My favorite war cry is from Beyonce, “Who runs the world? Girls girls!! Who runs the world? Girls!!” Writes Anita Champaneri
And so a night of culinary excellence led by an all-female brigade was music to my ears.
Simpsons restaurant in Edgbaston gave an impressive show of real girl power in the kitchen when its’ female chefs from past and present joined forces for a one-off dinner on Thursday 24th January. Guests got to enjoy a fabulous six course dinner cooked by female chefs from the restaurant’s 25 year history.
It always use to frustrate me that women could be cooks in the home but were scarce when it came to running a restaurant, but the Michelin starred restaurant has been successfully nurturing talent for many decades.
So, for one night only, Master Chef finalist Claire Hutchings was joined by a talented line up of chefs, including Georgina Ward, Jacqueline Keenan, Angelina Adamo, and Rachel Tokitsu, all protégées of Simpsons.
We started with a wonderful starter by Georgina Ward, beautifully Nori cured salmon, wasabi ice cream, sorrel with heritage beetroots.
This was followed by one of my favourite dishes, the onion broth, made with roscoff onions, onion mayonnaise and sourdough croutons. Angela Adamo’s take on soup was a bowl of heartwarming goodness which punched with taste.
Rachael Tokitsu’s plump Scottish scallop was as pretty as a picture and came in a half-shell. It tasted sweet and perfectly cooked with seaweed and caviar and has so many textures to it.
Claire Hutchings displayed her mastery with a curried breast of lamb adorned with yoghurt, mint, mango, coconut, chilli, shallots and coriander. I really wasn’t expecting a curry inspired dish at Simpsons, so it was a pleasant surprise to enjoy a dish with Indian ingredients cooked in a modern way. The quality cut was not too heavy and balanced well with its accompaniments.
This was followed by a palate cleanser by Claire, the sorrel sorbet with herbs, crystallised black olives apples, and sweet Dulces Hierbas liqueur which was magic, combining sweet, sharp and savoury. It was beautifully displayed like a plate of modern art.
Chef Patron Andreas Antona took to the floor and spoke about the restaurant’s 25 year legacy and the brilliance of the chefs before we returned to our seats for a ‘whoah, hold your horses’ moment when dessert arrived.
A beautifully presented Manjari chocolate mousse with a hazelnut meringue, Mandarin, and lemon thyme sorbet had arrived courtesy of Jacqueline Keenan. I was in awe of the expertise and techniques used to create this dish, which let’s face it, was devoured in less than 10 minutes! So many different levels of taste had guests revelling in its inventiveness.
A guest regaled me with lots of facts about the types of chocolate (such as Manjari) and chocolate production which was fascinating, but he worried us that if we didn’t look after the planet then cocoa production would die out and that would mean the end of chocolate! That should make people sit up and do something more than just swapping to plastic strawers!
This was indeed a fine celebration of Simpsons women past and present.