‘Awesome’ culinary exchange at Haywards Heath restaurant

Restaurant goers enjoyed an ‘awesome’ Swedish culinary exchange visit in Haywards Heath last week.
Jimmy Gray, Jeremy Ashpool and Christofer Johannson at Jeremys RestaurantJimmy Gray, Jeremy Ashpool and Christofer Johannson at Jeremys Restaurant
Jimmy Gray, Jeremy Ashpool and Christofer Johannson at Jeremys Restaurant

Jeremy’s Restaurant at Borde Hill Gardens welcomed chef Christofer Johansson on September 25, who prepared dinner with a Swedish twist on the return leg of his exchange with Jeremy’s head chef, Jimmy Gray.

50 guests enjoyed raw beef of Swedish milk cow with bleak roe, spruce and herbs from the forest, reindeer with lichens and wild mushrooms, lingonberries and apple, Swedish hard cheeses, seabuckthorn with carrots, honey ice cream and marigolds.

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Guests were also greeted with canapes of smoked char with burned cumin and dried potatoes, elk with fermented garlic, deep fried salmon skin with sour cream and wild leek, drink choice of bird cherry blossom and Blackdown Sussex gin and Ridgeview Wine Estate Grosvenor English sparkling wine.

On 23 June Jimmy visited Christofer at Sjöboden Restaurant in Spiken near Lidkoping, Sweden as part of the exchange, preparing a menu which included a starter of pike-perch accompanied by pickled shellfish and smoked cod roe with lemon, dill and sea vegetables, followed by a main of Balcombe Estate venison loin and sausage with nasturtium gnocchi, lovage, hazelnut and broad beans.

Jimmy said: “I had an awesome time learning new techniques and working alongside talented chefs that I’d never met before.

“Not knowing each others languages wasn’t a barrier to having a fun day in the kitchen, and ultimately creating a showcase meal that we could all be proud of.”

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Guests from across Sweden, including national press, enjoyed a Blackdown Sussex vodka and vermouth martini as a welcome drink.

Andrew Kay of the Brighton & Hove Food and Drink Festival added: “With each International Culinary Exchange project I am more and more excited about the opportunities we have created foryoung talented chefs to share their passion for food, and for us to highlight the massive opportunities that culinary culture and food producers offer in terms of gastronomic tourism.”

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