MONDAY 23 NOVEMBER 2009 • THE HAPPIEST RETURN OF THE DAY
On Thursday, 19th November, I had a perfect day. You might think that odd, as it was my 60th birthday. But I have never felt more youthful or happier. I woke up in the sublime bedroom of a suite at the Ritz – all gilded and ornamented à la Ritz – with the sun streaming through the windows. Natalia and I went on to a splendid lunch at Bentley’s, with a bottle of vintage Champagne. Then we called in at Maison Blanc in Oxford for a meeting, to find that they had baked a spectacular birthday cake, which, of course, we shared with all the staff there. At my next meeting at the Oxford Brasserie Blanc, we discovered that they had had the same idea; so by the afternoon, and my arrival at le Manoir, I was working on my fourth birthday cake of the day.
In the evening I knew there was to be a dinner at Le Manoir for about 50 friends. What I did not know, until I arrived and had a glass of Ruinart Champagne poured from magnums, was that my executive chef and ever-attentive assistant, Gary Jones, had arranged for some of the many, many starry chefs who have trained in my kitchen to come and cook the dinner. I was so touched to see them, that even I, the normally garrulous RB, was – for just a moment – at a loss for words.
What a dinner they gave us! Gary kicked off with a “Tartare of creel-caught Scottish langoustine, Japanese savoury custard”. A small sphere of delicate coarsely-minced shellfish sat atop a subtly-flavoured chawanmushi; with it we drank a fantastic Alsace Riesling Grand Cru Altenberg de Bergbieten 2004, Dom. Frédéric Mochel. This was followed by a “Cancale oyster, cucumber and wasabi beurre blanc, Oscietra caviar,” the oyster in its shell atop a little splash of pale green sauce, topped with a generous dollop of black caviar, and a few micro-herbs.
Then the first guest chef, Bruno Loubet, served his dish. I am so pleased that Bruno, after being away in Australia for seven years, has returned and will soon open a restaurant in London. His imaginatively balanced dish was “Sweet soy and lemongrass, braised ox cheek, green mango salad” in which the tender, aromatic brown meat, sparsely flecked with sesame seeds, was perfectly counterpointed by the fresh, citrussy crunch of the julienned green fruit with its Southeast Asian flavours. We drank with it a cleverly matched, white-peppery Austrian Grüner Veltliner Lamm 2008, Schloss Gobelsberg.
Clive Fretwell, who first came to work at Le Manoir when he was 19 and has worked with me for 24 years, is now executive head chef for the Brasserie Blanc group; he contributed a knockout course of one of my oldest dishes, “Soufflé of Cornish gill-net Dover Sole with ginger and grapefruit", served with a limpid, classic white burgundy, Saint Aubin Premier Cru Les Frionnes 2006, Dom. Hubert Lamy. A moist, perfectly cooked fillet of sole encircled a feather-light, beautifully textured, deeply-flavoured soufflé, with three commas of grapefruit and some wisps of root ginger, which added their teasing aromas to this lovely dish.
Michael Caines, MBE, who has two Michelin stars for the restaurant at Gidleigh Park in Devon, gave us “Slow-roasted Devonshire venison with braised belly pork, chestnut purée, roasted autumn vegetables and raisins soaked in jasmine". This was a truncated cylinder of gloriously pink, juicy venison, sitting on a tablet of perfectly judged streaky pork, all on a rectangular plate with a creamy slick of chestnut, a few roasted girolle mushrooms, a tiny cone of parsnip, an infant turnip, and a highly disciplined grace note of sweetness added by the tea-soaked raisins. The claret, a Pomerol, Ch. Le Gabachot 2004, had just the right amount of ripe fruit to flatter the game.
“Farmhouse cheeses from France and Great Britain made in the traditional way” were presented, with a glass of Dow’s 1985 Vintage Port, on individual wooden cheese boards. And Carl Newberry, who had won the title of Young Chef 2003 when he was senior chef de partie at Le Manoir aux Quat'Saisons, presented each of the five cheeses with a tiny complementary garnish, in one case a conserve of fig, in another a disk of Périgord truffle with a subtle truffle jelly.
The seventh and final course was prepared by Le Manoir’s wonderful executive pastry chef and my collaborator of 15 years, Benoit Blin: “Seasonal pear Almondine, caramel croustillant, ginger sauce and its own sorbet” made the most of the contrasting textures and temperatures of the pear, the pear sorbet and the crisp pastry”, and was daringly accompanied by a rare, intensely sweet, Canadian apple-fragrant Cidre de Glace 2004, Reserve Privée, Leduc-Piedimonte, Vallée Montérégienne. Coffee and petits four rounded out the dinner, and we lingered over a final glass of Ruinart Rosé Champagne.
It was such a joyous occasion, with some touching words from Alain Desenclos, the Field Marshal of Le Manoir, who has been with me for 27 years – since the beginning of my career; and the event was made particularly moving by the powerful, intelligent, deeply affectionate speeches given by my sons, Olivier and Sebastien, so loving that all the girls had tears in their eyes. I am proud of my boys, and it is great that we have all arrived at a place where we relish each moment we spend together. And then there are the two beautiful blondes in my life, my two Natalias, whose quick wit keeps me on my toes and makes me feel young at 60 – so much so that I really cannot understand the meaning of the words “the male menopause”. There really are lots of things in life that just get better as time goes by – I’m lucky to have so many of them. It was a day I shan’t forget.
To all the team at Le Manoir, a huge thank you for the most perfect Birthday. For that I am grateful.
Raymond
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