[Stockport] A bit of innovation

Stockport is our nearby town and, in normal times, It’s home to one of the most innovative restaurants I know - Where The Light Gets In. You’ll find my reviews elsewhere in this sub-forum. The chef, Sam Buckley, recently appeared on Great British Menu - not cooking as well as he does in the restaurant and being the first to be eliminated from the regional heat.

Of course, they are currently closed but are offering a multi course meal for home delivery. One is coming tomorrow - and we have no idea what it’ll contain - but gather it’ll be a mixture of ready to eat items and items where we’ll need to finish them off. I’ll report back on the meal tomorrow but, in the note telling us when to expect it tomorrow, there’s some of what else they are up to.

They have a farm in Cheshire which provides much of the produce but they also acquired some space on the top deck of the shopping centre car park and are growing more stuff.

They are currently harvesting three types of radish - Cherry Belle, Icicle and French Breakfast. They also have Sessantina - apparently an Italian variety of broccoli. And Bomdong, a Korean cabbage. "Our Korean chef Seri Nam asked her mum to send the seeds over to us from Seoul. Its growth is prolific, and because we can’t harvest it quickly enough we are sending what we can’t use to our friends at Platt Fields Market Garden for their weekly veg boxes. It’s very crunchy and refreshing; great in salads, and in Korea they make a kimchi from it. "

By the by, the Market Garden is a community project which has taken over a disused bowling green to grow food, which it sells on to local people.

5 Likes

Do report back on your experience! I was drawn in when I read the words French breakfast radish—my favorite type.

Interested to hear what the chef does with that produce.

I’ll do a separate full review after we’ve eaten but it’s just been delivered and this is the menu:

Beetroot & sweet cicely tacos, with house made curd

Barbecued beans with sage butter (that needs warming through in the oven)

Baked aubergine with Ogleshield cheese (a semi soft cheese from the makers of the wonderful Montgomery Cheddar) (needs baking)

Heritage grain wholemeal loaf with cultured butter

Pickles

Cured pig cheek, belly & loin with potatoes & spring greens. These are basically warmed through in a pork broth

Plum pavlova

“Something for breakfast” - potato buttermilk buns.

5 Likes

Sounds amazing! What’s the price? I have yet to try one of these kit-type meals and am unlikely to but will enjoy yours vicariously

£35 each.

There’s a couple of other places round the metro area doing the kits (good word, Jan) that we might have a try at. I’m sure they’ll stop as soon as restaurants are allowed to reopen so maybe only a couple of weeks or so for us to try them.

Sounds delicious! And fairly reasonably priced considering it has to be worthwhile for them.

I was sorely tempted by purchasing one of The Man Behind The Curtain cookalongs as I’ve never made it to the restaurant. They’ve been delivering them nationwide which seemed fairly impressive and going by social media people seem to have been enjoying them.

Alas I’ve been tightening the purse strings and couldn’t justify the cost.

Quite a few restaurants seem to be making noises that they’ll reopen on the 4th of July. We shall see…

Man Behind the Curtain is tricky for us geographically. We have a strict rule that we will only normally drive an hour for a restaurant. Anything over that we file away for an overnighter. Leeds is a bit over the hour - and rules are rules - but a bit too close for a short stay.

2 Likes