Restaurant Reading The Kitchen Table

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“Mark is simply a magician” – The first Kitchen Table diners

6 diners, 9 courses, 1 chef, and a whole host of brand new incredibly innovative and mouth-watering dishes by Development Chef, Mark Apsey.

On Friday 2nd December, L’Ortolan, Reading’s Fine Dining restaurant, launched the first ‘The Kitchen Table’, which is a bespoke dining experience, catering for 6 diners around the heart of the stove with unique access to their own personal chef.

Restaurant Reading Fine Dining L’Ortolan

Featuring brand new dishes never before tasted, and of course, some of L’Ortolan’s classics and selling out until May 2017 within a week of releasing dates, we knew this would be a highly-anticipated evening!

Walking into the demonstration studio, where the exciting experience is held, our first 6 diners took to their seats eagerly awaiting the first of Mark’s creative courses, which was to their pleasant surprise, an ‘edible cocktail’.

Snake in the Grass Cocktail Restaurant Reading

The edible drink encompassed everything that you would anticipate in the famous cocktail, only, you enjoy it with a spoon.

Yoghurt crisp bread
Lime caramel
Lime crisp
Coconut yoghurt
Gin pearls
Our diners opted for the matching wine flight, (available at an additional cost) in which Head Sommelier at L’Ortolan, Konrad explained in great detail the pairings with each course, including the reasons behind the unique shapes of some of the wine glasses, enhancing the intense flavours of the matched wines.

The journey of evolving dishes continued, after canapés, with a special ‘Mock Oyster’, where, we’re sure you’ll agree, the photo speaks for itself in terms of the beauty surrounding the dish. This included:

Salsify spherification (which, if you also, like me, are not a culinary scientist like Mark, is the culinary process of shaping liquid into spheres)
Cucumber seaweed infusion
Pickled shallot
Oyster leaf
Oyster
Following the Mock Oyster was the pomegranate cured Sea Trout, with vanilla confit oil, beetroot powder, apple fondant and Tobiko Caviar.

Sea Trout at Restaurant Reading

With another five courses yet to go, we wouldn’t want to ruin any potential surprises to those attending the next Kitchen Table! So the blog stops here, and we know we are leaving you wanting more.