Happy Birthday to Me…

The Etrop Grange caters for all of its guests – whether you fancy fish and chips, or 5 star cuisine, they will look after you.

So when head chef Ernst van Zyl offers to cook for you, you can’t say no. When he offers to cook for you off the menu, you really really can’t say no. After all, his working life has taken him into the kitchens of the Hilton Hotel on Park Lane and as far afield as Noma in Copenhagen.

So we didn’t. We said yes, absolutely, we’d love to and the birthday feast Ernst created for us was like nothing we’d eaten before. Theatre, presentation, flavour, texture and service – I’ve never felt so lucky, eaten so well, or felt so giddy about a meal in my life.

He’d asked me to pick my favourite things – an effort in itself as I love food full stop – and he would create a bespoke menu, just for me and Mr GFB as a birthday treat.  I considered myself very very lucky.

But then Ernst is a very very nice man.

On arrival, we were served a cocktail created just for us based around a Rekorderlig  strawberry and lime cider (one of my favourites). With crushed strawberries, lime juice, caramelised onions and chilli, it managed to convey flavours individually, without any one of them overpowering the other, or tasting out of balance. The onion and chilli warmed the mouth and along with the lime, cut through the sweetness of the straberry. Sweet, sour, sharp, and refreshing; beautiful.

Our first course was smoked duck egg custard – the theatre of the smoke released when the jar was opening was fantastic – the sort of thing you see on TV, but don’t expect to experience. The soy sauce emphasised the richness of the custard and the tiny cubes of cucumber and pineapple cut through the richness, keeping it from overpowering the palate and adding freshness to the dish. Fried ginger scattered on top added a contrasting and satisfying crispness to the texture. It was a fantastic start to the meal.

 

The second of our starters was marinated razor clam – wrapped in a matcha jelly, with cubes of watermelon, watermelon caviar and matcha yoghurt, it was cool, clean and sweet. Served with a sliver of crisp chicken skin and wing adding a roundness and emphasising the creaminess of the clam – nasturtium adding pepper and fennel flowers a little hit of aniseed. It was a beautifully presented dish.

 

Roasted breast of pigeon – one of my favourites of the evening, tenderly pink, served with delicious  aerated bitter chocolate, pistachio sponge, pistachio and chocolate crumb, candied pistachios, beetroot and pickled mushrooms. Earthy, rich, warm flavours,  which lingered in the mouth, the scent of the wood adding an autumnal feel. The flavour of the chocolate with the pigeon was just divine, every mouthful heavenly as the rich chocolate intensified the flavour of the pigeon.

A touch of theatre to cleanse the palate – mojito flavoured meringue – created with liquid nitrogen. Sharp lime, strong peppermint melting on your tongue, whilst ‘smoke’ is blown through your nose, like a dragon. We were the envy of every diner there, some of them peering over chairs and around corners to get a look at what was happening in front of them, as the smoke from the liquid nitrogen floated across the table next to us.

 

The first of our mains was poached fillet of halibut – dried pea wafer, fresh garden peas, ox cheek, smoked peach puree, new potato and chicken jus. Cooked to perfection, the creaminess matched round flavours from the ox cheek and the light sweetness of the peas and the deeper sweetness of the smoked peach complimented them. I love meat and fish together and these were a deliciously matched pair – the ox cheek slow cooked to tenderness, but not losing any of it’s structure or texture, the fish being buttery and firm.

 

Pan fried pork tenderloin – exquisitely tender, full of flavour, the best piece of tenderloin I have ever eaten. Sticky rich jus, working with the charcoal grilled squid and white onion and squid ink puree – their slight bitter edge complimenting with the brussel sprouts – fresh, pureed and roasted, all of which added buttery flavour to the dish. The textures were varied with the sweetcorn crisp contracting against the tender pork and firmer squid.

Ernst’s consummate skill almost converted Mr GFB to brussel sprouts. Almost.

As another little surprise, Ernst created ice cream with liquid nitrogen in front of us and many a baffled restaurant diner. With a chocolate wafer cone and lots of sprinkles, it was a new way to enjoy a ‘Mr Whippy’ – and one that made us giggle like school children in a sweet shop.

Our penultimate course was sweet corn “cheesecake” – soft cheese, rolled in Blacksticks Blue crumbs (one of my favourite cheeses), rich, cool and creamy, accented by pickled celery, and both dried and waterbathed grapes, with sweetcorn crisps and walnut. The highlight had to be the carbon dioxide injected grape – champagne in grape form, fizzing on the tongue as it flooded the mouth with flavour. Both Mr GFB and I saved these for last – wanted to savor the experience – the feeling of cool crisp grape and fizz in your mouth is incredible, indescribable.

Plum inside out  Swiss roll – hay infused icecream, sweet potato, dried and fresh plum. This was divine –  jammy, sweet, sticky without being heavy. The icecream added toffee  notes to accentuate the sweet, slightly sour note to the plum. The thin slices of crisp dried plum managed to retain their sweet/sour flavour and the soft pieces of sweet potato rounded off the dish.

Finally,  pretty little petit fours, including a lavender pastille, blueberry meringue and chocolate mousse. The pastille was the sweet equivalent of sitting in a Norfolk lavender field and breathing in deeply – heavenly.

Coming to see us at the end of our meal, Ernst also gave us a pot of red gooseberry jam to take home (which is heavenly) and Mark Bryden, who had looked after us all evening, gave us a little keepsake – details of our menu printed just for us.

Ernst is a genius. The staff are attentive and look after your every need. I cannot thank them all enough for a birthday meal I will never ever forget. It was the style of the Fat Duck, the substance of Noma, the down to earth kindness of Manchester (and the Etrop itself) and the generosity of a truly lovely person.

If you get the opportunity to go, please do. You won’t regret it. I promise.