The good, the bad and the unbelievable cuisine!

It's because my life revolves around food, or at least it's because it's my hobby and my livelihood depends on it, that at times like this I'm tempted to reflect on my past year’s eating; good, bad and unbelievable.

For instance, there was the most expensive lunch I’ve ever paid for. I’m loathed to actually say how much it was and I have to admit a significant proportion of the bill may have been drink.

But the meal in Rick Stein’s Seafood Restaurant in Padstow was magnificent and I couldn’t begrudge one penny including the service charge.

The continuous rain outside might have contributed to the bottom line in that we couldn’t possibly leave before the rain stopped. Could we?

Then, staying with Cornwall, there were the two live crabs I bought, cooked and served with skinny chips and garlic mayonnaise for my wife and two friends.

I hesitate to sound immodest but I really can’t describe the meal as anything other than, again, magnificent.

This may have been something to do with the freshness of the crabs and also the fear-induced adrenalin. But my three messy dining companions were suitably impressed too.

Up to London a few months ago and there was lunch at the restaurant of celebrated chef Mark Hix at his Oyster and Chop House in Farringdon. It’s difficult to think of better British food anywhere – outside the North East that is.

There have been a number of gatherings at our house to honour the lives of various sheep and pigs who’d not died in vain and where, again without modesty, the cooking was particularly successful – particularly the Oxford Sandy and Black sausages and my own home dry-cured and smoked bacon.
At the other end of the scale I’ve eaten some appalling ready-made or takeaway foods. The type of hours that my job dictates I work mean that sometimes I just have to eat on the move.

So why then, when it’s so easy to get it right, are so many awful pies on sale, and successfully sold, in shops, service stations and takeaways?

I know there are some exceptional ones, but they’re few and far between and a minority on the pie-availability scale.

I’m a pie fan, we British have loads of great pie recipes and making a brilliant pie filling is actually one of the easier things to do. Pastry, I’ll give you, can be a challenge but it’s still not rocket science.
Yet we’re still insulted with rubbish. Maybe my New Year’s resolution ought to be to open a pie shop. And stop buying rubbish.

But back to the good stuff. You may think I shouldn’t say this but some of my favourite meals this last year have been in our own restaurants which, believe it or not, comes as a surprise to me.
I don’t usually enjoy eating in my own restaurant because I find it hard to relaxbut maybe I’m learning to do so.

However, I also think that we’ve been getting it right more than ever before and a lot of that’s down to our very young kitchen teams led by Anthony Taylor.

And unbelievable? Well, I’m not going to name the establishment but my wife and I were at a meeting in one of the region’s better- known hotels.

We broke for some afternoon tea which was served at the meeting table. Someone volunteered to be mother and poured the coffee where upon the person sitting next to me did that cartoon thing of taking a sip before involuntarily spitting it across the table.

Unfortunately that person was my wife who’d just found out that the coffee pot had in fact previously been used as a tea pot and the tea bags were still in residence.

The hotel might have got away with things had not a vegetarian then been given ham in her salad and someone else, my wife again, found broken glass in her food.

I know mistakes happen; we make them all the time. But we didn’t even get a proper apology, never mind the odd look of horror from the manager.

And why have I not named it? Well, there but for the grace of God...

But it was one experience among many great ones. Food’s getting better and better in this country and we’re lucky in the North East to have so many good restaurants.

Let’s make 2010 a year to remember for some very good reasons. Here’s to much good eating in 2010. Happy New Year.

Apple and walnut crumble with pouring cream

Why don’t we do more crumbles? They’re so easy to make, take very little time and can be savoury as well as sweet. Great as winter-warmers, here we’ve used apples and walnuts but you could equally use rhubarb or pears or any other fruit you have available – fresh or frozen. And you could serve them with custard or ice cream and so on.

50g unsalted butter – cut into cubes

100g plain flour

50g demerara sugar

50g chopped walnuts

Four large cooking apples

Sugar to sweeten

Pouring cream

Peel the apples, dice them into chunks, place them in a saucepan and let them stew over a low heat until they begin to break down, stirring occasionally.

While they’re cooking, place the diced butter in a bowl along with the flour and rub through with the end of your fingers until you have a breadcrumb consistency. Then mix through the demerara sugar and chopped walnuts. You could wiz the butter and flour together in a food processor if you wished but make sure the walnuts are stirred in by hand.

Once the apples begin to break down, pour them into a heat-proof dish, sprinkle the crumble mixture on top and bake at 180°C (gas mark 4) until the top is golden brown – probably 20 to 30 minutes.

Remove from the oven, give a generous scoop of crumble to each person and serve with the cream.

Oldfields Restaurants cookbook, Passion for Real Food, is out now and available in good bookshops. For discounted copies contact us at the restaurants on Dean Street in Newcastle on 0191 212 1210 or Claypath, in Durham on 0191 370 9595 or go to www.oldfieldsrestaurants.com.

Bill Oldfield

Bill has been big into local food and cooking for over twenty years and is more passionate now about sourcing regional foods than he ever has been. Interested in where the food comes from as much as what it tastes like, Bill now has his own paddock! He keeps sheep and pigs which, after a good life, come to oldfields as some of the freshest local produce we can get!


Bill and oldfields.
Real food heroes.