November Pop Up Dining Events

We’re welcoming everyone back to Longford Farmhouse for the last two weekends in November, for our fifth in the series of ‘Cooking the Books’ dining events. 

We have had some new, first-rate chefs join us this year on larger events, and they are keen to get into the kitchen to cook for these intimate private dining sessions here at the house. 

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. 

Sadly we’ve had to increase the price for the event to £70, but I think that for a welcome cocktail, canape, five courses, coffee and BYO wine with no corkage , that still represents real value for money. 

Artisan Wine & Spirits have put together a wine list to pair with this menu - Click here to view.  We really recommend ordering your wine from them - they will deliver it here in advance allowing us to get it organised & in the right place before you arrive. 

We’re kicking off with a Picante de la Casa cocktail, all the rage at Soho House I’m told by my inside man and booze specialist Chris Quin.  Think Tequila and fresh red chilli and a few extra bits and bobs and you’re pretty well there. 

We’ll be serving courgette, spring onion and cheese tartlets alongside the cocktail, just to soak it up and dampen things down, then we’re into carpaccio of bream from Tom Aitkens, lovely dark brown through cream flesh, kissed with lemon zest, chives, spring onion, thyme and a lemon dressing drizzle. 

For the vegetarians, we have a delicious dish from Gill Meller’s ‘Root, Stem, Leaf, Flower’.  Bitter radicchio alongside shaved celeriac and sliced blood orange.  While we’re on the subject of vegetarians, we’re also featuring from the same book, cauliflower puree with butter, rosemary and sage roasted banana shalllots, garden herbs and crispy kale. 

For our third plate, I really want to cook this Rose Prince, ginger, butter dal recipe.  She made it for Bee and I when we went to join her for lunch and a chat a few years ago.  She served it with Arctic Char, which is farmed just down the road from her house.  We’re doing it with my favourite gurnard, pan fried and roasted, with a roasted squash version for those who have an aversion to fish. 

Then an Ethicurean speciality; beetroot pearl barley with bordelaise sauce.  They do it with pigeon, we’re doing it with seared and sliced duck breast and a handful of wilted kale.  The Bordelaise sauce really owns this dish, grabbing you by the core of your soul and sending you, satisfied, on to the pudding course. 

But before we get there, I picked up a great new book a month or so ago, ‘Restore – A modern guide to sustainable eating’ by Gizzi Erskine.  It’s absolutely FAB, great writing and great recipes.  We’re doing ‘Roasted beetroot, Beluga lentil and watercress salad with goat’s cheese croute’, which with a salsa verde dressing is completely knockout.  If I’m absolutely honest, I’d never heard of Gizzi, even though she’s got 4 books out and has been on the telly.  It just goes to show there’s always something out there to discover. 

Finally, we’re re-kindling our relationship with Valentine Warner and finishing off with his divine ‘Citrus yoghurt with black sugar’, indescribably simple, indescribably delicious, you’ll all want to take the recipe home. 

So there you have it, divine dishes from six dishy chefs, all under one roof, what a great deal. 

We hope the attached menu floats your boat, and we look forward to seeing you on one of the dates below.  Please get in touch early, we welcome groups who want to take complete tables/rooms, alongside individuals who want to come along and meet some new people.  On that note, we have the Sitting room, one table seating 10.  The drawing room, with the fire, one table seating 14.  The dining room, two tables each seating 12.  And the legendary larder, with one table seating 10.  

DETAILS, DETAILS, DETAILS 

FRIDAY 18TH & SATURDAY 19TH NOVEMBER 2022

FRIDAY 25TH & SATURDAY 26TH NOVEMBER 2022

Doors open 7.00pm   

The first plate is delivered at 7.45pm, then dishes every half an hour.   

Carriages at 11.00pm.   

Seats cost £70 per head and full payment in advance is required to book a seat at the table. Payments are non-refundable, but if for any reason you can’t make it, you can always sell your ticket to someone else, or, if we can, we’ll try and find a home for it.  With ‘no shows’ costing the restaurant industry £18bn a year, we can’t afford to be part of that statistic, hence the pre-payment.  We generally do have a waiting list for Pop Ups, and we will do everything we can to sell seats on if for some reason you can’t come at the last minute.  We just can’t promise that will be successful.