H&J Harbour & Jones

H&J Publishes Seasonal Cookbook

Monday February 8^th 2010

Our chefs are always keen to talk about food; their favourite recipes and restaurants, food memories and best meals, so we decided to take advantage of all this expertise and passion and create our own seasonal recipe book complete with beautifully shot photos (thanks to Chris Windsor), top tips and anecdotes.

With help from the indefatigable food guru, Jenny Linford, whose books including Food Lovers’ London and The London Cookbook we are such fans of, we set about collating all the information, testing recipes and whittling down the collection to a manageable number of recipes which could be arranged by season.  Jenny then applied a house style to the writing whilst Chris travelled around our sites to meet the chefs and photograph their dishes.  The resulting book, with recipes for delights such as goat’s cheese with honey and pea shoots, baked Cromer crab and cobnut ice cream, will, we hope, become an indispensible staple on our clients’ bookshelves, full of delicious, easy to cook recipes to suit almost any occasion.

If you are interested in getting your hands on a copy of the H&J Cookery Year, please contact our sales team with details of your company on or call James on 0207 520 5448.

Deer Stalking In Dorset

Tuesday December 22^nd 2009

When Leo, chef at the Institute of Physics thought about sourcing game for his winter menu, little did he realise that he would soon be out in the English countryside hunting it for himself!  It all started when Leo was discussing various types of game with one of his customers at IOP who mentioned that he helped managed the deer population on a country estate in Dorset.  Being a bold Zimbabwean, Leo spotted his chance and asked if he and a couple of other chefs could come down to lend a hand.

The date was set and Leo, Candice and Gary set off for Dorset on a Friday night.  After a 4 hour journey with bumper to bumper traffic on the motorways they arrived at their hotel tired, thirsty and hungry, but a couple of pints and some good pub grub made everything better and they went to bed feeling excited about the day ahead.

Deer stalking takes place either at first or last light so our trainee hunters had an early start and were up and ready to go at 5.30.  After a detailed safety talk, each chef went with a stalking expert and spent the morning learning how to follow trails, how to identify the different breeds and, of course, keeping an eye out for the elusive deer.  Candice and her guide were the only successful party and back at base all three chefs were shown how to gut (or gralloch) the deer and prepare and check the carcass for market. 

After a week of hanging, the deer carcass was brought to London and was the star turn at our game demonstration workshop run by our H&J butcher.  At this workshop, our chefs learnt to prepare various different types of game, both feathered and furred, picking up skills such as plucking, skinning, gutting and jointing the meat into recognisable cuts for the kitchen.  All agreed that it was a fascinating day and most were quite envious of Candice, Gary and Leo for their chance to really see where the meat had come from.

Success for Candice

Wednesday December 16^th 2009

We are thrilled to announce that Candice Webber, head chef at St Paul’s Cathedral restaurant has been awarded runner-up in the Gluten-Free Chef of the year competition run by Coeliac UK.  Candice received her award from Raymond Blanc, who was chief judge, during a presentation at his restaurant, Le Manoir aux Quats Saisons, in Oxfordshire.

The competition was launched earlier this year to raise awareness of coeliac disease and the need for chefs to provide gluten-free options on their menus.  Candice designed a 3-course menu which comprised poached Barradale egg with cavolo nero and shaved brussel sprout salad, followed by roast partridge and game pie and Regents Park honey ice with roast figs and clementine cake.

As Head Chef at St. Paul’s Cathedral Candice caters for a wide variety of customers and needs to create menus using the best seasonal produce which can be enjoyed by all.  She has a particular interest in cooking gluten-free food as a close friend of hers has Coeliac disease and Candice loves finding new recipes and trying out new dishes for her.