food ............................... Raviolo of Brighton Blue Combining his passion for local food and his experience of cooking on three continents, Semolina chef Orson Whitfield tries out a new dish... I moved to England 15 years ago, from Atlanta, Semolina is named after probably the most used Georgia. Before that I’d lived in Liberia, and in ingredient in Italy. It means ‘half-milled’ and when Italy before that. I’ve only cooked professionally in ground down to a finer flour it’s used to make England, but I’ve been cooking at home since my pasta, like the raviolo I’m making today. For this teenage years. My parents both worked and I’m the dish I’m using 00-grade flour, which is finer than oldest of four siblings, so I was given the respon- plain white. I mix it together with eggs, a pinch of sibility of making dinner for the family. My mum’s sea salt and a little olive oil to form a pastry, and Italian and Ethiopian, my dad’s West African, and then roll it out into a sheet and cut out the two they both cooked at home – we rarely ate out. sides of the raviolo using a pastry cutter. Next I When I started studying, I was quite old compared fill the parcel with Brighton Blue cheese, a little to most students – everyone else was 16 and I was oregano and some puréed potato, to help keep the 26. I took a Hospitality Management degree, which structure of the raviolo and to stop the cheese from included an industrial placement year at a hotel. melting out when it’s cooked. These just need to I was supposed to have training in three different be blanched in salted water for a few minutes just departments, the first being food. After one week before serving. there I went back to my course supervisor and told We change our menu every month, based on what’s him that I loved being in the kitchen, and that that in season. This week I got an e-mail from our local was where I wanted to be. He told me that it was vegetable supplier saying that they’d have plenty of my decision, but that it might be more difficult for purple sprouting broccoli for a bit, so I’ve incorpo- me, being a bit older. I decided to go off anyway rated it into this dish for our February menu. and see how long I could last in the chef world. The cauliflower purée – made with cooked cauli- That was in 2001. flower, a little milk and butter - forms the first of I went on to work at the Runnymede Hotel in the three textures of brassica, topped with a drizzle Egham, where I met my [Czech] wife Linda, of sage butter to add a bit of flavour. The second and then at the Wharf restaurant in Teddington, texture is the kale, which is fried to a crisp, and the where I learned a lot about the business side of third is the purple sprouting broccoli, which has the industry and the day-to-day running of the been blanched, refreshed in ice water, and then kitchen. When we came to Brighton, Linda and sautéed. To finish, I toast some chopped walnuts in I were looking for a place to run ourselves, and salt and sugar, and sprinkle them over the dish. we thought the best way to do this would be to I’ll be honest, I haven’t actually tried this one yet... franchise pub kitchens; I would do the cooking and I only thought it up last night. she would do the front of house. We managed the .... 80.... kitchens at The Geese in Hanover and then The As told to Rebecca Cunningham. Photo by Lisa Devlin, Shakespeare’s Head near Seven Dials, before open- whose food-photography website is cakefordinner.co.uk. ing our own restaurant in November. www.semolinabrighton.co.uk .... 81....
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