Conference calls
Michael Caines is no stranger to banqueting, having spent his formative years working at one of the best-known event venues in Britain, London's Grosvenor House. But it has been some time since the chef - who today holds two Michelin stars for Gidleigh Park at Chagford in Devon, is responsible for the entire food and beverage operation of the Royal Clarence hotel in Exeter, and recently launched restaurant Michael Caines at the Bristol Marriott Royal - catered for 340 diners at one sitting.
Working closely with Circadia, the event catering arm of Compass, Caines agreed to prepare a five-course dinner for this year's Chef Conference, staged at the Brewery in London's Chiswell Street. Caines, who consults for Baxter & Platts, and Circadia executive chef Phil Stocken pulled together some of their best men for the occasion. From the Caines camp comes Shane Goodway, head chef of the Bristol outpost, Sylvain Peltier, his pastry chef, Mark Rossi, junior sous chef at the Exeter-based restaurant, Martin Donelly, Tom Hawkes Williams and David Hands, junior sous chef, chef de partie and commis chef respectively at Gidleigh Park and David Butterworth, chef de partie at Exeter. Meanwhile, Stocken heads a brigade of 14 Circadia chefs including Jason Williams and pastry chef Lloyd Burrel and Brewery head chef Kevin Haytor.
"The dinner is giving various members of the Michael Caines team the opportunity to come together to work on one project and impress people with what we do," Caines says. "Working with Phil is easy - he's a seasoned pro. But it's been an interesting process taking recipes that serve, say, eight covers up to 350. It's been quite a challenge."
For Goodway, whose CV includes periods at Gidleigh Park, with Michel Roux at the Waterside Inn in Bray, Berkshire, and with Alain Passard at L'Arpege in Paris, the experience is giving him a great insight into catering on a grand scale. "Circadia are really professional," he says. "They know exactly what they're going to do. They're used to working with these types of menus, and Phil's very switched on."
Caines explains that he isn't without his concerns. As we stand in Circadia's central production unit in Merton, south London, the day before the conference, Caines says that the potential to forget certain items is high, given that the chefs aren't working on site. Would the food travel safely, he wonders? "When I saw the chocolate millefeuille going into boxes today, I was worried that they would be damaged in transit, but these guys know all the tricks," says Caines, pointing to the greaseproof paper that lines the boxes. Shaking a box from side to side, he says: "If it moves, the whole paper moves, so the millefeuille never touch each other. It's clever."
This isn't Caines's first experience of the Chef Conference dinner, having served the fish course at the 2002 conference. But it is the first time he has created the entire menu.
Naturally, the menu comprises dishes from the Caines repertoire - Jerusalem artichoke and truffle soup (a Caines classic), terrine of red mullet, langoustines, scallops and Mediterranean vegetables with water basil vinaigrette (a take on one of the dishes off the Gidleigh Park menu, using seafood from the South Coast), crispy British smoked pork belly with caramelised apples and turnips, potato fondant and rich pork jus, a palate-cleansing "exotique" fruit salad with lime sorbet, and finally a millefeuille of bitter dark chocolate with an iced caffe latte (one part Gidleigh, one part Bristol, featuring 15kg of chocolate, 20kg of ganache and 11 hours of chocolate preparation).
"The food will be tasty and hot," says Caines. "Nobody's expecting two-Michelin-starred food. We're just giving them a taste of what we do."
Stocken interjects: "The benefits of having just one chef is that the menu has balance - and you don't have to worry about egos!"
On the night, service is swift. Plating up from a large room just off the Tun Room, Caines is in the thick of it, preferring not to merely issue orders. "It takes me back to the Grosvenor," he says. "Now I know why I left!"
Meanwhile, front of house, chef-diners mingle with many of the day's speakers - Britain's recently crowned three-Michelin-starred chef Heston Blumenthal, keynote speaker Raymond Blanc, Providores duo Peter Gordon and Anna Hansen, and the Ark Foundation's Peter Kay, who earlier in the day had spoken about the similarities of cheffing and football and the related trappings of drink and drugs.
As football was on the agenda, former Arsenal defender Lee Dixon (Blumenthal's partner at the Riverside Brasserie in Bray) is present to give his support, as is QPR manager Ian Holloway, who spoke earlier in the day, and QPR defender Clarke Carlisle. And if that doesn't cause enough of a stir, Ralf Little (from The Royle Family), Carlisle's old flatmate, pitches up too.
The meal goes down well with diners. Service is efficient, as Stocken had promised, and many are impressed with the intricacies of the meal, despite Caines maintaining that he'd kept things simple.
"It's been a real struggle," Goodway says. "It was hard prepping in one kitchen, working with equipment we'd not used before and with staff we'd not met before, and then transferring everything to the Brewery and setting up again. But, as I chef, I've learnt a great deal. I feel I've really benefited from it."
Once the meal has been served, Caines's and Stocken's teams come out front for sant‚ and are visibly shocked to receive a standing ovation.
But it's Blumenthal's next move that says it all for everyone in the room - he gets up from his chair and gives Caines a big, manly hug. n
The menu - Jerusalem artichoke and truffle soup
Cotes de Saint-Mont 2002
- Terrine of red mullet, langoustines, scallops and Mediterranean vegetables with water basil vinaigrette
- Crispy British smoked pork belly with caramelised apples and turnips, potato fondant and rich pork jus
Robertson Winery Prospect Hill Cabernet Sauvignon 2002
- "Exotique" fruit salad with lime sorbet
- Millefeuille of bitter dark chocolate with an iced caffe latte
- Coffee and petit fours
