Anyone who knows me even a little bit will know that I have two passions - travel and food! A lot of the time the two go very well together. In both cases there's the thrill of trying something new that you've never experienced before - whether its a new landscape, a new culture or a new flavour combination.
Let's back track a little. I was the world's PICKIEST eater growing up, surviving on a diet of chicken, meat and potatoes in their various forms and not much else ... I didn't like pizza, pasta, fish, seafood, vegetables and the list goes on. I'm surprised my parents put up with it as long as they did. Now I kick myself for all those years I missed out! Being a picky eater is stupid! All I did was make a conscious decision whilst at university one day that going to a restaurant and being limited to two choices as you didn't like anything else and neglecting entire food groups was beyond ridiculous, and that slowly I was going to like everything. That's all it took. It took me a while with some foods - had to eat smoked salmon, cucumber and broccoli a lot of times before I actually enjoyed them but now they feature in some of my favourite dishes. As a result I find it hard to tolerate adults who are picky ... especially those who refuse to try anything new. Now I consider myself to be an adventurous eater - always ordering the weirdest thing on the menu to see what it will be like and travelling to take my taste buds out of their comfort zone. You can get so much enjoyment out of food when you open up your mind to new flavours.
My passion for food grew after that point. I'd always been a keen cook but now there was a whole new range of ingredients to experiment with and I thoroughly enjoy the creative process that goes into creating a new dish. Now I regularly invite people over to dinner to try new inventions and even featured on a local TV cooking show, as the third place semi-finalist on RockChef... an experience which made me appreciate the effort that goes into creating amazing dishes, to order, in a high pressure kitchen environment.
With my growing passion for food I also gained an appreciation for cooking skill and the highly technical and inventive dishes that transform food from a meal to an experience. That's why eating at a Michelin star restaurant was high on the bucket list. I've eaten a lot of good food at a lot of good places but eating at a place that was awarded such a high benchmark is the ultimate foodie experience.
A few months back, when work was pretty hectic, I decided to book a few days in London to visit one of my best friends and splurge on a Michelin dining experience for both of us with the hotel money I'd be saving. I did a search for Michelin recognised restaurants in London and decided to stay away from the celebrity chef-owned establishments and go for the one that promised the most interesting dining experience.
I ended up choosing Texture, on Portman Street, as it was new and trendy and offered an awesome five course tasting menu. I booked a couple of months in advance as is normally required for fine dining and counted the days to the amazing meal.
The menu featured:
I highly recommend the place!!! The service was impecable (though a bit much for me as I'm not used to it). We had our own somelier who provided a 40 page wine list (again a bit much for me but to be fair the wine I picked at random was awesome) and a genius waiter who explained each dish to us. There was also a mini taster dish between each dish meaning that we had 10 plates!! So before anyone comments that the portions look tiny, with that intensity of flavour and after 10 of those plates we could barely move - and my appetite is massive. Each dish was better than the next! The beef dish (seriously best piece of meat I've ever tasted), wasabi cod and coconut dessert being the highlights .. but I couldn't fault any of them. There was so much thought in each dish ... from goats cheese and cauliflower 'snow' to a plant pot of dessert bites to finish off the meal. Even the beetroot dish was amazing with three different colours of beetroot, each cooked differently and surrounded by amazing accompaniments. Between dishes we were genuinely excited as to what surprise we'd get in the next dish ... food orgasms all round!!
The meal wasn't cheap - including service, a bottle of wine and some sherry it came to £245 for two people ... but considering I regularly pay about £40-50 a head for far far inferior food and service it was worth every penny! Now I have the fine dining bug and am already trying to schedule my next Michelin star dining experience.
My passion for food grew after that point. I'd always been a keen cook but now there was a whole new range of ingredients to experiment with and I thoroughly enjoy the creative process that goes into creating a new dish. Now I regularly invite people over to dinner to try new inventions and even featured on a local TV cooking show, as the third place semi-finalist on RockChef... an experience which made me appreciate the effort that goes into creating amazing dishes, to order, in a high pressure kitchen environment.
With my growing passion for food I also gained an appreciation for cooking skill and the highly technical and inventive dishes that transform food from a meal to an experience. That's why eating at a Michelin star restaurant was high on the bucket list. I've eaten a lot of good food at a lot of good places but eating at a place that was awarded such a high benchmark is the ultimate foodie experience.
A few months back, when work was pretty hectic, I decided to book a few days in London to visit one of my best friends and splurge on a Michelin dining experience for both of us with the hotel money I'd be saving. I did a search for Michelin recognised restaurants in London and decided to stay away from the celebrity chef-owned establishments and go for the one that promised the most interesting dining experience.
I ended up choosing Texture, on Portman Street, as it was new and trendy and offered an awesome five course tasting menu. I booked a couple of months in advance as is normally required for fine dining and counted the days to the amazing meal.
The menu featured:
- New season English beetroots, goat's cheese, snow and pistachios
- Anjou pigeon with shallots, ox tongue, bacon popcorn, red wine essence
- Icelandic cod, poached, with wasabi sauce and sea vegetables
- US grain fed prime rib eye beef, chargrilled with ox cheek, horseradish and olive oil bearnaise
- Trio of coconut desserts
I highly recommend the place!!! The service was impecable (though a bit much for me as I'm not used to it). We had our own somelier who provided a 40 page wine list (again a bit much for me but to be fair the wine I picked at random was awesome) and a genius waiter who explained each dish to us. There was also a mini taster dish between each dish meaning that we had 10 plates!! So before anyone comments that the portions look tiny, with that intensity of flavour and after 10 of those plates we could barely move - and my appetite is massive. Each dish was better than the next! The beef dish (seriously best piece of meat I've ever tasted), wasabi cod and coconut dessert being the highlights .. but I couldn't fault any of them. There was so much thought in each dish ... from goats cheese and cauliflower 'snow' to a plant pot of dessert bites to finish off the meal. Even the beetroot dish was amazing with three different colours of beetroot, each cooked differently and surrounded by amazing accompaniments. Between dishes we were genuinely excited as to what surprise we'd get in the next dish ... food orgasms all round!!
The meal wasn't cheap - including service, a bottle of wine and some sherry it came to £245 for two people ... but considering I regularly pay about £40-50 a head for far far inferior food and service it was worth every penny! Now I have the fine dining bug and am already trying to schedule my next Michelin star dining experience.
#15 - ACHIEVED
- Difficulty: 4/10 (Not hard, you just need to love food enough to spend some money on it and book well in advance)
- Thrill factor: 8/10 (Excitement levels on par with a child in a candy shop. They pulled out all the stops)
- Sense of acheivement/fulfilment: 7/10 (I can see why these stars are so hard to get now)
- Recommend to a friend: 10/10 (The plan is to go to at least one of these a year)
