Faithful followers
Housed in an old church in Gorey village, Jersey, David and Sandra Cameron's restaurant has achieved the happy state of being described as "just right". According to customers the Village Bistro, with its Michelin Red M and two AA rosettes, is neither too formal or casual, too adventurous or traditional.
One unusual point mentioned by all restaurant owners on this island of offshore bank accounts is that locals do not like to pay too much for dining out. While they will happily order prestige cuvée Champagnes in magnums, the Cameron's have to keep average spend down to £15 at lunch and £25 at dinner.
David works with two full-time chefs, and Sandra runs the front of house with two waiters and a waitress at the 40-cover restaurant. It can seat an additional 25 people in the front garden in summer.
Alterations to make the interior more comfortable - knocking through into a hallway to enlarge the dining room, moving the bar, and adding an entrance vestibule - are awaiting local planning permission.
The menu has evolved over time and only the popular dishes survive. Changing with the seasons, about 20% of the menu items carry over.
One terrific starter that is being continued on the menu that was introduced in July is pan-fried scallops with carrot and basil dressing (£6.10). Locally caught, sweet scallops are served on fine carrot purée with white wine vinegar and olive oil, small piles of fine julienne carrots, and pesto oil dribbled over. The dish sounds an unlikely combination but works well.
Making its debut as a starter is a chicken and Parma ham terrine (£4.75) made with confit of chicken and served with salsa verde and an assortment of pickled vegetables - celeriac, fennel, carrots, and green beans with lots of coriander seeds.
By popular demand, oxtail (£9.95) has stayed on the menu throughout the summer. But David has finally replaced it with braised lamb shanks, made lighter with orange zest and a light veal jus (£10.50).
Salmon Gorey (£10.50) has been too popular to take off. It comprises deboned salmon steak, which is steamed and layered between sheets of home-made lasagne, with a chive butter sauce.
David has added a dish featuring Gressingham duck (£12.50); a pan-fried breast scored across the fat, a confit of the leg served with reduced duck stock/veal jus, and a thyme risotto that reduces the strong duck flavour.
When it comes to puddings, a lemon meringue tartlet (£3.80) is a new addition. This is a shortbread tartlet case filled with fresh lemon curd, topped with an Italian meringue, dusted with icing sugar and glazed with a blow torch.
David's panna cotta (£3.50) flavoured with Jersey Amber (an orange/lemon liqueur made on the island), and served with a compote of blackcurrant with fresh local berries, is virtually a signature dessert. He made it during a recent Jersey menu competition for which chefs had to produce a three-course menu for £20, and only missed winning by a narrow margin.
Along with a wide choice of food, there are 55 bins on the reasonably priced wine list, with house red Abbaye St Hilaire at £5.50 a bottle. Puligny Montrachet Premier Cru is just £24.
Village Bistro, Gorey Village, Jersey.
Tel: 01534 853429
With Andrew Baird as head chef, Longueville Manor, St Saviour, Jersey, has maintained a Michelin star for two years. Baird was 27 when the hotel's 65-seat restaurant was awarded the star - although he has been head chef at the 32-bedroom hotel for five years.
Customers have been won over by his flavoursome, intelligent cooking. That's really the only way to describe the work of a chef who wants to communicate an experience with his cooking; who sees things through the eyes of a customer visiting the hotel before he begins work on a recipe.
"We surround that with vegetables grown at the hotel - courgettes, sugar snap peas, artichokes, broad beans, carrots, frisé and lambs' lettuce. Guests see them growing and realise everything has been picked specially for them."
Summer can be a long season in a tourist resort, and Longueville's summer menu was introduced in May. "As long as the weather stays warm," Baird says, "it will run until mid-September."
The best-selling starter on the summer la carte menu is the ragout of scallops and lobster with dumplings and a basil-flavoured nage (£11.50). Baird puts fine noodles in a dinner-sized soup plate, three steamed scallops on top, along with half a lobster tail and dumplings made with scallop and lobster meat. It is surrounded by a nage made from lobster shells, tomato and infused with basil.
Grilled Jersey sea bass on a terrine of aubergine with a tomato and olive sauce (£18.50) is made mainly with local ingredients. Sea bass comes live to the kitchen; aubergines and plum tomatoes from a local farmer.
One of the main course stars is the pot-roasted suckling pig with glazed apples and cider cabbage (£19.50). This uses suckling pig in six ways: braised boneless shoulder stuffed with duxelles and spring greens; best-end as double cutlets; loin noisettes wrapped in belly fat; roasted leg; bacon lardons; and skin for crackling.
From the nine-strong dessert list, Longueville raspberry delight is a trio - almond tuille with raspberry ice-cream; raspberry Charlotte russe; and Valrhona chocolate mille-feuille with raspberries. All raspberries are from the garden.
The wine list has more than 900 bins, including a collection of fine and rare wines (ChÆ'teau Pétrus 1983, £320). It concentrates on Burgundy, Bordeaux and the Loire, but includes Europe, the New World, and a local wine, ChÆ'teau Le Catillon.
Pedro Bento is both wine buyer and restaurant manager and runs the dining room with a staff of 15, plus bar staff. The kitchen brigade totals 14, with eight on each shift. n
Longueville Manor, Longueville Road, St Saviour, Jersey. Tel: 01534 25501
