Cooksister | Food, Travel, Photography

Food, photos & faraway places

  • HOME
  • ABOUT
    • About me
    • Contact me
    • Work with me
    • Legal
      • Copyright notice & Disclaimer
      • Disclosure
      • Cookies and Privacy Policy
    • Press and media
    • Cooksister FAQs
  • RECIPES
    • Recipe Index – by course
    • Baking (savoury)
    • Braai/Barbecue
    • Breakfast & brunch
    • Christmas
    • Dessert
    • Drinks
    • Eggs
    • Fish
    • Gluten-free
    • Leftovers
    • Pasta & rice
    • Poultry
    • Pulses
    • Salads
    • Soup
    • South African
    • Starters & light meals
    • Vegan
    • Vegetables
    • Vegetarian
  • RESTAURANTS
    • British Isles restaurants
    • Dubai restaurants
    • France restaurants
    • London restaurants
    • Montenegro restaurants
    • New York restaurants
    • Pop-ups and supperclubs
    • Serbia restaurants
    • Singapore restaurants
    • South Africa restaurants
    • Sweden restaurants
    • Switzerland restaurants
    • USA restaurants
  • TRAVEL
    • All my travel posts
      • Austria
      • Belgium
      • Canada
      • Dubai
      • Cruise ships
      • France
      • Germany
      • Greece
      • Grenada
      • Hong Kong
      • Hotel reviews
      • Italy
      • Israel
      • Jersey
      • Mexico
      • Netherlands
      • Norway
      • Portugal
      • Singapore
      • Ski & snow
      • South Africa
      • Spain
      • Sweden
      • Switzerland
      • UK
      • USA
      • Wales
  • PORTFOLIO
    • Freelance writing portfolio
    • Speaking and teaching
    • Photography portfolio
    • Buy my photos
You are here: Home / London food blogger events / Wining and dining on the Frontline

Wining and dining on the Frontline

by Jeanne Horak on March 13, 2008 4 Comments in London food blogger events

I’ve never much been one for danger myself.  No, no – I’m far too attached to my limbs and averse to sudden loud noises to want to go and put myself in harm’s way.  So how on earth did I find myself dining on the frontline (so to speak) one recent Saturday night?

Fear not, gentle readers – I certainly wasn’t going to put myself in harm’s way for the sake of a meal – even a really delicious meal with matching wines picked by Mr Superplonk himself, Malcom Gluck.  Oh no – the frontline I am referring to is the Frontline Club, a club founded by ex-frontline reporters, which exists to promote freedom of expression and support journalists, cameramen and photographers who risk their lives in the course of their work.  The club also run a charity supporting the families of local fixers killed while helping foreign journalists.  As part of their fundraising efforts, they operate a restaurant and a private club, and the latter is where I was invited for dinner by Graham of Noodlepie.  Not a dinner a deux, I hasten to add.  In fact, Graham himself wasn’t even able to attend, but in the spirit of blogger self-sacrifice he organised dinner tickets for his fellow-bloggers (me, Andrew and Fraser).

The evening got off to a convival start with glasses of Henri Bourgeois Petit Bourgeois Sauvignon Blanc (2006 –  France).  Not usually a great fan of Sauvignon Blanc, I had no complaints about this one as it was more gooseberries than green peppers, and that’s always a plus in my book!  We amused ourselves by playing “spot the other blogger” and I do believe I won the prize when I recognised Fraser from his blog photo 😉

20070209_frontlinecockaleekiee

20070209_frontlinebeefe

 

After being ushered to the table, Andrew and I found ourselves seated beside two couples who appeared to be regulars at these events and who instructed us in the art of tasting notes, Frontline-style.  Apparently Malcom Gluck likes to gather the tasting notes at the end of the evening and choose the best ones – the more outlandish the better. Our first course (courtesy of chef John Taylor) was cock-a-leekie soup, a traditional Scottish dish of leeks and potatoes in chicken broth, with a couple of prunes.  It was the first time I’d had this dish (traditionally the starter for Burns Night dinners) and I really liked the intriguing combinatio of flavours, although it does help if you’re a fruit-with-meat person – which I most certainly am.  To accompany the soup we had an Australian 1998 Voyager Estate Margaret River Semillon.  On its own, the wine was fine with a golden colour and the usual notes of dried hay.  But with the food, it was transformed into something altogether lovelier – maybe the prunes brought out some sweeter fruit flavours.  Either way, this was a fantastic pairing and one I’d recommend to anyone.

Less successful was the wine pairing with the main course.  The main course consisted of boiled salt beef with a pearl barley and carrot broth, served with beetroot and parsley dumplings.  The meat was tender (albeit salty… but then that’s salt beef for you!) and I really liked the pearl barley and broth.  The dumplings were slightly odd, in a way that made you want to taste them again and again to find out why they were doing such weird things to your tastebuds.  They managed to retain both the earthiness (and colour) of beetroot, and the baking-powder-ish acidity of unbaked scone batter, and like a tongue repeatedly finds a hole in a tooth, your tastebuds felt compelled to return to this odd marriage of tastes.  The wine was a South African 2006 Fairview Estate Agostinelli Barbera and it was amusing to hear how scathing our neighbours were about it.  I do believe “undrinkable” was one word I heard.  Poppycock.  Yes, it was a Big Wine and yes, it had Lots of Fruit and Alcohol.  I’d be willing to go so far as to say it might have been a little over-extracted.  But on a balance I’d have to say that I loved it. I have blogged about the Old World/New World tastebud divide previously and have pinned my colours firmly to the New World mast.  We have a lot of sunshine.  Our grapes develop more sugar and more ripe flavours than yours.  Deal with it!  But what I will say is that it was not a great match for the food.  With the restrained flavours of a lovely rare steak it would have worked beautifully, but with the saltiness of the beef and the fairly agressive flavours of the dumplings, it just felt as if two cats were fighting in a sack.

At about this stage of the proceedings, Chris Vallance of the BBC’s 5Live came sauntering over to us with microphone in hand, as Graham had warned he would.  We were ready (and ready to roll, thanks to a number of glasses of wine!), but our aforementioned neighbours were totally unprepared and suitably flabbergasted.  The conversation ran to “sorry, please excuse us, we have to do our interview now”.  “Interview?  What interview?” “Oh nothing, just the BBC.”  And so while they were picking their dropped jaws off the table, we did our interview.  I remember very little of the actual event (see reference to glasses of wine!), and was astonished when I heard the recording later that I’d managed to slip in the phrase “cognitive dissonance” in an interview on food blogging.  That’s what too much university education will do for you.  You can have the pleasure of hearing our mellifluous voices by visiting the BBC’s 5Live website

 

20070209_frontlinecheeseboarde

20070209_frontlinebreadbutterpude

 

From there, we moved on to the cheese course which I neglected to make a note of.  From memory, there was a soft cheese from Ireland, a flavoursome Lancashire and an exellent Colton Bassett Stilton.  To accompany the cheeses we had a French 2006 Segna Le Roc des Domaine Anges Cotes du Roussillon, and to me it typified everything I don’t like about Old World wines.  The nose was politely described as “feral” but to me it took a turn into the less pleasant end of barnyard aromas.  In a tasting note that Malcom deemed good enough to read out at the end of the night, I believe I described it as “not so much feral as scatological!”.  It’s not a great introduction to a wine.  If you got past that, there was a lot of dark fruit which was appealing in a Christmas pudding-y sort of way, but the whole thing reminded me far too much of an unfriendly ruby port, and I was not convinced it was the best partner for cheese.

Dessert was a comfort food favourite – bread and butter pudding.  I liked the way it was served, in little individual towers. (The chef later told us that, rather than baking them in individual moulds, he had baked a large dish of pudding and then cut out these rounds after baking.  Clever.)  The pudding was already heavy and quite sweet, thanks particularly to a layer of quince jam in its depths.  It was matched with a Spanish 2004 Don Pedro Ximenez Toro Albala Dulce de Pasas Montilla-Morales, 2004, Spain. Now as a rule I like PX, but this one was a particularly unctuous and syrupy example of its kind, and togther with the sweet, heavy pudding, it was all just too much.  Something needed to lighten up – my tasting note described the PX as “all treacle and no tart”, and tart was something that was sorely lacking.  Still, Andrew didn’t complain when he got half my glass of the PX!

All in all it was a fun evening evening – there’s not a lot to dislike about good food, interesting wines and lively conversation, and even more so if you know you are supporting a good cause.  The Frontline Club hosts all kind of interesting events, from the kind of wine and food matching dinner that I attended to documentary film screenings to lectures – see their website for details of forthcoming events.

All that remains is a great big thank you to Graham for organising this – next time, though, it would be even better if you could join us!

More deliciousness for you!

  • Saturday Snapshots #6Saturday Snapshots #6
  • Spur Steak RanchesSpur Steak Ranches
  • Chop Shop Haymarket:  Sunday rib chop reviewChop Shop Haymarket: Sunday rib chop review
  • South African BobotieSouth African Bobotie

Never miss a Cooksister post

If you enjoyed this post, enter your e-mail address here to receive a FREE e-mail update when a new post appears on Cooksister

I love comments almost as much as I love cheese - so if you can't leave me any cheese, please leave me a comment instead!

« Quick pork chops with sherried mushrooms
Waiter, there’s something in my… pulses! »

Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Recipe Rating




This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

  1. barbara says

    March 14, 2008 at 6:52 am

    What a fun night. I don’t even know what scatological means. Looking forward to your yellow food entry for Livestrong Day. Don’t forget entries to me by 19th April for round up on 13th May!

    Reply
  2. african vanielje says

    March 17, 2008 at 7:58 pm

    Oh my god, having virtually grown up on a wine estate and being quite backward and uneducated about the whole vintner business, much to my husband and father’s disgust, this review makes me want to actually drink the stuff. Half a glass of anything has me ready to roll but I don’t believe I ever came up with anything approaching cognitive dissonance. I can barely enunciate that sober. The best I ever did was segue, which I’ve never lived down, because, like, who actually uses that word!
    Scatalogical references aside, glad you enjoyed the dinner, wish I could have been there.

    Reply
  3. Graham says

    March 22, 2008 at 8:03 am

    Wow, what an in depth write up 🙂 I knew you’d all enjoy it – real shame I couldn’t be there for it. AND I’ve never had the chance to try this evening and I work for Frontline 🙁
    I must say I was really impressed with articulate you all were during the interview with Chris. You must all have pretty good stamina. Also, that dessert wine… I think I had the same one the other week and the sugar levels nearly ripped my head off. It was just about manageable with cheese, but with a heavy dessert – no way.
    As for old world vs. New world wines. I used to be like you, but since I’ve been living in France I’m definitely on the old world side. I like the unpredictabilityof each year as opposed to the supermarket style samesameness year in year out if your world. Sorry about that 🙂

    Reply
  4. Douglas says

    March 23, 2008 at 2:18 pm

    For me, the Henri Bourgeois you mention has a bit of a trout-pout on the snout. It soon blows away though.

    Reply
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest
  • RSS
  • Twitter
  • YouTube

Never miss a Cooksister post!

Get my latest recipes delivered by e-mail!

Search over 500 recipes

Recently on Cooksister

  • Perfect broccoli and Stilton soup [keto, low carb, GF]
  • Masalchi by Atul Kochhar – Indian street food in Wembley
  • Barbecued salmon with blood oranges and capers
  • Roasted Brussels sprouts with feta, pomegranate and pine nuts [GF, V]
  • Love Yourself healthy meal delivery [Review]
  • Antillean
  • Festive roast lamb with pomegranate glaze
  • Rustic blood orange and pistachio galettes

Archives by month

Archives by category

Popular posts

Oxtail and red wine potjie
Peppermint Crisp fridge tart - a South African treat
Nigella's Bakewell slices & the Big Bakewell Taste-off
Jan Ellis pudding - a classic South African dessert
My big, fat South African potato bake
Roosterkoek - a South African braai essential

Featured on

Also available on

[Ad/Press sample] Love beer? Love peaty Islay whis [Ad/Press sample] Love beer? Love peaty Islay whisky? Then you need to get your hands on this delightful collaboration between @innisandgunn (their original beer is billed as a beer for wine drinkers and is one of my all-time favourites) and @laphroaig (makers of one of my favourite super peaty whiskies). 

Innis & Gunn’s limited edition Islay whisky cask beer is a Scottish red beer which is double matured - first in used Laphroaig whisky casks and then in used port casks. The result is a deeply smoky beer with notes of coffee, dark chocolate, malt and rich toffee, all balanced by a clean and almost saline finish, much like Laphroaig whisky itself.  It comes in a limited edition gift box with beautiful artwork by @scottnaismithartist and is available from the Innis & Gunn website for £6,00 for a 330ml bottle while stocks last (it’s also vegan!). 

I paired it with crostini topped with cream cheese and smoked oysters - the salty, smoky, creamy oysters complemented the flavours of the beer very well. I can also imagine it working well with green olives or smoked almonds. A perfect gift for the beer or whisky lover in your life!

What do you think of combining the flavours of beer and peaty whisky? Let me know in the comments 🍺

#innisandgunn #laphroaig #islaywhisky #beerlove #beerloversofinstagram
This week I made a flying visit to the RHS Chelsea This week I made a flying visit to the RHS Chelsea Flower Show in  London’s leafy Chelsea, courtesy of @babylonstoren and @thenewtinsomerset [INVITED] I was fortunate to have an early morning tour of the beautiful show gardens and by far the most inspiring was the Best in Show winner, Horatio’s Garden, designed by Charlotte Harris and Hugo Bugg. Horatio’s Garden is an initiative to provide spinal injury patients in NHS hospitals with an accessible garden and private respite rooms within the garden. There are 8 across the UK and the design we saw at the show will be rolled out in Sheffield once the remaining funds needed are raised. Have you visited the Chelsea Flower Show? Let me know in the comments 🌺🌷🪷🪻🌼🌸 #rhschelseaflowershow2023 #rhschelsea #horatiosgarden #horatiosgardenchelsea
Today is the official coronation of King Charles I Today is the official coronation of King Charles III and London is literally awash with red, white and blue flags, bunting and souvenirs. I don’t have bunting… but in celebration I can offer you this plate of red, white and blue deliciousness that is sticky toffee pudding with berries! I had this last weekend at the @bristolbarbrighton - the pudding alone makes the trip from London worthwhile 😍👑🇬🇧 Long live sticky toffee pudding!!
Happy Easter to everyone celebrating! My Easter ch Happy Easter to everyone celebrating! My Easter chocolates are from Ukrainian chocolate producer @roshen_ukraine - gorgeous hazelnut praline-filled dark chocolates, and how beautiful is the packaging? #easter2023 #easterchocolate #easterchocolates #roshen #ukrainiantraditions #roshenchocolate
Great exhibition on at the V&A Museum in London ri Great exhibition on at the V&A Museum in London right now for anybody interested in textiles, fashion or Africa. Such fascinating info about the cultural significance of various traditional African cloths (kente, kuba, bògòlanfini and many more) and a great display of modern African designers from around the continent. It’s on till 16 April so catch it if you can! #africafashion #thingstodoinlondon #londonexhibitions #londontourist #londonbylondoners #kentecloth #kubacloth #bogolanfini #chrisseydou #ladumangxokolo
The wonderful Museum of the Moon installation - a The wonderful Museum of the Moon installation - a 7 metre diameter scale model of the moon suspended in the Painted Hall at the  @oldroyalnavalcollege in Greenwich this week, by @lukejerramartist. A surreal and fabulous sight!
Do you enjoy free art installations? Then you need Do you enjoy free art installations? Then you need to get down to @canarywharflondon between now and Saturday 28 Jan to catch the free Winter Lights 2023 event, back for the seventh year.

My favourites include @lukejerramartist ‘s Floating Earth; Tom Lambert’s Out of the Dark; Fluorescent Firs; Toroid by This is Loop; and the surreal and mesmerising Anima by MEATS - a tunnel filled with hundreds of thin optical fibre lights that change colour and move in the breeze 😍 

Have you been to Winter Lights? What was your favourite?
“When we look down at the Earth from space, we s “When we look down at the Earth from space, we see this amazing, indescribably beautiful planet. It looks like a living, breathing organism. But it also, at the same time, looks extremely fragile.” - International Space Station astronaut Ron Garamond

To experience the “overview effect” (a phenomenon experienced by astronauts viewing the earth from space), head down to Canary Wharf in the London docklands this week where you can see @lukejerramartist ‘s beautiful Floating Earth installation as part of the Winter Lights event. 

This giant 10m diameter installation is created using high resolution NASA images to create a floating scale model of the Earth, lit from within so that it glows from its current home on the Middle Dock, surrounded by the headquarters of international banking and finance corporations.

The artist hopes that viewed in this context, the installation will make visitors and the bankers working in surrounding buildings question how their money in savings and pensions is invested, and whether investments can be greener.

Aside from being a thought provoking piece, it is also mesmerising and surreally beautiful, so make sure you visit the free Winter Lights event before ends on Saturday 28 Jan.
Happy lunar new year! [Invited] To celebrate the Happy lunar new year! 

[Invited] To celebrate the arrival of the Year of the Rabbit, why not head over to @mamachensdumplings currently doing a residence at the @thegantrylondon in #stratford where you can feast on prawn & chive dumplings; pork, Chinese cabbage and shiitake mushroom dumplings; pork & prawn wontons with Mama Chen’s chilli oil; vegetable dumplings; smacked cucumber salad; and spicy noodles coated in garlic and Szechuan pepper oil.

And afterwards, make sure you head up to the @unionsocialoc bar for a cocktail - I loved the Moreish Fashion with bourbon, PX sherry, chestnuts and mandarin orange bitters!
Load More... Follow me on Instagram

Follow Jeanne Horak-Druiff's board Recipes by Cooksister on Pinterest.

Cooksister

The South African Food and Wine Blog Directory

The South African Food and Wine Blog Directory

  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest
  • RSS
  • Twitter

Jeanne Horak is a freelance food and travel writer; recipe developer and photographer. South African by birth and Londoner by choice, Jeanne has been writing about food and travel on Cooksister since 2004. She is a popular speaker on food photography and writing has also contributed articles, recipes and photos to a number of online and print publications. Jeanne has also worked with a number of destination marketers to promote their city or region. Please get in touch to work with her Read More…

Latest Recipes

Bowls of broccoli and Stilton soup
Salmon with blood oranges dill and capers
Brussels sprouts with feta and pomegranate
Roast lamb with pomegranate glaze
Blood orange & pistachio galettes
Cauliflower topped steak with melted cheese
Plate of potted smoked salmon with slaw and a glass of champagne
bowls of pistachio pomegranate bircher muesli

SITEMAP

Home

Contact

About me

Recipe Index

Restaurant Index

Copyright & Disclaimer

Cookies & privacy policy




blog counter

© 2004 - 2023 · Jeanne Horak unless otherwise stated - ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. You may not reproduce any text, excerpts or images without my prior permission. Site by RTW Labs

Copyright © 2023 · Cooksister on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in

Cooksister cookie consent
We use cookies to ensure you receive the best experience on our site. If you continue to use this site, you are agreeing to our terms and conditions. Accept
Privacy & Cookies Policy

Privacy Overview

This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may affect your browsing experience.
Necessary
Always Enabled
Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. These cookies do not store any personal information.
Non-necessary
Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website.
SAVE & ACCEPT