A Proper Sunday Lunch FT. Salted Orange Food Co

I am finding that I am really building a passion for finding and writing about local loves. With recent discoveries of such places like the LPAC Theatre it seems only fair that I start to bring a real focus onto what's about locally that people can enjoy. Also, from a tourism point of view, I want to show off what Lincolnshire has to offer, so when the winning of a competition from a local food company came my way it seemed a perfect opportunity to place a Love Lincoln tab at the top of this blogger's page so that you can see all things wonderful and local!

That all said, Last Sunday I was lucky enough to welcome Chef Sam into our home from the Salted Orange Food Company, a wonderful local business who operate in Lincolnshire and Nottinghamshire providing catering for all manner and size of party. I was lucky enough to win one of their Facebook competitions to have a full taster menu cooked at home for me and 8 guests! What a fab prize! And with that I really felt it was fair to share what they were doing to my little space here.

First off what a surreal thing to happen. Sam arrived at 12pm with a van full of cookers, crockery and food, ready and prepped for feeding (in the end 15 of us) a huge 6 course taster meal. I was worrying he wouldn't have enough space to cook with our little oven, and I was making sure there was nothing left on the sides in the kitchen, but in his professionalism, and apparently with all private dinner parties they provide for, they came with everything they needed, and then took it all away without leaving a single scrap of washing too!!

It was amazing! A 'Head Chef' pottering and working round our kitchen. We also had our own waiter which also lent itself to the wonderful gastro-experience that we were all about to have.

I wouldn't say my family are foodies but we know what's good, and we don't need too much fuss with our food. I think that is probably because we are a huge family (It's usually just about getting everyone fed) but I must say, I think this experience changed us all somewhat. We all came away in almost a bit of shock at what we had experienced in the comfort of our home and how such wonderful food was made and presented to us with such ease. 

We in fact were all blown away by the standard, the presentation and indeed the tastes that we all looked at this local food company a bit differently. 

Before I share what we had I really want to emphasise the ease of this for me, as a host. Having made the tables pretty and providing everyone with drinks, that is pretty much where my role stopped. I was able to enjoy fresh food, having it brought to me was amazing and the fact that Salted Orange provide all plates and cutlery and then TOOK IT ALL AWAY UNWASHED was an absolute God send. I mean for any parents or host that is the dream right? No pots to wash after a feast for 15 - Totally amazing!!

Having chatted about the experience, which was overall fantastic, I want to share my views on the food. Obviously when you are having a gastro-cook come and prepare a taster meal I suppose you already have an expectation of what kind of things you are going to eat. I've have had fancy food in fancy restaurants before but what we had, well, it was something really special.

From starting with the aerated celeriac; a very soft delicate foam pot of goodness to then having Ham and cheese croquets on a bed of the tastiest, sweetest tomatoes I have ever tasted. 

I think my favourite was the 3rd course which was a seafood thermidor and was totally delicious. I could have eaten a huge bowl of that, so warming and creamy, completely gorgeous it opened up the door for our main course which was then the most tender brisket of beef and stunning (my mouth is watering as I write about it) gravy that just melted in the mouth.

Our puddings were then a coconut and tonka bean brulee and then a lemon tart with raspberries and meringue. The whole meal was just something we had never really tried in this way before and we all came away amazed.

For us also, Chef Sam introduced the course explaining what everything was and where he sourced specific ingredients from. It was a real opportunity for us to learn and enjoy food together.

What a brilliant thing to do as a family and what an experience to have together enjoying this wonderful local company.

Having had this experience it has shown me how great it is to have a catering company in for a private function. Not only is this area part of the Salted Orange's strengths, they are also big wedding and function caterers and recently have found themselves providing food for food festivals. As an independent and local firm I can't tell you how pleased we were to get this experience and look forward to hopefully eating again with them soon!

We love local.

Emily