It was a lovely sunny day and we sat outside to chat about all things food. I started by asking Daniel about matching the dishes at The Vineyard with wine; most importantly which comes first, the wine or the meal? He said it depends, sometimes the wine is tasted first to find any characteristics in the wine that can be picked out in the food and the dishes can be adapted to it. More often the dish is created from what is in season and the wine matched afterwards.
The Vineyard is the only restaurant in Britain which allows its diners to make their own choices; the discovery menu is served with wine that is already selected but the menu is in fact not a menu but a selection of dishes from which you choose what you like. Having tried the ‘menu’ before it makes a much more interesting read because the dishes aren’t categorised; you can have what you like in whatever order you like. Slightly smaller portions means you can try more dishes and each one is perfectly matched to wine, for Daniel this is the future of dining. It makes the dining experience fun, it makes people at the table talk about what’s on the table and every wine I have tried there has been exceptional.We moved on to talk about the ingredients used at The Vineyard; as Daniel says, you can’t have good food without good ingredients. The Vineyard uses the best possible quality, seasonal ingredients and works really closely with his suppliers, they are also part of The Sustainable Restaurant Association. 80% of the ingredients used are British and around 50% of these are from Scotland.
I then asked a slightly tricky question: what is your favourite French and British ingredient? Daniel’s favourite French ingredient is Poulet de Bresse and British ingredient is scallops from Orkney. Also, Balmoral venison, langoustines, girolles and raspberries from Scotland.
Then, the most difficult question of all: what is the one ingredient he couldn’t live without? He said dark chocolate and other than chocolate; olive oil, garlic, chilli, lime and lemongrass.