Perched atop the Victorian Quarter in Leeds, pre-prandial sloe gin fizz in hand, I began to appreciate how tricky it is designing a ten-course meal.
You see, it’s not just a question of lining up ten of your favourite dishes and making sure none of them are too similar. It seems there is a fine line between Chef Richard Walton-Allen crafting a subtle menu which would do justice to his decade at Harvey Nichols and Richard Walton-Allen crafting a menu which would make you leave the restaurant feeling like you had done ten rounds with an all-you-can-eat buffet.
If one decides to embark on such a decathlon in favour of the normal menu, the sum of the parts needs to big enough to make your stomach, your mind and your wallet feel like you have enjoyed such a feast. But if the menu is too rugged, there is that terrible possibility that diners will only make it to the sixth or seventh course before staggering away from the table.
Each dish can’t infringe on the next in terms of flavour, yet each still needs to maintain enough character to keep it lingering in the mind hours after the taste has gone.
So it was this in mind that I looked down the menu to flag up potential problems – to predict that point where the lengthy menu could get the better of me. Courses seven and eight, I thought, could deliver the double killer blows - slow-cooked Dales shin beef with anise and ginger, bok choi and mushrooms, followed by a brulee baked apple with Metaxa raisins.
Richard Walton-Allen’s menu, described by the man himself as “dishes and ingredients I can remember being favourites of our customers and the team alike… inspired by great produce and a wandering pallet,” starts off far away from the North Yorkshire produce which influenced so much of his cooking. A thick black bean soup arrives with two dollops – one of salsa and the other of sour cream – floating in the centre. The pleasing soup is chased down with a punchy New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc – the menu has an option to have paired wine to accompany the dishes.
Next there’s a tiny Yorkshire goat’s cheese and slow cooked onion tart, with pea shoots tossed around the plate for a little bit of spring colour. I’ve travelled from Mexico to Yorkshire to Italy by course three – Venison Carpaccio with Tuscan oil and grilled flatbread. The smooth, raw venison is brought to life by little flecks of Parmesan and more of those in-season pea shoots.
A little meaty north coast cod fillet, sitting on a dessertspoonful of crushed artichokes comes next, surrounded by a light pea and bacon sauce.
The halfway dish is perhaps the best – a study in deep reds and purples, the beetroot and horseradish ravioli comes topped with thinly sliced ox tongue and some pickled cabbage.
Next is sea trout with Cumbrian Ham and creamed leek– not a million miles from the cod in terms of inspiration, but still good.
And then we’re on to my Nemesis – the shin beef. It’s rich and savoury and works fantastically with my glass of Australian Shiraz. Neither too meaty nor too measly – the course is just enough to add a little bit of eastern flair to proceedings.
The first dessert – a little baked apple filled with custard and surrounded with Metaxa-soaked raisins – is enjoyable, but I struggle with the chocolate mocha tower which follows. It’s too rich and too not light enough. Perhaps on a normal day, without eight mini-courses behind me, it might have been a tower conquered with relish.
The night is rounded off in the pleasing shape of a threesome of cheese from Yorkshire: Yorkshire blue, Yellison and Wigmore all joined by a rather good glass of Harvey Nick’s own port.
The ten course taster menu, more than anything, has a real sense of personality – there’s no escaping the Yorkshire influences, but they combine wonderfully well with those little global flecks of colour which Richard Walton-Allen has picked up in his decade at the Harvey Nichols Fourth Floor café.
The ten course taster menu runs until July 6 and costs £55 per head and an extra £25 per head for the paired wines.
To book call 0113-204-8000 or e-mail
leeds.reservations@harveynichols.com