown and country

Rochester10 reasons to visit

Island lifeNew Year Walks

Community spirit in Sheppey and Chatham

50 years on: Chartwell remembers Churchill

History at Ide Hill or sea views from Folkestone?

Through the keyhole

in Maidstone

Death of a Hero

READERS’ PETS: Introducing Austin and Rolo, Casper, Tess, Buffy, Polly and Yoshi

IN THE COUNTY

AshfordGateway to Europe

ChislehurstTown and country

Rochester10 reasons to visit

kent-life.co.uk KENT LIFE January 2015 69

We last saw them in their black tie finery at the Kent Life

and Kent on Sunday Food & Drink Awards – now you can

meet our magnificent winners in their own workplaces and

hear what they had to say when they realised they’d won

Meet the winners

WORDS BY: HOLLY EELLS PICTURES BY: MANU PALOMEQUEMain sponsor

kent-life.co.uk72 KENT LIFE January 2015

Teashop of the Year

Sandhurst Tea Rooms, SandhurstSponsor: Lukehurst

Owners: Tanya and Damon ParkerThere’s only the two of us working in the tearoom, we don’t employ any staff, so we make sure we have just the right amount of tables so we can manage. We get to meet some fantastic people and when it is quieter we can spend more time chatting with customers. The building itself is fantastic, we have a beautiful garden and it is a privilege to be working and living here. We are here to enjoy the building, the village we live in and as long as we can pay the bills, that is all we worry about. We are really chuffed and our customers will be ever so pleased.

Chef of the Year

Andrew McLeish Chapter One, LocksbottomSponsor: Britelite

Owner: Andrew McLeishKent is a fantastic area to be in, one of the best in the UK. It is easy for a chef to use Kent products and we don’t have to work too hard to find suppliers who are also passionate about what they do. It’s great to be recognised and this award will help staff morale and boost the team, knowing there is recognition out there. So when I am that boss giving my orders, there is a purpose to it and we all want to produce quality food and get better. We have a wall of fame in the restaurant, so I can’t wait to put it there. It is absolutely superb.

Customer Service of the Year

Holwood Farm Shop, KestonSponsor: Fenwick Canterbury

Owner: Gary MercerIt is just absolutely fantastic, and thank you to our customers. It’s lovely they have had faith in us over the last two years, as we are still a new business. They have really supported and stuck with us, and the comment that comes back to us all the time is people say we have listened. From changing a product or the menu, we listen to what people say and you are a fool if you don’t listen. Huge thanks to you all, we are enormously pleased our customers have accepted us into their community and let us be part of them. It is also down to the staff and team work.

GOURMET LIFE

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RECIPEPoached south coast cod with an Asian broth Serves 4

Ingredients 4 120g pieces of cod 500g baby spinach, blanched 200g samphire, blanched 20g coriander cress 1 packet Shimeji mushrooms 50g Shitaki mushrooms (sliced) 50g tomato concasse 1 Kaffir lime

For the mushroom consommé 2 onions 200g Muscavardo sugar 1/2 bottle of white wine 2 kg button mushrooms 6 pints chicken stock 1 bunch coriander stalks Raft: 3 sticks lemongrass 20g ginger 200g button mushrooms 250g egg white

Method Slice and roast the onions in a pan and caramelise with the sugar. Then deglaze with white wine. In a separate pan, fry the sliced button mushrooms with a little colour then drain off the excess liquid.

Combine the onions and mushrooms together and add the chicken stock and simmer for two hours. Strain off and cool in a fridge overnight.

Blend the lemongrass, mushrooms and ginger in a blender then add the egg white. Take the mushroom stock from the fridge and skim any fat.

Pour the stock into a pan and whisk the raft into the stock. Bring stock and raft up to a gentle simmer and cook slowly for one hour. Remove from the heat gently and strain the clear stock using a ladle and muslin.

Season with soy and fish sauces

To servePlace each piece of cod into a vacuum-packed bag, add a drop of olive oil and seal, removing all the air. Cook in a water bath at 56 degrees for 15 mins. Sauté the spinach and samphire in a little butter. Season.

Bring the Asian broth to the boil, add the Shitaki and Shimeji mushrooms and the tomato concasse. Place the spinach and samphire on a plate with the mushrooms and half the broth around.

Remove the cod from the bags, peel off the skin and season with sea salt and the zest of the kaffir lime.

Place the cod onto the spinach.

Our Chef of the Year 2014 Andy McLeish is counting the

calories post-Christmas and aiming for a healthy January

Cookingwith Andy

WORDS BY: ANDY MCLEISH PICTURE BY: MING TANG-EVANS AND MANU PALOMEQUE

On 1 January I always seem to regret the amount of food and drink consumed over the festive period.

Anyone who likes their food will overindulge a bit at Christmas and New Year. I had too many turkey sandwiches, goose-fat potatoes, mince pies and my fair share of red wine. I wouldn’t be surprised if I’ve already gained some weight.

I’ve never been one to make a New Year’s resolution but I know so many who vow to take better care of their health, lose weight, join the gym, and drink less alcohol.

I’m not making any promises that I’ll eat well for the rest of the year, but I can try for one month. It’s detox time – well, for January at least. On the plus side, Santa brought the kids a dog called Bailey for Christmas and morning walks counts as exercise, doesn’t it?

Find out moreChapter One, Farnborough Common, Locksbottom BR6 8NF01689 854848www.chapteronerestaurant.co.ukFollow Andy on @andy23471

Next month: Andy makes marmaladeSee also page 78.

This month’s recipe is my poached south coast cod with an Asian broth. This is a luxurious yet healthy recipe that’s full of flavour. The mushroom consommé needs to be prepared the day or night before but trust me, it will be worth it.

This dish is definitely proof that eating well needn’t be boring and I will be serving it in my restaurant throughout this month.

We use a fantastic Kentish supplier, Chapmans. The fish supplied to the restaurant is caught locally and on day boats. This means that the fish comes back to port on the day and is caught rather than trawler fishing – where the boats can be out at sea for more than a week at a time. Myself and Chapmans pride ourselves on the quality of fish we serve.

Good luck to those who have made New Year’s resolutions to eat healthily from now on and to those who will only last a few weeks like me, don’t feel too bad, you’re in good company. �

ABOV E: Andy McLeish receives the 2014 Chef of the Year award at the Kent Life and Kent on Sunday Food & Drink Awards

kent-life.co.uk78 KENT LIFE January 2015

Chapter One may not lie at the end of a sweeping drive or even nestle in a cute Kentish village, but this stylish, contemporary,

restaurant rises above its position on a roundabout-laden stretch of the busy A21 with magnificent insouciance.

And it may have inexplicably just lost its Michelin star but hey, proudly displayed on its wall of fame are not one but two trophies from the Kent Life and Kent on Sunday’s 2014 Food & Drink Awards, where Chapter One scooped not only Restaurant of the Year but also Chef of the Year for its Executive Head Chef, Andrew McLeish.

So who needs stars when you’ve got a couple of our splendid plates on the wall? That was my excuse anyway for being back at one of my favourite places to eat in Kent, ready to test the opinion of our readers and the two category judges, who independently both picked Locksbottom’s finest - from an extremely strong field indeed.

Winner of Kent Life and Kent on Sunday’s Restaurant of

the Year and Chef of the Year categories in the 2014

Food & Drink Awards, was chef-owner Andy McLeish

going to be able to live up to the double victory?

The nextCHAPTER

Relaxing in the bar over a raspberry Bellini with dishes of fat green olives and nuts to nibble, I could feel the week’s tensions starting to melt away.

And the signs were good as we were led to our corner table: “Full marks for crisp white tablecloths,” noted My Tall Friend with approval. “And good cutlery, too – plain and simple, but stylish.”

A first-timer here, he also admired the decor: accent walls in warm, deep red hung with rather fab big framed pictures of vegetables, nicely enhanced by uplighters.

It was a Friday night and busy but there is excellent spacing between tables and staff were at their best, gliding around the large, low-ceilinged restaurant with effortless ease and, as ever, eyes in the back of their heads; they miss nothing.

And they are confident enough to challenge their customers when needed: “That’s very boring of you, Sarah!” retorted general manager Philip Urasala when I said we’d both have the seven-course Tasting

Menu, demonstrating in one witty put down the mix of professional, cheeky, relaxed and assured style that characterises the service here. He was absolutely right, of course. We returned to the task, while tucking into delicious walnut and fennel seed bread, and came up with a much broader set of new dishes to try out.

I was delighted not to have missed out on my exquisite quail kiev starter, which consisted of the tiniest, perfectly roasted quail legs served with herb mayonnaise, dandelion leaf and a touch of Gruyère.

My recommended Chablis 2012, Domaine des Iles was a perfect accompaniment while glass of Viognier from Central Valley, Chile cut through the richness of MTF’s pressed terrine of rabbit and foie gras, where the melting meatiness was enhanced by chestnut foam, truffle mayonnaise and crunchy pea cress.

One accompaniment had us almost fighting over who got it – the most buttery, floatingly light brioche meant of course as a

WORDS BY: SARAH STURT PICTURES BY: MANU PALOMEQUE

GOURMET LIFE

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classic accompaniment to the terrine but far too yummy not to be shared, as I insisted.

Both dishes emphasised Andy Mcleish’s particular cooking style that manages to combine an honest earthiness with utterly exquisite presentation skills and attention to detail – plus flavour. Oodles of it.

For this is a chef who genuinely cares about provenance and is passionate about using as much produce as possible from the surrounding area of Kent; a true field-to-fork champion. Andy is also a chef who loves to hunt and shoot and it would be rude not to have tasted the sika venison from nearby Chart Farm he’d bagged.

After insisting MTF hear my oft-repeated tale of the day I attended one of Andy’s masterclasses and learnt how to chop up a haunch of roe buck, I let him enjoy his first taste of this wonderfully flavoured meat.

Two generous, juicy portions, sliced at an angle and intersected with an elegant oblong of shallot tart topped with cumin-roasted carrot had a spectacularly green

reduction of curly kale on the side and a really lovely venison jus – which a South Australian Shiraz handled magnificently.

I opted for the fish dish of the day, which was the meatiest salmon (‘this is beyond mere fish’ I’ve noted, a tad cryptically), pan fried and served atop a Parmesan-laced risotto stuffed with cockles and chorizo.

As I write this ranks in my top three favourite mains of all time: big and bold, definitely not for the faint-hearted, simply bursting with flavour and sea freshness. Only a red could do it justice and my Argentinian Pinot Noir was perfect.

Despite being told “that’s a real girl’s dessert!” I could not resist the lure of peanut and chocolate tart, which sounds ridiculously sweet but not when you factor in a generous helping of salted caramel ice cream and the lightest of banana sorbets, and of course the whole artful way in which the dish is presented.

MTF’s tart tatin of Pink Lady apples was meant for two and after all I had my own

pudding, but OK, I admit I had a taste or three. Wonderfully light puff pastry, the apple still with a real bite, vanilla ice cream and crème fraiche perfect companions.

Our choice of dessert dictated our choice of dessert wine, so I sipped a Sauternes while MTF toyed with a Hungarian Tokaji, both replete and utterly content.

Coffee with Andy M in the bar followed, plus a light-hearted ticking off from me about him not smiling enough at the awards evening (“too shocked,” he said), then lots of chat about the future.

“It really isn’t about the stars, it’s about being a great team, always striving to do the best we can and using as much local produce as well as we can throughout the menu,” said Andy. “We are all genuinely very proud indeed of our Kent Life and Kent on Sunday awards.”

Couldn’t put it better myself. And did I mention it’s surprisingly good value too? Go on, treat the family to a slap-up New Year’s Day feast and start 2015 in style. �

The essentialsWhere: Chapter OneFarnborough Common Locksbottom BR6 8NF 01689 854848 info@chapteronerestaurant.co.uk

What: contemporary, smart restaurant, modern European cooking with classical roots firmly based on local produce

When: Restaurant: Mon-Sat, lunch 12-2.30pm, Mon-Thu, dinner 6.30-10.30pm, Fri & Sat, dinner 6.30-11.30pm, Sun lunch 12-3pm, Sun dinner 6.30-9pm

Brasserie: Mon-Sat, 12-3pm

How much: Tasting menu £65 (with £20 supplement for wines per course); menu du jour £19.95 (three courses); Sunday lunch £22.95 (includes cocktail of the day)

For more on Chapter One and its executive head chef Andy McLeish, turn to pages 72 and 73.