Anyway with further ado, as most of you will know I was invited to cook a Danish banquet in the kingdom of Saudi Arabia in May, if not then it's your first visit, so welcome, if you do, then welcome back.
Before I discuss the work and the meal itself, I have to mention, that after the travellers horror stories I read on google prior to visiting, making myself and my wife quite uncomfortable, I found the Saudi people probably the most welcoming people's I have ever encountered. Indeed it has a huge amount of armed security on show and there are customs which are to be obeyed, once you've been there a couple of days, you suddenly realise that with a little thought the hotel x-ray machines and metal detectors just fade into the background, allowing you to enjoy the experience. In a nutshell if you get the opportunity to visit, take it.
Anyway after being taken from the airport to the hotel in some style, I arrived to the Sheraton hotel and towers and checked into my room. The executive chef, Akter called a few minutes later to arrange dinner for us in the restaurant, I unpacked and went for a packed Lebanese buffet and to be introduced to the chef and other members of the team. The food was beautifully presented and for a chef with eyes bigger than his (already sizeable) belly was far too much, I should learn not to eat so much, especially if I still have work to do that day. After dinner I was taken into the kitchen and introduced to the sous chef Kazi, who would be helping me this week, we went through the menu and had fun deciphering each other trying to make sure that the food that was in, or coming in was what was ordered. This was my first encounter on how easy words and descriptions can be lost in translation. More on this a little later
The next day, after breakfast with the GM, Stuart Birkwood I set to work in the piazza restaurant kitchen, this didn't open until the afternoon allowing us to crack on with the donkey jobs which needed pickling or could be frozen until the day, we also went out to the local market, which I might add puts UK supermarkets to shame with the vast range of produce available. However trying to shop for root vegetables available in Nordic climes easily, when you are in a country that has a current average temperature of 45C a few alterations had to be made. Anyway we still had 5 days to go till the event itself so the days jobs were pickled veg for the robbed from Noma dish, stocks, soup bases, sauces went on, Kazi cracking on like a trooper by 5pm we had done what we could that day, next day was time with the pastry and start items for the reverse spherification, a technique seemingly unheard of in the kingdom so the whole brigade showed a great amount of interest. The powders for which I had shipped a couple of weeks before not wanting to carry white powder through customs in a country that announces everywhere that trafficking drugs, meant the death penalty, didn't want to try and explain away xanthan gum, sodium alginate, calcium lactate, agar agar.
Second day was more donkey work, along with finishing off 3 portions of everything as we had a full tasting the next day, this brought a few fun items which didn't quite translate from order and prep lists sent through when asking for apple juice I was given a carbonated one (not great for spherification, but doable by removing the bubbles with a little sugar) I had asked for fresh horseradish, and with next to no time to spare (cos I checked too late) was given jars of creamed horseradish. A reasonable amount of oooooh shit thinking was required as I didn't want the bubbles creamy as I wanted a hit of fresh apple with the heat of horseradish. A bit of thinking done and sorted. I won't let you know how, we'll just leave it at that.
The biggest hurdle came to the dessert, it was a twist on a Koldskal a Danish buttermilk and biscuit mess and strawberries, I though I would twist these ingredients into a Eton mess of sorts. Which required the buttermilk element to be within the ice cream. Anyway unbeknown to me, buttermilk is not available in Saudi Arabia, at all!!!! Sure you can get American style buttermilk pancake mix but that was it. Ok quick recipe rethink with yogurt, then the hammer came down when the pastry chef asked me how I wanted it frozen, because it was company policy for the chefs not to make ice cream.
Now a quick soap-box moment. Starwood hotels, nay all large hotel chains. Why the hell do you pay for talent in your kitchens, with training programs a plenty and all the skill you require at department head level in each section of your kitchens, do you these talented professionals from making such a simple item as ice cream, I understand the concerns you have from your air conditioned offices where you make these decisions, but some decent training will yield you much better product and profit than using bloody Ben & Jerrys. Ok
Anyway, thankfully the hotel has ample staff so with an ice cream base made and large gastro container in the freezer. The pastry chef was under instruction to whisk the mix every 15 minutes, with a ba-mix blitz every hour. Ice crystals were much larger than I would have liked, but the flavour was as I wanted and an acceptable product for the conditions. Also pasteurised and perfectly safe (policy crunchers take note!!!)
On the Sunday was the tasting, not just a case of chucking dishes out to a few organisers, 10 people were expected and a full table set up was placed in the kitchen. 3 full portions of everything from canapé to petit fours. This was the only real nerve wracking hours of my visit, one dislike at the tasting could screw up the rest of the visit entirely.
After an hour and a half of deliberation and discussion, the tasting concluded with comments only on the soup (a little thick) and a course order change. Get in. For the next 2 days it was simple, just prep it all again for 90 covers, simples.
For the majority of the work the guys cracked on without complaint and perfectly. The only exception to this was the pickles, robbed blatantly from the Noma dish, the chefs were very much used to cracking out large volumes of food on a regular basis, but work that generally involved chopping and cooking vast pans of this and that, so when I set 5 chefs to rolling pickle rolls and fine picking a huge amount of herbs I threw them right out of their comfort zone. Ah well, push on boys.
Anyway the next couple of days went very well, and come the day of the event I had to rely heavily on the teams expertise, knocking the prep out in a huge (read gargantuan) kitchen was easy, but the event was not at the hotel, it was being held at the ambassadorial residence a good few miles away, am being sent from a good sized domestic kitchen, so some artful juggling was required, also a couple of corners I would rather not cut had to be, such as the pickle dish, we set this up in the afternoon in the hotel, then with a small square of cut damp muslin covering each one, jack stacked ready for transport. 2 massive hot cupboards on wheels carried the rest of the mis en place, and having sent the plates, cutlery, glasses etc earlier in the day, by 4.30 pm we were ready to roll.
It took the best part of an hour to travel us and the food, with a small slow-down at the security area entering the diplomatic quarter we arrived on site and began arranging ourselves to plate up each course.
The menu was designed to only have 2 hot courses, so we used the main dining room, and a huge corridor to set up courses so there was always at least one course gap between another in a different area so we had plenty of time to plate and arrange, and with 12 chefs on site, plenty of hands to take care of each one.
First up were the canapés, as every set had to pass the same security cordon, this hour was essential to ensure each guest had plenty of time to arrive to the venue, these were very simple and all bread based to (slightly) mimic a smorrebrod (open face sandwiches) they included smoked salmon, beef tartare, cured chicken roll, crisp plaice, liver pate (traditionally pork, but be substituted for calves liver) a small prawn cocktail and a couple others I now forget.
The next course up was a small amuse consisting of a traditional gravadlax on a homemade rye bread, and a spoon of White herring with mayonnaise and quails egg. Quite a favourite with the ambassador himself.
Then the first of the hot courses, a rodbedsuppe (beetroot soup), a light consommé, which to my opinion on the night was too light and thin at the request of the tasting and would have benefitted from a little more body, this had a touch of creme fraiche and a sphere of apple and horseradish.
Then we serve a jellied lobster, crisp vegetables and marinated potato. The jelly was an agar filtered fish stock, mirepoix of vegetables barely blanched with the lobster trim chopped into it, a medallion of lobster to top it, and the potatoes were pickled in a simple dill 3,2,1 pickle and dressed in a mild dill mustard prior to service.
Then came the pickles, blatantly stolen from Noma, a dish which was a big hit on the night, funnily enough thank you Rene, I take the praise for this as payment for standing at a bench for hours on end rolling them for you. Cheers chef!!
In Noma this dish is described as traditional Danish fayre, where they would normally eat roast pork with pickled vegetables, in Noma you have the pickled vegetables as the main element of the meal with some fried bone marrow and a pork glaze, obviously in a muslim country the pork glaze was a no-no, so using the same technique as they do at Noma made an intense chicken glaze, and with much less herbs at my disposal the dish was essentially the same.
Next the main course, this was inspired from an apple cheese recipe I found in a Hans Christian-Andersen book. The hotel had some great venison in from a promotion they were running and as using pork was not an option decided on a roasted loin of venison, braised haunch wrapped in cabbage, carrot puree, apple cheese, caramelised potato and a red grape jus (no alcohol again made my culinary was change, but the sauce was lovely), this dish was well received and I was very happy with the balance in the meal.
Next up dessert, I was given an idea from my Danish chef to do Koldskal she described this as strawberries, buttermilk, biscuit, meringue. A little more research showed it was more like a buttermilk soup, so the decision was made to make an Eton mess with Koldskal flavours. This had a mixed reception in terms of authenticity (did I mention I was a welsh lad?) but all plates returned completely clean so job done.
Coffee was served with a few petit fours, again Danish inspired an almond biscuit of kransekagge, a raspberry layer cake, and a chocolate shell filled with ollenbrod, a traditional porridge of beer and rye bread, a non alcoholic malt beer was used with the trim from our rye bread and quite surprisingly was very tasty and authentic.
Finally myself and the whole team were paraded in front of our guests, and the menu was discussed and scored, everyone seemed happy and the comments were positive (nerves settled I could then enjoy the evening), and just as the teams returned to their tasks, I had expected a few people to catch me and pass comment, what I wasn't ready for was a queue of people lining up to comment, discuss, pinch recipes and have photos taken. I have never been the subject of a queue before, I felt very humbled and more than a little scared, however all the people were very lovely and even the critique was positive, as I had not taken the view that I was trying to please all the guests with every dish on the menu, they accepted that the experience was great, even if they had not adored every dish, after all food is subjective and you will never feed 80 people 6 courses plus snacks of their favourite ever food, I was just glad that all guests seemed to be happier than when they arrived, job done.
We returned to the hotel, where I collapsed in a soggy, happy heap. Looking forward to flying home the next day back to the family.
The next morning, I was requested down to the kitchen, where a table had been set up beyond the passé, with a cake and a pile of presents for myself and my wife, incredibly thoughtful, and the whole brigade embarrassingly saw me off with a small party. Thank you guys.
Akter the exec chef, then took me shopping for the obligatory gifts, we travelled all over Riyadh and he was very patient choosing the kids toys, and a great haggler at the gold market choosing a lovely trinket to take home to Sally. We then had a lovely lunch at the recently refurbished Restaurant in the four seasons kingdom tower hotel, very lovely.
We had also organised a lunch at the gorgeous al faisaliah hotel, but sadly the restaurants opened too late for me to be able to make my flight, so took my dinner in the hotels most excellent Italian restaurant, la piazza, and very happy to do so. This restaurant is classed as one of the best in Riyadh, and I concur, all the pastas are hand made, the fillings and sauces are of a great quality clean fresh flavours, simply very good.
Whilst I missed the family greatly, I am so grateful of the experience. It was amazing from beginning to end, and once back in London, missed the ambiance and most certainly the heat. Thanks to all involved in making my whole experience absolutely wonderful.
Thanks for persevering with this inordinately long post, a couple of meals out will be plonked up next, not what I originally decided for this blog, but they were so lovely, really think I will share. What I will not do is blog the bad ones. I will simply mention on twitter, but if something is just lovely then gonna use this vehicle to share that.
Cheers, Alex.
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