Rushmore's Heacham

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Would you Adam and Eve it ? The month of October is the first anniversary of Rushmore’s restaurant’s opening in Heacham. This past year has just flown by. I remember when we first looked at the restaurant, thinking that pink must have been the in colour. The restaurant was pink, the bar was pink, and the conservatory was pink. It was on a day in September, when I had a meeting with Sid. He was the gaffer of the company that was picked to redecorate the restaurant. We stood in the middle of the dining area, and he looked around. Slowly his hand came up to his chin, then the words of wisdom came out. “ Green! That's the colour, with a nice pastel shade of corn flower for the top.” “ What about pink?” I replied. It was at that stage that Sid’s bottom lip started to quiver and by the look on his face he gave me the answer. We shook hands and Sid departed.

Over the next few weeks it was all hands on deck to prepare the restaurant for the planned opening date of 16th October. The restaurant had been closed for eighteen months, so there was a lot to do. It was always my intention to use as many local suppliers as possible, and to use fresh ingredients. As we wished to change the menu four or five times a year, with the seasons, it was important that our suppliers could provide us with local produce as far as possible. Shell fish from Brancaster, crabs from Cromer, meat that is from local farms, and bread baked fresh each day - that's the restaurants policy and were sticking to it. All seemed to be coming along fine. Sid and his team of decorators were doing battle with the pink. They all seemed to be in good moods and many a rendition of Lily the Pink was heard coming endlessly from the restaurant.

It was on a bright September day that I decided to buy Sid and his men a fish and chip Lunch. As I entered the chip shop next door to the restaurant, known as Pam’s Plaice, I was greeted with, “ Hello. This is Gordon and I am Pam.” After the formalities were over, Pam asked if we would be offering fish and chips on my menu. “Not as I know, Pam” I replied. “Maybe we can come to a little arrangement. I wont sell fish and chips if you don't sell Tournedos Rossini.” This arrangement seems to work for both of us and as Pam said, as I went out of the door, the sauce from the Rossini would leak through the paper bags. Sid and mates enjoyed the fish and chip lunch, and as I had brought them the lunch they promised me that there would be no more renditions of Lily the Pink. Well at least not until tomorrow! In early October having recruited all of the front of the house staff, I noted that according to my diary, I was to interview a young lad for the position of commis chef. I have, over many years, taken on lads and trained them up only for them to fly the nest, like homing pigeons and head straight for London. The young man got the job as the commis chef and I am training him, so one day he too may be tempted to fly the nest and head for the bright lights of the city.

It was a sad day when Sid and all the workmen left. Then with all the tables with the linen on, large sparkling wines glasses and crisp white napkins, the restaurant was ready to open. As I stood there alone thinking of all the hard work that had been done, I thought that I could just make out the tune that two passing boys were singing, no it couldn’t be… Yes, it was Lily the Pink. As we head for our first anniversary I was pleased to receive a call from London. Dan, one of the many young chefs that started with me years ago, was coming to Norfolk. As he had to be back in London on the Monday it was arranged that we would meet at the restaurant on the Sunday. As Dan arrived he was introduced to all the staff and it was not long before the head chef from a well known restaurant in London had sprung up a conversation with my commis chef. They reminded me of two pigeons, there was a lot of nodding going on and all with me trying to listen and cook at the same time. “How is Andrew?” I asked. He was another of my young chefs that had flown the nest to London many years ago. Dan replied that he was ok, working as a consultant for Canary Wharf, on mega bucks. All this talk of big money seemed to bring a sparkle to my commis chef’s eyes and has given him a renewed surge of enthusiasm. With all this big money chat, going on I said “Sorry lads, things to do. I can’t stay here all day chatting I must push on… I am off to bash a few grannies.”

GRANNY SMITHS DESSERT SORBET The recipe will serve six persons. Roughly chop five or six granny smith apples, (you can leave skin as this gives the sorbet a rich green colour) pop into a clean bowl and add 170g of white sugar, pour over about half a cup full of sweet cider, and if you have it pour in a tot of brandy. Add the juice of two lemons and with clean hands mix all the ingredients together. This is the important part. Pop the apple mix into your blender and blend the apples for 15 minutes. It seems a long time but you need to bring the apple mix to a pulp. Remove from the blender and put the mix through a fine mesh sieve, pushing it through with a spoon to get all the juices out. Find a container with a good fitting lid, and into this pour your strained apple. Then pop it into the deep freeze. After an hour remove from the freezer and with a fork give your sorbet a stir. The sorbet will require stirring every hour or so until it freezes. This a recipe I tried a few weeks ago and its now on our restaurant menu served with honeydew melon as a starter. I felt that I had to share this recipe with you as it is easy to make, and when you taste it, it's a bombshell of flavours… a minefield of memories of apple orchards and sunny days. It's a Lily of the Pink type of dish. Colin Rushmore Top of Page