Feast at Casamia

So I'm a bit behind with the posts despite good intentions this weekend. I'm blaming the glorious sunshine, T having Saturday off, the lure of my little mazda with a soft-top, pubs by canals, second-hand shops and reclamation yards. The final nail in the coffin of unwritten posts was blitzing the front garden and digging the last beds on the allotment on Sunday.

Anyway I digress, this post is meant to be about food. Food by five chefs from four restaurants joining forces for four nights, each at a different venue, and collectively titled "An evening with the chefs". The last in the series was at Casamia where there was a table booked for three at 8pm. Perfect.

You may well be thinking: "Ah ha! Chefs! Big egos!"

But, the thing with people in the catering trade is they work hideously unsociable hours (when the rest of us want to be sociable). Have little time off (we want to be able to eat/drink/party all of the time). When they do escape from the kitchen/bar/restaurant it's almost guaranteed that the people they want to hang out with (also in the catering trade because those social circles are gloriously incestuous) will probably be working.

In this case, we suspected that it was probably less about egos and more a case of five chefs, incompatible "meet up, drink beer" schedules, and a spot of lateral thinking that's resulted in a series of: "Right, back to ours then. Oh and while you're here you may as well help cook!"

So about the food? Well, while we sipped kir apéritifs, at a table conspicuously empty of menus and cutlery, a black envelope arrived containing the menu:

• The Pumphouse - cured mackerel wrapped in Serrano ham, rhubarb and watercress
• The New Inn - turmeric cured sea bass, frittata of Cornish crab with sorrel
• Casamia - beef cheek, baked potatoes, pickled onion, horseradish, puffed corn
• The Pony & Trap - cornflakes, pannacotta, cereal bar and banana

While we contemplated the meal ahead we were treated to some unexpected goodies: Sicilian green olives, salt and pepper toasted macadamia, roasted almonds, star anise grissini and a truffle drip. (Alas poor truffle you were good for some, but not for others.)

[NB. All the photos are Francine's. We figured all of us taking pictures would have been weird and she was happy to share. Thank-you x]

A tiny spoon, an odd-shaped wooden bowl, and an egg box with perfectly cut duck eggshells filled with warm, silky scrambled egg, cured pork and topped with thyme foam.


Freshly baked rolls with home-made butter. Faced with soft poppy seed roll or olive oil and rosemary focaccia we all chose the latter?!

The rest of the food was sublime. The highlights for me were almost everything, but the first two courses really stood out. First, the combination of rhubarb (which I have in abundance right now) and mackerel (which I adore, but often run out of ideas with) is a keeper.


Second, the cured sea bass delicately flavoured with turmeric was heavenly and I could have eaten crab and sorrel for the rest of the evening.

The low point? Not getting to try the beef cheek due to a last minute substitution for pork. It was nice, but unfortunately not up there with the fish.


Dessert was a creative play on breakfast - caramelised banana served with banana parfait nestled between a milky pannacotta atop a golden layer of cornflake purée and a granola bar. Inspired.


After dessert more treats arrived including a malt whisky chocolate, an amazing, wobbly raspberry-flavoured Turkish delight, and miniature chocolate biscotti that made your tongue crackle and pop!

[Additional info for T: a glass of Falanghina with the fish, Oloroso solera (Emilio Lustan) as a digestif.]