Supperclub at The Bricklayers Arms

Myself and my very talented friend Jess of Fluoresse took over the legendary pub Bricklayers Arms in Shoreditch for two nights during this past autumn. Jess transformed the rather empty event space into a beautiful autumnal venue with lots of fried flowers and leafy flowers.

The eight course menu was reflecting the best produce of the autumn and my rockstar of a mother hand picked every single mushroom and lingonberry used on the menu.

I wanted to have a mainly vegetarian menu with very few non-veggie basted dishes, and for those I wanted to use less known parts of the animal or ‘waste’ as these are not only my faves to cook and eat, but I wanted to see if my guests noticed or questioned the slim offer of meat. And no-one did!

I wanted to serve and share all my favourite bits in stages. So we kicked off with a middle eastern touch on the snacks as guests had a cloudberry fizz. Snacks were peppers with zataar, individual sweet potato crisp bags with a spicy muhammara dip and whipped goats cheese on a seedy cracker with confit tomatoes and dukkah.

The actual dinner started with bread and homemade butter with chicken skin, followed by two Italian dishes which were arancini and a pasta, brased cheeks with incredible potatoes, a chocolate dessert with peanuts and salted caramel and a little bag of homemade granola for breakfast the following morning.

I love these bread baskets, they are actually kitchen cloths my grandmother made a long time ago that we found, all never used and in incredible condition. The bread is a seaweed loaf with rehydrated nori. The crumble on top of the whipped butter is chicken skin that adds a fantastic texture and saltiness.

Simple but addictive spiced pumpkin arancini with a tarragon mayo and pickled pumpkin. Went down a treat.

Think I ended up making 200 of these mushroom raviolis. Filled with a rich and creamy mushroom filling with lots of thyme, garlic, white wine, cream and butter. Very good for the heart! Coated with a lemony butter sauce with shallots, chervil, chanterelles and edible flowers.

The king of beef - the cheek. This part is a pure joy to cook and eat, you can literally eat it with a spoon. Braised for three hours in spices and wine. Served with fried potatoes, this is a version of The Quality Chop House’s famous spuds. The cabbage was charred and while still warm covered in a type of gremolata with toasted almonds, cold pressed rapeseed oil, lemon and herbs.

I was so happy with this dessert, it has all I love on a plate, both flavour but textures too. Brown butter ganache, flaky base and a salty peanut caramel in the middle. Served with crushed peanuts, lingonberries from my village in Sweden and creme fraiche.

I don’t think any guest left hungry and I absolutely LOVED doing the supperclub!