A good friend recommended a hotel for us to stay while we were in London, and while St John Hotel is fantastic it is not inexpensive.  When we arrived we went to the first hotel, dropped our bags and went for a walk, and not 100 feet from our doors we stumbled onto St John.  My friends know me very well.

Needless to say, we stepped inside for a glass or two and some oysters.  The appearance of the restaurant is striking.  White walls, high ceilings, plain and sturdy furniture, chalk board covered in menu items.  If I'm being honest, it was intimidating and exciting to just stumble, unprepared, into a restaurant that's been on my mind for years.

When our much anticipated first morsels of food arrived I picked up my oyster and tried to slip it gently into my mouth but to my surprise it did not slip, the abductor muscle had not been cut.  A few pokes with a fork and it was released, but it was a jarring first bite.  Whether it was a mistake from the kitchen, or an aesthetic decision to not interfere with the food I can't say.  I can say it was embarrassing, sitting at the bar at a Michelin Star restaurant unable to out smart my mollusc.  It took a minute or two and another glass of wine to compose myself, but I did. 

Roast grouse (my first), lamb shank, eccles cake and cheese, lemon sorbet and vodka - the rest of the meal went smoothly, and was delicious.  The grouse was challenging, rare and meaty.  The area of the bird where it had been shot was a bit bitter from the pool of blood, but my dining partner (an experienced grouse eater from Wisconsin) ensured me that this was part of the grouse experience.  This will not be my last time eating grouse.

Anyone who has the chance, please go eat at St John.  The aesthetic experience, the service and the food are all worth the trip.  I plan on going again, hopefully soon. 

While flipping through the Escoffier cookbook looking for culinary insight I came across a recipe for a simple omelette filled with kidneys.  Being the sort of person who keeps a few lamb kidneys in the freezer for just this sort of occasion, one was immediately placed in the fridge to defrost.

Gently fried kidneys, nestled inside a fluffy egg omelette.  I cannot recommend this dish enough, the kidneys are meaty and a little crisp from a dusting of flour and a quick sear in a pan and the eggs are soft and fluffy.  A piece of toast, a cup of tea and you are well on your way to starting your day in a wonderful frame of mind.

Lamb Kidney Omelette

Makes a one person omelette

-1 lamb kidney
- 2 tablespoons all purpose flour
- 1 tablespoon butter, divided
- 2 eggs, beaten
- kosher salt and cracked black pepper
- finely chopped parsley, optional

Clean lamb kidney by removing fat and interior sinew, cut into 1 inch pieces.  Season flour with salt and pepper and toss kidneys in seasoned flour.

Heat 1/2 tablespoon butter over medium high heat, once foam has subsided add kidneys and cook tossing often until all sides have browned, about 5 minutes.  Season to taste with salt and pepper.  Remove from pan and reserve.

Wipe out pan, return to heat and add remaining butter.  When foam subsides add eggs.  Once eggs have begun to set add kidneys (and parsley if you're using it) to one side of the omelette.  When eggs are set to your liking fold omelette in half and serve immediately with tea and toast.

The hotel itself is a lovely place to walk into on a rainy afternoon.  The lobby is small, mostly a receptionist's desk, entry to the restaurant, elevator and stairs.  The receptionists were all friendly and polite. Upon arrival we were told that we had been upgraded from a post-supper room to a room.  The difference as far as I can tell is that the bathtub isn't in the bedroom, which is a quirky aesthetic choice I was looking forward to (not that the upgrade wasn't a wonderful surprise).  The room is sparse, with a bed, table and a few stools.  It's very white and bright with bright green floors.

Once we were settled I investigated the minibar.  It was without a doubt the most amazing minibar I have ever come across.  Far beyond the expected Coke and peanuts, there was a wide array of digestifs (Fernet Branca and Poire William being my two favorites)  as well as what looked like some very good scotches and half bottles of both vodka and gin.  There was also Champagne, cider from Normandy and Italian beer.  The half bottles of gin and vodka were the most thoughtful addition. Honestly, who finds one evening cocktail satisfying?  Especially when traveling.

After dinner at the hotel restaurant we took a stroll around Leicester square and headed to bed for the night.  A few hours later I was feeling a twinge of hunger, so after taking a look at the room service menu anchovy toast was on its way.

Simplicity is the essence of what St John is about.  There are no decorations on the wall and there are no garnishes on the plates; simple, clean, minimal.  There were a few experiences where this simplicity was almost aggressive.  The feeling was of butting up against a wall, the wall being a firm aesthetic choice.  The anchovy toast is a good example.

Full disclosure, there is one slice missing.  The smell was hard to resist.

A large piece of toast, what I'm assuming was one slice from the full length of a sandwich loaf, toasted on a grill with some sort of fat and spread with what the staff calls 'gunge'. 

It's brown.  Gunge on toasted bread.  There's nowhere to hide any sort of flaw - this dish must deliver on every level.  And, happily, it does.  The texture of the toast is given something extra from the fried texture it gets on the griddle, and the gunge itself tastes of more than anchovy (garlic for sure, maybe another spice or two) and has an appealing emulsified consistency.

Salty, savory and crisp.  This anchovy toast is exactly what I wanted at 2:30 in the morning. The room, minibar and room service were all truly memorable and lovely experience.s  Everyone who can make the trip please go spend a night or two at this unique, aesthetically thrilling boutique hotel.

During the Halloween season nose to tail eating gets a few choice moments in the sun.  Food TV seems to trot out heads, tongues and trotters at the same time as they whip out the cotton cob webs and witch hats.  Eating all the less desired bits of animals conjures something sinister in many minds, as if there is something unnatural about happily munching on pig tails, chicken feet and liver.

For the last year I've been writing a couple recipe columns for SeriousEats, and in honour of Halloween I thought I'd post a few links to the more nose to tail inspired posts that the benevolent Editors in SE headquarters have let me sneak through.

Deviled Kidney's on Toast

Curried Lamb Shanks

Roast Fish with Lemon and Herbs

Steak and Kidney Pie

Fried Sweetbreads and Carrot Salad

Red Wine and Tomato Braised Oxtail

Hope everyone has a happy and safe Halloween, filled with many delicious, scary meals.

A few weeks ago I was lucky enough to spend a few days in London, and a couple of those nights were spent at St John Hotel and St John Restaurant. 

I'm a fan, I'll admit it.  My copies of both the first and second cookbooks are worn and covered in food.  But up until this point I'd spent no time with the actual food or restaurant.  I was a fan in concept, but I had no experience with how that concept was executed.

The next few posts will be about my time at St John.  The things that exceeded my expectations, as well as an instance or two where I was surprised or disappointed.

I'm looking forward to getting to relive my pilgrimage to St John, and maybe trying to recreate a favorite dish or two while I reminisce.

This Friday we're embarking on a two week European adventure.  First stop London - and we're staying at Fergus Henderson's new hotel!  To say I'm excited is an absolute understatement.

There will be much to follow, but I'm off to pack.

Cleaning out my freezer I came across a pair of trotters from our meat CSA.  I'd been telling myself that I was going to bone them out and stuff them, but considering how long they'd been sitting in the freezer that seemed pretty unlikely.  Instead I turned to Fergus Henderson's second book Beyond Nose To Tail and made a lazy version of trotter gear.  By lazy I mean I put mirepoix, red wine, peppercorns, some water and the trotters in my slow cooker and let it go for 6 hours.

The house smelled terrific.  Once my slow cooker was done I strained the liquid and picked through the leftovers removing all the large bits of vegetables and bones.  Then I tore the large bits of skin, tender cartilage and meat into small pieces and placed it back in the rich liquid.

After it set in the fridge overnight I really got to see how thick the liquid actually was.  Gelatinous is an understatement.  Prying a chunk out to cook some 4th of July collard greens in took both a spoon and a knife.

The flavour is intense, meaty and very porky.  

Not really sure what to do withe the rest of my trotter gear, I'm open to suggestions.

Thanks to an old friend from graduate school I recently had the privilege of teaching a nose to tail eating class at Newbury College.  The students were all seniors, excellent cooks and enthusiastic about food.

We cooked a lot of food - grilled pig tails, chili beef heart, snapper collars, sweetbreads, marrow bones and as a special treat Jamie Bissonette left us a pig head from his butchering demo.  It was an awesome day and I really hope they invite me back next year.

Here are a few pictures from that class - and if any of those students read this and want to cook some more offal sometime soon, definitely drop me a line!

Ham is always beautiful thing - but there's something especially special about a nice leftover ham bone.  Unless you're a compulsive ham eater ham bones only come around a couple times a year, and it's a big decision picking out the recipe to use it in.  A simple pot of beans is one of my favorites.

Here's my simple recipe for beans, if you've got one I recommend using a slow cooker - if not just simmer it away over a low stove.

Ham Bone Beans

• 1 onion, chopped
• 1/2 lb dried navy beans
• 1 ham bone with plenty of meat
• 1 cup ketchup
• 3 cups water
• 2 tablespoons brown sugar
• 1 tablespoon maple syrup
• 1/2 teaspoon smoked paprika

Fry onions in a knob of butter until soft.  Add dry navy beans, ham bone, ketchup, water, brown sugar, maple syrup and smoked paprika.  Simmer over very low heat until beans are soft but not falling apart adding more water as needed, 3-5 hours.

Or, put everything in a slow cooker and cook on low.

Serves 4-6

Next month I'm teaching a nose to tail seminar at Newbury College.  A friend of mine is teaching a semester long Ethical Eating class and has asked the amazing Jamie Bissonette to teach the first nose to tail section, and me to teach the second.  It's awesome, I'm so excited.

One of the things I want to touch on is what the broad philosophy of eating nose to tail is - essentially "using virtually the entirety of any plant or animal" (as always, Fergus Henderson said it best).  My animal recipes are pretty solid, but I felt like I needed to round out my plant section.

The soup portion of this recipe is curried carrot and coconut soup, and the carrot top oil adds a slight grassy flavour to an otherwise sweet soup.

This recipe is vegan.  I've been trying eat vegan during the daylight hours, but since I've gone back to my day job its been incredibly hard.  Still working it out.

Serves 2
Active time: 25 minutes
Total time: 45 minutes

• olive oil
  
• 1/2 onion, finely chopped
• 1 bunch of carrots with tops, carrots chopped into 1 inch pieces, tops reserved
• 1 inch piece of ginger, finely grated
• 2 teaspoons curry powder
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
• 4 cups vegetable stock (or water)
• salt and pepper to taste
• 1/3 cup vegetable oil
• kosher salt and cracked black pepper
• red pepper flakes
  

Heat olive oil in bottom of stock pot over medium high heat until shimmering.  Add chopped onion and sweat until just beginning to colour, about 10 minutes.  Add carrot and sweat until just beginning to soften, about 6 minutes.  Add ginger, curry powder and cumin and cook until spices being to smell toasted and fragrant, about 5 minutes.

Pick tender leaves off of carrot tops, you should have about 1/2 cup.  Bring a small pot of water to a boil and blanch carrot top leaves for 10 seconds, drain and cool immediately in ice bath or under cold running water.

Dry leaves well using paper towel, coarsely chop and mix with 1/3 cup vegetable oil and pinch of salt.  Using an immersion blender or standing blender puree leaves into oil.  Let sit.

Once carrots are tender season puree with either a immersion blender or standing blender.  Place pureed soup back into pot and add 1 cup coconut milk and to taste with salt and pepper.  Add some red pepper flakes too, a little spice is really nice in this soup.

Serve this soup drizzled with carrot top oil, and a few toasted almonds.

Excited to spend some time in a classroom again - and even more excited to see a bunch of eating nose to tail recipes being made at the same time.