In Conversation with …

Michel Bouyer, Head Chef at the Bonham

It was the excellent fishing in Scotland that lured Michel from his native Brittany. Over the years that passion has not diminished. His rare days off are spent happily fishing. His interest in the Scottish countryside has fired another interest which lucky diners at the Bonham are getting the chance to savour. Depending on what is in season, his new tasting menu may feature wild garlic gathered on the on the Tyne river bank, or wild watercress from a fast flowing stream or an excellent crop of wild mushrooms brought on from recent warm humid weather has resulted in

Michel praises the farmers’ markets that have appeared over the last few years, but expresses his frustration. “They are just not on regularly enough for chefs to take advantage of them. In France for example, a chef would source product for his menus from a daily visit to the local market. Here, that’s just not possible”. Michel explained that he is able to source excellent meat and fish, but fresh vegetables are more difficult. “We used to source some fabulous salad leaves from one company. Unfortunately, it just wasn’t viable for them to stay in business. I would love to see the Scottish Executive really do something to encourage growers and to avoid all the food miles”. There is a trend is some restaurants to reduce the number of suppliers used, not so in the Bonham. “We have many suppliers which takes more time, but we are passionate about using the very best ingredients”.

Before we finished our conversation, we discovered a mutual passion in baking sour dough bread. I confess to using a packet of San Francisco starter. (For those of you have not come across this before, sour dough bread is made with a wild yeast starter that has to be fed regularly to keep it alive. Some starters can be kept going almost indefinitely). Michel whisks me off to the kitchen to show me how his starters are getting on and explained that he created his wild yeast starter came from crushed grapes put into a bag of bread flour. He and his staff are currently experimenting with different ways of working with the sour dough to find the optimum technique. I can vouch for Michel’s wholemeal sour dough bread – it is absolutely delicious.

For more on sour dough and other great breads, buy a copy of Baking with Passion by Dan Lepard & Richard Whittington (of Baker & Spice in London).

The Bonham
Ask about Michel's special tasting menu.