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Its a real honour for me and my team at the Country Elephant
to have been selected to cook for Her Majesty the Queen when
she visits the City of Gloucester on Thursday April 17 to
present the Maundy money at the Cathedral.
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| The
Queen will visit Gloucester cathedral on April 17 |
The
remit was simple. Her majesty must have local Gloucestershire
produce.
No
problem! With the abundance of flavours and items in our wonderful
county this would be easy.
I am delighted to be working with the catering team at Renaissance
restaurant in Cheltenham who I have worked with before.
The
Taste of Gloucestershire organisation (part of Taste of the
West) have helped Renaissance with their supply chain and
I
am proud that they are doing so.
The
standard they produce is extremely good and the team are well
worthy of cooking for the Queen.
 Its a real honour for me and my
team at the Country Elephant to have been selected to
cook for Her Majesty the Queen. |
| Robert
Rees |
Over
the next few days I will be running a diary of how things
take shape when you are cooking for the Queen and 80 guests
- all in a marquee at a court yard of Gloucestershire Cathedral.
As you can imagine things will be precise on timings and details
and will run with full military precision. So the pressure
is on.
After
some selection process we have finalised the menu.
The
emphasis is on the suppliers and the distinctiveness of the
county:
- Fillet
of Coln Valley smoked trout, Over Farm potato and chive
salad, watercress leaves and Kitchen Garden preserve herb
dressing
- Ensors
rack of lamb with Tewkesbury mustard and brioche crust and
paget red onion jam
- All
served with a selection of lypiatt honey glazed vegetables
from the Stroud Valleys
- Caramelised
Days Cottage apple meringue with peppered butterscotch sauce
and Winstones vanilla ice cream.
Lets
not forget that the homemade breads will use Shipton Mill
Flour and all the cream and eggs are local as well.
So
as chefs we know what we are going to be doing, but we also
need to
look at a wide range of other things:
- The
hire of all the mobile equipment and marquee
- Check
that the water supply and power base will be good
- Finalise
staff lists for security, discuss the practicalities of
service
- And
of course organise the suppliers.
There
is a good management team at Renaissance who will take care
of this for us.
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|
Robert
cooks up a storm
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Later
I will discuss the ingredients and dishes with the Head Chef
at Renaissance so that we know as a team that we are all aiming
for the same thing.
>>
Read the next installment of Robert's diary
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