Seven Course Tasting Menu near Cirencester

Pavé of Halibut with Oxtail

In case you haven't heard La Belle Assiette is at the forefront of changing the English perception of private chefs. As staying in becomes the new going out, more chefs are giving up the restaurant kitchen stove and taking the restaurant out to people's homes instead. Kind of what I've been doing for the last 10 1/2 years, though now, on occasions, I also do them for La Belle Assiette clients, as I was on this evening.
As I always say to the clients at the events I do - it's much more interesting cooking in a different place each time than being stuck in the same underground kitchen of a hotel or restaurant. And there's also a much better client - chef interaction, none more so than when you are doing a tasting menu.

This was for a joint 30th birthday in early November - so both husband and wife had a decision on the menu. I gave them 4 choices per course to choose from - this is what they chose. I talked about each dish with the guests just before plating it up.

Pork Cheek, Celariac and Watercress

Also making an appearance - romanesco which you burn with a blow torch (gives it a nice barbecue style flavour), toasted pine nuts, pickled butternut squash ribbon, beetroot coulis - all the flavours!

We do quite a lot of hog roasts through the year, and there are always some guests who are in the know and ask for the pig's cheeks & ears - they're the tastiest parts! Slow cook the pigs cheeks and they are meltingly soft. 

Roast Guinea Fowl with Samphire, Gremolata and a Honey and Lemon Dressing

I love samphire with chicken & guineau fowl - the saltiness really seems to work, Samphire has life beyond fish dishes! There was also black pudding, orange, pickled cucumber and crackling. The honey & lemon is a nice light touch to the guineau fowl - you don't want too many heavy things I've found at the begining of a tasting menu. 

The honey & lemon dressing with Guineau Fowl was something I put together once on holiday in Venice - I even cook on holiday!

The red plates were a new find earlier that week. It was love at first sight!

Pavé of Halibut with Oxtail

Fish and meat.... together? For some this might seem an odd combination, but it's really an old French classic pairing. Maybe more like a marriage made in heaven - like the couple celebrating their 30th birthdays!

Also possibly my favourite dish I've done this year! The splat is the new swoosh, but, man it's so much more fun to do! 

It was butternut squash puree in case you're wondering. With a few sprouting lentils dotted around the place. 

Hendricks Gin and Tonic Sorbet

So the birthday girl is an absolute fan of Hendrick's gin and had seen the Hendrick's Gin and Tonic sorbet I had made for another party - so this just had to go on their menu somewhere. Sorbets can seem like a cop out on tasting menus I know, but it sure went down well, and at the end of the day, I'm all about giving people what they like!

Whole Fillet of Beef Wrapped in Wild Mushrooms and Rosemary

Rosemary Roast Whole Fillet of Beef, Rainbow Chard, Wild Mushrooms, Roast Garlic and Oxtail Jus

Luckily it was just the end of pumpkin season. Well, the sale season anyway. People are so fickle - they only seem to buy pumpkins around Hallowe'en time. Then all suppliers stop stocking them because noone wants to buy them. Don't they know how good they are?

These baby pumpkins were filled with rainbow chard - also in season at that time. and there are a few shallots and baby turnips there too. Taste city!

Cotswold Organic Brie baked in Brioche

Using Simon Weaver's Cotswold Brie - I've been to the farm where they make it. You have to dress up in a white coat & hat to go in. So I put some inside the brioche buns, but also a slice on the side - can never have enough brie!

To go with it there were some caramelised oranges I made, pickled figs and pickled cherries that I picked up from Upton Smokery a few days before, and just before I left for this party I found some barberries in the local Turkish shop - their acidity works really well with the brie I found.

Hmm, cheese course or dessert course first? The French would have the cheese first, the English would have the dessert first. On the night we actually went for the English way. 

Pressed Apple with Pistachio Crumble and Blackberry Sorbet

 Like apple and blackberry crumble, but lighter. Served with creme anglaise on the side. The apples are cooked in caramel like you do for tarte tatin and the crumble sprinkled on top. Gotta roll with the times!

Rose Flavoured Macarons

After coffee and rose macarons, it was just a matter of clearing up the kitchen. Really need to work on that self-cleaning kitchen invention.........

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Sole roulades with saffron risotto, mussel broth and french beans wrapped in pancetta served near Cirencester

From a 50th birthday we served in the middle of June for a family from the States staying near Cirencester on the Cotswolds leg of their UK trip. They were so overjoyed with everything we served (this was preceded by a soufflé starter and followed by a trio of desserts and this was after their delivery meal we made for them the day before).  

 It's always good to be part of that special moment for people's birthdays!

There's a sole mousse which binds these together with the herbs picked from outside my kitchen window.

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Christmas/ Xmas Day Lunch & Dinner in the Cotswolds, Cheltenham, Gloucester, Evesham, Tewkesbury, Gloucestershire, Worcestershire, Oxfordshire, 2010

Christmas lunch using locally sourced produce delivered chilled to your home on Christmas Eve or cooked and served in your home on Christmas Day by chef and waiting staff.












See more info at Christmaslunchdelivery.co.uk

Delivery Christmas/ Xmas day lunch 2008 on the blog - see more click here.

Catered Christmas lunch on Christmas Day 2009 - see more click here.












Christmas/ Xmas day lunch or dinner cooked and served in your home on the blog 2007 - see more click here.







Christmas/ Xmas Day lunch & dinner Bristol, Cirencester, Cheltenham, Chipping Norton, Evesham, Fairford, Gloucester, Lechlade, Ledbury, Malvern, Moreton in Marsh, Pershore, Ross on Wye, Stretton on Fosse, Stonehouse, Stow on the Wold, roud, Tetbury, Tewkesbury, Winchcombe, Wotton-under-Edge, Worcester

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Dinner party cooked in the Cotswold Water Park near Cirencester

As you pass through the gates of the Lower Mill Estate you leave the world behind. Part nature reserve part relaxation zone for families on holiday it's so peaceful and laid back and when you see the houses set against the lakes you wonder whether you really are in the Cotswolds at all or Scandinavia or New England. Water is everywhere - all the houses are set against lakes and some have streams/ rivers running around them too - it all adds to the zen.

This meal was for a 70th birthday at Velvet Lodge.Trio of fish starters - Crab salad with pink grapefruit, salmon ballottine wrapped in smoked trout and grilled tiger prawns with fennel and apple salad

"....this just tastes so fresh - you know how at some restaurants the food can taste....." Well it was fresh - they had watched as I diced, sliced and mix in the few minutes before serving. It makes a difference. I first made this on Christmas eve last year for a group in Kidderminster and liked it so much I thought I would offer to everyone.

Prawns are skewered on lemongrass.

Pork tenderloin wrapped in parma ham with spinach salad, garlic parmentier potatoes and warm orange vinaigrette.

The pork tenderloin wrapped in parma ham is back by popular demand. This is a much lighter summery version. I liked the spinach salad I had served at the barbecue the night before so much I recreated the same for this dish. A little on the plate and a salad bowl as well - you can't get enough of it. Simple things - spinach, the best baby tomatoes you can find, black olives and shallot. As I had some peppers I added those too.


Related posts

Pork tenderloin in parma ham - how it's made
Trio of Donnington trout

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Assiette of desserts

I was really looking forward to serving this one.
Each assiette of desserts we serve is slightly different. This one, served near Cirencester last Saturday was:

Mini tarte tatin - apple - as seen here

Mini bread and butter pudding – traditional

Chocolate torte - smaller version of this

Mini chocolate eclairs

Mini blueberry and white chocolate cheesecake - also seen last week

When I received 2 bookings for an all canape wedding reception I thought it was time I extended the canape menu and looked for a few new ideas. Lemon curd bread and butter pudding has always been a favourite - and there's always another use for butter dishes. The tarte tatin works really well in the small version too.

Bad lighting I know. A bit of fiddling with the bulb had made the kitchen light work in the first place, though after the dinner party we cooked by candlelight for 32 during a power cut in January, one dud light seemed like nothing.....

Related posts:

Other assiette of desserts we have served
Our facebook assiette of dessert photo album
An all canape wedding reception

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Carpaccio of courgette with pickled mushrooms, rocket, parmesan and beetroot dressing

A vegetarian version of the adults starter last Sunday night near Cirencester.
Courgettes are so versatile. And so nice raw, sprinked with a little maldon salt and lemon oil and left to macerate. Curling them like this and popping the pickled wild mushrooms inside was a last minute idea (they're always the best).

Also nice as courgette noodles with orange zest.


Related posts

Pickled mushrooms

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Christmas/ Xmas Day Lunch & Dinner in the Cotswolds, Cheltenham, Gloucester, Evesham, Tewkesbury, Gloucestershire, Worcestershire, Oxfordshire 2009

Christmas lunch using locally sourced produce delivered chilled to your home on Christmas Eve or cooked and served in your home on Christmas Day by chef and waiting staff.

See more info at Christmaslunchdelivery.co.uk

Delivery Christmas/ Xmas day lunch 2008 on the blog - see more click here








Christmas/ Xmas day lunch or dinner cooked and served in your home on the blog 2007 - see more click here.






Christmas/ Xmas Day lunch & dinner Bristol, Cirencester, Cheltenham, Chipping Norton, Evesham, Fairford, Gloucester, Lechlade, Ledbury, Malvern, Moreton in Marsh, Pershore, Ross on Wye, Stretton on Fosse, Stonehouse, Stow on the Wold, roud, Tetbury, Tewkesbury, Winchcombe, Wotton-under-Edge, Worcester

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Freezer filling

When I'm not busy cooking for dinner parties, making wholesale desserts for restaurants or preparing corporate buffets, I also cook meals for the freezer.

I have one regular client who likes to take frozen meals in large containers and frozen canapes to her holiday home in Cornwall so she can feed all the extended family of 12 (children and grandchildren) without spending all day in the kitchen - after all everyone needs a holiday from cooking.

Another local family ordered a month's worth of meals when they were having their kitchen re-built. With just a microwave to cook with in their utility room for a month - they found my home-cooked meals with meat from the farm just 4 miles away from them a godsend - so much so they reccommended me to all their local friends, and the fish pie they liked so much I cooked for 50 of their guests when they entertained just before new year.

These particular meals were for another regular client who has the family to stay in the Cotswolds during the major holiday periods - Christmas, Easter, Whit week etc., and again it saves spending all the time in the kitchen when you can spend it with the family instead.

Cottage pie


Preparation as seen in the shepherds pie post, just using minced beef from Home Farm instead of minced lamb.

Chicken Chasseur

This time using free range chickens from Madgetts Farm.
A traditional chasseur with onions, mushrooms, tomato, white wine and fresh tarragon. Sauce preparation is similar to the coq au vin - once the chicken has been taken off the bones, the bones are used to make a stock which is then reduced and added to the sauce after cooking, so you have an intense chicken flavour.

A few cherry tomatoes are placed on top of the sauce so they soften and burst as the meal is reheated.


Slow cooked shoulder of lamb with tabboulehAs seen in a previous post the shoulder of lamb is cooked for 6 hours will it's soft and delicious. Once chilled it can be sliced as above.

The canelle carrots and onions that were cooked with it are added on top with fresh rosemary from the garden and the sauce.

Taste the tabbouleh and you're almost back on Edgeware Road.

Tabbouleh - the ideal accompaniment to lamb

Lamb shoulder cooked whole

Salmon provençal

Like the gravadlax, this is marinated too - but only overnight, and in a classic tomato sauce, after which it is baked.

With this is provençal style vegetables made to an old family recipe. My grandparents who lived locally when I was young had a large vegetable garden, so we were pretty self sufficient harvesting in the summer months, blanching and cooking like mad and then freezing so there would be vegetables and fruit throughout the winter months. The provençal vegetables were always one of my favourites on it's own with freshly made bread, or as an accompaniment to fish, rabbit or chicken.

Fillet of hake with homemade beer baked beans and ale sauce


There's more on the sauce here, and the beans here. I think it's a winning combination.







Fish pie

Another family recipe - originally from my maternal grandmother who's been making it for 70 years or more, but which I have, again, improved a little bit. I did give away the recipe once to a group on a hen weekend after they raved about it so much, but that's as far as it goes at the moment.
Cod, salmon, king prawns. oven dried tomatoes, egg and parsley. Grain mustard and Gorsehill Abbey Farm St. Kennelm cheese potato puree is piped on top.

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These were taken from our bistro menu, but as they are made to order it means I can make whatever anyone asks for, and can account for any allergies or preferences. They can be made at a clients house using their own dishes, or most often I make them at my premises fitting them in between everything else and then deliver them at a suitable time.

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