Le Champignon Sauvage

[Basildog]

2 of our house wines are £10.50

[YKL]

[naguere]

The Birminghamplus link didnt work, but this is the text:

Birmingham Plus Restaurant of the Year Award winner 2004, Le Champignon Sauvage, is extending its premises to provide even more space for our magnificent certificate. Additional benefits of the extension into the former picture-framing shop adjacent to the restaurant include an increased number of covers (there will be 40 in total, though more generously spaced than at present). Diners will be able to avail themselves of new seats, designed by furniture maker Kevin Stamper in consultation with David Everitt-Matthias and the kitchen will be similarly extended and feature a range from Molteni.

The restaurant will feature a new colour scheme and the bar area will be modified to provide more seating for guests. Work is scheduled to start on 6th June (when the restaurant will be closed) and take between six and seven weeks. We will hopefully be providing updates on progress and be running an article on the expansion to coincide with the restaurant's re-opening in July

[Duncan]

and closed for 6-7 weeks too if anyone was thinking about going...

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That's all right - we're booked for lunch on Saturday .

Does anyone have experience of getting a taxi there from the station? Such as will they know the restaurant by name, or do we need to give them the address?

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As it happened we walked from the station, and the rain just about

held off. (But we obviously weren't as hungry as Moby since it took

us more like 25 minutes).

Helen welcomed Judy with 'are you JudyB?', so I'm sure our thanks posted here will get back to them.

I won't go through the menu in detail, much of it has already been

covered above, but I think everything we ate was absolutely delicious.

The amuse was a velouté of lovage, and also as a gift from David a

wonderful foie gras royale topped with creamed carrot (as Tony Higgins

noted, this comes in an egg cup perched at an impossible angle on a

sloping saucer).

Judy's starter was a fillet of cod, risotto of snails and pig trotter,

chestnut velouté.

I had the sautéd cock's kidneys and langoustines, langoustine

tortelloni, langoustine sauce. The cock's kidneys were absolutely

fantastic (although I'm a little bit concerned that either the

apostrophe is misplaced, or it was a mutant with 3 kidneys).

Main courses:

Judy: Braised belly of Gloucester Old Spot pork, pig's cheek, chinese spices.

Me: Roasted pigeon with cockscombs,parsley root puree, garlic confit (pictured)

Deserts:

Judy had a chocolate delice filled with caramel, with a salted

caramel snap and malted milk ice cream. I had chicory cheesecake with

chicory ice cream.

We finished with coffee and petit fours (pictured below, although note

that nibbling the petit fours took priority over getting out the

camera, so there are a couple missing from the photo!)

The petit fours eventually beat us, we had to leave one. Overall, a most enjoyable lunch, and we'll have to make sure and go back again.

[culinary bear]

Oh, lordy... I need to eat there.

Thanks for the review, Duncan. Is that a piece of turron I see second from right on the petit fours tray?

Edited to add : Does anyone know of anywhere else that uses the tableware shown in Duncan's first photo? I first saw these plates in MPW's 'White Heat' and I think they're beautiful. I've never been a fan of coloured rims but these ones seem to act as a focus for the food on the middle of the plate rather than distracting attention away from it.

Edited June 5, 2005 by culinary bear (log)

[seanw]

I prefer all white, with no collar.

From Duncan's photo it seems like alot of sauce on the plate, does this trend run thro' all his dishes?? I think the brits like lots of sauce especially when it's gooood! I have worked for french guys who tend to hold off a little. Would love to try his food, DEM seems like the chef's chef type

[Duncan]

Is that a piece of turron I see second from right on the petit fours tray?

Judy says it was nougat. Is there a distinction between nougat and turron?

  From Duncan's photo it seems like alot of sauce on the plate, does this trend run thro' all his dishes?? I think the brits like lots of sauce especially when it's gooood!

I suppose it is more sauce than some places would use, but we'll need to go back to say whether this trend runs in all his dishes.

[KaffirLime]

Turron is Spanish for nougat

[Steve Martin]

Edited to add : Does anyone know of anywhere else that uses the tableware shown in Duncan's first photo? I first saw these plates in MPW's 'White Heat' and I think they're beautiful. I've never been a fan of coloured rims but these ones seem to act as a focus for the food on the middle of the plate rather than distracting attention away from it.

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[Gary Marshall]

2 of our house wines are £10.50

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house wine in my local £10.

however might get a pleasant suprise if you order it, as earlier in the week a waitress was uncorking several bottles of house red for a big group and mistakenly opened a bottle of chateau palmer!

[Matthew Grant]

As it happened we walked from the station, and the rain just about

held off. (But we obviously weren't as hungry as Moby since it took

us more like 25 minutes).

Nothing to do with hunger, have you seen the length of his legs?

[Pweaver1984]

I'm sure the Waterside Inn has plates like the ones in the photo?

Though it does have an illustration?

[PoppySeedBagel]

I've seen that Villeroy & Boch china in loads of places over the years - like you I don't normally like patterns, but for that I'll make an exception.

[MobyP]

As it happened we walked from the station, and the rain just about

held off. (But we obviously weren't as hungry as Moby since it took

us more like 25 minutes).

Nothing to do with hunger, have you seen the length of his legs?

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Hunger + space time continuum + champignon Sauvage... apparently I went missing for days, but it only felt like ten minutes.

[MobyP]

As I have hinted above (with all the dèclassé of a hooker on a Mississipi steam boat), this was truly an epic meal. Some might call it an assassination attempt. Damnit, I call it lunch. Suzi and I might have made it there in 10 minutes, but it took me many days to get home. I woke up, wearing a funny sort of negligé, somehow having managed to make it onto the train to Glasgow, being slapped repeatedly by the conductor for saying inappropriate things to old ladies. I can't remember. I was hallucinating pig's trotters by this point. It's happened before. Best not to ask too many questions. I made it home two days later, having managed to earn the economy-class trainfare from a rather unreasonable sailor. No, I really don't want to talk about it.

I've included pictures, and mostly bad ones, of this cavalcade of fantastic ingredients, prepared well. This is the sort of cooking that I've spent some time looking for. The man placed cox kidneys next to langoustines, and 5 inch coxcombs next to wood pigeon, for goodness sake. He quotes from Chapel in one dish, and then leads you through the bacchanalian slippery mysteries of offal with another. Truffles were non-existent, and foie was at a minimum, and they weren't missed.

I'll write more tomorrow, as I'm holding the bubbah this evening.

All in all, a miracle, considering the personel and space restrictions. David was very nice indeed, and we both thought Helen was extremely cool, and probably has her own harley-davidson to prove it.

Anyway, enjoy.

Asparagus Velouté with coconut foam, Foie Gras Royal with Sweetcorn

Cod Cheeks with smoked eel and apple purée with a red wine sauce

Double Langoustine Love - Large sautéed langoustine, with langoustine tortellini with cock's kidneys, spinach, and a langoustine foam:

Cauliflower cream, with a warm langousting gelée, and an intense langoustine reduction

Seared Scallop, baby squid, pumpkin purée, and squid ink sauce with roast pumpkin seeds.

Wood pigeon and coxcomb, with a chevre pomme puree, peas, braised lettuce, jus, and date puree

Assiette de Porc - Braised belly (with asian spicing and palm sugar), blood pudding, choux farci of snails and herbs, pig's trotter croquette, jus, morels, and sprouting broccoli.

Pre-Desert: Brulé of rose and geranium (I think) flavoured with pop rocks, with a pineapple and angelica sorbet (no picture, unfortunately)

Apricot kernal panna cotta and burdock root parfait

Chicory root cheese cake with chicory ice cream

Chocolate delice with salted caramel and tuile.

Mignardise - see excellent pic above.

[Pweaver1984]

Great pics Moby, food looks amazing

I really gotta go here!

[Andy Lynes]

Moby - thank you so much for the report and pictures;an exemplary post. All I can say is that it makes me want to return to the restaurant as soon as humanly possible (which should be the end of July, pending completion of building works.)

[tony h]

Was that the tasting menu or did David just cook for you?

I still dream of the scollop dish & great to see how the others have evolved.

[Gary Marshall]

Due to tony's posts, moby's pictures and a 'i'd be up for a trip there' comment from scott, it all became too much, and august sees the the marshall/friar roadshow hit cheltenham, very much looking forward to it......

cheers

gary

[MobyP]

Tony - David agreed to cook for us, after taking my cue from you, and my seventh or eighth entirely innocent phone call asking: may I have a reservation please - yes the name is MOBY - MOBY P(umblemumble).

So, to the food. There were many very good dishes, one really great one, and only two things which didn't work for me.

2 Amuse: Asparagus Velouté with coconut foam, Foie Gras Royal with Sweetcorn

A thick, pure velouté - almost a fluid puree - rich with asparagus. Worked surprisingly well with the coconut foam (Matt - are you paying attention? ). The foie gras royal with corn. This was one of the dishes that didn't work for me. I've had several royals of foie, none of which I've really understood as it always seems to quieten the natural flavour of the foie. The corn was the dominant flavour here. The texture was very nice though.

Cod Cheeks with smoked eel and apple purée with a red wine sauce

This was great, and a beautiful dish. The red wine sauce was fantastically fruity, going very well with the apple smoked eel, and of course the cod. The brunoise of apple added a nice texture.

Double Langoustine Love - Large sautéed langoustine, with langoustine tortellini with cock's kidneys, spinach, and a langoustine foam; then Cauliflower cream, with a warm langousting gelée, and an intense langoustine reduction

The first part of this was very good, the langoustine with the tortellini and a really creamy, if huge, cox (or cock's or cockeral's?) kidney. It also announced David's style of cooking beautifully. This is very old, and very new. You could find these ingredients in puff pastry and drenched in a cream sauce, forty or fifty years ago. Now they're in a foam and tortellini. The flavours were nicely balanced , and very delicate. But the second part of this dish was absolutely delicious - the warm gelee with cauliflower cream and the reduction, quoting beautifully from the classic Chapel dish. It's like the last 100 years in gastronomy in one dish.

Seared Scallop, baby squid, pumpkin purée, and squid ink sauce with roast pumpkin seeds Surely the largest scallop I've ever seen - it was the size of a small fillet mignon (maybe 2 1/2 to 3 inches across. Cooked perfectly. Curiously, the dish was made for me by the pumpkin seeds - somehow their nuttiness connected the sweetness of the other ingredients, the squid ink sauce, the pumpkin puree, and the baby squid.

Wood pigeon and coxcomb, with a chevre pomme puree, peas, braised lettuce, jus, and date puree

This was the most beautifully plated dish of the meal (although my photography leaves something to be desired). The use of braised lettuce next to the peas makes me think of Robuchon and Ducasse, the deep colour of the jus, and the largest coxcomb from the planet Zog, where cockerals are seven feet tall and rip your arms off if you look at them the wrong way. The texture of the wood pigeon was amazingly dense, without being at all tough. I didn't think this dish needed the date puree - it was a little sweet next to so much savoury, but a lovely dish to eat.

Assiette de Porc - Braised belly (with asian spicing and palm sugar), blood pudding, choux farci of snails and herbs, pig's trotter croquette, jus, morels, and sprouting broccoli.

We were starting to flag. Highlights, for me, were the blood pudding and choux farci stuffed with snails, although the belly was good. The trotter croquette was wild in texture. Entirely indescribable. The jus, again, was big and bold. And the composition an adventure.

The deserts were skillfully done, although I was pretty stuffed by this point, and couldn't appreciate them as I should have done. And the mignardise, as the photo shows, were beautiful. I simply don't know how he did it with so few people in the kitchen. Now with the larger space, another member of staff, and a stove the size of Surrey, who knows what will be possible. I waited too long to go here, but I shall definitely return.

[Adam Balic]

Lovely looking food and thanks for the write up. The Cock's comb dish looks very interesting, like something an early 18th C. French Chef would put together.

Quick question. How was the wood pigeon cooked? 90% of the time I have had it, it has been cooked as per directions for domestic squab and there for has turned out to be tough as old boots.

[culinary bear]

Moby - Bugger... how do I book a table? "Yes, I'd like a table for Mr and Mrs Bear, please..."

I showed your photographs to my last head chef, who worked for Clive Dixon at Lords of the Manor (Clive worked with David and the two are apparently good friends) and who has staged at LCS, and he says that the photos bring back happy memories.

[tony h]

Moby - Bugger...  how do I book a table?  "Yes, I'd like a table for Mr and

try - Hi David, this is culinary bear from egullet - can I book?

He's an eG member & reads these posts (but sensibly prefers to remain anon.)

[tony h]

We were starting to flag.

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David hasn't quite mastered the art of tasting menu sized portions, thankfully.

[culinary bear]

Tony - I know... seems a bit, well, clubbish... but hey, I suppose that's partly what eG is about.

I'm intrigued by the cock's comb; I've never tasted one. A classical garnish from way back when, usually with cocks' kidneys too, no?