Chefs & Pinterest? Oui Chef!

With the visual and emotive nature of food it is no surprise that food bloggers have become a core user group of Pinterest. Food has become one of the largest and most active categories in terms of pins and repins.

Food lovers were actually among the first on Pinterest as they saw the benefits of pinning instead of clipping recipes. These foodies are using Pinterest boards in very collaborative ways from planning dinner parties to creating their own virtual cookbooks.

Pinterests terms of use prohibit commercial use of the site, however the lack of enforcement means chefs are jumping on board to visually curate their brands. There are numerous opportunities for chefs and restaurants to leverage this new social network. Coming from a fine dinning background I am very passionate about getting the word out about the level of commitment that goes into the day to day of a restaurant, from the kitchen porter to the sommelier. I strongly believe real chefs need stronger representation of their vision and their process, particularly online. So I have put together a few tips and best practice points to help anyone join the new growing Pinterest community.

1. Make Sure your 'Pinnable'

Pinterest is rooted in visual (and soon video) content; therefore you must ensure your site has high quality images people will want to pin and share. Each recipe, article or statement needs a companion image, or you wont get pinned. Installing a “pin it” buttons on images and a “follow me” badge on your site will allow you to build momentum, especially if you are doing any promotional work as a chef such as events or TV appearances, as search volumes always increase during promotional times for a brand name. Be wary to promote your Pinterest across your other channels such as your site, Facebook, twitter, etc. Content is always king, this means to ensure you have key words in the description of your pin to ensure you appear for terms you want to be associated with. Don’t forget to recognize users who pin you by visiting pinterest.com/source/yoursitehere.com to see where your pins are showing up. Note: Flash-based websites are not pinnable.

2. Tell Your Story

Pinterest was specifically designed for visual storytelling. It is a great opportunity to visually show the staged process of creating a dish, a complex component of a dish or even to map the journey of an ingredient making its way to the farm to the table. Take advantage of this and really share your story of how your dish or menu was conceptualised and created. Note video will be the process of next pinnable medium for Pinterest, I believe this medium will take priority for chefs and my advice for video is to keep content simple, clean and easy to follow. Quick tip: Ensure the file name of your video is relevant to what you want to be found for when users are searching (this also applies to your images as well)

3. Curate Your Core Values

Create boards that showcase what your brand represents, do not simply make the focus about selling your products or your offering. Pull in the elements that inspire you as a chef or a food brand. Art, music, architecture, as an ex chef I was always inspired by my surroundings particularly nature. These are images that can be collaborated to your pinterests wall to show the values you represent and your process to arrive at your final product.

4. Value Rich Content

In the online world content is king. Therefore create helpful advice and useful ideas that users would find valuable, such as timely recipes for holidays, seasonal menu ideas, how-to for cooking techniques, kitchen equipment and resources. Most content should originate from your site. This will allow serve as another social media referral source for traffic to your website. Quick Tip: Add “pin it” buttons to all online recipes to make it easier for readers to pin to Pinterest.

5. Collaborate with Your Colleagues

Create collaborative boards that allow external pinners to contribute. It’s a way to show your associations and to further cement your core values. For instance, fine dinning chefs have strong communities and connections from working in kitchens together as they develop through the rankings. Invite the chefs which you work well with that share your ideologies or who’s style and philosophy of food meshes well with that of yours. This will create great buzz with the food community, allowing you to develop natural growth for your brand with the right audience. Quick Tip: Collaborate with influential food bloggers to get them talking about you and your work, engage them with solid content (insert recipe here)

6. Leverage Offline Activity

Use Pinterest to bring your offline activity from the restaurant and kitchen to life with photos and video footage. As we all know food and dining are very emotive, particularly with the rise of the foodie crowd. Everyone wants to be a part of the experience you have created in the kitchen, but you only have so much room, so make this audience feel like they are a part of the experience by bring it to them online. Photos from events, of the people, the brigade and of course the food, these images are a great way to generate buzz with a very targeted audience who are excited to engage you and spread the word.

Happy Pinning!

For the Love of God, No More Gammon!

I know the title of this post may shock many of you, especially if you know me. However as much as I love Christmas, the food and all the festivities I cannot hold back my joy at getting back to some light, fresh food.  Here is a quick recipe to help get the new year off to a less stodgy start...


1 bulb of Fennel (cut into think slices)
2 big handfuls of Spinach
1 small handful of Mint
1 whole Pomegranate (seeds only)
3 Oranges 
Remove the skin of 2 oranges and cut flesh into slice
Juice 1 Orange
Juice of 1 Lemon


Salt and Pepper
4 tbsp Olive Oil


Place the juice of the Orange, Lemon & pomegranate seeds in a bowl and season with salt and pepper. Use the back of a spoon to burst some the lovely ruby pomegranate seeds, this will give a lovely colour and added sweetness to the dressing (leave the majority of the seeds whole to give you a nice texture). 


Have a quick taste to ensure there is a nice balance of salt, sweet & tart.


Drop in the sliced fennel & orange slices into the seasoned juice mixture. Add in your spinach and drizzle the salad with the olive oil. 


Toss with your hands to ensure all the leaves are coated with the dressing. Finish by scattering the mint leaves over the salad.


Serve with fish or beef. If you want to bulk it up while keeping it a veggie affair add in some boiled quinoa, giant couscous or bulgur wheat.


Enjoy. 

All Hail the Crumble King

This post is well overdue for a man who has demonstrated a love for crumble that is unmatched by any other. Brian was a customer of mine when I worked at an unfortunate restaurant in Los Angeles. Everyone knows I have a bit of a short fuse, however one of the staff took the risk, approached me & said "someone outside was asking if you are going to make crumble today". I barged out in my usual graceful way to have a word and saw this man with a sincere smile on his face...
I may be a bit difficult, but I know when someone is a foodie and  genuine. It took a few years to sift through the duds, Brian is the real deal. 
So I told him I was happy to make him the crumble, the only catch was he would have to wait up to an hour. To my surprise, he was chuffed! He grabbed a seat, took out a book and waited...
As chefs we love to see people happy, enjoying what we produce. So after the way he had reacted I couldn't let Brian down. Despite the wait he had a great big smile on his face when I took the crumble over for him. From that day on whenever I made a batch I would make an individual one for him and keep it ready in case we ran out...
So this recipe is for you Brian


Ingredients


Crumble Topping
100 g cold butter cut into cubes
100 g sugar (demerara sugar is my favorite for this)
150 g flour
50 g ground almonds


Fruit compote
5 Granny Smith apples peeled & cubed
3 stalks of rhubarb chopped into 1 inch pieces
1 small punnet of blackberries & raspberries
1 vanilla pod split in 1/2
150-180g of sugar (again demerara is my pick for this)
Note: You may need to adjust the sugar based on acidity of the fruit
1/2 cup water


Method:


First make your crumble topping. Place all the components in a robot coupe (better known as a food processor) and pulse until you have the consistency of sand granuals which are a bit damp. Tip over the contents onto a lined baking sheet and lightly squeeze the mixture in your hands to the mixture together then break the apart again onto the tray so you have a variation of lumpy bits and finer crumble. Place in the fridge for 30 min before baking at 180 in the UK and 350 in the US. Remove from oven when you see it turn a lovely light golden colour.


Now on with the juicy fruit compote. Place all the ingredients above into a heavy saucepan and bring to a boil always stirring. As soon as you see the first bubble identifying you are at a boil reduce the heat to a low flame and keep an eye on the mixture. Keep stirring as the mixture will catch.


When the fruit has collapsed and completely stewed you are almost ready to serve. Make sure the mixture is not too claggy, it needs to have some moisture to it. So please taste at this point and adjust the sweetness if needed to your taste.


Place the crumble into a warmed baking dishes or individual ramekins. Top with the warm yummy crumble & serve with a lovely vanilla ice cream.


I rework this recipe with seasonal fruit such as cherries, plums, etc. It's all to your taste, have a play with the recipe and enjoy! 

Huevos Rancheros at the Hampshire

The Hampshire Hog Pub & Pantry

On my way home from the gym last week I noticed the Ruby Grand(which was a mediocre bar/pub on King Street) had been repainted on the outside. I thought to myself in my usual cynical tone, "you can put lipstick on a pig, but its still a pig". 

Upon closer inspection I noticed boxes piled high inside the pub.  Moving in for a nose around, I was pleasantly surprised by a bright eclectic new decor & a very extensive menu taped to the window. Lovely bar snacks, breakfast/ brunch, seasonal dinner menu & a deli offering as well. Whilst glancing at the menu I was distracted, as a full family size table was being laid out with all the menu items for the staff. This is when you know you have hit the jackpot; a restaurant that involves everyone in the team & encourages them to engage with the offering and experience. I head home and am immediately on Google looking for some clues and stumble across the Facebook page.. Score! They have a soft opening... after a few pleasant email exchanges with the lovely Jessy from the front of house team we are booked. 

Although I don't work in this industry anymore, it is still very much in my blood & the connection will never fully be out of my system. I am so excited.

We turned up with a table of five. Upon our arrival everyone was pleasant and extremely proud of the pub, you could feel that in their tone. The front of house team treated us as though we were family and friends arriving at a house warming party. This type of care & attention is perfectly fitted with this neighborhood, much like the nearby Lola and Simon.

We grab our drinks from the gorgeous new bar (wanted to have the special house ale but it was not available, hey ho). We are seated ready to inspect the menu, my eyes head straight for the polenta with poached egg and parmesan. The others at the table ordered the roasted squash and the ginger one had the raw salmon. The polenta was excellent, it had a soft, velvety mouthfeel with a hint of truffle. The poached egg added an extra level of richness and broke up the texture. The parmesan rounded it off nicely with a hit of saltiness. All I heard were mmm's and ahhh's from the others at the table but no one let me taste any of their starters.

Mains were steaks all round and one order of lamb. They were all melt in mouth, perfectly cooked & well seasoned. 

From my experience the dishes that are 'simple' are the easiest ones to get horribly wrong as you have nothing to hide behind. The quality of your ingredients, the skill & care of execution are transparent therefore there is no room for error.

Puds made everyone smile especially the treacle tart which was served with a scoop of Dulce de Leche ice cream. This ice cream was incredible, one of my friends, Ryan, said it tasted like a Werther's Original. So in true Katchi form we ordered 4 scoops for the table.

Bursting at the seams we still managed an espresso (how civilised), again great quality coffee. 

I highly recommend The Hampshire Hog for anyone who appreciates quality ingredients & enjoys being in an atmosphere where the staff really care about engaging the customers. If your looking for a place to just go to consume & 'fill a hole' it is definitely not for you.

Make sure you turn up hungry, thirsty and ready to feel like part of the family.

Salmon with Creme Fraiche & Herb Salad

Ingredients to serve 4

Fish

4 200g Salmon fillet pieces

Sumac

Salad

Handful each of mint, Italian parsley & dill

Sauce

250g creme fraiche

Juice of 1/2 a lemon

1/2 clove of garlic

Salt & Pepper throughout

Optional 

300g new potatoes

2 tbsp olive oil

Simply season salmon with salt & sumac and placed under the grill for 7-8 minutes. While your Salmon is in the oven get your herb salad ready, pick whole leaves of Italian parsley, mint and lovely springs of dill, set aside. Now for the creme fraiche, place 250g of creme fraiche, lemon juice and add in (to taste) salt & pepper, next mash 1/2 a clove of garlic. Stir all the ingredients and set aside.

Now, lets talk about this beautiful salmon... many of my lovely family and friends insist on blasting it in the oven or the pan until there is absolutely no moisture left. The poor fish is transformed from a deep pink to a dried out and dull colour and leaves a sticky/claggy mouthfeel.  Please try to keep your fish a bit pink and translucent in the centre, it lends to a lovely texture & holds the true flavour of the fish.

Plating 

Now thats enough of my rant - back to the dish. Place your (non overcooked) fish on the plate, take your spruced up creme fraiche and place nice big table spoons over the center, then take your lovely herb salad and with a very light hand loosely drop the herbs over the fish. Let the herbs do their thing & take their natural place on the plate, I am not a big fan of being militant with the poor little things.

And thats it, you are ready to eat. To make it more of a evening dish, serve with some simply boiled new potatoes, lightly crush them with a bit of olive oil and serve on the side.

Enjoy & please feel free to post any questions.

Sticky Toffee Pudding

Evening all, here is my sticky toffee pudding. Some tend to bake in the caramel, but I keep it separate & always make double the recipe