insideKENT Magazine Issue 68 - November 2017 | Page 97

the fried stone bass lost out to the chicken
breast with roasted leg, baby carrots, carrot
fregola and hay mayonnaise. Before you scoff
at somewhere I’ve not only referred to, but
have headlined ‘without gimmicks’ serving
hay mayonnaise, bear with me…it’s very
ingeniously made by burning hay with a
blowtorch, pouring oil over the top of that and
then storing the oil in a preserving jar. The
whole process is repeated with the same oil
every day for a fortnight to intensify the flavour
and it works, tasting phenomenal when paired
with the tender sous-vide chicken breast,
which was dewy with rendered fat
and accompanied by the savoury bite of a
roasted leg. restaurant’s website blurb states it offers dishes
‘with a twist’, nothing is twisted beyond
recognition. OK, there are here are hints of
Stanford’s wandering imagination – such as
the hay mayonnaise and the elderberry
meringues – that punctuate the menu, but
there’s neither an ‘unctuous’ item, nor a
deconstructed anything in sight. There’s style,
substance and thought behind every
ingredient put on the plate, which results in
remarkable quality and creativity too.
Painstaking though the methods behind
Stanford’s fantastic food must be, they’re for
the kitchen to know and the diner to savour;
refreshingly, Pascere’s not concerned with
shouting about it.
My only slight reservation about opting for
the confit trout with trout tartare, roast, pickled
and charred cauliflower and elderberry
meringue, was confusion on whether the
elderberry meringue belonged on the plate. I
couldn’t quite grasp the concept…which is
clearly why I’m not a chef. The trout was mild
in flavour and meltingly soft, lifted by the
cauliflower in its various guises and absolutely
complimented by the flavour of elderberry,
which melted out of its little crunchy
meringue shells in bursts, adding more depth
and texture to the dish. I stand corrected. The restaurant’s biggest twist appears to be
where the notion of fine dining is concerned
and how the restaurant has translated this into
a stage set for both fans of fine dining and
fans of great food, but great food that doesn’t
have to be eaten over a four-hour, ten-course
extravaganza. As contemporary dining has
evolved, the ‘tasting menu’ seems to have
become synonymous with fine dining, but
they’re two different styles of eating entirely
and Pascere is loyal to them both.
Besides the incredible quality of the food,
Pascere’s very best feature is that although the
You can pop in for a small plate with a glass
of wine (go for the Portland crab tart with
shellfish custard without hesitation); you can
opt for three-courses – this year’s festive à la
carte menu includes tasty new additions such
as rabbit saddle and leg with lobster mousse,
and pan-fried halibut with bacon lardo and
chestnut puree; and, if you want to go the
whole hog, the yuletide ten-course tasting
menu (pictured below) is an irresistible mix
of appetisers (all hail the afo rementioned
crab tart), smaller plates like mushroom orzo
with blue cheese, and main events including
roast goose.
Pascere is so wonderfully unstuffy it’s a breath
of seaside-fresh air. A classy escape in what
can be a frenetic city, it knows what it wants
to do – welcome people in and feed them –
and it does it with understated artistry and just
the right amount of edge.
Pascere
8 Duke St
Brighton
BN1 1AH
www.pascere.co.uk
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