Restaurant Review- The Delaunay

From the moment that the doorman welcomes you inside, revealing the luxurious interior of the bar area, to the moment you reluctantly shuffle away, The Delaunay experience is just pure class. Every detail from the amazing interior design, to the smart, formal attire of the staff, to the beautiful customised crockery is precise and thoughtful and makes for a truly immersive experience. The dining room evokes a feeling of Edwardian class and elegance, the walls bedecked with dark wood panelling.

The Delaunay is of course, the latest venture by Corbin and King, the restaurateurs formerly behind The Ivy and now, most famously, The Wolseley on Piccadilly. This new restaurant certainly has a similar feel to their current celebrity-packed hangout. The restaurant concept is the same with all-day dining (open from 7am-midnight) meaning that the kitchens are producing breakfast, lunch, afternoon tea and dinner all day, every day. I went on a Sunday to enjoy what their weekend brunch menu had to offer.

Where The Delaunay strikes out more on it's own is its menu's focus on German and Austrian options, combining the classic French offerings more often found in The Wolseley with the feeling of grand central European coffee houses. The menu features schnitzel and wiener as well as plenty of classic cakes such as sachertorte.

Black and White Pudding with a Fried Duck Egg

We began with black and white pudding with a fried duck egg (£11-75) and buck rarebit (£8). The black and white pudding was served on a thin tile of fried bread, which I usually find overly heavy and greasy. This was perfectly thin and light- the best I have ever tried. It was done, like everything they do, with a lot of finesse. The buck rarebit is basically Welsh rarebit with poached eggs and again, was simple brunch food cooked and served perfectly on beautiful crockery. Maybe it's a little superficial to focus on the crockery that a restaurant uses but I feel it's important. Whilst poor crockery or glassware might not ruin a meal, the right kind of equipment certainly helps make the job easier and more enjoyable. Not that you could call the idea of sitting in a restaurant, dining on fine food a job; not by anyone's definition.

Buck Rarebit

We followed these with sachertorte(£5-50) and a coffee and stroh rum cake(£5-75). The former was rich in chocolate and nicely balanced with the fruitiness of the apricot jam. Another charming touch was that "sachertorte" had been piped on each individual piece. The flavour of coffee and rum was prominent in the latter whilst still retaining the necessary sweetness.

Sachertorte

The meal was finished off nicely with a pot of earl grey tea. Again, the tea service was a beautiful design. It may be the case that The Delaunay is on the more expensive side of dining, but, in the context of how great the food, service and design are, I feel it's certainly worth it. Although I can't personally vouch for dinner or lunch service (I have heard that they are similarly impressive), I would definitely recommend that you take a little detour onto Aldwych to enjoy breakfast or brunch here. Of course, it's an extravagance but worth it; you'll feel definitely be made to feel special.

Coffee and Stroh Rum Cake

The one thing I should really say, is don't wear chinos, because the fibres from the tablecloth will stick to them. You know somewhere is good when that's the only word of warning someone can give you.

Rating- 8.5/10

The Delaunay, 55 Aldwych, London WC2B 4BB

http://www.thedelaunay.com/


GastroTom

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Brunch at The Delaunay- A Little Preview

I'm currently sat here, trying my best to compose a veritable symphony of a review for my brunch at The Delaunay. But as progress is a little slow, I thought I would share a few pictures with you of what we had to eat.

This was black and white pudding served with duck eggs on a very dainty thin slice of fried bread. I normally find fried bread too heavy and fatty but this was done with a lot of finesse. 

I also indulged with Sachertorte which rather charmingly had "sacher" piped onto every individual piece. 

There was also Buck Rarebit which is basically, Welsh Rarebit but with poached eggs on top. 

That's just a little look at what it had to offer. Everything just looked so classy and elegant that I had to share some of it with you straight away. Check back for much more in the way of a review and pictures later on. 

Recipe- Chocolate Fig Bonbons

After having tried two different types of chocolate-covered figs over the Christmas period, I was inspired to try making my own simple version. These are rum-soaked chocolate fig bonbons and delicious they are too.

To make 10:

10 large dried figs
250ml golden rum
125g chocolate

Try and find the biggest, highest-quality dried figs that you can. The juicier they are, the better.








Place the figs into a bowl, preferably wide based enough so they are not all sat on top of each other.

Take the rum and pour over the figs so that they are completely immersed in the liquid.

I used Mount Gay Rum. This golden rum is distilled in Barbados by the Mount Gay Distilleries which has a surviving deed dating from 1703. This makes it the oldest rum brand in the world.

It has a rich, golden colour and has a very clear caramel nose. There is a reasonably sweet flavour on the palate which balances out the high alcohol content (40%, 80 proof) which is standard in rum.

Don't worry if you feel like you're using too much, because you'll be left with a fig-infused rum at the end, which would be perfect for cocktails (a suggestion will follow soon).



It is best, both for the figs and the rum that you will have left behind, to leave them soaking at least over night so that the flavour of the rum can fully infuse into the figs and plump them up nicely. Cover your dish with cling-film to prevent evaporation of the liquid.

Take a pan and a glass bowl that is large enough to sit on top of the pan.

Fill the pan with water, ensuring the water will not touch the bottom of the bowl, and bring to a gentle simmer before switching off the heat. Sit the glass bowl on top.




I used half 40% cacao and half 70% cacao chocolate to create a balance but some people are very purist about using solely chocolate with a very high cacao content and there is no reason not to stick by this. If you're completely averse to dark chocolate, you could feasibly just use milk, but I personally wouldn't recommend anything weaker in cacao than the combination I used.

Break up the chocolate into small pieces and place them in the bowl. Allow the chocolate to melt slowly being careful to not get the water too hot. While the chocolate is melting, drain the rum from the figs and pat the figs dry.

Carefully cover the figs in the melted chocolate. I found the best way was to put a fork through the stem of the fig before dipping it in the chocolate and then pouring more chocolate over the top to ensure full coverage.

Now place the figs onto a greased plate or greased parchment paper and place in the fridge to set.

After a few hours, the figs should be fully set and ready to eat. You should find when you bite into one that the figs are juicy, rehydrated by the rum. They will also have a reasonably strong flavour of the rum meaning that these bonbons are certainly best eaten as an after-dinner treat.

All in all, they make a delicious, boozy chocolate that's really easy to make. Give them a try and tell me what you think.

GastroTom

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The Post-Christmas Chocolate Haul

I love it when the food gods offer you up a lovely treat in the most unexpected places. I came across a box of Charbonnel et Walker Violet Creams in the post-Christmas sales shopping in Leeds in, believe it or not, discount retailer, TK Maxx (I believe it is known as TJ Maxx in the States).

Charbonnel et Walker are the luxury British chocolatiers, founded in 1875 when the then Prince of Wales, Edward VII of England encouraged Mme. Charbonnel of the Boissier chocolate house in Paris to move to London and go into partnership with Mrs. Walker.

These chocolates are so delicious, with their lovely, firm fondant bursting with the perfumed flavour of English violet. Each is daintily decorated with a crystallised violet petal; perfect to round off a meal, maybe with coffee, but personally I'd rather just enjoy them all on their own.

Thanks to TK Maxx, I'm enjoying these on the cheap, but even at full price I'd recommend them.

And the good luck continues. After the mad flurry of activity that is Christmas, I seem to have emerged out of the other side in possession of a large box of Pink Marc de Champagne Truffles from the very same chocolate merchant.

These truffles have a elegant pink shell, dusted with icing sugar, that melts away to reveal a wonderfully rich milk chocolate, butter and Marc de Champagne truffle centre which is satisfyingly strong in the latter.

Both of these chocolates come, like all Charbonnel's products, beautifully packaged and so they are an ideal gift. I think most people would thank you more for a smaller box of these than an epic tray of some more mundane varieties.

All you have to decide is who is going to be the recipient of this first-class confectionary. May I suggest, yourself would be as good a choice as any.

Charbonnel et Walker- http://www.charbonnel.co.uk/

GastroTom

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Christmas- a time for Fig Bonbons

Well, I say it was a time for Fig Bonbons, but in truth, I hardly mean that you couldn't move for them in the shops. However, in both Carluccio's (the chain of cafe/delis founded by Antonio Carluccio which needs little introduction) and Brindisa (Spanish food specialists), you could find two lovely variations on what you might call collectively a fig bonbon.

But don't be fooled, these are no bonbons like the lemon or strawberry chewy, marble-sized sweets dusted in sugary powder that you used to see sitting in big jars on shelves on the wall of the village post office. In fact, the term "bonbon" probably more generally describes something sweet, often enrobed in chocolate.

And enrobed in chocolate they are.

These are rabitos royale, what the Spanish call bombón de higo which you've probably realised translates to fig bonbons.

These delightful little sweeties are composed of three separate layers almost like an mini-globe with a thin, brittle milk chocolate coating that breaks away to reveal a juicy yet crunchy (thanks to the seeds) Mediterranean dried fig which bursts under minimal pressure to reveal a rich chocolate truffle and brandy filling has somehow found its way to the centre.

They are delicious and a triumph of the "la higuera" company which created the recipe for the rabito royale in 1989. The company is still family owned by the children of the original creators, Senador Valero and Felipa Nieva.

Exhibit B are Fichi Ricoperti from Carluccio's which was part of their Christmas offering for 2011. Unfortunately, at the time of this post, all of these delicious Calabrian delicacies have been hastily consumed and I'm only able to give you an idea of the traditional style packaging that they came in. Not exactly the visual impact I would ideally want to make but hopefully conveys just how irresistible they were.

This time, the figs are stuffed with walnuts from Sorrento and orange peel from Reggio Calabria before being drizzled in the finest dark Belgian chocolate. The quality of the figs really shone through on these also, it being clear that producers Roberto Aloisio and family have gone to great lengths to ensure you only get the very best Italian fichi.


After all, for everything that these talented producers do to them, these bonbons are all about the figs.

For a recipe for a simple rum fig bonbons, click here- http://gastrotom.blogspot.com/2012/01/recipe-chocolate-fig-bonbons.html

Carluccios- http://www.carluccios.com/
Brindisa- http://www.brindisa.com/
http://bombondehigo.com/en/index.html
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/foodanddrink/8936590/Pastries-from-Calabria-to-Carluccios.html#disqus_thread

Gastro Tom

Follow me on Twitter- @GastroTomBlog  twitter.com/GastroTomBlog