Last night I headed down to Chelsea’s King’s Road to sample the new regional menu at the Bluebird restaurant; ‘the place to be and be seen in Chelsea’. This autumn, Bluebird is celebrating a different British region and their produce each month, starting with the South West. The manager Rachel Edmonds, described the produce they had sourced from Cornwall and Devon, including Cornish red mullet and river exe mussels. We were treated to a delicious selection of canapés, sampling Cornish red mullet soup with a crunchy garlic crouton from the South West, potted shrimp and crab topped with pickled cucumber laid on crostini from the North and London cured smoked salmon blinis. This was followed by a refreshing summer fruit and elderflower jelly from the South and apple and guinness fritters covered in sweet cinnamon and dipped in the creamiest clotted cream from Ireland.
The new menu at Bluebird is a fantastic way to champion great British produce and it’s creators. The head chef, Mark Block chose to feature mussels from The Exmouth Mussel Company as part of the South West-inspired October menu. The environmentally friendly company, run by Myles Blood Smyth, describes itself as “a rare good news story in the troubled fishing waters of the South West” and was a finalist in the Best Food Producer category of the BBC Radio 4 Food and Farming Awards a few years ago.
So head down to Chelsea’s best this autumn and sample the best of British with these quintessential dishes!
Cornish red mullet soup with a crunchy garlic crouton from the South West
Summer fruit and elderflower jelly from the South
(Images: my own)
