brian turner

they say, never trust a skinny chef. if that were true, judging from brian turner's girth, we were probably alright eating at his restaurant.

we passed the man himself as the maitre'd led us to our very large table laid for 2. i squeaked in recognition to P who turned around and STARED. the staring was to repeat itself many times as the man sauntered around the restaurant in his chefs whites, particularly checking in on the table next to ours who seemed like they were family friends. we're not very subtle folk.
despite all my (sometimes present) misgivings about television chefs, their eponymous restaurants and other eponymous products, brian turner wasn't a disappointment. in fact it was extremely pleasant. any restaurant which let's me and P giggle and talk incessantly our way through supper without making us feel like we're misbehaving while feeding us fabulous food is always going to be a star in our books.

a light, airy crab mousse with many large chunks of crab meat started us off nicely as we imbibed our champers. P had eaten all of her cracker at once which left her with a mound of mousse still to be attacked. she shot furtive glances at my cracker which I held protectively and nibbled away.

p chose for her starter a gregariously green pea soup which was delicious. I went for the crab cake. we swapped halfway, but I quickly initiated a swap back because I was missing my crab cake. this was followed by the panfried sea bass served over a cherry tomato risotto while p chose a poussin over curried lentils.

puddings were glorious. my jaffa cake pudding was all it was meant to be – it embodied the jaffa cake in all it’s jaffa cake majesty. for those who have never had the pleasure of knowing a jaffa cake, a jaffa cake is a round biscuit sized disc of cake-like consistency topped with a sheen of chocolate and filled with orange jam. sold in tubes, it is an impossibility to just eat ONE jaffa cake. i never buy them because i have absolutely no self control and have on past occasions eaten the whole tube only to stop and stare at my tummy in disbelief and utter disappointment (with myself and also because there are none left). i only eat them at parties or when someone else has bought them because good manners prohibit me from eating more than 3 (and then secretly scoffing another 2 when no one's looking). i digress. back to the jaffa cake pudding, this was moist with a hint of orange peel which revealed a molten chocolate lava when cut open. the marmalade ice-cream which came with it was just divine. p, gravitating to all things crumble related had chosen the pear and raisin crumble tart which came in a short crisp tart shell and served with a scoop of creamy vanilla ice-cream.

i suppose that there are in fact many brilliant chefs who aren't fat - g ramsay and m roux jr who routinely run in the london marathon in pretty decent times and the rather dishy tom aikens being prime examples. but then again, as brian turner demonstrates, it sure doesn't hurt your food or your restaurant to be a not so skinny chef either.