Supperclub London Summit 2012, Part II

It’s getting hotter

Two days cooking in London. Two days the sun burns like crazy.

It’s Friday and we must prepare everything for this evening. We go through the shopping list again. Ruth, who lives in London, has already placed orders and I receive wonderful fresh haddock of the best quality at the the door of the Goethe Institute. Then we have to be strong and keep the nerves, we boarded a large British supermarket. A British supermarket! For me, the first time in twenty years!

For something like that I would normally schedule a half-day. Now we buy here, as soon as possible just a dinner for 50 to 60 people. Can’t believe what I see here! Instead of cream as we know from home, we go for Double Cream with 50% fat. What is now to go wrong? Taxis wait outside the supermarket, because this seems to be usual here. The driver helps us to load up the car with bags of flour, scallions and gin bottles. After a short drive through the London traffic, we load the stuff in the back of Exhibition Road.

And then things get serious. Ruth, Markus, Marco, Torsten and I have to find our way around in the kitchen. Everyone needs space to work and is looking for whisks, pots, bowls and cutting boards. The temporary kitchen, everything that you need is there and it works sensationally well. The oven is hot like an explosion, water comes with almost 90 ° C from the line, the induction plates bring my butter sauce nice and slow to speed, might as well bring a pan full of grease to glow. – Fortunately, we are able to avoid this, as Florian had expressly warned not to trigger the fire alarm.

The few hours before the first guests are going to appear, we can use for baking and cooling. We marinate, smoke, cook at a low temperature, and prepare everything, what you can prepare.

Finally, in quick succession, the guests arrive. Torsten, our secret weapon with the corkscrew, gives out its own imported material. – German wines, by the glass to match each course of our menu! Only for this I would have already booked an evening at the Goethe Institute. But I’m here to work in the kitchen. From the beginning, pleasant atmosphere in the hall is noticeable. – People are clearly in a very good mood!

We show ourselves to our guests, Ruth says a few words of welcome and then we disappear into the kitchen. The first plate of appetizers can already out. Ruth herself has made Landjäger and they are really good. Hard to believe that she has never eaten that before.

We carry out full plates and bring back empty plates. Again and again, we chat between our unbelievable sympathetic guests. My personal star of the evening is the friendly assistant who continuously cleans our plates. – Thank you, phew!

In the background works Ed Smith, who is unlike us a pro. He had advised us earlier in the evening to follow a strict schedule. So we write times on our menu and we actually keep it. The guests never sit long before empty plates and a transition follows fairly quickly on the other. At the end I feel the pace in my old bones and especially in my feet. – Doesn’t matter, because I found our first evening at the Supper Club Summit simply great. To me it was fun and our guests look quite happy.

Two of them are friends from Germany, who are specially traveled to London to support me. So I’m on the safe side, because I know that they would never complain about my food. I share with them the beautiful apartment in Kensington and on the night journey to our beds, I enjoy their friendship bias. Of course, they found everything great and the best of course was the course which I have cooked, the best ever and of course they don’t mind to eat the same thing again next evening… Thank you, dear ones, you are the best friends ever!

Next time I’ll tell you then, as it went on. Then the temperatures rise enormously, it’s about our menu and you all know the recipe for my fish plate Finkenwerder Art