Farewell JRB…
I don’t think you can top our dinner parties. They’re consistently so spot on. I say that without any form of arrogance, for with a very close pal, we simply host. Host a chef with culinary ideas beyond advanced on ordinary. A waiter with more wine knowledge than most sommeliers, (yet himself opts for Paso), and a party of twelve friendly guinea pigs eager to experiment and socialise. The atmosphere is faultless. It’s ridiculously hard keeping the guest list to just twelve.
Friday saw the last JRB for a while at Shipka Towers. Nathan our favourite chef will be moving on to a head chef role in his day job, so won’t have as much time to introduce such intricate menus in his leisure time. Will he even have leisure time? That’s by-the-by. But in his swan song, he decided to park JRB exceeding all expectations, and from my past blogs, you’ll see they’re already very high.
Five courses of lamb, nose to tail (or perhaps tongue to tail), and suggested without my influence. This particular Welsh girl couldn’t quite believe it.
As a tide of vibrant personalities came in, so did some beautiful wines and fresh spring flowers. We launched into the evening with each guest revealing a secret quirky fact about themselves and the party having to guess the owner of said fact. This broke the ice perfectly, and before we knew it the first plate was in front of us.
I think people were nervous of the first dish as it involved tongue, a part of the body that admittedly you wouldn’t usually be drawn to. Confit tongue and braised cheek, broad beans, pea shoots and salsa verde. This was portioned very well, as with such strong flavours of meat, you wouldn’t have enjoyed a hearty load. The greens lifted the heavy flavours and every plate was cleared effortlessly.
Next was my favourite dish (other than dessert) involving curried heart, ginger arancini, tamarind and coconut jus. With a hint of Thai flavours, the arancini blew us away, and everyone was hoping for leftovers to take home. Intricate herbs and lemon underneath the ginger really complimented the curried heart, and a sneaky rare cutlet not mentioned on the menu. Delicious. I could stop here, but there were three more courses to follow.
Three took an Italian influence in the form of cannelloni. A buttered liver, ricotta and scrag end cannelloni of course, with wild mushroom cream. I’m not really a fan of the fungi family, however went in on this dish as though I was. I enjoyed the cannelloni and the creamy sauce as not too overpowering and minus the mushroom texture. The liver wasn’t to my tastes, but there were plenty of guys at the table happy to step in and overindulge.
Course four was the last of our savoury and hit the meat hard with breast, ribeye and sweetbreads, white onion and thyme purée and asparagus. Following lengthy debates on what people believed sweetbreads to be, consensus settled on two glands of the lamb – the throat and the pancreas, and not in fact the testicles as common myth proclaims. I’m quite a fan of them, having only sampled them in Nathan’s presence; they’ve become somewhat a signature. The small portion of breast was insignificant next to the juicy pink ribeye, demolished quickly with gluttonous eyes searching the table for spares.
By now I physically had no room or taste buds available for any more lamb, and dessert was a welcomed respite. Sheep’s milk and elderflower parfait, summer berries, Muscat jelly and vanilla cheese fritters. Everything on this plate was dreamy, and could stand alone in its own excess. Wishful thinking. The parfait was like the topping on a cheesecake, I’d pay to bathe in Muscat jelly and the vanilla cheese fritters like fresh doughnuts from a summer fair. We concluded the lamb feast happy.
I wish Nathan all the luck in the world with his new venture, although undoubtedly luck will not be needed. Not sure what the future of JRB holds, but my gut feeling tells me this wasn’t really the last..
(This post is dedicated to one of the founding attendees of JRB, the life and soul of any party; Graham gorgeous Charman. Graham unexpectedly said goodbye to his Father this week, to which we raised the above photographed toast in condolence. Graham emigrates to Australia early next week and albeit their gain is our incredible loss. All our sympathies and support GMan, we wish you the most fulfilling new start down under. xx)
Whose Boots Are Those Shoes? 
Beautifully created, eaten, digested and loved.. Sums up Nathan’s food, your blog and You. Well OK we haven’t eaten you but you look delicious.. xx