A Round-Up of What We've Been Up To

It’s been a hectic time for us at Trinity, early June saw me at home playing host to the lovely Rachel Allen, where we cooked family fare for the kids and talked all things home cooking. This show airs in September, definitely one to watch!

We cooked alfresco during early July, where the gang helped raise money for the local community at the Trinity church BBQ, a massive success and a BBQ to remember. I did my own version of outside catering and cooked a wedding on the island of Lopud in Croatia. It was amazing to work with local produce, and indeed refreshing to see an abundance of everything seasonal, and with not much else to choose from! Jamie and Graz have been friends of Trinity for some time and we wish them a happy life together.

My forthcoming book "How to Eat In" is underway and is proving an amazing journey to be part of, the results will be available for all to see in April 2010, I shall keep you updated.

We are proud to announce that Trinity is currently featured on a number of the Open Table diners choice categories, including Best Food, Best Service, Neighbourhood Gem and Best Overall.

We have seen some new faces join the team, and have bid a fond farewell to one or two long timers. Overall Trinity remains as busy as ever, with the front windows open wide throughout the summer. We are cooking light, seasonal, summer dishes and enjoying working with some new suppliers, who are bringing us even better, fresh seasonal produce from the UK.

 <TOP>

Summer Menu Highlights and What's Cooking for August

Light, summery and seasonal food: those are the thoughts behind some of the great new dishes at Trinity this summer. Here are some of the current produce and menu highlights for me.

‘Scallop Daily’: it goes like this, we buy the biggest, freshest hand dived scallops from Orkney in Scotland, they are flown down overnight and alive when you order them! They come with whatever produce we feel suits them best on the day, but generally speaking they are given a lift, cooked (or not) and on to your plate.

Summer Berry Pavlova and Mint Choc Chip ice cream have both reappeared as favourite’s for the summer. Seabass with sardine lasagna and of course a gazpacho to rival all gazpachos is here making the best of English heirloom tomatoes.

Other highlights have been fresh English almonds, watermelon served with a ricotta stuffed courgette flower, and some of the best young, organic English beetroot I have seen. I'm not convinced that organic means more flavour full stop, but with beetroot I'm certain of the difference.

We will be working on a new lobster dish for August using seasonal English lobsters. Salt marsh lamb and Sicilian lemons will be featuring on the prix fixe, weekday menu.

Fresh English Buffalo Mozzarella from Lavestock Park in Hampshire makes an appearance on the menu. These guys look after 1500 Buffalo and make a stunning example of this cheese which can be exceedingly dull in flavour if not from a credible source - we highly recommend!

And lastly as a summer outing I took the team to Garsons farm in Surrey for a day of PYO fruit and vege. Garsons Farm is a firm family favorite, always providing an abundance of seasonal produce. Here are some pictures of our pickings, and if you dined in the last couple of week’s you would certainly have sampled some of them!

<TOP>

Part Two of My Cooking Tips K-R

K: Keeping things simple! It’s a cliché, but two foods which go well together and are perfectly cooked, will always be a far better success than four things done badly.

L: Luxury ingredients. Truffles, Foie Gras, Saffron and Caviar. These are some truly impressive ingredients that can, however, cost a small fortune. My theory is that they are only worth using if given in quantity. Token luxury is a waste of money which never delivers - shame that!

M: Marsh Samphire: at sporadic times between May and July this land seaweed is readily available, usually from your fishmonger. Salty, crunchy and seriously moreish!

N: Naughty but nice! For homemade marshmallow, simply boil 900g sugar to 127c, dissolve 18 sheets of gelatine into this and pour 4 egg whites which have been thoroughly whipped, allow it to cool as the machine continues to whisk. Set the mix on a tray in the fridge for an hour, cut, and dust with icing sugar and cornflour. Yum.

O: Orange dressing: great for goats cheese salads, poached fish and dressing beetroot. Juice two oranges, reduce by half with 5g sugar, leave to cool. Slowly add in 120ml olive oil, salt, pepper and the grated zest of one of the oranges.

P: Poached fish: make a mix of white wine, water, seasoning and a selection of vegetables cut small. Pour this over your fish in a heavy based pan (do not cover with the liquid, just below will suffice) place a piece of baking paper over. Bring to the boil and remove from the heat, leave to cool for 5 minutes and serve!

Q: Quick cook rice that has been parboiled will never deliver great risotto, the much needed starch has been removed - avoid at all costs!

R: Ripe melons. To test the ripeness of a melon gently press the root underneath with both thumbs, the aroma will generally give an accurate measure of the melons ripeness.

 <TOP>

Question of the Month

I asked the waiters, chefs and receptionists the following:
Which three food items would be in your summer picnic basket?

Leah: “If England had a summer, it would be strawberries, strawberries and strawberries”
Daisy: “Cheese, bread and wine”
Siobhan: “Raspberries, potato salad and Champagne”
Lucie: “Soft boiled duck egg, homemade mayonnaise, prawns … and a bottle of Bandol Rose – the wine doesn’t count!”
Rupert: “Smoked prawns from Pinneys in Orford, homemade mayonnaise and great bread”
Cindy: “Cheese, strawberries, baguette”

 <TOP>

A Service in the Life of Trinity
by Darren McHugh, Restaurant Manager

“The truth of the matter is that there is no such thing as a typical service in the life of any restaurant, let alone Trinity. I live dangerously close to the restaurant so the sixty seconds or so it takes me to walk to work rules out any unnecessary battles with Transport for London.

My role of Restaurant Manager encompasses all aspects of the Front of House from recruiting and training new staff, to directing the service within the restaurant to financial controls and lots more besides but probably most important is to try and maintain the consistency of service that is unique to Trinity as a restaurant and that everybody in the whole building works so hard at.

Once in the door, I’ll pop my head into the kitchen to say hello to Chef and the rest of the brigade. By the time I get into work the guys will have been pushing on for a good two hours and will be bang in the middle of their mis en place for that day’s service.

It is a well known fact that I have the sweetest tooth in the restaurant (and by extension probably the worst diet!) so breakfast is usually tea and biscuits. Followed by breakfast seconds at 11am when staff food is served.

My first of port of call will be to look at the restaurant booking sheet. This contains all the fundamental information about who we can expect in the dining room that day. Next it’ll be checking my emails and if I’ve been off the previous evening I’ll read what we call the “Data Report”. It is essentially a summary of the preceding service and is filled out by both the reception team and the manager. It contains a whole host of information and is an important reference tool for the restaurant.

There are briefings held every day. Kitchen and floor. Lunch and dinner. We’ll start off with a recap of the number of guests that day, a member of the Front of House will read out the menus and Chef will speak about and brief the team on any new menu items. The kitchen briefing is followed by the restaurant floor briefing where, in a nod to my old life as an actor, we’ll divide the room into stage right, left and centre, assign waiters to these sections and go through the running sheet in some detail, flagging any guest notes or special requests for that evening. Everything we strive to deliver in the restaurant is based on our philosophy of hospitality and how we try to concentrate on and communicate this and these briefings are central to that.

Part of that philosophy is the relationship we establish with regular guests and this is probably the aspect of my job I enjoy the most. As many of you know I love a good chinwag and will happily burn the ear off anybody – no surprise being Irish!

Something that is also central to the daily life of the restaurant is staff meal. The guys in the kitchen find time every day to make staff food for the restaurant. A tremendous privilege. Each member of the Front of House will line up and make a plate for themselves and a member of the kitchen brigade. We all then sit down at the kitchen table and eat together. Amidst the drive of daily restaurant life it is a chance for everybody to catch their breath, acknowledge each other respectfully and focus on the evening ahead.

Before the evening begins there’ll be a final restaurant walk around to ensure everything is as it should be and then with the arrival of the first guest a change in gear and into service proper. The time goes by quite quickly. It is a passionate few hours with everybody in the restaurant striving to achieve the same goals. Pulling together to deliver on the high demands we place on ourselves and our guests expectations. Once service is over, the close down of the restaurant begins and invariably I’ll be the last person to leave. Home, a bit of Sky News, then bed.

In the end, to paraphrase someone else, when you acknowledge there is no such thing as a typical or indeed perfect service in the restaurant, then the real purpose of what we do, day in day out, becomes clear: to make people happy".

 <TOP>

A Simple Wine Selection for Summer
available exclusively from our friends at Wines of the World

When I left the countryside to work in London, I left with a view that city life would mean having to get used to buying my wares from big chain stores, and that I was leaving behind the ideals of shopping locally and with great fresh produce.

I returned back to Suffolk for a wedding just recently and ended up chatting to a friend’s dad, he was telling me about how a new supermarket expansion was the death knell for the local butchers, bakers, (candlestick makers?). He then said that London was, in fact the last bastion of the high street. I stand corrected, where else can you find quality independent bakers, butchers, fishmongers, florists, wine merchants and of course restaurants, walking distance from home.

Last week, one of our many regular customers wandered in with a Wines of the World bag tucked under their arm. Being a nosey beggar I asked what they had bought, it turned out it was a bit of a favourite of theirs so I decided to wander round the Polygon and see what the fuss was about. The wine is a Reuilly produced by Dyckerhoff in the 2008 vintage. Classic Loire valley sauvignon blanc, a damn sight cheaper than your average Sancerre (£11.99). It’s light and refreshing with classic gooseberry and elderflower flavours zipping all over the place. On the finish there’s a drop of grapefruit and a pinch of lemon zest. This wine would be great with some simply cooked seafood, or a good quality goats cheese such as Dorstone, or if you get hold of some Cardo even better. Cardo is available from Neals Yard Dairy, where Leah recently staged and we shall be visiting on our upcoming Borough Markets Masterclass www.nealsyarddairy.co.uk

Cheers,
Rupert

 <TOP>

A few of our friends in the local community

Anthony Laban
Tony and the crew continue to deliver a first class service in both beauty and hair, many of the team (myself included!) are firm regulars at his salon. www.anthonylaban.com

Nappyvalley
These guys have one of the best collections of local business and services suitable for the young families of south London. www.nappyvalleynet.com

MacFarlane’s Deli
If, like us, it’s all about fine cheese and wine then ask for Angus or Anne MacFarlane at Macfarlane’s Deli, they are fast becoming Trinity regulars and are supplying some amazing cheese locally. 48 Abbeville Road, SW4 9NF. Tel: 020 8673 5373.

Happy cooking

Adam

T  R  I  N  I  T  Y
4 The Polygon
Clapham Common
London SW4 0JG

Reservations: 0207 622 1199

www.trinityrestaurant.co.uk
dine@trinityrestaurant.co.uk

<TOP>