The British Frozen Food Federation (BFFF) and the students of Westminster Kingsway College joined forces for the week of 8 to 12 August to open N-Ice, a gourmet restaurant serving top quality food, made using only frozen components.
Hospitality and Catering News were invited to attend, so we accepted and Rowan Crowley, Publisher of Sustainability4Hospitality took two customers to try out the food, here are their findings…
The menu included a main course from twice Michelin starred Atul Kochhar, a vegetarian dish from TV’s Simon Rimmer, and a secret recipe dessert from Galton Blackiston, who also has a Michelin star.
Brian Young, director general of BFFF commented: ‘N-ice is one of the courageous and most exciting projects ever undertaken by the BFFF. We are going all out to prove that frozen food delivers the same quality and taste as fresh food and have deliberately been audacious in our menu choice.
‘The fact that we have three of the UK’s best chefs on board is true testament to the fact that the tide is changing for frozen. We have proved our case with science and facts and now it is time to show that the proof of the pudding really is in the eating.’
The menu, designed by the chef lecturers of Westminster Kingsway College, featured striking dishes such as crisp fried spicy John Dory with grokha chutney, roast chicken breast with Moroccan spices with a chicken ballotine stuffed with dates, cous cous and harissa sauce and mango soufflé with a Ghanaian liquid chocolate centre, served with a macadamia biscotinni.
Chef Atul Kochhar, renowned for reinventing Indian cuisine, said: ‘N-ice is a bold move – and not before time. There’s been an unfair stigma associated with frozen food for a long time. N-ice has been purposefully designed to challenge frozen’s image. Its quality has improved dramatically over the years and it is now on a par with – and sometimes better than – chilled equivalents.’
The proof…is in the eating
The N-Ice restaurant aimed to showcase the very best in frozen ingredients, and HandCNews and its guests was delighted to be invited to test the results, which turned out to be truly impressive.
Jacki Walker of Equip Line / Tec Line summed up N-Ice as ‘A Frozen Food revelation!’ and went on to describe the experience:
‘I was fortunate to be invited to the Fine Dining Rooms at Westminster College to sample some tempting dishes on offer from the N-Ice menu – which was verified as 100% Frozen Food.
The Menu read like that of a gourmet restaurant, making it difficult to decide – finally I settled on Atul Kochhar’s crispy fried spicy John Dory with grokha chutney and a really delicious cold noodl-y sort of salad which had terrific heat and flavour without rendering the taste buds useless ever after.
The fish was not what I expected (pan fried fillet with crisped skin): when it arrived my expectations rose as I seemed to recall Atul Kochhar had developed this on the Great British Menu. The outer batter coating was crisp and a lovely deep bronze colour – sadly, inside the batter was ‘squidgy’ yet the fish overcooked. Not quite sure how that was achieved, and feel it really would benefit from more development work to ensure customers would choose it on subsequent occasions.
The main course of grilled mahi-mahi marinated in garlic & lemon was sublime and cooked to perfection – as an avid fresh fish eater, I could barely believe this quality filet had been frozen. The bed of white beans, piquillo peppers in a delicate ginger butter sauce……what can I say? Other than I will shortly be begging the Westminster College team for the recipe and searching for a supplier of frozen Mahi-Mahi! (I don’t want to talk about the squid – you know the old saying ‘if you can’t say something nice, don’t say anything at all’!).
Most people expect frozen desserts to be excellent and this remained true of my Gooseberry cheesecake with rhubarb compote and vanilla ice cream, which left no footprint on my plate.
The purpose of the meal was to measure opinions on frozen foods prior to the meal – and then measure again after the meal. Without question, I have been rocked out of my complacent purchase of frozen peas and spinach………’
Nick Green, of Villeroy & Boch, also enjoyed the opportunity to assess what frozen food could deliver:
‘An interesting concept to change your view of frozen food! We all think of peas and chips and a few ready meals (usually curry), but N-Ice put together a great menu to rid everyone of the misconception of bland frozen food.
The Smoked Duck with Quail Scotch Egg was finely smoky flavoured with a delicate warm Scotch egg, whilst the Grilled Mahi-Mahi – a fish I had never heard of – was meaty and full of flavour enhanced with the white beans, piquilo peppers and ginger butter sauce.
Dessert was a slight disappointment: the petit pois ice cream with basil and mint doesn’t
do it for me – all I could think of was fish and chips!
However, the extensive menu truly showed the new versatility of frozen food, and I
for one will look at frozen food in a new light from now on.’
The conclusion: frozen food is indeed better than N-Ice!
The BFFF has successfully made its case: there’s no doubt that frozen food can deliver high quality and taste, whether meat (HandCNews can testify to the success of the beef encroute), poultry or fish, vegetables or fruit.
Many diners at N-Ice enjoyed a meal that will have changed pre-conceptions and helped to remove any lingering stigma around frozen food.
And then, of course, the BFFF can point to the benefit of the significant reductions in wastage – from field to plate – offered by frozen foods…