In search of the elusive penny bun

By Celine Jeanine, Assistant Manager at Sam’s Brasserie

I grew up in centre of France where mushrooms grow in great quantity. The first autumnal rains were always well received as we knew they meant it was the beginning of the mushroom season. Girolles, ceps, lactaires and many other fine forest treats would be on the menu for the next two months.

We had mushroom hunting class at school, usually during September and October on Fridays, so we could take our harvest home for the weekend. I would then go mushroom hunting again on a Saturday or Sunday with my dad. I remember being very proud of knowing the Latin name of every mushroom I was able to recognise and telling him which ones were edible or not. I realise now that he probably knew all that already!

20 years later, although every day my nail varnish matches my top and I spend far too much money on make up, I still enjoy mushroom picking in mucky woods, surrounded by spiders. Maybe it’s not too dissimilar from buying the perfect outfit - you have to consider the season, the colour, the place…

It’s a warm Sunday afternoon in Kent, following a day of heavy rain. Summer is over and the annual mushroom hunting ritual is about to happen again. We all seem to be a bit over excited!

I get my equipment ready: Wellies, cap, my mushroom knife…. I will grab a stick once I’m in the woods. I ask for plastic bags when I notice that everyone else takes a plastic tray or a basket. I make up an excuse and say “in France we use plastic bags to separate the different types” – but it’s really because you don’t want to tell the other foragers what’s around! We all have a favourite spot and it’s a secret you can only share with your family.

After a 20 minute drive we finally get to our ‘hunting ground’. Birch, larch and chestnut trees and big bushes of holly. Not what I’m used to in France where there would be plenty of oak but there’s such a strong smell of mushroom that I’m still confident I will have a cep omelette or a wild mushroom soup tonight.

They all start picking bay bolete, slippery jacks, winter chanterelles and amethyst deceivers. I’m getting a bit worried, I’d better stay away from colourful mushrooms - they don’t look safe to me. I decide to focus on one target: The penny bun aka cep or porcini.

After 45 minutes luck’s not on my side and I only have two penny buns in my bag whilst everybody else has got a fair bit of everything in their trays. Then I come across twenty girolles (or chanterelles) within a few minutes and my good mood is back as I love them.

I get a funny feeling when I pick mushrooms, I can almost taste them when they are in my hands. Three more penny buns, I’m satisfied now and we can leave. We could stay a bit longer but I’m really looking forward to my dinner!

Thinking about wines for autumn and food to go with them…

By guest writer, Patricia Langton

With autumn now upon us I find myself turning to hearty red wines to go with the great choice of food around at this time of year. Some new season venison and a drop of Argentinian Malbec would hit the spot right now.

Many Italian reds also come into their own as the colder weather and shorter days arrive –Nero d’Avola/Shiraz ‘Il Paradosso’ from Sicily is new to the list at Harrison’s and a great winter warmer.

Pesquera Crianza from one of Spain’s best known wineries – Bodegas Alejandro Fernandez - is also making its debut on the wine list. It hails from Ribera del Duero in northern Spain where the locals pair this rich Tempranillo wine with roast lamb. France has something to offer for every season and every occasion. However at this time of year I look more to Bordeaux, the Rhône and the myriad of wine regions making up the Languedoc-Roussillon in the south of the country. Or, if you’re looking for a New World take on Bordeaux, try the Klein Steenberg red blend at Harrison’s - it’s an inspired choice from the Cape winelands.

“A new wine list, a new blog”

We've a lot to say about our fantastic new wine list so this has inspired us to start a blog about it and anything else we think you might find interesting! Our first blog is written by Shelley, Sam's Restaurant Manager...

A little over five years ago, shortly before Sam’s opened it’s doors to the public, the new team of staff gathered for training… wine training, menu training, service training, reservations training, you get the picture.

One of my favourite training sessions was our first wine tasting with Charlie Boyd. As someone brand new to the restaurant industry and with little or no real wine knowledge Charlie was, to me, a genius sharing little nuggets of information we could use to sell wine to our customers. Some of it useful, all of it interesting.

“This is the wine that was served on the final night of the Olympic Committee’s visit to London before they announced that we had won the 2012 Olympics,” he said of the Mount Edward Pinot Noir. Whether it is true or not I can’t be sure, but I have used that bit of information on many occasions when recommending the Mt Ed Pinot.

“The closure on a bottle of real Champagne requires exactly six twists to release it,” he said. A genuinely useless piece of information I have shared with customers and staff over and over.

Five years later, and with an almost completely new wine list, save a few old favourites, we had Charlie back to train our old and new staff on our mostly new wine list. I had to smile as he opened the first bottle of Champagne, “The closure on a bottle of real Champagne only requires…,” he told our interested staff as he opened a bottle of Mailly Grand Cru Brut, a rich, dry Champagne with a biscuity nose and fresh bread and mineral flavours on the palate. It’s a perfect aperitif on the list at £38.

So perhaps not all of the patter has changed, but the wine list has, with a fresh new face and some interesting additions. Gros Manseng, a grape grown primarily in South West France, is something else Charlie taught us about. A varietal that is new to both Sam and me and that we are suddenly seeing everywhere (I suppose the sentiment in the cycle safety campaign on the telly must be true, “the more you look out for something the more obvious it becomes”). This grape, according to the Oxford Companion to Wine, is expected to follow Viognier’s path to popularity among white wine drinkers and at under £20 is a great value bottle that works on its own or with food. Try it with rich, creamy vegetable dishes, smoked fish or goats’ cheese.

Chile is, more and more, becoming a region of choice for lovers of good value Pinot Noir and we have found an example that won’t let you down. Sol y Sombra Pinot Noir Reserve from La Playa, a serious producer in the Central Valley. I love the name, say “Solly Sombra”, it just sounds like a bottle of fun – and for the most part, it is. A fruity, lightly oaked, medium bodied red that’s mostly Pinot with a little bit of Cabernet. On our list at £21 it is a must-try.

Putting the new wine list together was an interesting and fun challenge. We tried some great wines and in a lot of cases had a difficult time choosing one over another for a particular slot on the list. We couldn’t have done it without the help and guidance of our very knowledgeable suppliers, Charlie from Ellis of Richmond, Tom and Charlie from The Vintner, Lucy from John Armit and Nick Trower from Liberty.

There is plenty more I could say about our new wine, some serious, some just easy-drinking and delicious but, rather than taking my word for it, it’s probably best you just come down and road test our new wines for yourself.

Looking forward to seeing you all at Sam’s.

PS – before I go, I feel it would be remiss of me not to mention the Amarone della Valpolicella Classico Superiore which, I think, is one of the stars of the list – a delicious, plummy, spicy, robust Italian red that’s so luxurious it feels like silk sliding across your tongue. At £49 it’s more of a special occasion wine than an everyday wine, but oh what an occasion it will be!