Displaying posts tagged with 'North Yorkshire'

Stephanie Moon is consultant chef working with producers and restaurants including Rudding Park in Harrogate, she also tutors at Leeds College and presents at numerous food festivals across the country. We spoke to her about her second appearance on Great British menu, foraging and Yorkshire food.

How was it taking part in The Great British Menu this year?

The calibre of chefs that are in the competition this year is amazing and it is an honour to be on that list. There are some weird, wonderful ways of cooking and some very different ingredients this year.

I think this year’s brief has been very tough. It’s difficult when you do something like Great British Menu – it is about how you read the brief and how other people read it. It is something you do on your own, and although you ask other people’s advice it is very much your own opinion. It is a big thing to do. I do take a few wacky twists and turns and tonight’s main course is very much like that!

There are three very different styles of cooking and interpretations of the brief this week.

Yes, Colin’s food is very molecular – precise and controlled. His fish course was my favourite dish of his, I thought it was stunning and I’m surprised he didn’t get a 10 for it, it looked so elegant. Charlie is more bold with his flavours, his monkfish with beetroot was a very nice dish too.

Your starter was certainly unusual, what gave you the idea of making goats cheese in 90 minutes?

They asked us to push boundaries and do things that have never been done before, and I thought it would be a good idea to try making a fresh cheese in the hour and a half. I think it’s something different and it is also something close to my heart – I’m a farmers daughter and the farm I visited to do the filming is 7-8 miles from where my parents live. I’ve used their cheese and milk before, they also make something called a crowdie [a soft, spreadable goats cheese] which is wonderful stuff.

You are a big fan of Yorkshire produce in general aren’t you?

Yes definitely and I’ve used it in all this year’s dishes for Great British Menu – Yorkshire food makes up the main bulk of my menu.

Yorkshire is a real garden of food for chefs, we’re amazingly lucky. We’ve got fish over at Whitby, game from the Moors then in the Dales there is fantastic Lamb and beef. Then over in East Yorkshire there is lots of arable farming, things like rapeseed oil – there are so many different people producing that now and it is a great product. Then there’s all the milled flours and fantastic beer. There are more microbreweries in in Yorkshire than in any other county – I’m using stout from Ilkley Brewery in my main course and something called Boozy Infusion from a restaurant called Beatson House in my dessert – that’s a different product, a really unique thing!

There are a lot of foraged ingredients on this year’s show – perhaps a reflection of the trend in the UK, but you’ve been doing it for a while haven’t you?

At Rudding Park we do a lot of foraging and we’ve been blogging about foraging for 4-5 years now. The blog is getting lots of visitors at the moment which is really good because it means there is interest there and people want to know about these things.

Is there a really simple recipe using foraged ingredients you could recommend for people looking to dip their toe in the water?

There is, a really food one to get people started is wild garlic soup; wild garlic is absolutely around and about at the moment – it’s everywhere. I think for people who haven’t done any foraging before it’s a good one. Wild garlic is easy to find, it tends to grow in woodlands and near to streams or rivers and all you need to do is rub a leaf and you know you’re on to the right thing. Also, there is so much of it about you aren’t going to cause a problem by taking a few handfuls.

Where is good to eat in Yorkshire at the moment?

The Pipe and Glass in South Dalton is fantastic, James McKenzie is doing a fantastic job. I’m looking forward to a new place opening, Iris in Wakefield, that’s going to be interesting – the chef Liam Duffy used to work with Steve Smith at the Devonshire Arms and for Aiden Byrne so I think he’s going to be one to watch. I also ate at The Black Swan at Oldstead recently, that was a fantastic meal. There are lots of places in and around Yorkshire.

Full details of the North East heats of Great British Menu are here.