“Less is more… more or less”

Fine Food with

Charles Campion

Food writer and critic

• It’s time to go left field rather than safety-first
• “Fashion or for keeps?”
• “New year and new possibilities”
• “What is in a name?”
• “The art of shopping”

No sooner had the audience figures nudged over a monster 13 million than the producers of the Great British Bake Off intensified their hunt for a spin off. Something without Mel, Sue and their particular brand of innuendo but hanging onto their coat tails

So, this spring saw Bake off Crème de la Crème amble onto our screens. Fifteen teams of professional pastry chefs not only had to compete but also to turn out large numbers of whimsical delicacies against the clock. The programme was compered by Tom Kerridge who is an articulate fellow and a great cook. There’s a lot wrong with the fundamental idea – for a start it’s impossible to produce the best pastry work against the clock. Patissiers are all bonkers (some say that’s due to a life time spent getting up in the middle of the night to bake bread) but even they cannot beat the clock. When time slips by and something ends up not quite right or unfinished, the perfectionists in the kitchen do it again, and again, until it is right. It was saddening to see professional pastry chefs mortified when they were unable to complete a tray of 30 miniature works of art. But the sticking point is the insane complexity of these creations – does anyone enjoy biting into a cake that features six or seven competing flavours? In one programme the patissiers’ brief was “apple crumble and custard”. Cue dry ice and miniature apples made from sorbet. But you have to suspect that a well-made apple crumble with decent custard would be much better eating. We are all doomed when the looks of a dish becomes more important than how it tastes.

By way of balance, there was also the stunning Oxford Gastronomica Dinner in celebration of Claudia Roden’s 80th birthday – an event that showcased the honest cooking of José Pizarro. The food was as simple and sophisticated as the Bake Off spin-off was overcomplicated and contrived. Rafts of ‘pica pica’ circulated during pre-dinner drinks – octopus, Manchego with membrillo, croquettas, Jamón Ibérica. Then to table for 70 guests, mainly chefs and food writers – butler service, five starters, one main. A glorious foodie “help-yourself”. As an opening move there’s a small pot of crab with a crumb topping flashed under the grill. Then some pan-fried ceps with egg yolk – this dish comes to table and one of the diners breaks the egg yolk in the centre of the mushrooms and stirs it in to act as sauce. Fantastic flavours. A dish of lentils with Monte Enebro cheese and candied walnuts. Complementary textures. A dish of chicken livers on toast with a splash of super sticky Pedro Ximenez. A tomato salad with white anchovies and Jamón, crisp Little Gem with a sour sweet dressing and punch from the Boquerónes. The main course a perfectly judged pork tenderloin – amazingly tender ‘Presa Iberica 5J with patatas panadera, green salad and padrón peppers’. The presentation of the food was impeccable, each dish, and every combination of ingredients, had been thought about. These dishes are homely, there are no elaborate stacks, no towers, in fact no fancy presentation at all, but your instinct tells you that they will be good to eat. Pizzaro knows and loves his ingredients and rejoices in bringing the best out of them… Meanwhile, somewhere in Britain in the small hours, the patissiers grind onwards striving for perfection. Good luck to them, but they will always come second to bold, straightforward flavours and dishes that comfort the inner diner. This isn’t rocket science… it’s more important than that!