It’s a cold Friday night in Stockwell and I am sitting in the basement flat of a gorgeous Georgian town house off the main road running through Stockwell. Why am I here you ask? But for the first supper club of Janos Balint, aka Chef Particulier!
I came to know about Janos and his supper club through my colleague Naomi who is the other half to the lovely Jimmy Garcia and Janos has worked for him. I love the random connections you end up making in London! Anyway, I was told that Janos was doing his first supper club so I felt like I should go along, try it out and support him in his efforts. So here we were in a rather spartan but toasty warm basement flat, 4 tables set for six people apiece and starving.
The Fabulous Menu
The kitchen team were hard at work when we appeared and being prompt we were some of the first people there. Supper Clubs are always interesting as you never quite know who you are going to be sitting at a table with. It was a mixed crowd. Friends of Janos’, friends of friends, employers and friends of employers. As we sat down, a quick welcome speech from Janos and the wine bottles opened, the very relaxed evening commenced.
The menu for the evening was
A Trip of Canapés
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Mackerel Three Ways
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Seasonal Vegetable Shooter
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Pheasant Salmi with Celeriac Gratin and Roasted Plums
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Citrus Sorbet
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Apple terrine served with Caramel and Chantilly Cream
The food itself was delicious. I was personally intrigued by the mackerel as its one of my favourite things and always interested to see what people do with it. The mackerel came in tartar form, as a pate and escabeche. All three were beautiful. I do not normally like tartar but with the Asian twist it was light and full of flavour and I inhaled it!. After a short breather we were served shots of vegetable soup. Always novel!
Mackerel Three Ways
The main course is what we were all waiting for, pheasant severed with celeriac gratin and roasted plums. The pheasant was beautiful, moist and full of flavour. It was very well cooked. I would have liked my gratin with a bit more sauce to it but that’s just me being greedy and wanting yummy cream. The gratin itself was lovely, the celeriac perfectly thin and seasoned well.
Pheasant!!
Post pheasant and starting to feel rather full came our pallet cleansing citrus sorbet. Light and refreshing it was what was just needed. Having eaten pretty much everything that was put in front of me I was going to struggle with fitting desert in, but I would try. Now I am not the world biggest fan of cooked apple but I did quite enjoy the apple terrine. I like the idea of the apple terrine but both me and my friend agreed we would have preferred it warm rather than cold. The caramel and cream complimented it very well though.
Desert!
Overall this was a great dinner by Janos and I am very excited that it will be just the first of many. In fact the second one was a couple of weekends ago but I couldn’t attend. Fingers crossed that the next one falls on an empty date in my diary.
Janos is one to watch, he is all about seasonal food that tastes great. His love of food comes from growing up in a three generation household in a small Hungarian village. His grandmother seems to be the inspiration when you talk to him, her cooking of traditional dishes, simple and seasonable using ingredients from their garden ( including the chickens and rabbits they kept). Janos’ cooking goes back to simplicity, using what is available and seasonal and not trying to use a ridiculous number of ingredients. I like this, its home cooking but with a touch of elegance. I look forward to seeing how these supper clubs develop as the seasons change!
If you like good food and random company then keep an eye out for Chef Particulier’s next supper club as I know it will be good!
theambitioustraveller 