It was a return trip to William Drabble at 7 Park place and the first stop on another London foodie weekender. We chose Chefs Tasting menu again as it had totally hit the mark on our first visit ( see here ). I`ve known Chef William for a number of years now, he`s a great guy and as i explained in my first post on 7 park place, he comes from the stables of my legendary Chef hero, the great man himself ” Nico Ladenis” ..enough said.
So at this point I`m going to explain about my dramatic dive into the gutter with the foodie photos below. I`ve already done comparisons with my 2 cameras on previous posts ( Lenclume pics ) and normally wherever i go my little pocket sized Panasonic Lumix LX7 is glued to my eyes. In a drawer at home i also have a state of the art Nikon D800 ( better known as “the Bazooka ” ) and 3 very good lenses.These all sit there totally lonely and just gather dust….basically because i dont know how to use them and also because i prefer the quality of my £300 lumix for all of my food photography. The photos below of the food at 7 park place demonstrate perfectly that i can`t use my £3000 camera at all. …Cue the pro.
The whole idea behind this London trip was for me to come down and have a day`s tuition with London based food photographer `Paul Winch Furness` and spend a day being taught how to use my Nikon D800 before i finally gave up and sent it off to Ebay. Paul acually teaches small groups of photographers how to take photos of food and it`s only £120 for a full day including a feast for lunch. You `ll see the results in my next post.
So here`s my meal at William Drabble and my terrible results using the Nikon in program mode using a 50mm standard lens. Apologies to Chef William. I can only blame the camera as always and not the photographer…..Oh and David from The Critical Couple who also dared me to have my Lumix surgically removed from my eye , and leave it at home….. it was like having my arm cut off.
Note – My next blog post will be the photos from my full day with Paul photographing the food and interior at restaurant `Roti Chai ` and my first effort at SLR photography in Manual Mode……Awesome , just wait and see the difference a little bit of tuition can make….and so on with the meal.

There wasn`t any form of Canapes or Amuse served before the Tasting menu began which came as quite a surprise.I would have expected a little something as it`s pretty much industry standard wherever you go these days. There was no `pre dessert` served ,another surprise on a tasting menu. Anyway , it was straight into the meal with a Bang and the Seared Foie gras with Roasted Quince and Hazelnut dressing. It always hits my sweet spot , i adore Foie gras in any shape or form.

Marinated hand dived Scallop with Dorset Crab and Blood Orange Mayonnaise. Only a small taster for two decent sized guys but what was there was good.

Ravioli of Langoustine with Savoy Cabbage and Foie gras cream sauce…Beautiful old school , i could have eaten a dozen of these no problem.

Griddled fillet of Sea Bass with Creamed Leeks , Mushrooms and Red Wine.

Ballotine of Foie gras , Wild pigeon and Turnip – One of Chefs dishes from his time working at Michaels Nook in Grasmere and the dish  has stayed with him ever since….Best course of the night. Best end of Lune valley Lamb with Onions and Thyme – Ive never had Lamb cooked as perfectly anywhere – ever. Chef has used the same cooking technique taught to him by Nico Ladenis years ago and has never faultered since…..I ate it at Nico at Ninety park lane and it`s identical to this day….Amazing. ( and i know the secret too )

Selection of Cheese from Paxton and Whitfield.

Caramelized Banana with Banana parfait and Caramelised Milk – Bit of a let down on this course for me i`m afraid to say.I actually thought that this was the pre-dessert.Not a lot of effort , no showmanship from the pastry section and it really shouldnt have been a showcase dessert on a tasting menu.

Petits fours – A perfect  little selection of sweet treats.

Marshmallows – As many as we could eat.

All in all a decent meal for £69. Some nice classics and `old school` cooking methods which i dearly love…Lamb , Foie gras , Scallops, Sea bass , Black Truffle , Langoustines , Cream and Butter = Satisfied.