Pre-Christmas lunch with Michelin Star potential!! Not to be missed !! And so it proved.....
AIDEN BYRNE AT MANCHESTER HOUSE
Pre Christmas Lunch Saturday 23rd November 2013
Head Chef Aiden Byrne - who was the youngest ( at age 22 ) ever to gain a Michelin Star --has, since September 2013, had a new establishment in central Manchester and the Manchester IWFS branch held their pre- Christmas lunch there in late November. The venue - called Manchester House - is improbably located in the Tower 12 office block, and turned out to provide an unusual and stunningly successful experience for more than 50 of our members and their guests.
Pre-lunch drinks were served in the Level 12 Lounge, with its fine city views, ample and comfortable seating, and the first WOW of the occasion, some very inventive and tasty canapés. A chilled broad bean 'soup' with goat's cheese emulsion and black olive, supped from a small glass , was delicious , and was followed by a 'doughnut' containing braised oxtail .These were a foretaste of the outstanding blends of textures and tastes which were to characterise the whole meal .
We then went down to the Restaurant on Level 2 for a 5 course tasting menu. There is an open plan kitchen which forms the 'stage' for a truly theatrical dining experience. We began with an Onion Brioche with roasted onion butter and parmesan mousse- the brioche very light and all the flavours blending well .Then came Roasted Mallard with Fig Purée. The duck and the fig went well together, and there was, in addition, a chicken liver and fois gras teardrop, which was intriguingly slightly sweetish. Accompanying this was a Nuits St Georges Les Plateaux 2008 (Mongeard-Migneret) which had good fruit and, though light, stood up surprisingly well to the full flavoured mallard..
The 5 act drama reached full intensity in Act 3 with a truly outstanding combination of Monkfish Tail with Jabugo Ham, Jerusalem Artichoke and Truffle Consommé. The monkfish was perfectly cooked -very delicate and fleshy- and the accompanying flavours all blended well and enhanced the total effect. It was a classic case where 'the whole was more than the sum of the parts', and it drew an additional and spontaneous round of applause when our Chairman , Bob Lloyd, congratulated Aiden Byrne at the end of the meal . It was well accompanied by a Rioja Blanco Valenciso 2012.
How to follow that? Well, Aiden Byrne was up to the challenge and produced a dish of Suckling Pig, together with Pork Belly, Apple Purée, Smoked Eel and Celeriac. Again, the meat was very delicate and tender and was well enhanced by the celeriac steeped in apple juice. One or two people - enthusiasts for eel - would have liked the smoked eel to have been more noticeable in the total effect, but this was merely to cavil about which particular superlative was appropriate in this particular case. A Carpineto Chianti Classico 2011 assisted us in debating such niceties!
We rounded off this ' tour de force' with an unassumingly named but excellent dessert of 'Brown Bread Parfait and Caramelised Toast. By this time we knew to expect extra flavours and sure enough there was both Earl Grey and Brandy in the blend, which was very good indeed and was well matched with a Californian Orange Muscat 2010.
This was one of those rare occasions when from first to last everything came together and got better still as the hours passed. It was clear to us that Aiden Byrne - whom we had visited before at his establishment in Lymm (Church Green) - has sustained his creativity, technical brilliance, quality of ingredients and stunning flavour combinations. My only quibble was that I would have liked to have known in advance what the wines were to be. We knew there would be a 'matched wine flight ', and so there was, but the detail could with benefit have been printed on the menu cards.
Yes, it is relatively expensive, but very well worth every penny. Several people said to me, on leaving, that they thought it was the best meal they had ever had with our IW&FS branch. Praise indeed, for there is strong competition for that title, but a just reflection of an exceptional experience.
Thanks go to Committee Members, Ronnie Costello and Patrick Trodden for organising this event.
RICHARD GRIEVE 23.11.2013