When hired as a Private Chef, Alan Dawes serves up more than just a plate of food – he creates the experience of eating at a fine dining restaurant in the comfort of your own home.
Alan’s passion for great food started at the age of 16 when he moved to France to work in Michelin-starred restaurants and learn the secrets of great French cuisine. His career in the UK saw him work at multiple award-winning restaurants and under such Chefs as Marco Pierre White.
Earlier this year, this multi-talented cook launched his e-book ‘Cook Fine Dining in Your Home’ with some of his favourite recipes, accompanied by wine pairings from Sommelier Gavin Wrath – a UK-born wine professional with more than 16 years’ fine dining beverage experience.
"When I am in people’s homes I get asked a lot of questions on how I create these type of dishes outside of a commercial kitchen and what inspires my creations, with the inevitable question of ‘can I get the recipe?’ following each conversation,” Alan explains.
"I love how intrigued people are by my food and it is a truly humbling experience that people have the desire to try to recreate my dishes. I have spent years collecting books by famous Chefs so I could try to recreate some of their dishes; to be on the other side is a fantastic feeling.”
Alan dishes up a four-course menu you will be proud to serve to guests – they’ll think you are a superstar – to celebrate our Degustation Week theme:
Start with veal tartare, pickled beetroot and herb mayonnaise, garnished with edible flowers from the garden; before a second course of Land and Sea – Fraser Island spanner crab, with oyster mayonnaise and kohlrabi pickle, which is as pretty on the plate as the palate.
For the main, impress diners with duck breast, carrot and ginger purée and orange vincotto. Alan recommends leaving the duck to air dry in the fridge for 24 hours, removing it an hour before cooking.
"When cooking duck breast, don’t use any oil or butter as it has its own fat and a lot of it. To add something to this dish, you can make some duck fat potatoes using the rendered fat from cooking,” he says.
For a stupendous finale, Alan’s White dessert is not to be missed.
"White is one of my signature desserts – I wanted to finish the dining experience by invoking a sense of mystery and fun, a guessing game if you like between the Chef and the guests,” he explains.
"The concept was to create flavours that you couldn’t see, but could only taste and disguise common tastes that usually have a distinct colour to them.”
To purchase Alan’s book, click here.
