Alimentum

I would like to start this with a thank you to Mark Poyton and his team at Alimentum for an incredible birthday lunch and also a sorry as this was back in march and I should have posted about it before now (sorry mate).

I was lucky enough to meet mark when I worked with him on his course for Kai we care back in 2011 and had wanted to go to Alimentum since then, I finally made it down to Cambridge for my birthday this year. As my wife has a couple of allergies I was in contact with Mark about this before our meal and when we arrived I couldn’t wait to see what we would be having.

I am not 100% sure of all the dishes we had as Mark cooked us what he had planned and I never saw a menu but will do my best to remember them, Mark had managed to work out a meal where lizzie and I had a nearly identical meal with only subtle changes to accommodate lizzies allergies.

Some dishes didn’t even make the camera as I couldn't wait to try them. just before we get to the pictures, Mark I'm sorry if the descriptions are wrong and if you can give me the menu descriptions i will put them right on here.

Salmon, broccoli, puffed rice & yogurt sorbet

Crisp, clean flavours a prelude to what was to come 

Heritage carrot salad

The absolute highlight of my meal, amazing carrots that showed what can be achieved with real skill with seasoning and bringing the best out an ingredient. It was served with a goats cheese ice cream, awesome on its own better with a mix of carrots.

Halibut, pumpkin seeds, butternut, savoy & trompette mushrooms

This was lizzie's favourite course, beautifully cooked fish with the seeds adding texture as well as flavour the trompettes adding an earthiness to the dish.

Beef and onions

Perfectly cooked beef with ragu of oxtail, bone marrow and onions cooked in a variety of ways including puree, roast onion and crispy fried onions. this was a plate full of flavour and skill balancing the huge flavour in the oxtail ragu and the richness of bone marrow the different taste and textures of the onions. To me this was a masterclass in putting a main course together, everything on the dish deserved to be there and nothing was there for show.

Pear & rhubarb 

A very elegant dish to finish the meal of pear and rhubarb both done a couple of ways, fresh pear, pear sorbet, poached rhubarb, rhubarb gel and i think brown butter powder. as with everything i ate that lunch it was beautifully presented, full of flavour and original.

Just to finish i would like to add that the service was bang on, the guys really do sell the restaurant and marks vision for it brilliantly. To say i enjoyed my meal is an understatement i will defiantly be going back in the evening at some point to do the full on tasting menu and i suggest if you have not been you get down there, it is defiantly worth a journey thats for sure.

Remember live to eat don't eat to live