MeatBlog

‘Meat and mates’ a more truthful description of what Meatclub represents; a small detail I was happily reminded of by former President ‘Gor today. But today was about opening the doors a little, for the first (and perhaps only) time in our ten years, to a breakfast at Hawksmoor, Guildhall with some of our members and ten student/graduate winners of our competition set in collaboration with the Cannt Festival 2012.

Having being inundated with entries from all over the UK (and the world) we chose our ten who responded to the brief. The winners work is here: (in alphabetical order)

Alice & Ellen – The Meat Bow Tie
www.aliceandellen.com
https://vimeo.com/44061894
Alice Ratcliffe (alice.ratcliffe@hotmail.co.uk)
Ellen Svenningsen (ey_ellen@hotmail.com)

Hannah Catchlove
hannahcatchlove@hotmail.co.uk
be.net/catchlovecre8




Janelle & Johnny – The Art of Meatistry
www.cargocollective.com/singafornia
www.cargocollective.com/itstartedwithapencil



Matthew Thompson – Ode to Meat
mt.thompson90@gmail.com


Rose Tuffney – 10th year anniversary
tuffrose@me.com
roseelizabetht.tumblr.com



Soofiya Chaudry – The Vegetarian(!)
soofiyachaudry@gmail.com
cargocollective.com/soofiya
soofiyachaudry.blogspot.com



Tom Evans – Ode to Meat (illustration)
etomevans@gmail.com



Ty Stanton-Jones – Ode to Meat
tystantonjones@gmail.com
www.tystantonjones.co.uk
www.tystantonjones.tumblr.com



Our thanks to the Meatclub members who took time out of their incredibly busy schedules and to Hawksmoor, Guildhall who were (as ever) brilliantly attentive and suppliers of fine Beef Tea followed by a magnificent full english and polished off with homemade jam doughnuts.

Here, for your viewing pleasure, is some of the awesome food enjoyed at Hawksmoor today:

We were really very honoured to have received so many entries for our special Cannt Festival 2012 Meat Greet Eat Breakfast. Some fine talent from across the globe (seriously!), along with some unusual ones too (you know who you are.)

However after four pots of beef tea, a huge breakfast and much debate we have chosen our ten winners. They are:

Winners (in no particular order)
Tom Evans for his Illustration
Alice and Ellen for their Bow Tie
Hannah Catchlove for her Plates
Janelle & Johnny for their Hand
Matthew Thompson for his Ode to Meat
Soofiya Chaudry for her Vegetarian attempt
Rose Tuffney for her Logo
Ty Stanton-Jones for his Ode to Meat

You will be joining this array of legendary talent around the Hawksmoor, Guildhall breakfast table next Wednesday:

Meatclub Elders
Marcus Hoggarth – Design Director of Native
Simon Gill – Executive Creative Director at LBi
Massimo Pini – Co-founder Netro42 and NEWCARNET
Davide Quayola – Artist
Chris Dumont – brand & packaging design consultant
Graham Wood – Head of Art, JWT
Tony Davidson – Global Partner & Executive Creative Director at Wieden & Kennedy
Simon Waterfall – Creative Director, Fray & Board of Trusties at The Design Council
Steve Price – Founder/Creative Director at Plan-B Studio
Angus Montgomery – Editor at Design Week

A winner for the logo and Ode to Meat will be announced on the day.

We need your email addresses and also if any of you really are vegetarian(!), or has dietary requirements can you please email LilChef: steve@plan-bstudio.com

Bloody well done (or blue). See you lucky lot on Wednesday morning at 08:30am, full details to be emailed.

Here is a lovely poster to feast your eyes on:

12oz Kobe Bavette
Today’s breakfast was this rather wonderful 12oz Kobe Bavette. (And, you know, some eggs.) The Japanese don’t export Kobe/Wagyu higher than grade 5, so they just make their own in Idaho. I think this was a grade 7. Kind of a protein onslaught but the Gor-metabolism is well primed and ready to handle this kind of thing.

For those who can’t go to Canne there’s Cannt, a brilliant, week-long design fest for those staying put in London. (www.cannt.org) co-founded by Ex-Presidenté Gilly and Laura JB.

This year Meatclub has been invited to take part and we thought we’d host a breakfast. A special breakfast where we invite ten budding new talents (students or graduates) to win a place at the breakfast table with the Elders.

But there’s a competition to win your seat. We’ve written a brief and everything! Successful entrants will be given a choice of briefs to answer:

1. Ode to Meat
Take our Ode to Meat and do what you like with it; re-write it, make it in to something, illustrate it, whatever.

and/or

2. Design our 10th year anniversary badge.
To commemorate our tenth anniversary you can design the badge to adorn our Meat Jackets. This can be any kind of badge. The more meaty, interesting and strange, the better.

Important dates:
Deadline for submissions: 18:00, Wednesday 13th June
Winners announcement: 5pm, Friday 15th June
Breakfast: 08:30, Wednesday 20th June

The Brief: Meat, Greet, Eat: Meatclub Cannt Festival Breakfast

That’s a nice little post on the It’s Nice That blog. Per Johansen, gluttony and art.

29th Feb 2012

A fabulous little establishment in the crux of Essex Road and Upper Street in Islington (in the old S&M place), tastefully decked-out in an eclectic mix of pie & mash tiles, cafe stainless steel, Scandinavian panelling and 60s print wallpaper. Not as busy as it should have been upon our arrival, it instantly became quite crowded as we elbowed ourselves into occupying a full half of the restaurant. I’d speculate that the lack of patronage may be due to the chef’s almost ruinous distain for salt, perhaps that the food was not salty enough, or it could be that almost every dish needed a little more salt. I know that sodium chloride is the current pariah of dietary health but when one is indulging in already cardiac-arresting red meats and saturated fats one might, at least, enjoy them.

Otherwise, they did us proud with the menu: a smorgasbord of meatiness veering between guaranteed favourites and slightly off-piste I-ought-to-order-that-more-oftens; the staff were delightful and didn’t seem to tire of being so, even after our 20th bottle of wine; the sweetbreads* and springbok were spectacular; and the prices very reasonable.

All in all good, but use the salt shaker.

Meat People, 4-6 Essex Road, London N1 8LN
020 7359 5361
www.meatpeople.co.uk

An aside note to the proprietors: Your site lists your phone number as “0207″ 359 5361. This is a one of those bugbears that drives me to disproportionate apoplexy. The “7″ is part of the phone number and not the area code – if one wants to call the restaurant from within London, one would need to dial 7359 5361 not 359 5361… And it’s not just you, it’s bloody everywhere. I can’t understand how a first-world educated population of such a broad cosmopolitan city can demonstrate such obtuse parochiality. Also, with an indifference to modern navigation, you don’t have your postal code on your website. You instead refer to “… just off Islington green”. With a lower case “G”.

* And – before I get off my horse – “sweetbreads” is one word, not two. I was expecting fried brioche…

Tig x

My contact over at Jamie Oliver towers just informed me of something rather special.

On Thursday 10th March, both the Trattoria and Restaurant of Fifteen London will be taken over by the world’s most famous butcher, Dario Cecchini. And when we say “world’s most famous” that’s no exaggeration!

Dario will be creating a special tasting menu inspired by his restaurant ‘Solocicca’ (based in Panzano, Tuscany). He’ll be joined by his childhood friend, the legendary wine and olive oil producer Giovanni Manetti from Fontodi Estate. It will be an interactive evening with Dario and Giovanni on hand to explain each course and wine pairing in detail.

The evening will include a tasting menu, wine pairings by Fontodi Estate, tea/coffee and water. It’s guaranteed to be a once-in-a-lifetime event for any lover of great food and wine so be sure to book a table soon as we anticipate this special event will be hugely popular.

Following on from a busy 2009, 2010 held many surprises and treats. A indubitable feast of flesh

January
A month off

February
The Hope & Sir Loin, Smithfield (Breakfast)

March
Hawksmoor, Spitalfields

April
Boisdale, Bishopsgate

May
Ninety9, Way out east

June
Roast, Borough Market (Breakfast)

July
Rivington Arms, Shoreditch (Fleshmob)

August
The Harwood Arms, Fulham

September
Paternoster Chop House, St Pauls (Gorival)

October
A La Cruz, Farringdon

November
Boisdale, Bishopsgate (Breakfast)

December
Bistroteque, Hackney

Once a year it’s Christmas and here at meat club we need to celebrate it, in the best way possible. Now with such expectation can come disappointment, you know, the way you used to think a party or gig would be the best ever, for it to never hit the heights.

So after some courting, and input from an inside source we managed to get our date with the Bistrotheque and their special private room. Such a treat for the festive season. If you haven’t been to Bistrotheque you have a missed a treat, you really have. It’s in East London, nestled in the factories, just off the Hackney Road in a New York style warehouse. Finding it can be a challenge and it’s very easy to drive past.

Back to the meat

To start we had their excellent Steak Tartare, it’s something Bistrotheque is proud of and rightly so. It was made from Long Horn Scottish rump. Very very tasty.

For our next set of courses, our chef Tom Collins and Shaun decided to go a off menu and serve up two Hoggets. Cue a brief explanation of what a Hogget actually  is and how it relates to a lamb and a mutton:

• Lamb — a young sheep under 12 months of age which does not have any permanent incisor teeth in wear.
• Hogget — a young male sheep or maiden ewe having no more than two permanent incisors in wear.
• Mutton — a female (ewe) or castrated male (wether) sheep having more than two permanent incisors in wear.

Our hoggets were 18 month old Black Face hoggets from a farm called Fooks Bros in Dorset. They are known for their meat being tender and relatively mild even when the sheep are approaching mutton age. A key factor in choosing older meat.

The hoggets were served in a selection of cuts & dishes (see above). The pressed belly was incredible, in fact it was so good I’m sure it should be illegal. The confit shoulder was a thing to behold, and probably the best piece of lamb I have ever eaten – tender beyond belief. The leg was gargantuan and carnal, great for attacking with your teeth. And the kidney pie was fantastic, with its quality pastry be eulogized by many a member.

Then came the desert – a cheese called Beenleigh Blue. It’s a sheeps cheese made in Sharpham Barton in Devon and has a salty, full, rich and sweet flavor. It is often said to have a similarity in taste to a fino sherry.

As the evening drew on, our 33 members and guests became full of Christmas cheer and joyful noise. Only once where was asked to perhaps lower the volume which at that point was a fair call. For we had the passing of the Chef’s Knife – a beautiful piece of hand engineered metallurgy with 101 layers of folded forged nickel stainless steel. Yes its very sharp.

And so with that, came to the end of my Presidency of London’s greatest dining and meat appreciation club. Thank you Bistrotheque for hosting a great evening and thank you Meat Club for some amazing memories.