Menu Development 2013

Hi, I’m James Down, Sous Chef at Bistro L!VE Milton Keynes, this is my first Blog!

I have been with the company coming up to a year now.

This is an exciting time of year for me, I am looking forward to tackling a new year with the back ground knowledge of last. Also Christmas is soon approaching and our new September-November menu has just gone live. Click here…..

 We are into week two of our exciting new menu and its time for some of us to turn some of our attention to the development of the January and May menus for 2013!

The first step on this journey is to brain storm ideas within the team.

During this stage the ideas in Milton Keynes range from weird, weirder (Chris Pelham) to the wonderful. Once we have a list we break it down and discuss the pros and cons of each dish and also is it really “Bistro Live”.

Once we have ‘picked the bones’ of our ideas its time for the fun bit! We practise and experiment with the ideas in the kitchen for the first time.

The next step is deciding if we feel they are ready to “showcase” to our colleagues in Leicester and Nottingham.

Here are a few  dishes I think could make an appearance on our menu, with a few tweaks, of course….

• Sausage Cassoulet
• Pork loin topped with caramelised apple and stilton
• Broccoli and red pepper lasagne

These are a few dishes we have tested recently and will be projecting at the showcase,

• Roasted Vegetable tart
• Mini Burger with tangy Tomato Sauce
• Halloumi and Caramelised Onion Stack
• Mini Sugared Doughnuts filled with custard and finished with raspberry dipping jam
• Malteaser Cheesecake

This coming week is our Showcase cook off in the Leicester kitchen. The event brings the senior chefs of our business together to show off our ideas and promote for menu use, in this case our Jan-Apr and May-Sept menus.

This is often a great experience to see where everyone else has gone with the brief and their take on where Bistro Live should be heading! It goes with out saying it is also a little competitive.