If you haven’t come across or indulged in this supper club movement, I whole heartedly urge you to do so…immediately. A supper club is a private dining experience hosted by cooks (or chefs) in a non-conventional space, aka not a restaurant. They are as varied as they are numerous, but most have a set menu price and are BYOB. They offer a dining out alternative to restaurants, give great access to undiscovered young cooks or chefs who haven't managed to find investment for a permanent restaurant site and are usually better value than a restaurant dinner, especially when you factor in the alcohol costs vs. BYOB. Add to this a real social element; normally you’re sat on communal table and you always meet interesting characters.
FerdiesFoodLab has long been one of London’s more established supper clubs. Led by Simon Fernandez, this talented chef has been hosting supper club events all over London for donkey's years. I’ve tried his food a few times and he consistently delivers.
Simon invited me down to his latest supper club location in Battersea recently to try out his new menu and space. It’s hosted at the London Kitchen Project, just across Battersea Bridge (aka – my neck of the woods) and I was excited to come and try out some of his new recipes.
On arrival the space was laid out in the usual communal table style. For those of you who don’t like socialising outside of your dinner guests, this isn’t going to be for you. For those of you who like meeting new people, you’ll love this. We were sitting on a table with a high end restaurant PR, two girls just about to launch their own food blog and a music composer – talk about an interesting bunch!!
The menu spans five courses, plus petit fours and a glass of prosecco on arrival, and the suggested donation for this veritable feast is a mere £45. You’d be hard pressed to find food in a restaurant of this quality for that sort of price. The dishes are served sharing style and a suggested wine pairing is provided, if you want to bring in matched wines for your meal.
First up, slow braised lamb, pressed into moreish little cubes which are breadcrumbed and fried, served with Turkish bread and a herbed dip. I’ve tried these before from Simon and they’re fabulous – the lamb is deeply meaty and the herby dip zings.
Next up, a homemade morcilla (a sort of black pudding sausage) and Braeburn apple tart. The flavour in that homemade morcilla was excellent – it was really well spiced and paired well with the slightly sharp apples. Some on our table thought the tart needed a sauce, but I disagreed – it was moist enough without.
A dish of spicy asian cucumber salad, with croquettes of vegetarian haggis followed. I sort of get where this dish was going, but it wasn’t my favourite. I’m not sure what haggis has to do with asian flavours, and its more subtle spicing didn’t hold up against the sour, spicy whack of the salad which was excellent.
The main that followed however was my favourite: roasted ribeye of beef with caramelised carrots, roasted potatoes, a tarragon emulsion and liquorice salt. The beef was cooked perfectly and melted upon the merest poke of a fork, the carrots were sweet and juicy, roasted in their own juices, and the potatoes were crisp. I could have left the liquorice salt, but the tarragon emulsion was wonderful and worked well with the beef.
Desserts brought more good flavours with a pistachio olive oil cake served alongside an odd sounding black olive chocolate sauce and almond gelato. What black olive has to do with chocolate, I have zero clue, but you couldn’t taste it much so it was okay! The cake and the ice-cream were fabulous though; the cake moist and sweet, the ice cream smooth and creamy. I enjoyed it a lot.
Over tasty little petit fours, I wound down my conversation with the table and departed off into the night, sated and very well fed.
As usual, Simon presented a menu that was well crafted and skilfully executed. As supper clubs go, Simon is operating at the top of his game and quite rightly deserves the title given to him by The London Foodie blog of ‘one of the pioneers of the supper club movement in London’. Incidentally this is high praise from Luiz – he is one of these himself.
And so…pay Ferdies a visit, but make sure you book in advance – he sells out fast.
http://www.ferdiesfoodlab.co.uk
