Cabrito Sunday Lunch Club at The Twenty Six

James Whetlor from Cabrito Goat Meat

Roast Leg of Kid for Sunday lunch

Each month, the I'll be Mother group hosts the mother of all roasts, with the menu reflecting the quality and provenance of one beautiful piece of meat.

On 21 May, James Whetlor from ethical goat meat supplier Cabrito, is hosting the Sunday Lunch Club at The Twenty Six. Former River Cottage chef James has won an Observer Food Monthly Award for Best Ethical Producer, Good Housekeeping’s Champion Meat Producer, is a finalist in BBC Radio 4’s Food and Farming Awards and recently appeared on Channel 4’s Hidden Restaurants with Michel Roux Jnr.

On the table, head chef Scott Goss has created a menu full of new spring ingredients and roast leg of kid goat. Kid is similar to spring lamb and has a delicate, sweet and musky flavour. It is a strong enough flavour to stand up to the spice and heat of Middle-Eastern and North African recipes, but subtle enough to respond brilliantly to the herbs, garlic, wine and lemon of European cookery.

Snack

Kid faggot, artichoke and wild garlic crumb

To start

Kent asparagus roasted on Kentish cherry wood
Morels, cured egg yolk, aged parmesan

To follow

Leg of Kid goat, broad beans, confit shallots and lemon
Ratatouille, kid pomme anna, thyme gravy

To finish

Flavours of sherry trifle
Pistachio sponge, panna cotta, raspberry and sherry ice cream

Coffee and Chocolates

Places are £40 each and also include wine paired with the goat. Call 01892 544607 to book or visit the website. Sign up to I'll be Mother's Sunday Lunch Club newsletter to be the first to know about new date #SundayLunchClub

Kingdom, woodland retreat and cycling hub

Kent's leading cycling hub, Kingdom, is in a 13 acre woodland retreat in Penshurst

Kingdom is coming

www.thiskingdom.co.uk

Kingdom is a bit of a new one for The Dining Room, but a really exciting one, none the less. It's a woodland retreat and cycling hub with a 1.1 mile road track in a 13 acre plot in Penshurst, Kent. The club house, four gorgeous floors of wood and glass with an open air roof deck, is at the heart of Kingdom. The 9,500 sqft space is beautiful, and will be hugely popular for weddings, parties and corporate events. The cafe is run by Tunbridge Wells' favourite Basil Wholefoods, but this time you'll be able to eat a slice of their infamous carrot cake looking out into the woods or the 360 degree views of the surrounding countryside from the roof deck. Kingdom will be an amazing addition in Kent, with yoga and bike rental from Wyndymilla, all available on site.

Launching today, Kingdom is offering friends and family of the I'll be Mother group an opportunity to invest in the project, crowd-sourcing £360,000 for an equity share of 10% plus a range of rewards. Full details in Kent Business here. After two weeks the campaign will go live to the public. Want to switch off from the daily grind and own a piece of the adventure?

Following the crowdfunding, Kingdom is due to launch in Summer 2017. Have a peek at the video below for hint of what's to come.

Billy Tannery partners with Cabrito to launch kid leather microtannery

Jack Millington and Rory Harker, founders of Billy Tannery, the first kid leather microtannery in the UK

Billy Tannery to launch the first ever British kid leather products using goat hides left over from the UK food industry

www.billytannery.co.uk

Billy Tannery is a new British leather brand founded by two entrepreneurs, Jack Millington and Rory Harker, both aged 28, from the Midlands, which makes products from kid goat leather that is tanned in a small-batch tannery or ‘microtannery’. The Billy Tannery website goes live today ahead of a product launch on crowdfunding platform Kickstarter in May 2017.

Billy Tannery began when founders Jack and Rory discovered that, due to the growth in demand for goat meat in the UK and the decline of the British leather industry, there were thousands of hides going to waste. Now, having partnered with ethical goat meat supplier Cabrito, Billy Tannery use the leftover hides to produce premium vegetable tanned kid leather.

Billy Tannery is launching a range of luxury kid leather bags and accessories that are designed and handmade in Britain. It is the first leather brand of its kind in Britain, with a vertically integrated supply chain from hide to final product. Jack and Rory’s goal is to put an end to the waste of British goat hides by tapping into the rich leather heritage of the Midlands area. The first range of Billy Tannery products launches on the crowdfunding site, Kickstarter, in May 2017.

Billy Tannery founder Jack Millington said, “Despite the clear link between meat and leather, the topic is often uncomfortable and rarely discussed. In a time of increasing interest in provenance, our partnership with Cabrito allows us to trace our leather all the way back to the farm.”

More information can be found at www.billytannery.co.uk

- Billy Tannery was founded by childhood friends Jack Millington and Rory Harker, both 28 and from the Midlands. They have worked in the marketing and design industries in London since university, but have always dreamt of starting a business together

- The first range of Billy Tannery products will include notebooks, a card holder, a briefcase, a tote bag and a backpack. Product images coming in mid-April 2017

- Cabrito Goat Meat was founded by James Whetlor in 2012. Cabrito won an Observer Food Monthly Award (2014) for Best Ethical Producer, Good Housekeeping’s Champion Meat Producer (2016) and the Young British Foodies Meat Award (2016) and is a finalist in the Radio 4 Food Programme Food and Farming Awards 2017. (www.cabrito.co.uk)

The first range of Billy Tannery products will include notebooks, a card holder, a briefcase, a tote bag and a backpack

A tart for March

Served with sour cream and a glass of Jurancon 2014 Clos Thou, a small-batch sweet wine made from super-late harvested grapes. Perfect.

Hazelnut and sour cream cake

A few weeks ago I was at a really wonderful event in Bristol, a wine dinner with chef Matt Williamson and Vine Trail, a specialist in small domaines in France. A review of the evening, hosted at Hamilton House in Bristol is in the March issue of the brilliant South-West food magazine, Crumbs. Matt's wife Claire Thomson (of 5 o'clock Apron fame) made the most delicious tart for pudding and here is the recipe...

Hazelnut and sour cream cake (serves 8-10)

Ingredients
120g light brown sugar
120g plain flour
1/2 tsp cinnamon
65g cold butter, diced
120ml sour cream, plus extra to serve
1 egg
120g hazelnuts, skinned and chopped
4 plums, chopped into bitesize pieces
3 sticks pink rhubarb, chopped into 2cm pieces, tossed in 2 tablespoons of light brown sugar

Method
- Preheat the oven to 180C/350F/gas mark 4
Line a 25cm cake tin with grease proof paper
- Mix the sugar, flour and cinnamon together and rub in the butter until you have a sandy mixture
- Spread half of this mix into the cake tin and press down slightly, forming an even base
- Whisk together the sour cream, baking powder and egg. Add the remaining half of the flour mix to the sour cream, then pour it over the base of the tart
- Tip the fruit on top and sprinkle over the chopped hazelnuts
- Bake for 40 minutes. Serve with extra sour cream or creme fraiche

Hidden Kitchens

Michel and Freddy are meeting passionate cooks and chefs who are setting up kitchens in remote or secretive locations

There's a new cookery programme starting and this one's a little bit different from the usual.

Hidden Kitchens, presented by Michel Roux Jr and Freddy Bird - executive chef of the Lido in Bristol - starts tonight (Wednesday 8th March at 8pm). They are on a quest to find the best and most unusual of the UK’s unknown places to eat. The first episode takes us down to the South-west where Michel meets James Whetlor from Cabrito Goat Meat and chef Matt Gillan (who has just opened Red Roaster in Brighton) to cook kid on the fire.

Hidden Kitchens explores a very different type of restaurant that is burgeoning in the UK. In a bid to step away from the London-centric food scene, Michel and Freddy are meeting passionate cooks and chefs who are setting up kitchens in remote or secretive locations, which allow them - or force - them to be extremely inventive in their cooking, which creating a unique experience for diners wily enough to seek them out. These cooks are succeeding against the odds despite isolation and a lack of running water, to draw people in to their quirky spots. Ranging from people who have built roads to get supplies in, to the Colombian couple who use a double decker bus as their moveable restaurant, to an old four-seater ski lift which is being used to serve up food.

As well as visiting an array of up and running restaurants, each episode will follow one new restaurant from build to opening night showcasing the hard work and ingenious ideas that go into making these unusual restaurants work.

Cool kids cook kid

James Whetlor from Cabrito at Wilderness Festival, this summer

Cabrito are bringing their kids to Wilderness Festival, 3-6 August in Oxfordshire.  And are then going to throw them on the BBQ! 

And you can help.  Come along to EAT MY KIDS!

Kids are the name for young goats.  They are to goats what lambs are to sheep and even more delicious.

Early in the morning come and help James and chef Matt Williamson get the goat ready for a long days cook.

Children will help marinade the kid and build the BBQ.  They’ll learn about the cooking process and just how much fun it can be.  Where the animals come from and why we should eat from the nose to the tail.  How the food system works, which isn’t always simple as it may seem. 

At 4pm dinner will be ready. Come back to the fire and make your own tacos for dinner.  Help lay the table, make the salads and then stuff your face! And there's icecream too. There might even be enough left for the parents to try.

PS Human kids need an adult and be about 4 or over. 

Where the cool kids are.

The mother of all roasts

Dry-aged Herefordshire sirloin

Kent restaurant group I’ll be Mother launches new Sunday Lunch Club

The first in the once a month club will be at The Twenty Six and is the mother of all Sunday Roasts, a classic roast of dry-aged Herefordshire sirloin with all the trimmings and some special touches from Chef Patron Scott Goss.

Each month, at either The Twenty Six or The Beacon, the menu will reflect the quality and provenance of a beautiful piece of meat. On occasion, we will also invite the supplier or farmer to the lunch to tell you more about the animal and its meat.

In the family spirit, which is at the heart of I’ll be Mother, everyone will all eat at the same time, 1.30pm. I'll be arriving a little early for either a Chapel Down Kir Royale or a Bloody Mary before sitting down at the feasting table.

www.thetwenty-six.co.uk #SundayLunchClub

"Our Sunday Lunch Clubs are all about sharing good food with good company." Scott Goss

Sunday 26th February
Everyone to sit to eat at 1.30pm
£26 per person

Small Plates
Blow-torched mackerel & rhubarb
Ham & frozen foie gras
Cauliflower & fermented mushrooms

Main Event
Roast Shorthorn beef, fresh horseradish, beef dripping potatoes, sharing Yorkshire pudding, roasted garden roots, bone marrow and thyme gravy

To finish
Baked blood orange meringue
Coffee and Chocolates

Savoie wine dinner in Bristol with WeFiFo

Matt Williamson

Well-known and loved Bristol chef, Matt Williamson, is collaborating with supper club platform WeFiFo and specialist French wine importer Vine Trail to host a 5 course wine dinner from one of the most exciting gastronomic regions, the Savoie. Book tickets here.

Matt has enjoyed over 20 years’ experience in the independent restaurant sector in a variety of establishments; from 2 star Michelin restaurants to top end gastro-pubs, bustling London bistros and private members’ clubs.

He has a track record of establishing sites as food destinations, and after arriving in Bristol in 2008 opened his own acclaimed restaurant Flinty Red, that won accolades nationally and locally, including Michelin, National Restaurant Awards, Good Food Guide and Observer Food Monthly Awards.

He has also created and collaborated on a number of successful side projects and enjoys a broad range of food related activities included education, book writing, private events, food and new product development, restaurant and event consultancy and project management immersive food experiences and collaborations with food producers and other creative and commercial sectors.

Matt is an extremely passionate, creative and professional operator whose career has been inspired and shaped as much by extensive travels and collaborations as by professional kitchen experience.

The Savoie, in the Rhone Alps region of Eastern France. Cheese, wild mushrooms, rich stews and fruit tarts are all popular on the Savoyard table.

7pm arrival Thursday 23 February, 2017

Hamilton House, Bristol, BS1

MENU £55

On arrival
Bugey Montagnieu NV Brut Franck Peillot
Buckwheat Chaussons

First course
Chignin 13 Gilles Berlioz
 Lightly cured lemon verbena trout with apple

Second course
Anjou 2014 ‘Les Varennes’ Les Roches Seches
Scallop baked in the shell, hazelnut brown butter, samphire

Third course
Vinsobres 2012 ‘Emile’ Dom de la Pequelette
Wild boar civet with chestnut polenta

Cheese
Cotes du Jura 2012 Savagnin ‘Intime Conviction’ les Granges Paquenesses

Dessert
Jurancon 2014 clos Thou
Plum, rhubarb and almond tart

For more information about Matt’s wine dinner or WeFiFo, please contact:
Hannah Blake at The Dining Room PR | hannah@thediningroompr.co.uk | 07730 039361

Scott Goss, one of the UK's most influential chefs

Pleased as punch that Scott Goss, Chef Patron at The Twenty Six, part of the I'll be Mother group of restaurants in Kent has been included in food and travel magazine Olive's list of most influential chefs in the UK and 'one's to watch' in 2017.

The Twenty Six is my test kitchen. There are no rules. 

Scott's food is deceptively simple, big on flavour and technique, with a passion for ingredients and integrity. There's always a surprise of something unexpected or untried before. He's a big talent and one I'm sure the Michelin inspectors are looking at very closely!

See Olive's full list in their January issue or see this link.

One to watch. Grab a table while you can!

A duck, a chef and hungry diners looking for food and friends...

Your place or mine?

Move over John Lewis! The award for ad with all the Christmas feels goes to WeFiFo, a new platform revolutionising social dining, connecting enthusiastic cooks with hungry guests. Have a look at this wonderful animation to find out more...www.wefifo.com

(Animation and illustration by Anna Ginsburg, concept illustration by Alexis Deacon, sound design by Ed Berriman)

WeFiFo - airbnb for food

A social dining revolution from London to Lancashire

A Game Feast at Ronnie Murray's Peckham Manor supperclub hosted with WeFiFo

To a cold and drizzly Peckham last night for Ronnie Murray’s (ex-Group Head Chef of HIX and of recent Great British Menu fame) Peckham Manor supperclub with WeFiFo. It was a sensational menu full of Autumnal flavours with blackberries, pigeon and venison steamed suet puddings. The standout dish was pudding, an Autumn Tasting Plate, a dish Ronnie described as a walk through the woods with various blackberry preparations, granola, lemon curd, honeycomb and a greedy, tooth-tinglingly-sweet dollop of honey, fresh from his Dad’s beehives in Berkshire.

Autumn on a plate.

It was my first experience of WeFiFo, a new platform leading the social dining revolution connecting people, who love cooking, with those who love eating. Cannily described as ‘airbnb for food’, WeFiFo is for home cooks, supper club hosts and pop restaurants to create and host food based events in their own home.

Supper clubs are not just for professional cooks though, people up and down the country are opening up their homes to share food and company. Maria Grieco, a truly wonderful human being, from Lancashire joined WeFiFo in June and has already fed nearly 200 people, many of whom would otherwise be eating in isolation. She hosts an average of two WeFiFo events a week, from a traditional Sunday roast to exotic Syrian themed evenings for the recent #CookforSyria charity initiative. Guests have included a dementia sufferer and her live-in carer, five woman all in their 70s who live in sheltered accommodation and a single mother and her son, who hadn’t had a Sunday roast in 5 years.

"We all have to eat - and food is the building block of humanity. Meals should be shared. Eating should be about sharing food, conversation, laughter, tears, stories and life. No one should eat alonE, unless they want to."

Maria Grieco, WeFiFo host, and all round superstar

Hear, hear Maria. I will be joining you on the WeFiFo revolution!

www.wefifo.com

Ronnie plating a salad of pigeon, pickled elderberries and wet walnuts.

Guest chef supper series at The Twenty Six

Scott Goss, Chef Patron of The Twenty Six, is to host a series of supper clubs with guest chefs, who all have strong connections to Kent. Andrew Clarke of acclaimed restaurant Brunswick House, London, will cook the first supper with Scott on Thursday 13th October.

Scott and Andrew, with a shared passion for fresh flavours, colours and seasonal produce, will each cook 3 courses for a 6 course menu, including a cheese course and paired wines. Tickets for this exclusive, one-off event are £60 and can be purchased by calling The Twenty Six on 01892 544607 or www.thetwenty-six.co.uk.

The 6 course menu will also have an accompanying wine flight, included in the price.

Cep and bone marrow gougères (AC)
Gruner Veltriner Yealands Estate, New Zealand

~

Raw salmon, devilled crab, cucumber and sea rosemary (SG)
Herdade Do Rocim Amphora, Portugal (white)

~

Salsify, razor clam, fennel, trompette, radish (AC)
Herdade Do Rocim Amphora, Portugal (red)

~

Goatober faggots, parsnip, burnt butter, Cornish ale gravy (SG)
Cote du Rhone La Petit Caboche, France

~

14 day-aged Challans duck, green olives, red chicory, mint (AC)
Barbaresco Conti Speroni, Italy

~

Malt ice cream, espresso stout affogato (AC)
Pedro Ximénez, Spain

~

Chocolates and a night cap (SG)

Andrew and Scott have known each other for over 10 years. Both favour British food with European and other worldly influences with an emphasis on flavour, colour and texture. Andrew is now Chef Director of Brunswick House, situated in Lassco, an antique dealers and architectural reclamation yard in Vauxhall, South London. Previously Head Chef at Salt Yard and more recently Rita’s Bar and Dining, Andrew’s food is bold, fresh and full of character. London restaurant critic Fay Maschler described a dining experience at Brunswick House as ‘Like a treasure hunt with clues, a piece of music with reflective melodies or a tapestry with tight intricate stitches, the menu is woven together in a way that is enticing and also sensible.”

Further dates and chefs in The Twenty Six series to be confirmed in due course.