The Restaurant Experience at Masterchef Live

One of the best parts of Masterchef Live is The Restaurant Experience, where you can try small plates from some of London’s top restaurants. This year at Olympia Roast, Blue Elephant, The Luxe (Spitalfields), Theo Randall at the InterContinental, Café Spice Namaste, Nin Jiang and the Malaysia Kitchen were all there. There was even a Masterchef restaurant, with dishes from some of Masterchef’s winners. It’s a fantastic way to taste some of London’s best flavours all in one day without splashing the cash or ending up feeling like you’ve eaten for two (or three…or four). 

After you have exchanged your pounds for Dining Currency – which is available in mixed denominations - all you have to do is peruse the huge menu and decide which dishes you would like to try. This takes some time as you are utterly spoiled for choice. You then go to each restaurant’s stand and exchange your currency for small plates of their specialities. Prices range from 4 to 6 pounds per dish. (Dining currency is on par with GBP, so a pound buys you one unit of dining currency, five pounds five units, etc.) 


The Restaurant Experience was sponsored by Hardy’s and there are wine selections in the show guide to go with each dish. However if you had a glass with each selection I think you might struggle to stay upright! My husband and I each chose a wine we liked and just had the one glass to accompany all the various dishes.  My husband chose the lovely Nottage Hill Pinot Noir and I had a glass of their Sauvignon Blanc.

Although the plates are small, you don’t need a lot of them, and in the end we had to go back later in the day to make sure we tasted everything we wanted to. The first dish I chose was Grilled Angus Sirloin Beef with Green Papaya Salad from Blue Elephant. I was given not only the dish, but also a leaflet with a recipe, a sachet of Chili Paste and a coupon for £10 off should I decide to visit the Blue Elephant itself. I thought this was a very nice touch.

The Green Papaya Salad had a refreshing kick to it and was a wonderful foil to the meltingly tender strips of sirloin, perfectly grilled to medium. The contrast of hot and cold, and the kick of the sharp dressing on the salad was really refreshing on the palate. 

My husband’s first dish was the Corn fed Chicken Green Curry with steamed organic red rice also, from the Blue Elephant. What can I say?

It’s not pretty, but it sure did taste good. (We each chose our own dishes, but we shared everything.) It had just the right amount of spice and the chicken was tender and delicious. The red rice had a fantastic flavour to it as well.

From there, we both chose the Slow Roast Wicks Manor Pork Belly from Roast. Neither one of us was sure we would be able to share that, and it was a good thing we got two portions. It’s the kind of classic British dish Roast are famous for, and they do it to perfection. It was accompanied by a sage, garlic and applesauce with a port reduction and root vegetable mash. I can't imagine why I don't have a photograph of it - except if it's because we ate it too fast. It was seriously yummy.

From the Masterchef Restaurant I chose Claire Lara's Crispy Skinned Sea Trout with Apple, Leeks and Watercress. The gorgeous pink sea trout was beautifully set off by the mild flavours of the other ingredients.

My husband's choice from the Masterchef Restaurant was Dhruv Baker's Ballotine of Chicken and Pork with pomme puree, Savoy cabbage and Madeira sauce. 

The presentation was beautiful and it tasted as good as it looks. The pork was spicy and delicious and really accentuated the mild flavour of the chicken.

When it came to desserts, we returned to Roast for their Mulled Spices, Bramley Apple, Sultana and Cranberry Crumble with Vanilla English Custard. 

It was divine. Sadly Roast did not provide recipe cards so I will be spending some time this holiday season attempting to duplicate this ambrosia. It’s the perfect Christmas dessert, with all the season’s traditional flavours wrapped up in a comforting, traditional crumble with custard.

And then there was Paul’s Blueberry Cheesecake with Lemon Curd from The Luxe. 

I don’t know who Paul is, but thank goodness he provided a recipe card because I seriously would have begged for one. This was one of the best cheesecakes I have ever had – and in fact we returned later in the day for another portion of it. The cheesecake itself was light and delicious, with just the right amount of blueberries in it. The homemade lemon curd provided a combination of sharp and sweet that was simply mouthwatering.

It’s worth visiting Masterchef Live for the Restaurant Experience on its own, but there are also so many other shows, including presentations by celebrity chefs and the Masterchef Live team, displays from specialist food, wine and spirit producers, masterclasses, the latest in kitchen appliances and gizmos and lots of things to try and to buy as well. Masterchef Live is at the Winter Good Food Show in Birmingham next week, and if you can get to Birmingham, I definitely recommend a visit!

Where Foodies Go To Play

Over the past twenty years, Britain has gone from having a cuisine that could at best be described as "basic" to becoming a nation of foodies, full of gourmet shops and restaurants. More and more people are enjoying cooking on a regular basis, and we Britains love to eat, drink and talk about food almost more than anything else. As a result, for several years now, the BBC has been running Good Food Shows in Birmingham, London and Glasgow and attendance at these events is always really high.

In the past my husband and I have attended the Birmingham show, but now we live closer to London, we attend the BBC Good Food Show at London's Olympia Exhibition Venue every year. This year it has been re-named “Masterchef Live” after one of the BBC's very popular cooking programmes, but honestly, most folks still think of it as The Good Food Show.

Small food and drink producers, wineries, kitchenware stores, cook book resellers and speciality shops all have stands at the show. Most offer samples and discounted “show deals” if you decide to purchase their wares. Major restaurants - which this year included Launceston Place, Theo Randall at the InterContinental, The Ivy, The Boxwood Cafe and Caprice - offer small but exquisitely formed portions of their signature dishes in the Restaurant Experience. There are also shows, demonstrations and lectures about all things food and drink by some of the larger suppliers and by food groups such as Slow Food. It's foodie paradise.

This year, Masterchef (a cooking programme in which amateur chefs compete for the coveted title of Masterchef) presented Masterchef Live, offering several shows each day in which past winners and contestants cooked in front of an audience, either developing new dishes on the spot or showcasing dishes that won them their titles. The shows were fast paced and entertaining, and played to packed audiences. On another stage, some brave members of the public submitted themselves to "The Invention Test". They were given five ingredients (unknown until the actual moment of the competition) and twenty minutes to prepare a dish from them. The results were very entertaining, and in many cases, quite amazing.

It takes at least a day to go through all of the stands and exhibits and also to attend the various shows and presentations. We visited the stands of some of the producers we already know and love like the wonderful Dorset bakery Honeybuns for their gorgeous cakes and Littleover Apiaries for their wonderful honey. We also discovered some new favourites. I was particularly impressed by The Coffee Fairy, a company run by Martina Gruppo. She sources coffee from Miraflor in Nicaragua (actually going there and getting it herself!) and ploughs a portion of the proceeds from the sale of it back into the community there, working to offer educational scholarships to enable the children to go on to secondary school, and also renovating the school there. The coffee tastes amazing and what a wonderful, ethical fair trade business!

Some of the producers are very small indeed, like another one of my new favourites The Good Chutney Company. Offering some very creative sauces and condiments, The Good Chutney Company is literally a one (wo)man band; the award winning sauces are made by one very talented lady in her own country kitchen. I bought two jars of their scrumptious Horseradish Mustard along with some other goodies including a yummy Gooseberry Chutney. We also bought lots of wine and port, and even found a new bespoke wine sourcing service for folks like us who love our wine.

Lunch consisted of various dishes at the restaurant experience. The servings are reasonably priced and so small so you can taste lots of things, and sharing is definitely allowed! We started with lobster soup with brandy and saffron cream served in a cocktail glass from Lauceston Place (see photo above), and then I tried The Ivy’s rich and tender beef and bashed neeps while my husband chose Masterchef winner Steve Wallis’ pan roasted sole with chantrelle mushrooms, oysters and white wine sauce. We also shared two dishes from Roast Restaurant - Pork Belly Bridge Roll and Fish finger and tartare sauce cones. Both were fantastic examples of old fashioned British comfort food at its best. For dessert, we shared the vanilla and gingerbread cheesecake with mulled fruit from the Boxwood Cafe which was light and delicious (the mulled fruit had lovely zing), and also the soft chocolate cake from Theo Randall at the InterContinental. This chocolate cake was by far our favourite dish of the day. Served with a soft marscapone cream, it literally melted in your mouth, and was one of the nicest desserts I have ever eaten.

The Good Food Shows are a great day out, and wonderful places to find out about the new and different. There are also a great source of ideas. We did a lot of Christmas shopping and brought home loads of goodies. We even ordered all our Christmas wine and spirits. Tickets are very reasonable at around £15 each, but you can also buy a more expensive VIP ticket which gives you access to a private dining area in the Restaurant Experience, a lounge with complimentary tea, coffee and snacks, free storage for your purchases and priority queues for book signings. It is well worth the extra cost to take advantage of this option.

The next BBC Good Food Show is being held at the National Exhibition Centre in Birmingham November 25th to 29th, or there is a Summer one also being held at the NEC 16th to 20th June 2010. The next BBC Good Food Show in London is in November 2010. For more information, go to http://www.bbcgoodfoodshow.com/