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Category Archives: Next Dinner
Fondue Nights at the Bicycle Bakery…
We are back in Tunbridge Wells on the 22nd & 23rd February for a pop up at the infamous Bicycle Bakery… Makers of some amazing Sourdough Bread and classic pastries. We thought how could we showcase their expertise and we thought why not use their Sourdough bread with a classic Swiss Cheese Fondue and a dessert inspired and produced by owner Jamie Tandoh – A yummy sounding Warm Coconut Arancini served with a fresh pineapple & cardamon salsa.
To kick the evening off we will serve a welcome drink with some simple nibbles and the first course will be a simple leaf salad garnished with “Kent Collection” cured Salamis and toasted walnuts whilst for vegetarians we will substitute with goats cheese & beetroot.
The fondue shared on each table (8 persons) will be made with an amalgamation of three Swiss Cheeses. Emmenthal, Gruyere & Appenzeller slowly heated with white wine & garlic and if the whole table are in agreement we will add some dried cepes to the fondue to give it a woody & earthy flavour much loved by the Swiss.
We recommend to drink with the meal you pick a dry white wine or a chilled beer as red wine with its tannin’s can cause the cheese to knot in your stomach and cause cramps. We will provide Ice Buckets and Glasses on the tables.
Just sixteen places each night (two tables of eight so you will need to share) will keep it intimate and a great way to meet new people.
To book your places please complete the form below and we will email you an invoice for a booking deposit of £5 per person (refundable if the event is cancelled) This will need to be done to secure your places.
We ask guests to arrive at 7;30pm and we will serve up at 8pm
Dates: Friday 22nd February & Saturday 23rd February
Time : 7:30pm Welcome Drink & Nibbles
Dinner: 8:00pm prompt
Price: £30 Per Person (service not included)
Menu
Welcome Drink & Simple Nibbles
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Leaf Salad with Kent Collection Cured Salamis & Toasted Walnuts
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Swiss Cheese Fondue with Bicycle Bakery Sourdough Bread (addition of dried Cepes if all in agreement on the table)
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Coconut Arancini with a Fresh Pineapple & Cardamon Salsa
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Coffee or Tea
Menu subject to market purchases and ingredient availability
We are back…
OK it has been a hard slog but we are pleased to announce that we are now ready to start offering our home venue for Pop up events once again and our first one is now scheduled to take place on Saturday January 26th.
The leg gets stronger everyday and we are excited to be back at the stove and hopefully cooking up a storm.
We will kick this first event off with a four course menu for just the one night. We will start with a welcome drink and some simple seasonal nibbles on arrival and then the first course will be a homemade Pork and Apricot Terrine served with a homemade chutney.
Next we will serve a roasted Duck Breast served with a “Pepper 
Club” sauce… this is a cream based meat sauce flavoured with piquant green peppercorns and sherry soaked golden raisins. We will serve this with appropriate vegetable garnishes according to market purchases.
Our ubiquitous cheese course will feature on of our favourite seasonal cheeses as it only produced during the winter months – a 
Vacherin Mont D’or which is an unpasteurised soft cows milk cheese from the Jura region that is wrapped with spruce bark.
Finally to finish the meal off we will reproduce a dessert we first learnt over forty years ago when working in Switzerland. A gateau “Audrey Hepburn” – this cake was allegedly one of the film stars favourites and is fundamentally a light flour less chocolate cake served with whipped 
cream and then my addition of some tart raspberry compote helps to cut its richness.
Coffee or Tea served with some petit fours will complete the meal. We will have just twelve places up for grabs so please book quickly as we suspect this will be a popular event considering this will be our first event since June 2018 !!!
Just complete the booking form below and we will email you a secure link for a £5 Booking Confirmation Deposit payable on line. We then request you to pay the balance owing on the night in cash. We will provide water and glasses on the table . Bring your own drinks to have with your meal.
Dates: Saturday 26th January 2019
Time : 7:30pm Welcome Drink & Nibbles
Dinner: 8:00pm prompt
Price: £40 Per Person (service not included)
Menu
Welcome Drink & Seasonal Nibbles
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Homemade Pork & Apricot Terrine with a homemade chutney
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Roasted Duck Breast “Pepper Club”
Seasonal Vegetables & Potatoes
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Vacherin Mont D’Or with Crackers
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Chocolate Gateau ” Audrey Hepburn”
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Coffee or Tea with Petit Fours
Menu subject to market purchases and ingredient availability
Please use the form below to make your booking – we will email you a secure link to pay your £5 per person confirmation deposit. Balance payable on the night with cash.
Happy Friday the 13th…
UPDATE: Due to an unlucky accident on June 12th and ending up hospitalised for ten days and a broken femur this event is now cancelled. Will update in due course on future events
Paraskevidekatriaphobia sufferers need not attend…
Well for our July event it will take place on Friday 13th July – we are not superstitious and hope you aren’t either! We are planning weather permitting to make it an alfresco meal down the bottom of our garden – please note if weather is too unsettled it will be done indoors.
We felt for this dinner we would make it a memorable four course meal that showcased some interesting techniques and flavour combinations. (Not that all are dinners are not so intended!)
We will kick the meal off with a welcome dink and nibbles of a seasonal nature and then serve as a first course a homemade coarse terrine that will incorporate pork and chicken… I love making a terrine as there is a skill to keeping it moist and full of flavour and it always excites me when I cut into it for the first time. I will serve it with a homemade butternut squash & cranberry chutney that has been maturing now for a good while!
Next a challenging dish for some will be a Ceviche of sea bass and salmon. This is raw marinated fish served with a thinly sliced salad of fennel. The addition of mint in the Ceviche also adds a zing to the citric marinade that cooks the fish. Perfect for a summer evening.
The main course will be roasted beef fillet served with a “Pepper Club” sauce – this is a piquant green peppercorn and port soaked raisin cream sauce – we will serve some fresh green beans (as always) and pommes dauphine little deep fried mashed potato and choux pastry pillows… perfect to mop up the sauce.
Finally we will basically serve a jelly & ice cream dessert that will showcase Marden based cider makers Phil & May Turner and specifically their elderflower cider – we will also stud it with fresh local raspberries and when we serve it some homemade strawberry parfait and warm butter shortbread biscuits.
Dates: Friday 13th July
Time : 7:30pm Welcome Drink & Nibbles
Dinner: 8:00pm prompt
Price: £40 Per Person (service not included)
Menu
Welcome Drink & Seasonal Nibbles
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Homemade Pork & Chicken Terrine served with a homemade Butternut Squash & Cranberry Chutney
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Sea Bass & Salmon Ceviche with a fennel salad
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Roasted Fillet of Beef served with a Pepper Club Sauce
Pommes Dauphine, Haricot Vert
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Turners Elderflower Cider Jelly with Local Raspberries,
Strawberry Parfait and Warm Butter Shortbread
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Coffee or Tea, Petit Fours
Menu Subject to Market Purchases & Ingredient Availability
Paella comes to the “pequeño toro”
For our June events we are excited to announce we will be returning to the village of Brenchley and in particular we are preparing two nights of Paella at the “Little Bull” Cafe & Bar in this picturesque village.
We will be cooking alfresco a large pan of classic mixed Paella at 6pm and 8pm on the two nights and this can be reserved directly with The Little Bull by calling them on 01892 724985 or you can complete the booking form below and someone will call you back to confirm your reservation.
We are also subject to availability offering the Paella for takeaway for those wishing to experience a freshly cooked Spanish classic in the comfort of their own home.
We will be serving at 6pm and again at 8pm so why not reserve your places now to ensure you get your Spanish fix and come on down to the “pequeño toro” and say hola!!!
Dates: 8th & 9th June
Times:19:00
Price: £15 per Adult £9.50 for Children (under 10)
Takeaway £10 per Adult £6.00 per child (subject to availability)
Menu:
Table Snack: Pipas al Punto de Sal
Freshly Cooked Paella – Chicken, Chorizo, Prawn, Squid with Peppers, Green Beans and Peas
Vegetarian Option available (please request when booking)
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Fresh Local Strawberries & Cream
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May you join us…
“To invite people to dine with us is to make ourselves responsible for 
their well-being for as long as they are under our roofs.”
– Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin
This quote sums up our supper club perfectly – I have long been a fan of french gastronome and food philosopher – his aphorisms have often rung true on so many occasions. This is no more so than the one above…
For our May event we will feature those in season foods such as Asparagus, Lamb and Strawberries with some novel combinations and some well tried marriages.
We will kick the evenings off with welcome drink and seasonal nibbles and then start the meal with a risotto made with fresh local Asparagus, Gorgonzola cheese and toasted hazelnuts – creamy and unctuous.
The main course will be roasted lamb served with a foraged wild garlic crumb, the new seasons jersey royal potatoes, peas and charred lettuce all bought together with a redcurrant jus.
Our cheese selection will reflect what is best and in season and finally what could be better than a soft chewy meringue topped with cream and fresh local strawberries that will be well and truly coming 
into season.
We hope you will come and join us and we welcome old and new customers to come and sample what “Covert” dining will all be about…
Please complete the booking form below, we will then email you an invoice to confirm your reservation with a small deposit that can be paid securely online.
Dates: Saturday 19th May
Time : 7:30pm Welcome Drink & Nibbles
Dinner: 8:00pm prompt
Price: £30 Per Person (service not included)
Menu:
Asparagus, Gorgonzola and Toasted Hazelnut Risotto
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Roasted Lamb Rump, Wild Garlic Crumb, Jersey Royals, Charred Lettuce, Peas & Green Beans, Redcurrant Jus
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Hari’s Selection of Cheeses. Porridge Oat Biscuits
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Fresh Local Strawberry Pavlova
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Coffee, Tea & Petit Fours
Menu subject to market purchases and ingredient availability
The Long March…
I always like to give my monthly events something of a title and a theme and as the years go by it seems to get a little harder to come up with something pertaining and relevant.
This time for me the month of March sees the beginnings of the end of a long winter as we head into Spring and also we see the clocks spring forward as we head into Summer.
So “The Long March” will see us opening for two nights on the 16th and 17th of the month. The 17th is St Patrick’s Day and we thought shall we go all Irish with the menu but have decided just to in places on the menu have the odd nod to the Emerald Isle.
We will kick the evenings off with a welcome drink and some seasonable nibbles. We have no idea what as yet but we normally serve a soup shot, one cold and one hot “ameuse bouche” so will start researching some ideas.
To kick the meal off we thought we would start with a starter we have done before many years ago… a custard set chilled Cauliflower Terrine. This time we propose to serve it with some freshly poached King Prawns that we will then dress with a sweet chilli dressing and a sliver of roasted cauliflower. The earthiness of the cauliflower should marry well with sweet prawn and dressing. It will also have quite some “eye appeal” as well so a great way to start our food march!
For the main course we thought we would do a roasted pork tenderloin/fillet served with our veritable green beans and the addition of some Chinese Pak Choy. A sauce made with dried apricots and a red wine jus will be a great marriage.
Garnished with some crispy “Pommes Dauphine” a mix of potato and choux pastry that is deep fried will give it all a desirable textural element and something to soak up that sauce.
We traditionally serve cheese following the main course (the French way) and here we hope to introduce an Irish element ! We have also been experimenting recently with some new style biscuits – a totally gluten free version using a mix of ground seeds including hemp, chia and linseed. We of course will also have our now much sought after Porridge Oat biscuits as well.
Finally to complete the meal we will serve a very much in season fruit – Rhubarb as a pastry slice married with the classic combo of custard. This will complete a fun night of good seasonal food with some classic combinations.
Coffee and Petit Fours will finish it all off along with your comments on the event in our guest book or as a review on our Facebook page.
Dates: Friday 16th & Saturday 17th March 2018
Arrival: 7:30pm – Welcome Drink & Nibbles
Dinner: 8:00pm
Suggested Donation: £35 per person – a £5 per person Reservation Deposit by emailed invoice with a secure credit card payment link will secure your places.
We then request the balance of £30 cash per person on the night (N.B. service not included)
Water & Glasses provided on the table – guests can bring their own drinks to consume with their dinner.
Menu
Welcome Drink and Nibbles
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Cauliflower Terrine garnished with Poached Prawns in a Sweet Chilli Dressing
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Roasted Pork Fillet, Apricot Jus
Pommes Dauphine
Haricots Verts & Pak Choy
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Hari’s Cheese Selection with Porridge Oat Biscuits
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Rhubarb & Custard Cream Slice
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Coffee & Petit Fours
Menu subject to market purchases and ingredient availability
Discover the vine & savour the curd…
We will kick off our 2018 series of events with a new style event for us. We have done a full blown dinner with associated wines, we have also done a Chinese dinner with specially selected wines included.
This time we will offer a special night of a wine and cheese tasting… We will be joining forces with Rowena Hawtin the brains behind the Discover the Vine, a company that specialises in tutored wine tastings and yours truly who will be selecting a range of cheeses that we will source for this occasion from Maitre Fromagerie Phillipe Olivier based across the channel in Northern France.
Why French cheeses? I hear you all cry, well for me they have a diverse selection and an enviable tradition and history of cheese making and we hope we will enlighten you to some more unusual and lesser know curds…It also leaves us the chance at a future event to showcase our own indigenous cheeses. We will not be biased we promise!
Over forty years ago I worked in a restaurant famed for its 
cheeseboard of over 40 plus cheeses and the patron was so passionate that every time he reeled off the names and back story of these curds it would sometimes take him over twenty minutes to complete the explanations, only to then be told by the diner they will have the “chocolate mousse”. He would spit feathers at me as he placed the order in the kitchen!
For me though I learnt so much about the diversity of cheeses and the marriage between the curd and the vine is one that is well and truly made in heaven and pleasurable to savour.
So for these two nights we will select 6 to 8 seasonal cheeses that we can then match to appropriate wines and grape varieties to complement them. Whilst the cheese will be French we will select wines from across the globe to go with them and Rowena will provide instruction and insight into the wines chosen and I will provide the back story to the cheeses.
We will feature everything from Goat, Cow and Ewes milk and from 
mild to strong flavours. We trust you will all embrace this whole experience with an open mind and enjoy the wines we select to go with these cheeses. We aim to open your mind to new sensations and hopefully enlightenment.
Come and be surprised, come and be entertained and also meet like minded gastronomes keen to experience the vine and curd!
Dates: Friday 19th & Saturday 20th January 2018
Arrival: 7:30pm – Welcome Drink & Cheese based nibbles
Cheese & Wine Tasting: 8:00pm – A tutored Wine and Cheese tasting comprising of 6 selected wines and subject to market purchases 6-8 specially selected cheeses from Phillipe Olivier in France.
Suggested Donation: £25 per person – a £5 Reservation Deposit to secure your place. We then request the balance of £20 cash per person on the night (N.B. service not included)
Ding Dong Merrily on High…
Ho Ho Ho… our Christmas 2017 Menu is now all decided and we are open for your bookings.
We felt we should be pretty traditional but at the same time in line with our “Quirky” status adopt some slightly more edgy festive ideas.
This year we will have decked our dining area with assorted festive bling. We will then kick the evenings off with a welcome drink and assorted nibbles.
The first course we will serve will be a classic smoked salmon rillettes – a homemade coarse pate that will be served with a horseradish cream and some classic melba toasts.
Main course will be turkey but this we will be done as a thin breast escalope studded with a fresh sage leaf and then a slice of cured ham served with a delicate sweet sherry sauce and then accompanied by a classic potato gratin and the veritable green beans.(Haricot Vert)
Next we will serve a selection of cheeses with our now infamous porridge oat biscuits and then to round the whole meal off we will make a Christmas Pudding Parfait that we will serve with a red berry compote laced with local Anno Sloe Gin – a perfect boozy and indulgent finish to our celebratory meal. 
So why not join us and book your spaces via the booking form below.
Dates: Friday 15th & Saturday 16th December
Arrival: 7:30pm
Dinner: 8:00pm – Dinner Served
Suggested Donation: £35 per person.
A £5 Reservation Deposit by credit/debit card will be taken on confirmation of your booking. We normally call you within 24/48 hours
We then request £30 cash per person on the night (N.B. service not included)
Menu
Festive Welcome Drink & Nibbles
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Smoked Salmon Rillettes, Horseradish Cream, Melba Toasts
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Turkey Escalopes “Saltimbocca”
Green Beans, Potato Gratin Dauphinoise
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Hari’s Selection of Festive Cheeses
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Iced Christmas Pudding Parfait,
Red berry & Anno Sloe Gin Compote
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Coffee or Tea served with Mini Stollen
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Pot Luck 2…
We had a highly successful event earlier this year when we ran a sell out series of dinners and a lunch where we decided the menu subject to market purchases. The menu was only revealed when diners sat down to eat.
We also set the minimum donation of just £10 per person and suggested diners pay what they thought it was worth.
With Christmas fast approaching and everyone thinking about the festive season and counting their pennies, we have decided to repeat this offer next month.
We hope we can tempt you all to come and try us out.
We have some exciting food ideas and plan to serve a seasonal three course dinner. This time cost will be £5 per course (making it a minimum of £15) with customers able to decide what they feel the meal is worth! – a great way for you to experience what our supper club is all about!
So if you are feeling brave and want to partake of this event then please do complete the booking form below.
Please note this will be very much a “first come first served” on the booking front so do not delay in booking. You can, at that time, let us know if you have any major allergies or dietary requirements as this will help us in the planning of the whole menu when we come to make our purchases.
So who is up for a bit of “Pot Luck 2” secret dining? If you have never been now is your chance to be surprised!
To reserve your places just complete the form below and we will contact you within 48 hours to secure your booking by taking a credit/debit card payment deposit.
Dates: Friday 17th & Saturday 18th November
Arrival: 7:30pm
Dinner: 8:00pm – A three course menu will be served
Suggested Donation: A £5 Reservation Deposit per person secures the first course.
We then request a minimum £10 cash per person on the night will ensure you get the other two courses – we will happily accept more if you think it has all been worth it. (N.B. service not included)
