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| The pass at Aumbry |
To quote Simon Hattenstone in The Guardian circa 2010, ‘Aumbry
is not the kind of place you’d expect to find in Prestwich, the suburb’s suburb.’
I would go further and venture to say that Aumbry is not the kind of place you’d
expect to find in Manchester.
With the exception of the Wine Glass at Etrop Grange, Manchester doesn’t
boast a wealth of restaurants where the chefs have honed their skills at the
Fat Duck. Nor does it boast many restaurants that have garnered national
acclaim: Mary-Ellen McTague won Up and Coming Young Chef of the Year in the
Good Food Guide 2011.
With this in mind, Anna and I had high expectations of this
small but much-lauded neighbourhood restaurant. It had been on our ‘to-go’ list
for some time and then all of a sudden came an invite from Echo PR to attend a Christmas
dinner.
We took the tram and found ourselves, fashionably early, sipping champagne and snacking on
some wonderful smoked almonds in the upstairs reception area. A light snow, the
first this winter, had just begun to fall and, as I eyed the Christmas
decorations and the 9-course menu, a sense of contentment washed over me. I
felt as though we were in for a real treat.
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| The reception area |
Right, overblown rhetoric out of the way, let’s talk food.
To whet our appetite we are given
bread accompanied by an ornate bowl of beef dripping and roasting juices,
cleverly masquerading as oil and balsamic. The conversation turns on the idea
of beef fat solidifying in your arteries. It’s so delicious that no-one cares.
The amuse-bouche was pig’s head terrine – a delicious morsel
that it is hard to say much about, so I shan’t.
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| Pig's head |
The obligatory smoked fish dish was an undeniable favourite.
The mackerel was so delicately cured; it makes a nice change to see it cold-smoked. The garnishes of pickled
beetroot and mustard cream were, albeit standard, perfectly judged. The
presentation, too, was spot on (we're still wondering whether the beetroot was the most perfect puree I've ever seen or a spherification).
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| Smoked mackerel |
Heston’s influence shows through in the next dish – Bury
Black Pudding Scotch Egg. Anyone who watched the How to Cook Like Heston series
or owns a copy of Heston at Home will be familiar with his warm scotch egg
hiding a perfectly runny yolk in the centre. It is a tricky feat to pull off
but so satisfying – bursting a perfectly cooked yolk always seems to elicit
quasi-sexual moans from diners. No wonder this dish has become a signature at
Aumbry.
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| Black pudding Scotch egg |
The celeriac soup which followed will become the stuff of
legend, the story passed down from generation to generation about the origins
of the world’s greatest soup. Prestwich in the 2020s will be full of well-heeled
types mumbling to themselves: "celeriac, truffle, chestnuts.." Never have I
heard such ecstatic praise for a bowl of soup in all my life. And it wasn’t
even superfluous. Perfectly seasoned, light yet rich celeriac soup with a
perfect amount of truffle oil and some meltingly soft chestnuts at the bottom.
Go and try it!
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| Celeriac soup |
Everyone is in high spirits as we move on to the main
courses. The Royal Roast consists of a ballotine of duck, pheasant and
partridge with bread sauce, stuffing, roast potatoes, and brussel sprouts.
There was some speculation in the taxi home as to whether the meat had been
cooked sous-vide. It was exceedingly tender but the texture of the duck in
particular was strange. To my surprise, the highlight was the brussel sprouts,
thinly shredded and cooked with bacon and chestnuts. Mental note to try this at
our Christmas dinner and to recreate the seriously flavoursome stuffing. Anna was a little disappointed with the roast potatoes - not quite as good as ours!
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| Three-bird roast |
The Lyme Park venison stood out for me as the richest and
most savoury of the dishes. The medium-rare, scarlet loin paired with
slow-cooked haunch, sweet parsley root and woody, bitter brussel sprout tops – close
to perfection! This is the kind of dish I long for. This was served with a Austro-Hungarian wine, Meinklang 'Konkret', a bold red with soft tannins which complemented the venison
perfectly.
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| Venison |
By now I will admit to being sated and not at all in need of
dessert. My memory also becomes hazier the more wine I drink. Funny that. The
sherry trifle etched itself into my consciousness with the mandarin and thyme syllabub
that accompanied it. A flavour combination I don’t recall having before. The Christmas
pudding was notable for the sheer amount of dried fruit it contained. And the
mince pie was, well, a very good mince pie. I have admittedly glossed over the desserts
but I do think although appropriate on a Christmas menu, they were never going
to have the impact that the savoury courses did. A special mention goes to the 2009 Chateau Jolys, a buttery wine with hints of honey and peach, it worked well to enhance some of the slightly more bitter notes of the syllabub.
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| Christmas pudding |
I’ll end on a note about service. I wish I had noted down
the name of our waitress because throughout the nine courses she gave a
masterclass in how to wait on a table. Her timing, knowledge, humour and the
right degree of formality made the whole meal flow beautifully - not to mention that she also doubled as a fantastic sommelier. I hope Mary-Ellen reads this review and gives her a Christmas bonus!
Christmas is a time of year for comfort and decadence, yet it can sometimes prove difficult to merge these two feelings. Aumbry have managed to grab hold of both of these feelings and delicately transformed them into a beautiful tasting menu. At £45 for seven courses, it is exceptional value. We were lucky enough to be guests of the restaurant, but would have gleefully paid this amount for food of such quality. I have it on good authority that dishes of such high standard aren't just a Christmas treat for Aumbry visitors, and look forward to returning in 2013 to see what else I can be simultaneously soothed and seduced by.
Aumbry
2 Church Lane, Prestwich
M25 1AJ
0161 798 5841
