Menu Development 2013

Hi, I’m James Down, Sous Chef at Bistro L!VE Milton Keynes, this is my first Blog!

I have been with the company coming up to a year now.

This is an exciting time of year for me, I am looking forward to tackling a new year with the back ground knowledge of last. Also Christmas is soon approaching and our new September-November menu has just gone live. Click here…..

 We are into week two of our exciting new menu and its time for some of us to turn some of our attention to the development of the January and May menus for 2013!

The first step on this journey is to brain storm ideas within the team.

During this stage the ideas in Milton Keynes range from weird, weirder (Chris Pelham) to the wonderful. Once we have a list we break it down and discuss the pros and cons of each dish and also is it really “Bistro Live”.

Once we have ‘picked the bones’ of our ideas its time for the fun bit! We practise and experiment with the ideas in the kitchen for the first time.

The next step is deciding if we feel they are ready to “showcase” to our colleagues in Leicester and Nottingham.

Here are a few  dishes I think could make an appearance on our menu, with a few tweaks, of course….

• Sausage Cassoulet
• Pork loin topped with caramelised apple and stilton
• Broccoli and red pepper lasagne

These are a few dishes we have tested recently and will be projecting at the showcase,

• Roasted Vegetable tart
• Mini Burger with tangy Tomato Sauce
• Halloumi and Caramelised Onion Stack
• Mini Sugared Doughnuts filled with custard and finished with raspberry dipping jam
• Malteaser Cheesecake

This coming week is our Showcase cook off in the Leicester kitchen. The event brings the senior chefs of our business together to show off our ideas and promote for menu use, in this case our Jan-Apr and May-Sept menus.

This is often a great experience to see where everyone else has gone with the brief and their take on where Bistro Live should be heading! It goes with out saying it is also a little competitive.

Bistro L!VE September-November Menu Successfully Launched

Last week saw the successful launch of the new Bistro L!VE menu across its three sites.

After comprehensive menu training sessions in each site beforehand, the menu went L!VE on Friday 31^st August where collectively we served over 1000 covers.

The menu will run from 31^st August until 10^th November and has an even split of summery dishes and winter warmers.

The most popular dishes by far at the weekend were the Cheesy Potato Cakes with sweet Chilli sauce, Chicken Liver Pate with caramelised onion chutney, Chicken Roulade with tomato & herb sauce and Beef Bourguignon (see below)…

We received some fantastic feedback from across the three sites which is very pleasing as so much work and effort goes into changing the menu and keeping in current and interesting for our guests.

Below is piece written by Mark Corpe, Sous Chef at Leicester Bistro L!VE.

The start of a new menu is always an exciting time for us chefs.

Months of hard work, deliberation and a few differences of opinion(!) have boiled down to what I think is a really tasty and classic “bistro” menu.

The good old beef bourguignon is back, a dish which I have somewhat of a love affair with.

Back in the 1980’s, the heyday of the bistro style restaurants, sporting their chequered table clothes, candles, carafes and all the family favourites, the beef bourguignon was king! Since then though, over time the bourguignon has faded away, cast aside as being old fashioned and out of date. Until now that is! Many famous chefs including the likes of Gordon Ramsay, have put their own mark on this dish, and now finds itself firmly back on the menus of even the finest of fine dining restaurants.

And so, with its rich earthy taste, smokey chunks of bacon, lashings of red wine and melt in the mouth beef brisket, the “beef bourguignon” is my favourite. And it’s back!

We serve it with a large quenelle of herb mashed potato, sautéed green beans and succulent chantenay carrots. What more could you want as the weather draws in!!!

For a full look at our menu please click here....

Or to book then please follow this link to our website....

If you have any food related questions please feel free to contact me at spencero@bistrolive.com where I would be more than happy to assist you.

Hope to see you all soon

Spencer
Development Head Chef