IT’s easy to slip into typecasting. So Simon Rogan is the Sorcerer and Adam Reid his apprentice in the creative cauldron that is The French’s kitchen. One casts the spells, the other copies his master slavishly until one day...
No, it just won’t do. Of course, the great chef’s culinary accomplices do jump ship. Witness Mark Birchall, who helped bring two stars to Rogan flagship L’Enclume in Cartmel. With the aid of millionaire backers he is opening his own restaurant with rooms at Moor Hall, near Ormskirk this autumn.
The French head chef Adam Reid’s bid for freedom is much less dramatic. He is one of three chefs representing the North West on the Great British Menu when it airs on BBC2 in the autumn – a busy time for the 31 year old from Audenshaw, who is also hosting Eat With Adam – Adam Reid’s Fest-aurant at the Manchester Food and Drink Festival Albert Square hub on October 4, 5 and 6 (£60 a head, tickets on sale soon).
A foretaste of what may be ahead came during Simon Rogan’s Chef Week at The French inside the Midland Hotel, where each night a head chef from across his culinary empire cooked their own bespoke menu. Created inside his ‘own’ kitchen, Reid’s menu was evidence of his own growing sorcery despite its obvious nods to the Rogan house style. The full menu is here.
There was evidence of over-elaboration in the use of a foraged/preserved palette but dishes that impressed mightily were (below in order) rose veal loin, smoked tongue, fried seaweed, last year’s cowberries (lingonberries) and kohlrabi; macerated Cheshire tomatoes, toasted bread and compressed leaves with soft herbs and lovage salt; and, particularly a stupendous (and less cluttered) combination of Herdwick lamb loin, sweetbreads, courgettes, peas, green beans and ramson dressing.
A full gallery of the night’s panoply of artfully presented dishes follows the end.
The Great British Menu will certainly heighten the profile of this personable young chef, even though it may leave scars on past evidence of other contenders. The series has already been filmed but Reid is obeying the usual orders and keeping commendably schtum.
It has been leaked that the 2016 series will see the highest mark ever awarded to a chef during the regional heat awards and it is a newcomer. Let’s hope it’s our own Sorcerer's Apprentice and he gets through to the final and the banquet beyond.
