Tag Archives: Michelin star

Restaurant Ask, Helsinki

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It is all about organic food, organic wine and organic living at Ask. This intimate little restaurant was my first experience of Michelin star dining in Helsinki and it was both surprising and sensational.

The restaurant, tucked away on a quiet street in the Kronohagen/Kruununhaka area, is inconspicuous and unassuming. We were among the first to be seated for the lunch sitting so had time to admire our surroundings and relish the tranquility. It soon became apparent that not many more diners were expected for the lunch sitting – I couldn’t understand why.

Food trends in Finland are changing, the locals are favouring informal eateries and street food. Destination dining seems to be suffering, especially at lunchtime. In London the Michelin restaurants excel at the lunch service as the more affordable menus are hugely popular with thrifty foodies and perfectly suit speedy business meetings. Finns are satisfied with a simple meal at noon, saving their substantial meal for the end of the day. The advantage? We had chef Filip’s undivided attention as he brought out delicate plates of flavoursome goodness.

Filip Langhoff is a young and determined chef who is helping to put Nordic food on the map. He was previously a chef at much loved two-star eatery Chez Dominique and also worked at famed restaurant Spisestedet Feinschmecker in Oslo. Filip and his wife Linda Stenman-Langhoff, a talented sommelier, opened Ask (which translates to ash tree) a few years ago, and it quickly gained a following.

Ask offers a daily menu dependant on the produce that small farmers and suppliers have available. There is no unnecessary fuss here and conventional fine dining (Filip winced when I used this phrase) is a distant memory. The focus is entirely on the ingredients and their heritage. Filip finds inspiration in nature and in the relationship between the environment and the people and translates this into immaculate plates of food.

Our menu was printed humbly on a slip of recycled organic brown paper:

Lunch @ Ask

Celeriac & Yoghurt

Egg & Brioche

Pike Perch & Leek

Malt & Spruce

49 euros

Every dish came in a different, completely unique container or vessel, a beautifully crafted pot or plate, that made the food look even more dramatic. Celeriac with yoghurt was a wild yet delicate dish, a pile of unruly stems sitting in a pool of thin sauce with a dollop of fresh creamy yoghurt adding an extra dimension. The egg and brioche was served warm and was a comforting treat, I just wanted more. The crunchy sweet brioche began to soak up the fragrant mushroom consommé while pretty fresh mushrooms add another texture and taste. A small poached egg added a richness to the recipe.

Instead of Pike Perch I was kindly given a meat substitute: a luxurious slice of beef topped with herbs and accompanied by charred leeks. The pike perch looked exquisite too, served with a creamy sauce and a striking coal dressing. Everything was cooked to perfection, emphasising the important heritage of the ingredients. For dessert we had our first taste of malt, a yeasty substance that reminded me of breakfast cereal. The malt was in the form of a doughnut sitting amongst a gritty biscuit crumb with soft ice-cream and woodland spruce particles. The meal was light and balanced offering a vibrant, innovative taste of Finland.

There are charming stories and memories behind all of Filip’s cooking, and I feel Ask restaurant only touches the surface of what this great chef is capable.

More information and book a table here.

Chef & Sommelier, Helsinki

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The ‘new Nordic’ food movement is progressing at speed, and Helsinki is home to some of the chefs leading the way. Every meal I ate in Helsinki was special, the country’s food is honest and memorable, using humble local ingredients in every instance to create food that is inspiring and delicious. The most magical meal I experienced was at Chef & Sommelier.

Sasu Laukkonen is the genius chef at the helm of tiny but revolutionary restaurant, Chef & Sommelier. In a minute kitchen they produce mesmerising food for a group of lucky guests in the homely dining room. Here convention is thrown out the window, there are no white tablecloths on the tables, no bowties and shiny shoes, it a relaxed and happy place. The service is still immaculate, but personal on every level. Sasu came to hang out at our table regularly, to talk through the dish, explaining the complex cuisine and his innovative ideas.

Diners can choose to have a four, five or nine course meal, or a surprise seven course menu decided by the chef. We tasted almost all of the nine recipes on offer, clever creations based around ingredients available to Sasu’s team that day. First, a little taste to prepare our palates for the delights to come… a seaweed cracker with apricot, mustard garlic leaf and nettle. It was a delicate mouthful, individually the elements sound strange, but together it was a balanced and tasty concoction. Mustard garlic leaf is a particularly wonderful flavour, and I’d love to find it in the UK to use in my kitchen.

The majority of the courses were vegetarian, illustrating Sasu’s talent for reinventing and elevating simple ingredients to something intricate and exciting recipe. Cabbage and egg was wonderfully light, arranged in a pretty pile. Beetroot and kyytto looked earthy and beautiful, a range of textures and tastes. I found the parsnip and malt combination alarming, with an unusually striking appearance, and a yeasty sweet flavour that reminded me of a breakfast dish. Squash and barley was blissfully simple and comforting, chunks of sweet squash with a milky sauce.

Lamb with mushrooms was a more substantial course, a hearty hunk of lean meat with a richly flavoured fungi sauce, and topped with thin slices of raw mushroom. We were treated to a little cheese course before the sweet courses, this was the perfect opportunity to sample some tasty Finnish cheeses, accompanied with fruity linden berry chutney.

I was pleased to receive some chocolate for dessert paired with plum and damson. It was more bitter than I expected, but nonetheless delicious. My favourite pudding was named ‘The Forest’, it was exceptionally imaginative. Frosty in appearance and taste, I felt like I was inhaling a cold breath of air as I tried the first spoonful. A cyclinder of pine flavoured semi-freddo topped with particles from the forest in a pool of green sauce and lightly dusted with grated white chocolate. The components were so carefully arranged, it was almost too beautiful to eat.

Whilst inside the little Chef & Sommelier eatery, I felt completely engrossed in the concept and cuisine. Walking back to the hotel in the crisp night air I felt inspired by the meal and Sasu’s energy for creating the sublime from the simple ingredients that surround him. If you find yourself in Helsinki I highly recommend visiting Sasu and his team at Chef & Sommelier, for a meal that will wow all your senses.

More information and book a table here.

Many thanks to the Helsinki Tourist Board for their help with this trip.

Belmond Le Manoir aux Quat’Saisons Cookery School, Oxfordshire

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I rarely take time off work midweek, but a cooking class at Belmond Le Manoir aux Quat’Saisons was an invitation I could not refuse. Raymond Blanc is quintessentially French and yet he is one of the UK’s most respected chefs.

Raymond Blanc moved to England as a young self-taught chef, and has resided here ever since, cementing his name with Le Manoir, the two Michelin star eatery which every foodie hopes to visit. When his honest and inspiring TV programme ‘The Hungry Frenchman’ came onto our screens, his lovable personality captured the hearts of the nation.

With so many kitchen secrets to share, he opened a cookery school in 1998, and it fast became the top place in the country to learn to cook in a fun and informed way. The Raymond Blanc Cooking School is led my Mark Peregrine, a protégé of Raymond’s. Mark teaches many of the classes here which include Bread Making, Sauces, Patisserie and Desserts, Spring Dinner Party among others. One of the most popular courses is the Blanc Vite which is based on recipes from Raymond’s book of the same name and provides you with the skills and techniques to create fast and simple, seasonal dishes. I was lucky enough to experience the very special Hungry Frenchman course, inspired by the TV programme and taught by Raymond’s right hand man, Adam Johnson.

After a leisurely 45 minute train journey from Marylebone station, I jumped in a taxi and sped through the countryside towards my foodie destination. In the early morning dewy sunshine the luxury yet rustic hotel looked even better than on the website… I strolled around the verdant gardens working up an appetite for my day of eating, sorry, cooking.

The group of eight eager chefs gathered in a cosy sitting room and enjoyed coffee, fresh juice and homemade biscuits, waiting nervously for our first instructions of the day. Brief introductions were made and we were kitted out with suitable clothing before following our leader Adam through to the cookery school, which is in a separate building opposite the hotel. I was amazed by the loveliness of the teaching room, decorated in a homely style and yet filled with state of the art equipment and gadgets.

We were buddied up and shown our stations, the kitchen was immaculately organised down to the tiniest detail. Our cookbook for the day was lengthy and challenging including big flavours and useful techniques, a daunting but exciting prospect. I was happy to see classic dishes like French Onion Soup on the menu, something I have always loved to eat but never known how to attempt in my own kitchen.

Adam was kind but funny, as he taught us the recipes, he added culinary anecdotes and tips to help deepen our knowledge and broaden our skills. We started with a wonderful succulent lamb shoulder, and saw how to use the bones to make a rich gravy. Adam mentioned that this method can be used with any meat, solving all Sunday roast dilemmas. Though I don’t eat fish it was interesting to see how to perfectly fry a fillet of salmon: skin side up for the majority of the time, and flipped over for the final moments, to ensure a crisp edge but thorough cooking throughout.

Some basics were covered: how to poach an egg and make a salad dressing. We also got the chance to have a go at a few more advanced kitchen skills… including a complex Comte cheese soufflé and the art of shelling a scallop. There was no shortage of sweet treats. Each class member made a brilliantly easy but luxurious Reverse Chocolate crumble, using just a few ingredients to produce an impressive dinner party dessert.

The day was varied and inspiring, and seemed to pass by in a flash. We moved between the central station, avidly watching Adam, to our own cooking stations, where each pair prepared the recipes as instructed with immense concentration, some more competitively than others. At Le Manoir you are surrounded by delicious flavours and ingredients wherever you look, and the cookery school is at the centre of this culinary activity. Throughout the day we tasted all the food, as well as enjoying a feast at lunchtime with carefully chosen wine and regular tea breaks with scrumptious home-baked (of course) French biscuits.

Oxfordshire is an idyllic place to be and with the scent of Raymond’s culinary delights wafting through the air, I could have stayed forever. Except, for me, there was a restaurant waiting to be reviewed in London, so I had to dash off. Proudly carrying my homemade torte and new saucepan, I sadly waved goodbye to Belmond Le Manoir aux Quat’Saisons promising a return visit very soon.

More information and book a class at the Cookery School here.