Andrew Kay is feeling old and feeling young over dinner at La Trompette
A touch of class
Nothing can inspire a sensation of impending dotage like meeting up with a college friend to celebrate her son’s 21st birthday. God, that can make you feel old. I mean, when did I ever contemplate that the friends of my early adulthood would have offspring that would reach early adulthood? I embraced the occasion by thinking back to M’s 21st birthday and in a moment of inspiration I bought her son the very same gift, a rather beautiful chef’s knife. Before you all write in saying that it’s bad luck to gift knives, I took the traditional precaution of attaching a penny with which he could buy it from me.
The celebration, a surprise dinner, took place at the very lovely La Trompette in Chiswick. It’s the sister restaurant to Chez Bruce on Wandsworth Common, one of my favourite places to dine, so I was excited not only about the party but also about the food.
Our host Mrs C was concerned that the boys would be ravenous after long journeys so asked for there to be crisps for them to nibble on while we waited – but the chef was having none of that and produced amazing gougere, brandade balls and tapioca and seaweed crisps with a mayonnaise dip flavoured with dehydrated scallop coral. That should give an early indication of the food to follow.
I started with the Cornish squid and mackerel on a squid ink risotto. It was good – no, it was excellent, not particularly adventurous but done with such skill that adventure would have been out of place. Mrs C had the same but Ms C chose the terrine with foie gras, game consommé and a venison Scotch egg. Now that was pretty adventurous but here that journey was so worthwhile, beautiful cooking and elegant presentation. There was a bit of smearing and smudging, but I forgave that.
Mrs C chose the fallow deer for her main course and as always we swapped a fork’s full. I have to say it was the most sweetly yet intensely flavoured game I have ever tried and the most tender too. It simply yielded to the teeth like a soft paté but at the same time had real texture. Full marks too for generosity, no piddly portions here.
I could not resist the suckling pig, I love it and have to say it merely re-enforces my friend’s belief that I only like meat that can still be heard crying for its mother, which is simply not true, I like some things rather well hung!
This was quite the most beautifully cooked suckling pig I have ever had. It can be so easily ruined by over-cooking and so disappointing when not crisp. Here I received a bundle of succulent sweet flesh wrapped in a fine layer of sweet glazed crispy crackling – piggy heaven, which was where I was – along with the piglet on my plate. With some great apple purée, glazed carrots and spätzle with hazelnuts, now I could eat those spätzle with hazelnuts until I popped, it was a truly marvellous work of culinary skill.
For pud Mrs C chose a burnt cream that pleased her well, that was until she saw my caramelised chocolate wafers with poached pears, sorbet and salt caramel mousse. How she looked on with envy at one of the finest desserts that I have seen in years. Okay, I have seen prettier but pretty so seldom delivers on flavour.
This was dark and mysterious, the pears toffee sweet, the wafers bittersweet and the mousse, well let’s say that it had her green with envy. So much so that our charming maitresse d’ offered to bring her one. She politely declined but I suspect in her heart she really wanted to say yes.
We drank excellent Rhone wines at sensible prices and the coffee came with delicious truffles. La Trompette’s private dining room is an elegant space with good art on the walls and fine china, silverware and crystal, all the elements that lift such exemplary cooking to that higher level of dining experience that warrants that much coveted Michelin star.
It was a stunning evening and those feelings of growing old had, by the end of the meal, abated, and I felt invigorated by such good, intelligent and youthful company.
La Trompette, 5-7 Devonshire Road, Chiswick, W4 2EU, 020 8747 1836, www.latrompette.co.uk
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