(Image: Edward Pond)
The secret to La Palette’s peerless French onion soup is chef Brook Kavanagh’s slow-roasted beef bone broth
“French onion soup is a classic for good reason. The ingredients are straightforward and cheap, but if the broth is done right, the result is deeply flavoured and totally comforting. I like to make my stock from organic shank bones for an intense and meaty taste. I started testing out recipes as a 14-year-old working in a butcher shop—I would take bones home with me—and 15 years later, I’m still tinkering as I make four or five batches of the stuff every day.” Read the rest of this entry »
“Growing up in Tottington, near Manchester, I came across a meaty cobbler practically every day, whether at home, school or down at the pub. This is one of my favourite seasonal dishes. It has everything: the gamy venison, the smokiness of bacon, the wine, brandy and port, all brought together with bittersweet chocolate and crowned with plump, cheesy scones. For our expat patrons, this is familiar cooking. They take ownership of it, the same way they do with the old English china on our tables. We sometimes hear, ‘My mother needs just this one piece to complete her set,’ at which point we say, ‘It’s yours.’ ”—chef Andrew Carter
