Shock Horror - a great shot outside the house

[monkey66]

Where - in Brent Cross Shopping Centre, Fenwick's dept store, Carluccio's Cafe.

For those of you that don't know Carluccio is a very famous Italian chief based in the UK. He originally had a high end Italian restaurant in central London, then expanded with a series of cafe's/delis selling his own brand of high-end Italian produce (he has also published several books and had a television series or two).

Now they have always served nice espresso (they source their own beans), correct size and served with a small glass of water but I've never been as impressed as I was yesterday.

I stopped in for a small snack (yeah right after buying a new kettle (ours blew up on Wednesday....what do you know I got an overpriced Dualitt as it was red and chrome...I'll post a picture).

I was in two minds whether to order a coffee as I was going home soon (where I know the consistency of the coffee) so watched the machine for a while (not that I picked a table that gave me a vantage point or anything).

As with all Carluccio cafe's I have seen they used a big, 3 group black Gaggia machine (automatic flow control) and their own beans. The first good sign is they opened up a fresh bag of beans just after I arrived. I couldn't see tamping procedure but I could see nice long pours going into cups.

I decided to order a double at the end of the meal and it was great. not quite to the top of the (double) cup, mottled crema. Tasted sweet and full bodied with great roasted almond tones.....didn't order another as it couldn't possibly live up to the first.

[zapty]

Sounds very good.
I used to watch his cooking shows on Tv, great chef, great recipes.

[bruceb]

Great to hear this! We like his cookbooks, too.

[wvb]

never heard of him,
but then again, I'm not really into cooking

glad you had a shocking good experience though

[CakeBoy]

Nice one Monkey

This is interesting because there is a huge Carluccio's at the outlet village near us. I am sorry to say that they have not, to date, managed to serve even a remotely decent cappuuccino to us (and consequently we rarely even consider going there now for coffee).

A fellow TMC'er accompanied me there for a spot of lunch some time ago and we had to put salt in the coffee to make it bearable. Lunch can be hit or miss too; either very fresh or apparently microwaved .... no middle ground. I am desperate for it to improve and am very pleased to hear it appears to be this branch rather than the whole chain.

As for the deli, the tubs of Florentine hot chocolate and the cookbooks ...... stunning stuff, love it

[Johnmac]

I use his Italian baking book quite often, Panforte, Hazelnut and chocolate cake...hmm.

Good chefs put so much care into food and wine, why not the coffee? I had a very long lunch at one of the Jamie Oliver's 'Fifteen' restaurants a couple of weeks ago and in an attempt to regain a mental state approximating consciousness ordered a double espresso. The extraction was okay but it was a bit stale - a shame after everything else had been great.

[CakeBoy]

A very good point John, and one that frequently irks many round here.

How can restaurants go to so much trouble to ensure the food is exquisitely world class and then serve second rate stale coffee? Indicative of the very real lack of knowledge and understanding of coffee in general I fear, and a symptom of an industry that is profit driven over any form of quality ..... the exceptions being Steve and a few notable others who, as Steve puts it, do "treat coffee as a fresh food", just as it should be.

[leecb]

Good chefs put so much care into food and wine, why not the coffee?

Some of us do care passionately!
Quality coffee and great muffins here

[CakeBoy]

Good chefs put so much care into food and wine, why not the coffee?

Some of us do care passionately!
Quality coffee and great muffins here

Grrrrrr ......... MuffinGirl

[Johnmac]

How can restaurants go to so much trouble to ensure the food is exquisitely world class and then serve second rate stale coffee? .

IMO part of the explanation is the way that labour is usually divided in restaurants. Tea and coffee are usually the job of the front of house staff and coffee is off the radar for most chefs. You would expect that a Gordon Ramsay or a Heston Blumenthal would come up with something interesting if you gave them a whirley popper and some single origin beans for an afternoon - almost tempted to do it.

[leecb]

Well I'm not GR or HB but I do take care of the food AND the coffee and I have trained the staff as much as I can. Also I have employed people (as much as possible) who share the passion. As far as I know lots of chefs would do the same given the opportunity, but in many places coffee is considered part of the bar as you say and we are not given the chance to oversee it. Shame!

[Johnmac]

It is a shame that more chefs don't oversee it. On the other hand people like Blumenthal, Oliver, Ramsay etc can do what they want - Oliver serves up stale Illy. When I did my apprenticeship coffee really was off the menu, it wasn't something that we did and we only learnt how to make drip coffee as part of our food service training. I think it would be quite cool to see Blumenthal consider how to make the best possible espresso.

[leecb]

Why don't you write and ask him to give it a go, I'm sure there are enough of us to help him get started on the right path

[CakeBoy]

Tell him is is luvverly-jubbly pukka stuff and all will be fine

[leecb]

I think if you told Heston that he would probably deck you thinking that you were either taking the piss OR confusing him with Jamie Oliver, in either case a good smack would likely swiftly follow