Platinum Recruitment – Feature of the Month Each month the team at Platinum Elite Chefs bring you an industry specific feature from one of the UK’s finest establishments. This Month’s feature: Andrew Barkham – Head Chef – Rhodes Twenty Four – London 3 AA Rosette 1 Michelin Star With Christmas Just moments away, Platinum’s gift to you this festive season is not just one, but two recipe features for the month of December! Andrew Barkham is the newly appointed Head Chef at Gary Rhodes’ Michelin Star restaurant, Rhodes Twenty Four . He is no stranger to Gary’s kitchens, in total he has worked for over 11 years within two different restaurants working his way up to a now well deserved Head Chef role. It’s a genuine pleasure to introduce Andrew to our monthly feature and I very much hope you enjoy his recipe. Find out more about Andrew in our 60 seconds on the clock feature......... Where in the world are you from? Southampton Where have you previously worked? City Rhodes and 1 Lombard Street and now Rhodes Twenty Four Which chef influenced you the most? Gary Rhodes, Adam Gray and Marco Pierre White What/where was your best ever meal? L'Assiette Champenoise – Remis What’s your favourite cookbook? The French Café – Simon Wright What is the next restaurant you want to visit? The Ledbury What’s your favourite produce to cook with? Veal Heartbreads Who would be in your fantasy brigade? Michael Roux, Tom Aikens, Nathan Outlaw and Thomas Keller Where would you go on a stage? Noma If you weren’t a chef what would you be? Pro Golfer What would be your advice to anyone looking to get into the industry? Be willing to work hard and have very little rest, do it for as long as you can as it will pay off in the long run and you don’t get a second chance. For more information on Andrew Barkham and Rhodes Twenty Four, check out the restaurants website www.rhodes24.co.uk Andrew, it’s a real pleasure to have you feature with Platinum Elite Chefs, a huge thank you for taking time away from your busy day good luck for in your new role! If you haven’t had the opportunity to try Andrew’s stunning food yet why don’t you try and recreate his Roasted Stone Bass Dish Enjoy!! See you next month Andy Roasted Stone Bass, Celeriac Cream, Girolle Mushroom and Hazelnuts Ingredients Stone Bass 120g Spinach 30g Celeriac cream 40g Baby leek (pieces) 7 Girolles 9 Hazelnut halves 7 Chopped chives 1tbsp Hazelnut sauce 80ml Celeriac Cream Celeriac 1 Shallots 2 Butter 150g Milk 1l Hazelnut oil 10g Method • Peel and slice down the shallots, sweat down in a pan with the hazelnut oil and butter. • Peel and dice the celeriac in to small pieces and add to the shallots sprinkle with a little salt to help break down the celeriac quicker. • Cover with a cartouche and cook gently with the milk. Don’t boil as the milk will split and have a lasting effect on the end taste of the cream. • Once the celeriac has cooked remove from the heat and strain the excess milk place the celeriac pulp in a thermomix and blend till the mix is smooth. • Pass the celeriac puree through a fine sieve and season. Hazelnut Sauce 100ml Noilly Prat 100ml White wine 500ml Vegetable stock 60g Toasted hazelnuts, crushed 150ml Double cream 100ml Milk 60ml Hazelnut oil Method • Put the Noilly Prat and white wine in a saucepan, bring to the boil and reduce by three quarters. • Immediately add the vegetable stock, then the crushed hazelnuts, and simmer until the stock is reduced by two thirds. • Add the double cream, bring to the boil, then add the milk and bring back to the simmer. • Transfer to a blender and blend until smooth, adding the hazelnut oil half way through. • Push through a fine sieve and then through muslin. Season to taste. Service Method • Fillet the stone bass and ensure that all bones and scales are removed then portion into 120g portions. Before cooking remove the portion from the fridge 10 minutes prior to cooking to get better results. Dust the skin of the bass in flour and brush with butter. • Pan roast the fish olive oil and once flipped over baste in foaming butter. To achieve and golden crispy skin. • Roast the hazelnuts in a little olive and salt for best result use a fan assisted oven for even colouring. Before serving cut in half where the nut breaks naturally. • Baby leeks are blanch whole in boiling salted water before cutting them down to 1 inch pieces on the angle. When reheating toss in warm butter and season. • Spinach is blanch in boiling salted water and refresh then buttered and seasoned. • Girolle mushrooms are graded and prepared by scraping the stalks and washed in luke warm water QUICKLY. • Chives are chopped finely. • Pan fry the girolle mushroom in a little oil and toss in some hazelnut halves and chopped chives. Assembly of the dish Using large serving spoons make a large quenelle of celeriac puree and place it at the bottom of the plate. Above and left of that place a small pile of spinach and the opposite side the baby leek garnish. Before lifting the stone bass portion on top of the spinach carefully arrange the girrole, hazelnut and chive on top of the fish, and just before sending spoon some hazelnut sauce over the baby leek which has been foamed. Serve extra sauce on the side. If you’re interested in working alongside top quality chefs such as Andrew Barkham send your CV to andy.sinclair@p-r-c.co.uk or call 01202 203150.

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Platinum Recruitment – Feature of the Month Each month the team at Platinum Elite Chefs bring you an industry specific feature from one of the UK’s finest establishments. This Month’s feature: Ben Spalding – Head Chef – Roganic Restaurant BMW/Square Meal - Best New Restaurant National restaurant awards - 16th Best Restaurant London Restaurant Festival - Most Inspirational Restaurant Find out more about Ben in our 60 seconds on the clock feature......... Ben where in the world are you from? I was born in Brighton but grew up in south east London and then through parts of Sussex and Kent Where have you previously worked? Throughout 5 countries I have worked at 28+ restaurant, per se, Royal hospital road, Gary Rhodes W1, L’autre pied and Vue de monde, I have also taken lengthy stages at Le Manoir, Bagatelle, the fat duck, the capital and L’enclume Which of these chefs influenced you the most? All of them in different ways, but primarily Thomas Keller and Gordon Ramsay What/where was your best ever meal? Per se no question, but le bernadin came close. What’s your favourite cookbook? The French laundry cookbook is quite simply the book that changed everything for me, I remember being bought it as a present from my brother for my 19th birthday and he wrote inside the front cover “here’s to a world that is not far from your grasp” 6 months later I was working at per se. But there is also so many, too many to name, a 3 star chef by Gordon Ramsay is also special to me as I was running larder section at the time it was made and helped do a good chunk of the photographed starters in there. What is the next restaurant you want to visit? Well, I’m Heading to Pierre Gagniere soon which I have wanted to go for years but apart from that Magnus Nilsson’s Fäviken restaurant in the north of Sweden is high on my list, I am trying to get a table when I visit Sweden at Christmas but it isn’t easy! Also Frantzen Lindberg and Mathias Dahlgren in Stockholm but I have tables booked there! And finally I will be making the trip to Christian Bau at Schloss berg and Joachim Wissler at Vendome next year in Germany. What’s your favourite produce to cook with? Something rare and unique and underrated, my favourites right now are the completely underrated Dab fish and also the Pom Pom mushroom which both feature on the current menu. Who would be in your fantasy brigade? Ha-ha, ok, I am going to cover every possible section in the kitchen here • Chair sitting by the pass: me! • Pass: Escoffier • Canapés: Thomas Keller • Larder: Pierre Gagniere • Fish: Eric chavot • Sauce: Pierre koffman • Garnish: Simon Rogan • Pastry: Shannon Bennett • Baking: Joel robuchon • Development kitchen: Sergio Herman • Forager: Rene Redzepi • Pot wash: Marco & Gordon & Anthony Worrall Thompson Where would you go on a stage? Deep in Japan in one of the most incredible 3 Michelin stars, completely out of my depth. If you weren’t a chef what would you be? I’d be a DJ playing dirty house and techno. Would be your advice to anyone looking to get into the industry? I would say be 100% passionate about it. At the highest level i.e. Michelin, top London kitchens etc it’s a lot more, you must want to do it! It really isn’t the sort of career to do just as a job. You need to eat, sleep and breathe it, be prepared to sacrifice everything, work through the hard times and stay humble and respectful to everything and everyone- this is a lot easier said than done and something I am still learning and teaching myself every day. I would like to send a massive thank you to Ben for taking part in our recipe feature and good luck with the future of Roganic! I would also like to thank Thomas Bowles for providing the photography of Ben’s Fantastic Cauliflower dish For more information on Ben Spalding and Roganic, check out the Restaurants website www.roganic.co.uk or follow ben on Twitter @Benspalding1 If you haven’t had the opportunity to try Ben’s stunning food yet why don’t you try and recreate his Golden Cauliflower dish. Enjoy!! See you next month Andy Golden Cauliflower, Sour Cream, Raisins, Lettuce and Yarrow Please note this recipe has been slightly changed as the current version on the Roganic menu is more refined and takes a bit more time to put together and execute. Ingredients • 2 x Golden cauliflower • 200gr x Raisins • 50g x Sour cream • 2 x Gem lettuce cut into half • 20 pieces x Yarrow picked to thumb length • 75gr x Apple vinegar • 150gr x Honey • 3 sprigs of picked Thyme leaves • 250gr x Salted butter • Fine Salt • Maldon sea salt • Black Pepper • Rapeseed oil • 1 head of picked and washed Buckshorn plantain • 200gr x pickling liquid Method • Mix apple vinegar, honey and thyme in a pot, reduce by half, keep warm and set aside • Add raisins to 1000g warm water in a pot and boil until liquid is barely covering the raisins anymore, blend and strain through a chinois, and then fill a small plastic bottle, keep warm • Heat a small pan of oil to 180c and fry the yarrow @ 180c for 5 seconds, drain and season, set aside • Cut the cauliflower into quarters and trim off excess stalk and florets and turn into a nice round cluster, reserve some small florets and trim up neatly for pickling. • Heat the 200gr of pickling liquid and when boiling add the small florets and boil for 20 seconds then remove from heat and leave to cool in the pan • Choosing the nicest cluster of cauliflower then Heating a medium non-stick frying pan, add some rapeseed oil, and brush the cauliflower cluster all over with oil and season lightly with salt and pepper and start to caramelise on a medium heat, once lightly golden all over add a knob of salted butter, and start to baste, ensuring the butter never goes flat and stays foamy and almost engulfing the cauliflower, keep adding a knob of butter every 30 seconds and basting until just cooked but retaining a good bite, remove from the pan onto a cloth lined tray to remove grease, and brush well all over with the warm apple honey • Heat a grill pan to smoking, brush the lettuce face side with rapeseed oil, salt and pepper and grill face side down, pushing down in the middle to ensure even grill lines Assembly • On a medium sized plate, squirt 5 evenly spaced dots of raisin puree • In between the dots place a piece of pickled cauliflower • In each dot of puree place a piece of yarrow leaf • Warm the lettuce and cauliflower cluster through the oven for 1 minute, then remove and brush well with the warm apple honey • Spoon a good dollop of sour cream onto the centre of the plate • Lay the piece of lettuce on the plate, and then the cauliflower cluster on the sour cream • Finish with a few more leaves of yarrow and the buckshorn plantain and serve If you’re interested in working alongside top quality chefs such as Ben Spalding send your CV to andy.sinclair@p-r-c.co.uk or call 01202 203150.

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