We have a spectacular treat for all our lovely pop up regulars, and non-regulars this Spring.  We’re hosting our next Pop Up at St Giles house, home to Lord and Lady Shaftesbury.  It’s a magnificent venue, at which we have been preferred caterers for the last 10 years.  As stately homes go, I like to think it’s a bit more Rock and Roll than most.  It’s a 17th century masterpiece, which has been lovingly and painstakingly restored over a number of years to award winning standards.  An exquisite mix of contemporary cool, with a dash of old masters, centuries old pedigree and a nightclub in the basement.

The books we are ‘cooking’ come from Tom Aitken, Gill Meller, Rose Prince, The Ethicurean, Gizzie Erskine and Valentine Warner and we’ve put together a fascinating array of dishes for you to savour and share with your friends.

This menu was from the book ‘Terre a Terre’ by Amanda Powley and Philip Taylor, with outstanding photography by Lisa Barber. I bought it about 10 years ago as a source of inspiration and really just wanted to share the book and the contents with you all. I know plant based is seriously on trend at the moment, but I’m not cooking these dishes to score any politically correct points, I’m genuinely excited by the creativity that has gone into each recipe. We have tried all the dishes and promise they are completely outstanding, so come and be inspired, well fed and surrounded by like-minded food voyageurs.

It’s been a long time coming, but finally we’re announcing our new pop up to replace the last pop up which didn’t actually pop up at all. Here’s the new menu, a selection of perfectly sized dishes from Tom Aikens, Chantelle Nicholson, Marco Pierre White and Bread and Flowers. Come along and bring your group of six friends or two households. We will make up tables of six for anyone coming with fewer numbers.

We absolutely adore exploring new ideas in the kitchen and we’re itching to share them with you.  So instead of bringing in a guest chef this time we brought in ourselves! The Saturday sold out in hours so we added the Friday which also sold out, as you might imagine we were delighted. The dishes cane from some of Martins current favourite cook books, so “Cooking the books” is born.

Returning by popular demand, the amazingly talented Akemi Yokoyama jjoined returned to Bread and Flowers on Saturday 23rd March 2019, where amongst other things she cooked her award winning pork ramen.  Fresh off a plane from LA and the Golden Globes (I didn’t ask) here was her menu for the evening. It was a great way to celebrate the Spring solstice, the clocks changing and life getting back to some kind of normality!

We were introduced to the lovely Akemi a while ago by friends from Japan, Jeannie & Yuzuru Koga, founders of the iconic ‘Culture Shock’ fashion brand, back in the early 80’s.  I went to meet her in London, not expecting the five course menu she had prepared; sushi, miso, tempura soft shell crab, black cod, green tea ice cream.

On the 26th May, Sumayya ‘dropped down’ from Glasgow, a 20 hour round trip, to deliver some truly authentic Pakistani food to the locals of Salisbury. I’d cooked a few of her dishes since buying her book ‘Summers under the tamarind tree’, but I wasn’t prepared for the depth of flavour or richness of colour which adorned every plate that went out. On top of which, she was the loveliest girl to work with and taught me some real tricks along the way.

We were delighted to welcome Rose Prince as a guest on the 18th March 2018

Rose Prince is a food writer, author, cook and activist.  She’s also really passionate about her subject and speaks with an authentic voice about the food she loves and the ingredients she’s addicted to.  Remarkably, she’s also willing to share her sources with others as we discovered when we joined her for lunch to bash out the menu for her guest chef appearance here at Bread and Flowers.

We were super excited to welcome Romy Gill as our guest chef, kicking off the new year with some deeply aromatic offerings for everyone to savour.  Her restaurant, Romy’s Kitchen, is over in Thornbury, just outside of Bristol.  Romy is another, high energy individual, she features on the Food Programme and currently writing her first cook book

Olia cooked up a series of dishes from her new book; Kaukasis.  for our second slow Sunday lunch,  it was a huge success & we saw some great regulars along side some very enthusiastic newcomers. 

On Sunday 26th March we have Tim Wilson from Harbour Street Tapas  to kick off our our series of slow Sundays (2.00pm – 6.00pm) which we’ll repeat from time to time throughout the year. Tim opened this delightful Spanish eatery in Whitstable last year, so it seemed appropriate to keep things Spanish / North African as a great alternative Sunday lunch.
 

We are delighted to announce that Olia is our Next Guest Chef on the 4th March 2017.  Booking opens on the 7th February & we work on a first come first served basis, places are limited to 50 so get the date in your diary to secure a place.  We will take bookings  through the website.  We  have been chatting through the menu ideas with Olia for a few weeks now - Click on the link above to have a look at the menu so far

On Saturday, May 7th 2016, we were joined in the kitchen by Matthew Pennington, founder and head chef at the legendary Ethicurean restaurant at Barley Wood Kitchen Garden in Bristol.  We had already worked with him and his brother Iain two years on the trot down at the Somersault festival in North Devon.  Their food and flavour combinations are beyond exquisite and their presentation is beautiful.  A divine pleasure for the taste buds, a memorable, treasurable evening.  Often emulated, never equalled.

In January Bread and Flowers teamed up with Progressive Hebridean Distillers, Bruichladdich, to reconsider the myth of Robbie Burns, to ask the question: “Is Haggis really all there is?” and to drink our way through a portfolio of fine single malts from this iconic, renegade Islay distillery.  The evening kicked off with haggis arancini balls washed down with a dirty Octomore martini and followed with some fantastic imported Scottish product from sea and sky; halibut loins, grouse, woodcock, red legged partridge and widgeon.  The whisky flowed until guests wended their way home, some forgot to get into taxis, some forgot where home was.

We had a really successful evening with Gill Meller, executive head chef at River Cottage in November 2015.  46 lucky guests enjoying the delicious Autumnal textures and tastes that Gill put together.  Seats had sold out before we had even released the menu!  I’ve never come across such a chilled chef, one who taught me some very valuable lessons when under extreme pressure at Somersault with 12 hours of non-stop work ahead of us and only 3 hours sleep from the previous 19 hour shift.  He’s a constant inspiration and reminder that cooking is a wonderful endeavor with the rewards being enduring fulfilment.

A fantastic cook, TV super chef, complete card and all round good egg, Valentine was such an entertaining guest chef, we committed his evening to posterity courtesy of Tom Thomson who put together an outstanding video of the evening.  We’re still relishing the octopus dish he put together, along with the deep fried oysters, porcetta and prune & almond Brule.  We worked with him again a few months later down at Somersault where I nicked his recipe for chilled lettuce, pea and lovage soup with white crab, salted cucumber, concasse tomatoes and crème fraiche.  It’s still a crowd pleaser today

Lucas so enjoyed his first guest chef appearance, he came back for another one.  Which is such an enormous treat for the Salisbury foodie set as he doesn’t have a restaurant (yet), so the only other time they could eat his delicious food would be if they were invited to his house in London, frankly unlikely.  He delivered yet more amazing flavour combinations, difficult to choose a favourite, but the pumpkin soup with scattered, pan fried horn of plenty, a dollop of nutmeg cream and cider syrup pretty much did it for me.

I am Diana Henry’s number one fan, her recipes and writing have inspired me for many years so we were really excited to be able to offer guests a rare opportunity to meet her whilst also experiencing the food she creates.  Diana launched her new book – ‘A change of Appetite’ at Bread and Flowers HQ, Salisbury on Saturday March 8th 2014, where she was available for book signing.  We cooked up four dishes from her new book whilst Diana spent half an hour with each dining group chatting about the book, the inspiration behind it and her passion for food.

We met Rose at the Chalke Valley History Festival in 2012, she’s a distinguished food writer, author and journalist for the Sunday Telegraph, Daily Mail, the Spectator and the Times.  I nervously asked if she would consider cooking at one of our guest chef evenings and she accepted with relish.  She made puff pastry from scratch and with such skill and ease I was astounded.  The whole event seemed fairly effortless although that clearly just reflected her experience and professionalism.  The evening was a huge success, with new guests then, still coming four years later.

Ravinder came and cooked up an aromatic storm at Bread and Flowers HQ on Saturday 18th May 2013

The event followed the success of Ravinder’s pop ups at The Dispensary, Hix Selfridges and Mezza and showcased her exotic tastes, with menus incorporating far-flung flavours from India to Italy and Kenya to Kazakhstan.  Ravinder is an award winning UK TV chef, food writer and stylist.

Her debut book Cook in Boots won the Gourmand World Cookbook Awards for the UK’s Best First Cookbook and was awarded the first runners-up prize of the World’s Best First Cookbook at the Paris Cookbook Fair in February 2010.

Well the evening went off fantastically well and all the guests had a wonderful time.  Huge apologies to all those we couldn't fit in.  For my part, I had a really educational, uplifting and inspiring birthday.  A 14 hour shift in the kitchen with Tim was an unforgettable treat.  I thought I knew a thing or two about stock, I do now.  And the game faggots were unbelievably good, I still had some in the freezer a couple of months later.  Tim is a serious old school chef, and with many years as head chef at the Groucho behind him, he’s now gone on to open his own restaurant on the south coast.  Congratulations Tim.

Lucas Hollweg was our first guest chef back in April 2012, so not long after we moved into Longford Farmhouse.  He’s a long time friend of nearly 30 years, a brilliant musician and these days, an exquisite cook and writer.  His attention to detail is second to none and he really pushed himself with his opening menu.  Everything homemade, including the bread which he nurtured regularly throughout the night before and was up at sparrows, tending to the dough’s every whim the next day.  Even the ice cream was home made, I was exhausted at the thought of his work load but we collaborated well and smashed out four fabulous courses to everyone’s delectation.