What a great evening we had at our Meat and Cheese Dinner hosted by Aubrey Allen on October 20th.
The evening started with the most delicious homemade Devon chicken sausage made with Clonakilty black pudding served with the welcome aperitif. Master Butcher Mick Jackson then treated our guests to a demo butchering a rump of Angus beef, showing just what an art proper butchery is.
Once seated in the dining room, Simon of Aubrey Allen introduced the tremendous amuse bouche of a Jimmy Butler smoked ribeye scotch egg served with an extraordinary sticky bacon and onion dressing.
The slow cooked Cornish belly of lamb was a revelation with its melt in the mouth texture married with the sweet Brixham scallops accompanied by a smoked cauliflower puree.
The piece de resistance was the main course of a duo of 28day dry aged rump of beef, showcasing the rump cap and the single muscle cut (or ‘faux fillet), with a zingy watercress puree and crispy beef fat pomme anna.
To finish, Simeon, the director of Fromage to Age cheesemongers, took us through 3 farmhouse cheeses demonstrating the talent of the artisan cheese producers around the British Isles: Per Las, a blue cheese from Wales (chef Ben Ternet’s favourite), Lincolnshire Poacher, and Baron Bigod from Suffolk.
The evening conveyed just how important the quality of our produce is but also how important the relationship between Chapter and Aubrey Allen is. Guests all went home with their Saturday morning breakfast of a goodie bag complete with free range best back bacon and sausages