Julbord… or Yule bored?

Another Christmas week has crept up on me, my cards are still not written or posted and I’m frantically trying to seek out a last-minute gift for my mum that doesn’t reveal my last-minute desperation. However, I have been relieved of one less worry this year – Christmas dinner. Living with a foodie means that the kitchen is out of bounds to me this season.

While out sharing a glass or two of Christmas spirit with an American friend, we discussed our yuletide plans. She revealed that this year she would be hosting a dinner for the season’s orphans, i.e. those that who won’t be spending the holiday with their own families. Being a Christmas orphan isn’t as sad as it seems, in fact it’s really good fun. No listening to elderly family members telling the same stories that they tell every year, just before falling asleep in front of the TV, no trudging through snow storms, only to find yourself stranded for days in a town that you can’t wait to leave and of course, the obligatory Christmas food that we are forced to eat that we wouldn’t dream of eating on any other day.

I admit that although my mother is a woman of many talents, cooking is not one of them, so I am spared the traditional yule menu. Instead, it has become a ritual to rush into the food department of Marks & Spencer (a UK institution) to pick up my favourite ready meals. My dinner of choice is usually curry. I’ve been doing it for years.

As my friend would be hosting a fellow American and a Swede, I asked which traditional menu she would be following? “None” she responded. “We decided that I would serve our favourite dishes.” Why do we subject ourselves to foods that we don’t enjoy during the most indulgent season of the year? Does the bible state that god wishes to eat turkey or roast ham? Does eating brussel sprouts signify the suffering and hardship that the Virgin Mary endured for mankind? Throughout the month Titti and Igi have been serving Christmas revellers during countless office Christmas parties. Although you can be guaranteed that a Christmas meal at Bloom is far from conventional, Titti does include some ingredients traditional to the season. As Igi explains “It's a shame to depart from tradition, but one gets fed up of Christmas after a month or so. One of the reasons may be because all the shops start peddling their Christmas stuff so early, so by the time the holiday arrives, it’s an anti climax! However, I love a roast... any kind of roast at Christmas, followed by cold ham the next day! Titti is a typical Swede, she likes Herrings, prins korv and liver paste.” Whatever meal we choose, the most important things are surely the company that we share it with and that whatever we are fortunate to be served, we should receive it with gratitude.

Check the news section for opening times during Christmas and the New Year.

Picture This

This week the creative team of Sweden’s top kitchen manufacturer, Ballingslöv, headed into Bloom’s kitchen to photograph Titti and the team at work, capturing mouth watering, atmospheric cooking shots for its forthcoming kitchen catalogue. Like six degrees of separation, there’s a link between Bloom in The Park and Ballingslöv and that is the celebrated architect and furniture designer Jonas Lindvall. Credited for designing Bloom’s highly acclaimed interior, Jonas is also the star designer behind some of Ballingslöv’s most popular kitchen collections and features in the manufacturer’s current advertising campaign. The Ballingslöv team could not have chosen a more inspiring setting.

Picking on Redzepi

Since my first visit to Bloom almost 18 months ago, and also perhaps as a reflection of the current zeitgeist for an interest in provenance, I’ve become increasingly interested in discovering new flavours. Whenever I dine at Bloom, the arrival of each dish is like receiving a well-wrapped Christmas gift. Part of the fun is guessing the ingredients in each mouthful, poking, prodding and dissecting each component for clues. Next comes the joy of discovery as Igi reveals the origin of each flavour and colour. From woodland berries, to flowers picked by the shore, it’s amazing how unaware we can be of the bounty to be found in the nature that surrounds us.

I read an article in The Daily Telegraph newspaper about René Redzepi’s recent trip to London for the launch of the new Noma book. As a PR exercise, the chef was joined by fellow chefs Ben Greeno, Valentine Warner, and author Miles Irving to go foraging on London’s Hampstead Heath. Now, chances are that you if you’ve heard of the north London heath, you’ll know that it is more familiar as a gay cruising spot, frequented by celebrities such as George Michael. So it came as quite a surprise that the celebrity chose this spot for plucking cooking ingredients fresh from the ground. Personally, I don’t fancy the idea of eating anything from an area that is constantly littered with used condoms, but hey, I guess it’s one way of getting press. However, for once, the latest scandal involving a celebrity and Hampstead Heath was not of the sexual kind. The problem was that locals expressed concern that the chef’s foraging spree would inspire profiteer’s from selling the heath’s mushroom’s onto expensive restaurants for a profit, wiping out many varieties of fungi that grow upon the heath, or that the uninformed would mistakenly pick deadly species. Maybe Mr Redzepi should stick to collecting closer to home, as it seems that the residents of Hampstead are not such fun-gis after all!

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/foodanddrink/8154563/Noma-head-chef-accused-of-illegal-mushroom-picking.html