Le Champignon Sauvage - Just A Taste
Le Champignon Sauvage Thursday 31 October 2019
Dinner for 3, Table 14
This was the fifth visit for Mrs Cheoff and me. Mum asked to see us around my birthday. For a long while we have wanted to show her the delights on offer at Le Champignon Sauvage. We travelled south to where she still lives in a land of charity shops in Surrey (my toddler and teenage haunts have changed!). Off west to Cheltenham with her for twenty-four hours. By the time we arrived she had offered to pay for the meal. I remain a spoiled child.
A click on this image takes you straight to details for booking.
It would be daftly unnecessary for me to recommend this restaurant to you when respected giants of food criticism have already done so with such gusto and insistence. The complexity of the food and the richness of the personal attentions are, well - complex and rich. So I can’t provide the impossibly full version of events. This will be ‘Just A Taste’ of our delicious experience. But these scattered observations and thoughts are intended to give you a strong flavour of the closest thing to perfection that any restaurant team have offered me.
front of house*
*subheadings follow the convention of Le Champignon Sauvage recipe book titles - all lower case!
Helen Everitt-Matthias greeted us as we entered the restaurant. We have always been impressed - no, seduced - by the wonderful ease with which she orchestrates events on one side of the kitchen traffic door. Her presence at every service here for over thirty-two years is matched by husband David at the stoves on the other side of that door. Her team has always been an integral part of visits. The latest two to stay and benefit from her impeccable training were Belen and Connie. With about two years and two months of experience respectively both were steeped in the excellence which Helen examples. They visited our table with an easy mix of professionalism and informal interaction. By the end of the evening it seemed we were saying goodbye to the equivalent of two new ‘old’ friends.
(I’m now fairly consistent in self-imposing a no camera rule when eating out. Professional studios do a much better job and I suffer less distraction from the most important thing - enjoying the company, the food and the hospitality. A quick written note between courses is as much as I’ll allow. I’ll then record things in my own way once home. Any sketches which follow are the medium through which I relive and enjoy again some of the elements of our meal. Any inaccuracies are entirely down to me.)
canapés
malt cracker with pouting, smoked mayonnaise and pickled pear
goat’s cheese and onion marmalade cornet - toasted rice
parmesan custard rolled in chorizo powder
The parmesan custard was softer and silkier than ever. The first sketch shows it in the ever-so slightly firmer shape which has been presented to us on previous visits.
Those who do use their cameras at the table supply further evidence and confirmation of the quality of dishes. You will find pictures of the canapés and much more here.
Oh, yes - that mayonnaise really did have a vibrancy suggesting that chef had been foraging in the local art supply shop for cadmium yellow!
amuse bouche
There are labels (colour-coded - nice!) to explain what is going on here. Imagine a clever, lighter version of beef and mushroom stew. And then offer up a small prayer that this is being served if/when you visit.
chef’s surprise
We had ordered two meat mains. After our starter my double-take and disbelief at the sight of fish cutlery being erroneously laid down at all three covers was short-lived. Helen explained that David wished to offer us an extra course. A perfect cushion of skate topping a bed of mushroom duxelles and chestnuts. Pulled back small enough, bearing in mind the following main course, but totally unrestrained in flavour.
A truly unexpected treat.
wine
Apologies for the unavailability of a half bottle of Champagne were quickly retracted as it was found to be present after all. Just right for three persons plus those canapés.
With the food we drank a six year-old Mas de Daumas Gassac Blanc. It was glorious - in colour, aroma, flavour and finish. Mum has twenty-five years more experience of life than me but I still manage to introduce her to wines which induce glazed expressions and shivers of appreciation.
We made successful plans to track down a couple of early vintages and enjoyed a 2010 at home for Christmas.
chef’s surprise - another!
After ordering our dessert Helen asked if I would like to meet David in the kitchen. I went with a crazy mixture of the apprehension which comes from being summoned to the headteacher’s study and joy at the thought of spending a few moments in close contact with an inspiring personal hero. Any intimate revelations shall remain intimate and unrevealed. Besides they were put into firm second place by the lovely chance to see a chef and his team at close quarters producing wonderful things in perfect harmony.
Let’s repeat those words.
A truly unexpected treat.
pre-dessert
A delightful escape from the confusing world of high street coffee where - oh dear - you are asked if you want milk with your ‘Americano’. Camp Coffee chicory might well have been in that granita but Chef twisted things further via his foraging credentials and gave us dandelion root for gentle bitterness. The whole thing was like a cold, mad melange of affogato and cortado. So well judged as to make you wistful for more but light enough to leave room for our choice of main dessert.
dessert
As soon as I saw it on the menu, my dessert choice became obvious. ‘mango, thai spiced cream, thai green curry sorbet’ is an Everitt-Matthias signature dish. There is no published recipe for it that I can find. Our son, James, shared a tiny taste of the sorbet at one previous meal and it was time for me to confirm what all the fuss was about. All I will say is that I cannot understand how James agreed to share even a morsel of this insane loveliness!
That’s the extent of the ‘tasting menu’ which I’m presenting to you. Starters, main courses, desserts and petits fours are all very fondly remembered but further descriptions are discarded for this reflection (except for those Thai curry accents in my pud, of course!). So you don’t have my reactions to the complete series of experiences at this one wonderful meal. I could always try to do that but I’ll leave you with a link to follow which explains in good measure why, although tempting, that is probably not the best idea.
Enjoy your own meal with David, Helen and team whether you are returning or eating there for the first time. I freely admit that tasting for yourself really does beat reading this.
