Back in autumn, I had a wonderful evening with a bunch of foodie bloggers, journalists and Bill Collison, the lovely founder of the British restaurant chain Bill's. He opened the first café in Lewes in East Sussex in 2000, and now has almost 80 restaurants around the UK with 21 in London.
The evening was held to celebrate fresh, seasonal British produce, taking things back to his roots as a greengrocer. We chatted over a glass of Bill's champagne before sitting down at the rustic wooden table beautifully dressed with elegant silver candlesticks and autumnal bouquets of reds, oranges and pinks. Bill spoke a little about his career, and passion for fresh produce before showing us how to choose, cut and cook seasonal vegetables, focusing on simplicity: if you're working with quality ingredients, you don't have to do much to let the gorgeous flavours do the talking.
Our vegetarian feast kicked off with beetroot and goat's cheese arancini balls to start, with fresh yoghurt, lemon and mint dip. For mains, we shared platters of butternut squash lasagne with baby spinach, semi-dried cherry tomatoes, feta cheese, mozzarella and ricotta, topped with parmesan and herb béchamel sauce, a roasted roots pie with rainbow carrots, parsnips, onions and turnips and some crunchy cavalo nero leaves sautéed with butter, shallots and lemon. As it was around Bonfire Night, we finished with some delicious brandy snaps served with zesty cream cheese, blackberries, pistachios, chopped mint and grated clementines. The Bill's team are constantly creating new dishes and seasonal menus, and I've been several times since to try out all sorts from the crumbed halloumi sticks and healthy salads to chargrilled steaks and buttermilk chicken burgers with sweet potato fries. YUM. Thanks to the Bill's team for a lovely evening!
Our vegetarian feast kicked off with beetroot and goat's cheese arancini balls to start, with fresh yoghurt, lemon and mint dip. For mains, we shared platters of butternut squash lasagne with baby spinach, semi-dried cherry tomatoes, feta cheese, mozzarella and ricotta, topped with parmesan and herb béchamel sauce, a roasted roots pie with rainbow carrots, parsnips, onions and turnips and some crunchy cavalo nero leaves sautéed with butter, shallots and lemon. As it was around Bonfire Night, we finished with some delicious brandy snaps served with zesty cream cheese, blackberries, pistachios, chopped mint and grated clementines. The Bill's team are constantly creating new dishes and seasonal menus, and I've been several times since to try out all sorts from the crumbed halloumi sticks and healthy salads to chargrilled steaks and buttermilk chicken burgers with sweet potato fries. YUM. Thanks to the Bill's team for a lovely evening!
