Dan Reed 2006-2010 A Pembroke Legend
Dan Reed, seen here on the right with Nick and Savino, is leaving Pembroke on Saturday to return home to Australia. Dan has worked off and on at Pembroke since 2006 and has learned much about fine dining in his time here. Dan leaves with a wealth of knowledge and great prospects for the future. Good Luck Dan!
Last Night's Formal Hall began with carpaccio of smoked halibut. The smoked fish was served with tomato concasse, spring onions and purple cress. Smoked halibut makes a nice change from salmon and is fit for a King. The lovely, lightly smoked, okre tinted slices are a real treat and very moreish!
Smaaklike ete! Lekker eet!
To follow the smoked fish we served a refreshing lemon sorbet flavoured with basil.
At Pembroke we endevor to emulate the latest recipes and procedures being used in top restaurants around the world. However, we must then multiply this food up to 150 times depending on each nights uptake; there lies our greatest challenge as much of this food is not designed to be served in such large quantities! Hopefully these pictures show not only how nice the food looks, but also the hugh amount of effort that goes into hosting Formal on a nightly basis.
Last night's main course of Pan roasted supreme of cod, with baby beetroot, cavolo nero, pancetta and saffron banyuls was a good example of great quality in large quantity! The pictures speak for themselves, the freshest cod beautifully cooked and served. In order to produce this dish as originally intended we purchased banyuls vinegar.
Banyuls is a wine vinegar made from grapes grown in the French region of Banyuls-sur-Mer. The varietal mix of this vinegar includes primarily Granache noir, Grenache gris and a minor amount of Carignane grapes. Aged in oak barrels, this vinegar matures for over 5 years developing a somewhat tart or sour tasting vinegar that develops a complex nutty flavor. It combines well with salad vinegarettes made from nut or olive oils or works well as a deglaze for hearty meats, earthy vegetables, or as a fish and lean poultry marinade.
To finish last night's meal we served quince and chestnut tart with chestnut ice cream and creme anglaise.
A little quince trivia: Although the book of Genesis does not name the specific type of the fruit that Adam and Eve ate from the tree of knowledge of good and evil in the garden of Eden, some historians and ancient texts suggest that Eve's fruit of temptation might have been a quince
This looks absolutely delicious! Pembroke food is always presented so stunningly - the attention to detail is definitely noted (and praised), and especially impressive because of - as you said - the vast number of formallers you must create the beautiful dishes for!
ReplyDeleteAs for this particular formal, it's such a great idea to have the sorbet in between the smoked halibut carpaccio and the absolutely mouth-watering supreme of cod, so those eating can enjoy the distinct tastes of the two very different kinds of fish!
I love how much thought you put into the sauces on each of the dishes as well, as it allows each person to 'modify' the taste as they wish (eating more or less of the vinegar/creme anglaise, in this case)..! And the different flavours of ice cream that Pembroke offers are always so refreshing and not the usual vanilla/chocolate at every other college's formals!
The best part is that I could praise every element of each night's formal, as Pembroke formal never fails to impress - which is why I have 10 friends coming to enjoy it in a couple of weeks!!
Keep it up!!
Dear David,
ReplyDeleteI wanted to post this comment on the blog but it wouldn't let me, but I
thought last night's formal was so great I really want you to know about
it!
My comment was:
I just wanted to say that last night's formal was amazing! We had an
alumnus as a guest who hasn't eaten at normal formal hall in over 50 years,
and he really enjoyed it. I think the best bit about the menu last night
was the sorbet, not because it was my favourite course (which was
definitely the smoked haddock starter... or maybe the chestnut icecream...)
but because I was so surprised that something as odd as a sorbet made from
lemon and basil could taste so great! So well done - definiely thumbs up
for last night!
Thanks agin for last night!
Rob