If you were ever in any doubt about the quality and range of home-grown produce in and around Ledbury then last night’s Café Supper at the Market House Café would have changed all that! With glasses of Sixteen Ridges wine (locally made from Worcestershire grapes) in our hands, Norman Stanier from Dragon Orchard and Once Upon a Tree told us all about the wine and their exciting new venture. We then ate our way through a delicious menu of local food (see below). The only problem being whether to choose the Artisan Bread & Butter Pudding or the Herefordshire Apple Dumpling, but my neighbour and I sorted that by swapping halfway through – a tactic followed by a few others, I believe!
A big thank you to Heather and Alan Tookey and all their staff at the Market House Café for hosting our inaugural supper. Not only did the café look superb but everything ran like clockwork and there was a real buzz about the place. Like all good parties, it’s success was shown by the fact that it was quite hard to persuade people to leave at the end of the evening – we were all having too good a time!
And, of course, an equally big thanks to chef John Devine for not only cooking such a scrumptious meal but being prepared to talk to us about it too. I know several of us diners wanted to know just how you made potatoes quite so tasty, which he readily explained, although I am not sure I have the skill to make them quite so melt in the mouth… He explained why he had chosen that particular cut of beef, those particular vegetables and how he had cooked it all – plus how he made the thin, crisp and utterly delicious pastry around the apple dumplings.
We hope this will be just the start, and that other cafes will want to host similar evenings. Your feedback on the evening would be much appreciated. Contact any of the Food Group with your thoughts and ideas, or scroll down to “Leave a reply” and add your comments – and any photographs – to this post. We look forward to hearing from you.
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Market House Café & Deli
1 The Homend, Ledbury HR8 1BN
Friday November 14th 2014
Slow Cooked Herefordshire Beef
served with a rich Wye Valley Ale Sauce
Roasted Root Vegetables
Buttered Cavolo Nero
Sliced Potatoes, baked with cream & cheese
~ : ~
Artisan Bread & Butter Pudding
with our homemade whisky orange marmalade
served with Herefordshire clotted cream
Or
Herefordshire Apple Dumpling
with a cider syrup & double cream
~ : ~
Tea or Coffee
£20.00 per person
List of our Suppliers
Herefordshire beef – D T Wallers, Ledbury
Apples & Cider – Once Upon A Tree & Dragon Orchard
Dairy – Cream & Milk – Bartonsham Farm, Hereford
Vegetables & Potatoes – Carey Organics, How Caple
Eggs – Chacely Vicarage Farm, Glos
Butter – Netherend Farm
Mineral Water – Holywell Malvern Spring Water
Coffee – Hunters Coffee, Worcester
Ale – Wye Valley Brewery
Cheese – Taynton Farm, Glos
Bread – Peter Cook, Hop Pocket