Galvinised meals
For Chris Galvin, simplicity in food is a complex matter. As head chef at Orrery, the most highly rated eaterie of Conran Restaurants, he is reminded frequently by his boss, Sir Terence Conran, of the importance of keeping dishes simple. "But in reality it's not as straightforward as people might think," he says.
"Take a simple scallop dish, for instance. It takes ages to source the best-quality and freshest scallops, followed by a considerable time showing and teaching the chefs the correct way to open and clean them and recognise that they are the quality you require. Then it takes skill to know when the pan is at exactly the right temperature to cook the scallops to just the right point, so that they are still moist inside and caramelised on the outside.
"Finally, they have to be served on the plate with exactly the right accompaniments. To the customer, the finished dish might appear simple, but, in fact, an inordinate amount of effort and skill has been taken to get it that way."
It was the Conran policy to cook great, simple food using the best ingredients that attracted Galvin to the company back in 1995, when he joined Mezzo as head chef under John Torode. After assisting with the launch of Bluebird, he moved to Marylebone High Street in July 1997 to open Orrery as head chef.
Conran wanted the restaurant to be the Bibendum of north London. There is some irony in the fact, then, that Orrery has gone on to surpass its mentor by becoming the first restaurant in the company to achieve a Michelin star in the recently published 2000 guide.
Coming just two-and-a-half years after the opening of Orrery, the star took Galvin by surprise. "It knocked me off my feet. As a chef, it means everything. It's like climbing Everest and sticking a flag in. But most importantly it has been a tremendous reward for all the staff."
Galvin's concern and care for the people with whom he works is a frequently recurring theme. He firmly believes in running a peaceful, calm kitchen. "Chefs who have been bullied lose all self-respect and confidence - they can't make a decision for themselves. Ultimately, I hope that all my chefs go on to be head chefs in their own kitchens, and the most useful thing I can teach them to help them on their way is self-discipline."
Among the 500 or so congratulatory letters, faxes and messages received by the restaurant following the Michelin star was one from Conran himself. As well as praising the staff on their achievement, he also pointed out that the true sign of a successful restaurant is one that is full of satisfied customers.
Despite minimal publicity, Orrery has been heaving with happy customers since day one, many of them returning time and again. As well as enjoying slick, unintrusive service, they have eaten food that ranks among the most impressive served in the capital today.
While the clean, sharp lines of Galvin's food and his passion for sourcing prime ingredients and eschewing extraneous flavours clearly fit the Conran remit, his cooking also exhibits an inordinate attention to detail. His style is firmly entrenched in the French classics in which he was immersed during his early working years at the Ritz, London, under Michael Quinn, and at Inigo Jones, and later the Lanesborough, under Paul Gayler. Experience with Michel Roux and Nico Ladenis and stints at many Michelin-starred establishments in France have further honed his classicisim.
But this doesn't mean that Galvin is not willing to take on board new ideas - far from it. An inquisitive mind has allowed him to build upon his sound traditional grounding. A spell in New York in the late 1980s, opening a new branch of Ménage à Trois for Antony Worrall Thompson, was particularly inspirational. With Worrall Thomspon, with whom he first worked at the age of 14 washing up in a small Mediterranean restaurant in Brentwood, Essex, Galvin ate out at many of what were then Manhatten's most fashionable eateries. "I enjoyed the willingness of American chefs to break boundaries, whether it was by trying a new ingredient, dish and or piece of equipment," he says.
Working with Torode at Mezzo had a similar affect. "He turned everything I learnt upside down. Previously I had been at the Lanesborough where there's a lot of knife work; everything with John was flavour-led."
As a result, Galvin arrived at the Orrery with his own inimitable style, one that wasn't quite as simple as Conran would have liked. "There was definitely a battle of wills in the early days, but I couldn't suddenly change my way of doing things overnight," he says. But Galvin is enormously grateful for Conran's input into the menu. "He is a great epicurean and, like many of our customers, eats out a lot. I therefore value his judgement and advice enormously."
Galvin appreciates the worth of offering a dish such as turbot with a timbale of spinach and Charlotte potatoes, embellished with nothing more than a grain mustard and chive beurre blanc (£23.50) - one of Conran's favourites. For another fish dish, Galvin serves steamed paupiettes of Dover sole, together with some cocoa beans cooked with a little vanilla, carrots, onions, pancetta and chicken stock, and trompette mushrooms. The accompanying white wine fish sauce is given intensity by the addition of a little truffle juice (£20).
In a bid to combat the de-skilling of waiting staff, Galvin has introduced main-course dishes that can be carved in front of customers. At the moment he is serving a roast leg of Pyrenees lamb, baked in hay, with haricots blancs, roast garlic and herbes de Provence (£48 for two). "The lamb is milk-fed and is beautifully tender," says Galvin. "We seal the meat first before wrapping it in the hay, which has been soaked in boiling water. A wonderful grassy flavour permeates through the lamb as it cooks."
All the dishes served at the table in this manner are for two covers and, in the past, have included shin of veal, guinea fowl, poulet de Bresse and saddle of suckling pig.
Galvin's varied career is reflected throughout the menu by the presence of traditionally prepared dishes such as jarret de veau, glazed carrots, and pommes purée in a sticky, rich Maderia jus (£19.50) alongside more contemporary offerings such as roast sea bass served with a marmalade of fennel, confit of tomato, tapenade and a basil jus enriched with a touch of cräme fraîche (£22).
Outstanding desserts include pineapple roasted in butter, sugar and vanilla, topped with layers of pineapple crisps and pineapple ice-cream, accompanied by a dice of pineapple in balsamic vinegar (£8) and a chestnut and chocolate marquise, poached chestnut, caramel and chocolate sauce (£7.50).
New ideas, says Galvin, come from constantly immersing himself in cookery books. It is a piece of luck that he enjoys reading through these tomes because he is presently inundated by text books for his work on a BSc degree course in international culinary arts, which he is studying part-time through Thames Valley University. Covering food and beverage management, sales and marketing, human resources and gastronomy,41-year-old Galvin hopes that the qualification will stand him in good stead for whatever the future might bring him. With his intelligence and caring nature, it should be a bright one.
Hay-baked roast Pyrenees lamb, haricots blancs, garlic confit and herbes de Provence (serves two)
INGREDIENTS
1 leg of milk-fed Pyrenees lamb, aitch bone removed, spiked with garlic and wrapped in caul fat
Salt and pepper
Oil
100g hay, pre-soaked in boiling water
100g haricots blancs, soaked and cooked
10 garlic cloves, cooked in goose fat
10 button onions, glazed
60ml white wine jus, finished with chopped thyme and rosemary
Note: Like the Paulliac lamb, small new-season lamb from the Pyrenees weighs about 1kg bone-in and makes two generous servings
METHOD
Season and sear the lamb in oil. Place in the oven for 15 minutes, then remove and wrap in wet hay. Roast for a further 15 minutes and allow to rest for 15 minutes.
To serve, present the lamb to guests, spoon haricots blancs in the centre of the plate and surround with garlic confit and button onions. Carve the lamb on haricots blancs and pour jus around plate.
Note: the recipe could be scaled up for more servings using English spring lamb, but cooking time would be correspondingly longer
Source: Caterer & Hotelkeeper magazine, 17-23 February 2000
