Big Smoke Tavern

Egg-quisite #Chocolate - William Curley

Recently after a long break from having William Curley chocolates in my life I bought a couple of truffles on a swift dash through Richmond, took them home, sat down on the kitchen stool and took a bite. My reaction was akin to Richard Burton’s when he first laid eyes on Elizabeth Taylor – the flavour so extraordinarily beautiful I nearly laughed out loud. 

It was about a year ago that I realised I had stopped eating normal chocolate immediately after discovering William Curley’s in 2005. By normal chocolate I mean the candy bars (I’m American) I grew up on and even chocolate cake. For years my mother joked that I had to have my chocolate fix at some point every day. Now I don’t even eat Green and Black’s Organic. My palate just can’t be bothered.     

Back in the day as a reporter for the Richmond and Twickenham Times (our offices were located near The Green, a stone’s throw from William Curley’s shop) come Holy Week I’d throw deep-seated journalistic integrity aside and commit all the shameless lobbying needed to get William as the Easter Weekend splash. It wasn’t a hard sell to the editor, most of the time William would have just won some ridiculously prestigious accolade, like Britain’s Best Chocolate. There he'd be on the front of the paper pictured next to a massive chocolate egg or ladelling up a dark melted scoop: our own Willy Wonka of Richmond, The Cacao King.  

Yesterday I sat down with William to catch up on his business and to basically talk about chocolate.  I told him about his creations having miraculously cured my lifelong (commercial) chocolate addiction and asked if he found that at all ironic or amusing.

“We’ve all been there, big bar of high street chocolate and you can just keep eating it and it’s so, so moreish and you can’t stop. I grew up like that as well. I would have eaten lots of poor quality mass-produced confectionary. 

“But it’s a bit like wine, once you know what the good stuff is like you think, gosh I want more of that. And because good quality chocolate is not oversaturated with sugar and fats that are very addictive, you don’t eat as much so your actual craving is quite a short hit. You can be satisfied quite quickly.”

I didn’t tell him about suppressing laughter while eating one of his truffles on my kitchen stool all by my lonesome, but I knew exactly what he meant. Once you go quality in life, you never go back.

Last week William won yet more golds and a silver award from The Academy of Chocolate: Best Filled Chocolate - Fruit for Yuzu (Best in Category, Gold); Best Filled Chocolate - Spice and Herb for Tarragon and Mustard (Gold); Best Filled Chocolate - Caramel (Gold); Best Milk Truffle (Gold) and Best Flavoured Dark Barf for Rosemary and Sea Salt(Silver).  

I thought Easter's a good time to get educated about chocolate. You may already know the differences between your Cadbury or KitKat versus fine chocolate, but in case you don't and you want to refine your chocolate intake, William kindly and patiently explained the basics of what makes exquisite chocolate. 

Criollo Forastero, Trinitario | cacao pods contain beans used to make chcolate

“You’ve got mass-produced chocolate and fine chocolate and it’s probably 90% to 10% or even higher. 

"The three types of cacao are: Criollo, Forastero, Trinitario. Forastero is the dominant species. All cacao grows 10 to 20 degrees north and south of the equator, but Forastero dominates the market in all the areas. It’s widely grown in western Africa. I think 80% of cacoa globally comes from western Africa. 

"Then you’ve got South America and the Carribean. In those areas Forastero will still grow, but you also have Criollo. Cacao is actually indigenous to South America, that’s where it all started. Over time it’s been taken to other parts of the world. It’s mainly the Forastero that’s been able to be grown in those other parts. The difference between a Forastero and a Criollo is huge. The Forastero’s got chocolatey notes, but it can be quite bland and short and doesn’t have that wonderful depth when you taste the chocolate. Criollo has all those things, and when it’s processed correctly it can be very smooth, elegant, round and has all different sorts of notes so when you’re tasting raspberry, cherry, cinnamon, tobacco – they are more  likely to be Criollo beans.

"There’s also the Trinitario, which is a cross between the two. About a hundred years ago or so there was a massive hurricane in Trinidad and after it they tried to regrow Criollos, but they couldn’t so they found a cross between the two to make the Trinitario.

"Criollo is susceptible to bacteria, it doesn’t like hurricanes, it’s quite a weak plant so up until the 80s when the fine market started to develop, wherever in the world, farmers grew Forastero because it’s robust, strong and they got the same price as for the Criollo. So maybe not in the Chuao Valley in Venezuela (famed for its beans), but in a part of the Caribbean which could grow Criollo they would still grow Forastero because you know you’d get the same price for your beans. In the 80s that started to change. Smaller companies started to send agronomers to those areas to do research and really the whole understanding of the cacao changed a lot."

Fermentation and Drying

"Cacao pods all grow on trees, they all get cut open, the beans get scooped out. The next step is how it’s processed. Fermentation and drying are crucial to encourage the flavour to come out. If they’re dried in the right environment, say on a sunny day and there are lots of raspberry trees around, the beans might draw some of those wonderful flavours. To do that - time and money. Easy way to do it is to ferment but then dry them in a big tumble dryer. Once they’re dried they go back to manufacturing plants. 

"Amedei is, in my opinion the best chocolate in the world. The size of their operation compared to some of the big guys is phenomenal. When they produce it they refine it, crush it into a paste, add more coco butter, sugar, vanilla. Those are the key clean ingredients. 

"Of course you can add other fats, vegetable fats and other hydrogenated fats or whatever else you want to add  - that has an impact on flavour of course."  

Conching 

"The final stage is conching, it’s a Spanish word. They used to have three big shells that go round, the chocolate would be melted and it would help make it smooth and take out tannings that may be in it.

"The longer you conch it the better it becomes. The longer you conch it the more expensive it becomes. So high street chocolate could be conched two to six hours. A higher end high street could be seven to 12 hours. When you get to the fine stuff it could be 40, 50, 50 or even 70 hours. 

"Quality of beans and quality production is going to give you good chocolate. I work with Amedei and that’s what I’m about. I make cakes, biscuits, chocolates, ice cream you name it and chocolate is my core ingredient, my most important ingredient, so as a chef I want it to be the absolute best it can be.  

"We buy big blocks of what we call couverture which means quality. From there we’ll melt that and do whatever with it."

Can we all just say AMEN to that? I feel I've been to CHOCOLATE school. Amen again.

This is a big year for William and his Japanese wife Suzue - they have all but inked a deal to open a concession in an iconic London department store which can't yet be named but which will no doubt be a match made in heaven. And just last month the couple came out with a chocolate making manual, William and Suzue Curley's Chocolate Manual, published just in Japan.

Last but not least, at the end of 2011 comes a gorgeous hardback cookbook that required 16 days just for the photography. The title of what will surely be a massive Christmas hit with Britain's chocolate-obsessed public is still under wraps, but I can reveal the book, published by Jacqui Small will be available for sale on Amazon and in William Curley's shops.  

The Chocolatier promises it will be packed with stunning photos and detailed recipes covering all the William Curley products: patisseries, chocolates, cakes biscuits, ice cream and drinks. What's more, he's rather excited about it. "It will be the best chocolate book ever printed in the UK by a long way." I don't doubt him for a minute - everything about the William Curley brand is exquisite, from food preparation to packaging. 

Both shops also offer courses in Truffles and Sea Salt Caramel making. Plus there are courses for children. William says the courses are fun, hands on and you take home what you make.

For the moment, if you've not got your Easter egg yet or for whatever reason you've never tried William Curley chocolate - go by one of his shops or have a look online (all addresses listed below). They'll be open until 8pm this evening and from 10-6 Easter Sunday and Easter Monday.

William's personal recommendations this Easter: Any of the Japanese-inspired chocolates (Toasted Sesame, Japanese Black Vinegar) and Muscovado Caramel.

Read more about William and Suzue Curley's chocolate empire here and here. 

 

William Curley Patissier Chocolatier shops

198 Ebury Street, Belgravia SW1W 8UN | 020 77305522

10 Paved Court, Richmond TW9 1LZ| 020 8332 3002

williamcurley.co.uk

 

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What it's Wort

It makes some peoples’ stomachs turn, but I cherish the heavily malted air that wafts down corridors of East Sheen and Barnes when it’s brewing time at Stag brewery in Mortlake.

Some days it’s so strong it must infuse nearby residents’ line-dried washing with a malty freshness.

Spokesperson for AB InBev, Mike Kelly, said: “As part of the brewing process wort is boiled up in the kettles and this leads to the distinctive aroma.”  

Over the summer it was announced the brewery’s anticipated closure would be postponed until at least December 2011, citing strong sales of Budweiser.I’m going to enjoy that distinctive and rare aroma while it lasts.

This post appears in the November issue of Living In Barnes & East Sheen.

Community Cuppa

If I said it were possible - in Barnes - to get tea and toast for £1 would you believe me? Served in a cup and saucer with a little teapot and a pitcher of milk on the side? I wouldn’t believe me either.

The Community Café, on Stillingfleet Road in north Barnes also has fair trade coffee made in a proper Swiss coffee machine, hot chocolate and an array of homemade cakes for £1. 

The Lottery-funded café, which is inside the Castelnau Community Centre, is open Monday to Friday 9-11am, and has proved very popular with everyone who knows about it , especially the school run crowd.

Mum Louise Everton, whose daughter attends Lowther Primary, said: “You won’t get a friendlier atmosphere anywhere else in Barnes. They serve proper coffee and delicious homemade snacks. It’s always really warm and cosy in there, even when it’s freezing outside.”

Nicola Thexton, who runs the café, said the project came about after asking the community what it wanted. “Everybody said the one thing they wanted was a café,” she said.

I highly recommend you visit the Community Café, located at 7 Stillingfleet Road SW13 9AQ. While you’re there check out the Pilates and boxercise classes also on offer at the centre. 

This post appears in the October edition of Living In Barnes and East Sheen.

Nourish Me Up

Last year while switching into a healthier gear I discovered Nourish health food shop in East Sheen. Now I use every other trip to Waitrose, across the road, to pop over to the independent and stock up on tasty holistic staples.

Owner Sally Isdale and her staff  have helped me discover natural and effective remedies for a range of ailments including, rosacea, low-mood and low energy.

More importantly, it became my local stop for food items I once had to go further afield to buy. 

Sally, 50, told me: “Anybody can start doing three simple things to improve their health: take a multivitamin plus fish oil, eat a broad healthy diet of foods with lots of different colours, and cut out sugar as much as possible. Sugar is very addictive, it lowers immunity, causes energy crashes, affects skin complexion and puts on weight more than anything else. Next stop, diabetes.

"It's amazing how easy it is to start missing out nutrients when you cut things from your diet, even if you've cut them for a good reason. For instance, we get a lot of people who are zinc deficient because they've stopped eating red meat - a lot of our zinc comes from red meat, but you can replace it by eating shellfish, pumpkin seeds and pecans.

"A good rule to follow is don't eat anything every day, and try not to cut anything out completely."

Nourish opened three and a half years ago after Sally was made redundant from Unilever. A couple of years before that she had moved to East Sheen from Putney and was surprised there wasn't a health food shop here.

"I really wanted to do something I was passionate about and I was already very interested in nutrition therapy.

"I started Nourish from scratch, then the recession hit, but we've been fine. I think a lot of it has to do with how knowledgeable and health conscious people are in this area. And a big focus for us is service; we get our kicks from helping people."

I love Nourish.

Now, a lovely basket of Nourish items I buy regularly: quinoa, which is also sold at Waitrose but Nourish's is fluffier; Biocare EPA fish oil pills; Vita Coco coconut water (coconut water contains more electrolytes than a sports drink and more potassium than a banana); Udo’s Choice Oil, an excellent formula of omega fatty acids that is great for salads and dipping; Xylo Sweet, an all natural sweetener with a low glycemic index and it contains the same ingredient as mouthwash so is actively *good* for teeth (even recommended by dentists). And my most recent discovery, Whole Earth Wake Up, a guarana-based alternative to coffee. It gives you the energy boost without the highs and crashes that go along with coffee.

Nourish is located at 397 Upper Richmond Road WestLondon SW14 7NX |  T020 8878 5725.

This post is an extended version of that in the current edition of Living In magazine for Barnes & East Sheen.

Happy 4th So, here's to frosted beer mugs

Happy Fourth of July from Big Smoke! Needless to say I love London and living in Britain, but I just wanna be at home in Oklahoma on the fourth. And at Thanksgiving. If I can't make it back this time of year I just let it pass by without much beyond a passing thought. With no Grand Lake o' the Cherokees, no fireworks, no Old Glorys flying goddamn everywhere it just ain't the same. Aint' the same.

Today though, lil' smokies, I want to honour the very American frosted beer mug. First time I kinda realised you could do this at home I was 19, over at my neighbours. He set down a freezing cold bottle of Bud or Coors, and said, 'don't drink it yet'. Moments later he gave me a tall, fresh-from-the freezer pilsner glass. 'It'll taste a lot better if you drink it out of that.' God's nectar chilled, then chilled again. 

Yah.

Last autumn when I was gettin' my lil' Boot house together I bought some Ravenhead dimpled glass tankards on eBay. Male and female versions (pints and half-pints). I always keep two of each in the freezer. I like drinking Doom Bar and Fuller's Chiswick, Pride, Discovery and Honey Dew out of them. Mmmm Fullers. Anyway, amber-coloured beers set off the frost something dreamy, as you can imagine. But for the moment I just had a lager to pour.  

 

And here's a little half-pint Ravenhead tankard next to a big'n.

 

And here's a commemorative edition Budweiser rodeo-themed tankard my mom gave my husband. I freeze this for extra-special guests. 

God bless America, especially in the mountains and in the prairies.

Signing off with Martina singing God Bless America. The sound-to-picture timing is slightly off, but she's singing live, trust me. I've seen this woman live, belting them out perfectly and passionately, song-after-song. Just like this:

*Sing me back Bayty

Lebanese food found me in 1995 as a college student in Raleigh, North Carolina. I came across what was then a kinda obscure, café-style eatery called Neomonde. The food was fresh, clean, healthy, delicious. It suckerpunched me with gustative satisfaction so dern hard that it kinda changed me forever. 

Neomonde's superiority in the fresh and clean categories did nothing but curse my efforts to find a replacement once I left Raleigh two years later. There was, of course, an abundance of Lebanese options once I moved to London in 1999, but hmph. It was less that something was missing from these places in comparison to my Neomonde, more that something'd been added. Like grease, dunno.

Tomorrow BAYTY opens in North Barnes and the 19-yr-old in me CANNOT WAIT to try it out. 

I stopped by to have a chat and get the Lebanese low-down.

Bayty means 'home' in Lebanese and that is just the sort of feeling owner Juliano Salha intends to unfold at his new family-run restaurant at 190 Castelnau (what used to be the Chinese).

"To be honest, the reason we chose this name was because I wanted it to have a warm, home environment, but also when you open a restaurant you end up spending more time there than you do in your real home. It becomes your new home." 

Awh. It might also become home to a lot of people on holidays - like Christmas, New Year's and Valentine's - when Juliano vows to provide, get this, FREE minicab rides home to customers dining late in the evening. "I won't go too extravagant, of course, but I will provide free rides home to, you know, people living in Barnes, Richmond, Chiswick, Hammersmith." Still, shazam!

Bayty in Barnes (translates Home in Barnes = LOVE!) is not his only venture. Juliano has a restaurant in South Ken, a café near Marble Arch, a Lebanese butcher and grocery in the West End and...some interest in a minicab company, non?

Juliano, 45, left his home country, Lebanon, along with his parents and siblings when he was a teenager and has lived in Barnes since 1994. 

So why nau? And why Castelnau? "I've lived in the area since '94 and in all that time I've never seen a Lebanese. Not just in Barnes but Richmond, Chiswick, Roehampton, East Sheen. I felt sorry for everybody, including myself, who has to go into the West End to eat Lebanese. If you want to have a drink and enjoy yourself it makes it kind of a hassle to have to travel back home to Barnes." Word.

Off his menu Juliano recommends the hommos £4.95; the fattoush salad £4.95; falafel £4.70 and any of the meat dishes, which are priced between £12 and £15.50. "The meat is very tender, none of it is frozen. I use no legs or shoulders. All the meat on the barbecue is fillets, the  most expensive part of the lamb."

There are 69 items on the menu to choose from, they offer eat-in, takeaway, online orders, free delivery and private parties. 

PLUS (I asked after I spotted a dude smoking one when I drove past last night.) "Shisha, yes we have 12-15 flavours. Apple, grape, banana...but you have to smoke them outside." 

Bayty is at 190 Castelnau SW13 9DH | TEL 0208 222 8 666

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*The title of this post, Sing me back Bayty, is reference to a Merle Haggard song. If ya don't know it, go on and know it. 

PS - also let me know what ya think of Bayty if ya try it, ta.