“We recently joined the Pasture For Life association as a way of showing our commitment to support farmers breeding and growing in the best ways possible for animal welfare.” A few words from Johnnie Balfour 

Our menu will be on the blackboard ‘bistro-style’ featuring our classics dishes, and the restaurant will be set to make people feel safe, as it was last autumn, with hand sanitizer on every table. Please be aware of a few rules when joining us, like wearing a mask when moving around, and temperature checks when you arrive.

“Local food-lovers celebrate spring as a time when the first green shoots of a new season appear in woodland, hedgerow, garden and, if we’re lucky, on our plates. It’s well accepted that the more diverse our diet is the better it supports good health, both mental and physical. But what about our bread?” Andrew Whitley writes about re-building a healthy, local grain and bread supply.

You might remember a few blogs back that I mentioned Le Nemrod restaurant and talked a bit about my experiences there. There’s no doubt that I learned a lot, good and bad. The latter is always a good lesson to help inform your own behaviors and choices. That’s why I suggest people have the odd meal at McDonalds, but that’s for another blog.

“Food and drink have always been an important part of my life. I grew up abroad in Dubai and Singapore in the ex-pat movement of the late 70s and 80s. I had an early love of the fish and spice markets and loved all the different cuisines available at that time and the ambiances of all the different restaurants. I loved it!” Emma Bouglet of Fidra Gin writes…

I soon felt motivated to get on with some sowing and planting, continuing until I dropped. I actually did lie down on the grass for a nap, with Coco keeping me company. 45 minutes later I awoke with sunburn on my forehead and a still-asleep cat on my stomach. I had to leave, but the little poser remained, paws up, modelling for the camera. Cat life can be tough.

“It’s the early 1960s and my dad is spending yet another night outside trying to protect his poultry from a hungry fox. Fast forward 50 years, it’s 10pm on a Saturday night and I’m trying to protect my poultry from a hungry fox. The intervening years saw a revolution in the way that farming, in particular poultry farming became industrialised. Small scale free range poultry all but disappeared from the UK countryside. The upshot was the supermarkets and a handful of large scale producers totally control the market.” by Robert Morris of St Bride's Poultry

“In 2018 I opened The Brand Family Larder on the farm, a shop to sell our home-reared pork, lamb and free-range eggs to the local community, as well as the restaurant trade.” Jane Brand, Brand Farm East Fortune

1985 (continued)

Back to my story. The first week at La Rotisserie Tourangelle went very well. As previously mentioned, I was asked if I could do simple tasks like make mayonnaise or a shortcrust, and I did so with ease. I was then asked to get organised to make puff pastry - this was slightly more complicated, as it takes a little know-how. I was shown, then managed on my own quite easily. Puff pastry is made of flour, a large quantity of butter, a little water and egg yolks folded in such a way that the pastry is made of hundreds of layers when it rises in the oven. You cannot beat a home-made puff pastry - nowadays very rare in restaurants, even in the Michelin-starred ones as its much easier (and quicker) to buy it in ready-made, already thinned down. [Stop it Fred…] Of course these ready-made rolls have poor quality butter and flour, that could never produce a tasty and healthy pastry. [Time to stop, Fred!]

“I am very glad that Fred cares too much to compromise. It is why his food is so satisfying. I suspect that his eyes will narrow when he first reads this and I may well get a socially distanced poke in the ribs when we next bump into each other on Broughton Street. I don't mind because at some point in the hopefully not too distant future, I'll be sitting in bleu, for the first time in over a year, with a menu in one hand and something cold and alcoholic in the other. “ Jonathan Trew