Executive Chef Karl O’Dell will join forces with Holland & Holland’s Joshua Hunter for a five-course menu dedicated to British game
CORD by Le Cordon Bleu will celebrate British game season with a special five-course dinner on Friday 16 October, bringing together two chefs with a shared passion for wild, seasonal produce.
For one night only, CORD Executive Chef Karl O’Dell will be joined at the Fleet Street restaurant by Joshua Hunter, Head Chef at Holland & Holland Shooting Grounds in Northwood.
The pair will alternate courses across a menu designed to showcase the range of flavours and textures game can offer. Rabbit liver parfait, game consommé, red-legged partridge, Yorkshire grouse, Highland venison and game black pudding are all set to make an appearance.
O’Dell will approach the ingredients through the lens of CORD’s precise, contemporary cooking, while Hunter brings extensive experience of preparing game both in and beyond the kitchen. Alongside his role at Holland & Holland, Hunter is a deer stalker, giving him a close understanding of the provenance, seasonality and careful management of wild meat.
One of O’Dell’s dishes will centre on a venison loin raviolo, made using venison hung for two weeks to deepen its flavour. The meat will be combined with black pudding, sage, onion, cayenne pepper and paprika, before being served with a sherry sauce.
“He brings so much experience and expertise,” O’Dell said of the collaboration. “The whole team is excited to learn from his skills and techniques.”
For Hunter, the dinner is also an opportunity to challenge some of the more dated perceptions surrounding game.
“It does not need to be heavy, strongly flavoured or intimidating,” he said. “It can be treated with delicacy and used in an enormous variety of dishes.”
The result promises to be a thoroughly modern exploration of one of Britain’s oldest culinary traditions: rooted in classical technique and respect for the ingredient, but unafraid to take game somewhere new.
The Holland & Holland Game Dinner takes place at CORD by Le Cordon Bleu, 85 Fleet Street, London EC4Y 1AE, on Friday 16 October.
Tables are available to book now via the CORD website.