Dearest Followers,
So if you’ve been paying attention, you’ll know that Friday was our presentation with the team from Restaurant Sat Bains – namely Sat and head chef John Freeman. Again, Mark Gillot gave a short history of the site, the construction and everything, welcoming our VIP guests to the event – all generous supporters of the project who were keen to learn more. Soon after, he handed the reins to Sat Bains himself, and the day began in earnest.
Sat was a complete natural in front of the plethora of cameras and lights and other “showbiz” paraphernalia – some might say a good choice for a new breed of TV chef! His focus, however, was totally on the food, and with John he quickly prepared the four dishes that will make up the meal we host during the competition in Madrid.
Myself and Emily Costain, on the other hand, were like the Richard and Judy of the proceedings – sat across the dining table fixed into Module 4, asking questions and tasting the delicious food! We tried to take in what we could from the masters at work, but the aim was to give Sat the right opportunities to talk through the key aspects of the meal – the ingredients being grown in the H.O.U.S.E.’s own garden, the lack of any intensive heating processes in favour of solar-powered or slow cooking, and the strong representation of classic English flavours on each plate.
After the four courses had got tastebuds tingling, there was a chance to enjoy a buffet lunch and for our guests to meet each other, to meet Sat, and to meet us – the H.O.U.S.E. student team. I personally was far too busy in interview after interview – but that’s just the glamorous life I lead now!
But in all seriousness, a lot of work went into preparing for the day huge gratitude needs to be expressed for the tireless construction team, who arranged Modules 1, 2 and 4 in the cavernous Studio 7 once again, and dotted every i so we could feel like we were in a finished home. Also, to every member of the H.O.U.S.E. team who was there to hang posters (again!) or brush down stairways or offer the bowl of Sat’s pea and mint sorbet around for tasting. And a special little extra thanks goes to Lindsay Brooke (MC for the day), and to Lucia Milone and Chris Dalton, who couldn’t be there on the day but will be cooking with us in Madrid, and put their fair share of work in.
If you want to look out for media coverage of the day, the places to be looking are:
BBC Inside Out
Central TV news
BBC Radio Nottingham
Nottingham Evening Post
and in the future, for articles in:
Nottingham City Life
Nottingham Journal
Wavelength – the Science City newsletter.
But we’ll let you know more specifically of pieces we find and enjoy. Thanks for reading!
Tom