THE VINTNERS ROOMS

I’m always struggling to find a restaurant the Belgian likes. 10 years in Brussels is a hard act to follow and in Scotland only Tom Lewis’s Monachyle Mhor and Number One at the Balmoral have come up to scratch in the fine dining stakes. The thing about eating out in Brussels is that it combines all of what we love about French food with the style and service of the Dutch. So a few weeks ago we had my uncle, the actor Moray Watson staying. He’s slightly deaf so it has to be somewhere he can actually hear us.

The Vintners Rooms seemed ideal. I haven’t been for years since the days of long lunches with my old mentor, whisky aficionado Charlie Maclean. And well, it is old school. Maitre d’ Silvio Praino combines a restrained modernity with its elegant past. And the service reflects that nicely. Unobtrusive, well-informed and passionate about food, Silvio slips efficiently around the tables, deftly administering enthusiasm, knowledge and his staff in equal measures. And although an expert he doesn’t get superior about wine. We had a corking 2004 Corbieres which was all Languedoc farmyard and chicken poo mustiness for under twenty quid.

Ordering is a fine art. I often make the mistake of ordering what I know I wouldn’t cook at home, which can get you into trouble. But you can work with a few rules of thumb. The Belgian always looks at the décor of a place and decides what they will cook well. Andrew Radford at The Atrium never thinks that more than three ingredients is a good idea. But Vintners proprietor chef Patrice Ginestière’s menu reads like a menu rather than a gallery guide and you feel confident in its lack of fuss. So the Belgian and I went for firm seared scallops with Scottish chanterelles and beef carpaccio adorned with seasonal truffles. Now it doesn’t really matter what Uncle Moray orders. He takes forever to eat. No fault of his. But you start him on a story about working with Flora Robson or Cary Grant and he’s still pushing the mango salsa and lobster terrine around the plate half an hour later. It looked colourful.

The main courses, when we had finished hearing about the young Terence Stamp’s antics at drama school, were sturdy trad with a glint of adventure. Venison with a dark chocolate sauce. Exotic without being silly and the sauce really drove out the potentially cloying gamey-ness of the deer. The accompanying braised cabbage - simple - was spot on. And, I don’t agree with Nicholas Lander’s review of Vintners in the FT. When food is this good, who cares about fancy vegetables anyway?

I broke all the rules and had veal Rossini. But I’m unashamed and with Hugh F-W on this one. Rosé veal is so-called because it doesn’t have the pellucid quality of crated calf’s meat from Holland and comes from animals that have been reared in the open. Vintners sources theirs from Berwickshire (mostly. Rossini is a filet of veal sitting on toasted brioche with a slice of foie gras (the real thing not paté) perched on top and coated with a Madeira sauce. It was ridiculously tender and pungent.

Of course foie gras is always a discomfort, not in principle but because what we get even in the best restaurants is industrially produced. We should be eating the fermier variety. But it’s seldom available. Uncle Moray’s seabass really did need to have been eaten some time before he got round to it but with such perfect company and wonderful stories, the whole thing was a delight. If you do have a few bucks to spend, the wine list is superb. Have the 1973 Barolo every time.

TENDER WORDS

Tender (2009) tells the story of Nigel Slater's love affair with his garden in Islington and the many seedlings he has raised in his box-hedged vegetable patches. It’s a magnificent volume, like a medieval knightly treatise with pictures of his Eden, its produce and many of the recipes he has created from them.

23 May, 2010

FOOD FROM THE HEART

Cooking is a basic human instinct. We’ve been eating, chopping, shaping, flavouring, enticing ingredients into something delicious since time began. But as the way many of us live has changed, the basic skills we require to cook, are no longer valued and it’s often easier to let others take control of what we eat.

21 April, 2010

IN A RIGHT FISH STEW

This week we had sustainable fish stew. It’s a quick and easy way to feed a gang of hungries on a Friday night and doesn’t need much else but some good bread and wine. Like all stews, you need balance, rich liquid and a range of potent flavours steaming from your pot.

15 March, 2010