Eating Out at Bistro Live this Christmas

Whether you’re hosting your Christmas party at Leicester, Nottingham or Milton Keynes this year. You can be sure you’ll be served up a treat!

I love the Christmas season, for us foodies it’s an excuse to really indulge ourselves in copious amounts of good food and drink. (Not like we need an excuse!) And this Christmas will be no exception, we’ve just finished fine-tuning this year’s Xmas menu and we have spared no expense.

Our aim was to really push the boundaries of quality, those of you that partied with us last year may notice a few changes to the menu. I’m a big dessert fan and the standout dish for me this time around is the luxuriously rich mincemeat and cranberry tartlet with cointreau cream, sugared and baked to perfection. All homemade of course right here, go on indulge your sweet tooth!

You can see our whole Christmas menu by clicking here.

 

Making someone’s day!!!

Many people feel that having an allergy or intolerance to foods; can be a daunting and difficult experience when visiting restaurants. From personal experience, I know how frustrating it can be when asking waiters about certain foods and they ‘shrug’ their shoulders or give you that puzzled look.

Which is why we at Bistro L!VE are different! We build our menus in a fashion that allows us to provide a good quality dining experience for people who have allergies and intolerances. We train ALL our staff in dietary information and the dishes that can suit. It is often we will make a dish slightly different just to accommodate a certain requirement. We provide this as standard for all our customers; all we ask is a bit of notice to allow this to be possible. And if our customers are still unable to have something off the menu or perhaps even do not fancy anything on the menu, then we will create a meal which the customers would prefer. Chefs are also available to talk to customers before, during and after the evening if you feel you need to. You can even pre-order your meal with us.




We make sure you can feel comfortable whilst out with your friends and family, no one need know that you have something different. For example, we have sourced and served ‘fake turkey’ for some Christmas customers before so YES people can still enjoy the joys of the festival season without feeling different. Below is an example of what we do and the impact it has both front of house AND back! Well done Rachel!!!

Spencer Ollington

Development Head Chef

Bistro L!VE

In the Christmas of last year, after a long day at work, a customer sent a note into the Bistro L!VE Nottingham kitchen:

‘To the kitchen team, thank you so much for a delicious gluten and dairy free meal, I have never had such a tasty and satisfying meal at a function like this. It has also been years since I have enjoyed real stuffing with turkey. Thank you for making what can so often be a very difficult occasion into a relaxing meal out with friends’

21/12/10 Angela Lucking

Now I don’t know about you but this made my day, it’s a note that I still keep in the drawer of my desk. Whilst Christmas can be a busy (and sometimes stressful) time for us, it is nice to know that what we do makes a difference!

Rachel Bartlam

Sous Chef

Bistro L!VE Nottingham

A Training Day with a Difference...........

Well as most of you know, training days can be a bit of a bore, but here at Bistro Live, we like to make things fun....

As you may know we have a new menu starting this week and what better way to learn the delicious menu, than to invite all the staff along to a training session where they learn about all the new dishes they will be serving to all of our guests, whilst getting the chance to eat them and give us their feedback on what they like and are not quite for them. So I gathered the Bistro L!VE Nottingham kitchen team together and we went through the complete menu. We then worked as a team to create all the tasty dishes.

My personal opinion is - I think this menu is amazing, it’s got such a vibrant nature, and it’s creatively made using fine quality ingredients and with love and flair. It’s the perfect menu for this time of year with in the run up to Christmas.

The feedback we gained from our Bistro family was invaluable. I think the Sticky Pork will always be a firm favourite, however it will gain direct competition from our fun and quirky Mini Fish ‘n’ Chips and also from the elegant and vibrant Butternut Squash & Wild Mushroom Risotto.

Also there was a very good response from The Fish Dish and the Chicken, Gammon & Mascarpone; many said the Lamb Rojan Josh was perfect, not too spicy, well cooked and perfect for a night out.

And the desserts, well - everyone loved them!! The Banoffee Cheesecake got such an amazing response - the way it looks and its taste; it will definitely be a firm favourite among many.

The Apple & Raspberry Crumble was perfect, not too much custard and the perfect balance of sweetness and crunch. The Profiteroles well they just win every time. Its that simple – who could turn down a pile of homemade choux buns filled with a sweet vanilla cream and topped with a warm luxurious dark chocolate sauce?!

I hope you enjoy the menu as much as we enjoy preparing it for you.

John

Head Chef

Bistro L!VE Nottingham

Leicester's New Autumn Menu!

Hi, my name is Gary, I am the Head Chef at Bistro L!VE Leicester.

Did you know.... That from next week we are launching our new Autumn menu. The kitchen team at our Leicester branch are really looking forward to it as there are lots of great new dishes like, the ‘Butternut Squash and Wild Mushroom Risotto’ and the ‘Banoffee Cheesecake’ mmmm !!!!!.

That's just a sample of our new dishes on offer, If your not already tempted you soon will be when you see the rest of the menu . So round up the gang and get yourself booked in to taste these superb dishes. All of the food is made fresh on the premises by our team of talented chefs.

If you have any questions please feel free to contact me on 0845 33 11 500, I look forward to seeing you soon.

Gary

Head Chef

Bistro L!VE Leicester

Home from home………………..

Well last week, we had an experimental cook off at Bistro L!VE Leicester. We produced different ideas that we may or may not use on future menus. This gives us at Bistro Live a chance to meet up, and do what we do best - create fun, interesting and delicious dishes. I suppose it is like our ‘play time’, but with a serious objective.

Now I don’t know about the rest of you, but going somewhere new is kind of daunting! Having recently been made into the new second chef in my kitchen, I was looking forward to this day but also nervous, not because I didn’t know any other chefs but it was going to be foreign to me. My head chef took me and our third chef along. We all had dishes to create and present. These took a bit of research into different ways and techniques, which is fun to me, as I like learning new ways of doing different things. We were able to make some of the dishes healthier and suitable for different dietary requirements, such as gluten free, which is always good.

We made:

......

.........Sweet corn and Chilli.............................Soup Vegetarian Hot Pot

...................Fish Pie ...............................................Mini Fish and Chips

..Cauliflower Bhaji with Curry Oil ...............Onion Bhaji with Aubergine Raita

These dishes were fantastic, and very yummy, with all three sites we made around 24 different dishes so we all learned something new. And we had fun and worked as a team. I am looking forward to having more opportunities such as this in the future. I hope that some of make it on to some future menu’s.

Rachel

Sous Chef

Bistro L!VE Nottingham

Mark Corpe Professional Overview

Mark Corpe is currently the creative young sous chef at Bistro L!VE in Leicester. Since taking over as sous chef in 2006 he, alongside Head Chef Gary Brickles has helped to push the standards of food here to an extremely high level, with a fresh, modern take on European cuisine.

At Bistro L!VE Mark is responsible for helping to create and implement new seasonal menus, training and overseeing a kitchen brigade of over seven staff, whilst handling food purchases and stock for the entire operation at Leicester. With a broad experience base of over 8 years in the hospitality and catering sectors, including A la carte, banqueting and private events, Mark is an intricate member of the team here at Leicester.

Smoked Salmon Roulade and Chive Buerre Blanc

I love this dish, It's so simple to make and there's no cooking time involved! The roulades are great for summer and for a starter at dinner parties, it's fresh, classical, looks great and it's very very easy. It can be made in advance as well. Remember to roll them nice and tight!

Serves 4

Ingredients:

Long cut Scottish smoked salmon x 1 side

Soft cheese x 250g

Lemon juice x 1 lemon

Chives x 1 small bunch

Butter x 150g (cut into 1cm cubes)

White onion x 1 small (finely diced)

White wine vinegar x 4 tblsp

White wine x 100ml

Cracked black pepper x pinch

Recipe:

For the Roulade

In a small mixing bowl combine the soft cheese, half the chives finely chopped, the juice and zest of half the lemon and a pinch of cracked black pepper.

On a sheet of cling film lay out the side of smoked salmon and spread the cheese mix evenly, covering the salmon all the way to the edges.

Here's the tricky part, start to roll the salmon from bottom to top (not head to tail) this is important as rolling it the other way would result in a rather lumpy roulade that you will struggle to fit on your plate! Once rolled wrap in cling film and chill in the fridge for at least an hour.

For the Buerre Blanc

In a small pan add the chopped onions, white wine vinegar and white wine and reduce over a low heat until syrup like. while still over the heat add a couple tablespoons of water and stir in a cube of butter at a time, waiting for each one to fully dissolve before adding the next. Chop the rest of the chives remembering to save a few nice sticks for garnish and add to the sauce, squeeze in the rest of the lemon and season to taste. At this point remember to keep the sauce warm or the butter will set. So think about preparing this sauce at the last minute!

To Plate Up

When portioning the roulade make sure it is nice and cold this will make it easier to cut. Trim off the ends and slice into about 1inch long pieces, this should be enough for three a portion. Arrange in the centre of the plate, maybe lay one on it's side? Drizzle the buerre blanc around and garnish with a couple of chive sticks.

Enjoy...