You are indeed sensing a theme here with another Blood Orange recipe. This darkly gorgeous centered orange gives the humble orange a run for it’s money not only in taste but also in looks. The pale creamy vanilla bean flecked Pannacotta is one of those ludicrously easy desserts to make. Whenever I see it on a menu, I invariably give it a miss as I know how easy (and inexpensive) is it to make one, preferring to go for more intricate items.

As for serving, I wouldn’t serve it with this many slices of blood orange, that would simply overwhelm it and not provide the necessary balance. I styled it this way more as a homage to a dress that I have that has patterned flowers cascading down the front. Unlike the dress, one or two slices of blood orange, and feel free to candy or soak them in syrup, would do just fine. Or you could do this as a double layered pannacotta making a blood orange jelly on top and placing 1 slice of blood orange, setting it, and the adding the vanilla pannacotta layer.

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The Conran family are the original multitalented family. Sir Terence, the restauranteur owns a large chunk of London and its restaurants, his son Jasper (designer of gorgeous China pieces for Wedgwood)and his wife Shirley, the writer and author of “Superwoman” and “Lace” (anyone remember the Lace mini series?), Sebastian (who helped Nigella design her Living Kitchen range) and Sophie (designer) and Tom (restaurateur).

Their restaurant, at Shad Thames near the London Bridge is a riverside venue with a lovely view of the bridge. We’re here at the Bar & grill section (read: the affordable section) which looks and feels exactly the same as the full restaurant just a few metres down. The bread comes with a cute pot of butter, and some marinated olives. The white loaf is excellent, the sourdough less so. We’re ordering from the set menu where have either Two courses for £13.50 or three courses for £17.50

Honey roast ham served with cheddar, apple & walnut

The Honey roast ham served with cheddar, apple & walnut is simple, a slice of deli thin honey roast ham is sprinkled with walnuts and dressing with a sliced apple and a cube of cheddar on the side. It’s decent if not particularly exciting, perhaps quite boring in fact.

Egg mayonnaise with anchovies & baby gem

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Gordon Ramsay once said that his Royal Hospital Road is his pride and joy, if all goes bottoms up then he always has that baby. Only open Monday to Friday it’s also the hardest place to get a table, and at up to £120 a meal for just lunch, the costliest of his restaurants. To secure a coveted table one needs to ring exactly one month in advance, and to secure the table give them your credit card details and should you not show, they can at their discretion, deduct £100 per person for the meal missed. It’s all phrased very courteously but you get the feeling that they wouldn’t hesitate in doing so.

Dear sister of NQN,

Firstly let me thank you for your interest in Restaurant Gordon Ramsay.

I am pleased to confirm your table reservation at Restaurant Gordon Ramsay, located at 68 Royal Hospital Road, London, SW3 4HP as follows:

Where guests wish to make a reservation, it is the restaurant’s policy to secure the booking with their credit card details. In the event that the booking is cancelled in whole or in part by you with less than 24 hours notice or results in a no-show it will be at the discretion of Restaurant Gordon Ramsay to charge £100 per person to your credit card.
We are sorry that this has become a requirement but, regrettably, our experience dictates this precaution. We would be grateful if you could indicate your acceptance by completing and returning this form in order to confirm your booking by fax on 020 7592 1213
Email us at: royalhospitalroad@gordonramsay.com. Unfortunately, we will have to release the table if we have not received the completed form within 48 hours.As we will call you a day before to reconfirm, may I ask you for a contact number where we will be able to reach you on the working day prior to your reservation. Cancellations must be made in writing and sent by fax to 020 7592 1213 or by e-mail to royalhospitalroad@gordonramsay.com

Verbal cancellations cannot be accepted.
We very much look forward to welcoming you at Restaurant Gordon Ramsay.
On Behalf of Restaurant Gordon Ramsay

Picture in menu

The night before, we were left a rather firm sounding voicemail that we were expected at a certain time. The outside of the restaurant is understated elegance, with a simple plaque outside the door and a simple white building as befits the upmarket Chelsea area it resides in. Walking through the corridor there is a small area for guests to wait which also has many copies of his 3 Star chef book for those to read. There is no waiting though as service is brisk, they know who we are and lead us to our table. As it’s earlyish (12.30pm) the dining room room is about half full but within half an hour, all tables are full of diners.

The menu (excuse the fingerprints!)

The manager Jean-Claude Breton is a smoothie, reminiscent a little of Jerry Orbach. He asks us who is “hosting” the table to which we reply “Umm no-one”. Ahh ok not a problem, he smiles and hands us all menus. My sister and I don’t have prices on our menu but my husband has prices in his which is a first. It’s a nice touch if someone is hosting the table so that other guests feel more comfortable ordering without keeping watch of the price.

On the first pages are the a la carte menu featuring ravioli or lobster, langoustine and salmon poached in a light bisque with a lemongrass and chervil veloute as well as slow braised pied de cochon pressed then pan fried with ham knuckle, poached quail’s egg and hollandaise sauce as well as other fantastic sounding dishes. These can be had for £120. There is also following a menu Prestige or a tasting menu made up of 7 smaller dishes for £90. Then there is the Menu of the day, with 3 courses for £45.

Bread with salted and unsalted butter

We order a bit of everything from the Menu of the Day so that everyone can taste all of the dishes. Whilst we are waiting we receive salted and unsalted butter and are asked if we would like olive, white or brown sourdough bread. The olive is my husband’s favourite whilst the white sourdough thickly slathered with salted butter is my sister’s and mine. The service from the staff is wonderful, quiet and unobtrusive but anticipatory of your needs.

Amuse Bouche: vine riped tomato consomme

An amuse bouche arrives, a tomato consomme flavoured with coriander. It’s poured at the table and is intensively sweet with ripe tomatoes.

Quail and wild mushroom pithivier with confit leg and celeriac remoulade

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Sometimes the only thing that will do when one is stressed is some coddling, charm and civility. So where does one turn but a 5 star hotel for lunch.The best part of dining in London is getting to try Michelin starred restaurants. Michelin doesn’t bother with Australia so whilst Tetsuya’s would be worthy of a Michelin star, he remains untouched with the fairy wand. So now is my chance to consume as many Michelin stars as possible. Housed in the Mandarin Oriental Hotel at Hyde Park London, never a shabby place to stay, Foliage has 1 Michelin star. This lunchtime Blythe and I are battling traffic congestion due to two tube lines being closed down and numerous roadworks near by. In fact we’re half an hour late for our booking and when we finally get there frantic and exhausted, we feel like we’ve really “earnt” our meal in effort.

We’re rewarded by broad smiles, soft welcomes and soothing tones. Foliage is a small room with enormous windows that offer a lovely view of Hyde Park, up close and personal. Guests are welcomed by not 3 but 4 courses. And for a price that’s an absolute steal in what can be a criminally expensive city £29. Yes you read right, £29 for lunch.

The menu has 4 choices which is generous and all of them call out in some way. We finally decide on some dishes after a little deliberation. We’re given bread, a choice of white, sourdough or walnut with salted and unsalted butter (walnut the clear winner, singing with walnut flavour through the copious amount of chunks).

Amuse Bouche: Chive Vichyssoise

We’re then bestowed with our Amuse Bouche, a Chive Vichyssoise. It’s creamy and smooth with a light mascarpone quenelle floating in the centre. A delicious start.

Starter: crab, mango, cucumber and coriander

Our starters then arrive, mine was the crab, mango, cucumber and coriander. The crab meat is delicate and sweet, the thing mango slices swirled on the plate with cucumber flavoured pasta and coriander sprigs. It all works beautifully together, never overwhelming the delicate crab. There are two delicious fried crab balls to give an alternate texture and taste.

Starter: Foie gras, beetroot, ginger bread and pecans

Blythe’s starter, a Foie gras, beetroot, ginger bread and pecans cleverly resembles rhubarb stalks. I do like Foie gras although sometimes I find it too strong. Not in this case, it’s beautifully balanced and beetroot goes wonderfully with the foie gras mousse. There is also a ball of foie gras rolled in pistachios which is also wonderful with the walnut bread which is thoughtfully topped up for us.

Intermediate: Scallops, squid ink, orzo, green almonds

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My husband is what I affectionately refer to as a “fruit bat”. He is simply mad for the stuff, in dried or fresh form, his request for Christmas every year is a fruit basket and a fruit cake. And forget eating a dainty slice with tea, the whole cake can and has been consumed in less than a day. We recently went to a lunch after friend’s baby’s baptism and they brought out a lovely home made fruit cake. I placed a firm hand on his arm and said “NO honey, leave some for everyone else” and like a puppy chastised he looked sheepish and sank back down in his chair. I’m sure he had dreams of taking that cake and running away with it.

I had originally bought him the jar of mincemeat for him to eat with a spoon and a grin on his face but I forgot about it in the cupboard. And lucky I did as I needed it to whip up a quick fruit cake. Nigella’s recipe is a ludicrously easy fruit cake at that that you could possibly whip up with what you have in the cupboard plus a jar of mincemeat (I’m not assuming everyone has mincemeat in their cupboard). I looked at another of Nigella’s recipes and it required 2 weeks of soaking that I didn’t have so this was an easy decision. The cake itself is not exactly like a fruit cake in look although a bite into it and it does taste very fruit cakey. I didn’t find that there wasn’t quite enough fruit so I’d suggest adding either more mincemeat or soaking some fruit briefly to plump it up and then adding it in. Still, for the amount of effort, it’s a pretty good cake. I loved the look of Nigella’s Jewelled cupcakes so I used her cues for decorating it.

It was also a good choice to take with us on the long 6 hour drive to the snow for his birthday as it transports easily and is a “hardy” choice (i.e. no delicate layers, no cream). Other fantastic goodies that were cooked up to stave off the Winter chills were Swedish Mulled Wine by my Sister in Law and Finnish Split pea soup by my Mother in Law. I couldn’t have asked for better or more delicious ways to warm up after a day in the snow.

I intersperse the recipes with some photos of the snowfall-apparently, this years snowfall was the best in five years!

Ribena Snow Cone using fresh powdery snow!

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