Brasserie Black Door, The Biscuit Factory, Newcastle

Nov 27 2009 by Geoff Laws, The Journal

I RECENTLY went to the Norman Cornish exhibition at the Northumbria University gallery.

He’s the pitman painter who captured the essence of the coal-smoked North East with such verve and honesty that each picture throws you back in time. Prancing whippets and bulky-coated men walk the car-empty streets. Cloth-capped miners, pints in hand, huddle together around pub tables.

His talent for observing the quintessential aspects of each subject and translating them into paint means each one is a statement of personal belief about contemporary culture. What I love about his art is that it’s unpretentious, meaningful and as far away from sharks and formaldehyde as you can get.

Good food is another, different art form, one that demands originality and creativity in order to transcend the mundane. Good chefs shine like bright stars, while the rest merely twinkle.

Tonight at Brasserie Black Door, we were treated to a stellar experience of the first order by chef extraordinaire, Andrew Wilkinson. This young man has a fine talent and applies his craft well. Each dish was beautifully designed, presenting the food to best advantage and showing what a good eye and deft hand Mr Wilkinson has.

His exhibition began with an exuberant smoked mackerel, roasted beetroot and heritage potatoes.

A confident stack of mackerel shards straddled a timbale of mayo- creamy potatoes laced with onion and herbs, surrounded by tiny cubes of roasted beetroot, glazed with a spring onion dressing, creating a wonderful web of flavour.

My companion’s Elsdon goat’s cheese panacotta with Bramley apple chutney was another delight. Subtle was the watchword for the panacotta, with the mild cheese introduced into the creamy mix with all the sleight of hand of a master conjuror. The trail of earthy walnuts, peppery watercress and sweetly gingered chutney were perfect complements.

The house merlot was velvety soft and found its feet with my main course of venison pithivier with celeriac, braised red cabbage and red wine jus. A beautiful dome of fluted pastry encased a delicious mix of minced venison with a blend of herbs that helped both make the most of the moment.

A scattering of roasted chestnuts, silverskin onions and braised red cabbage, glazed with the rich reduction, brought a warm glow to this superb dish.

Proving that he can do delicate just as well as robust, my companion’s fillet of salmon with butter bean casserole and chorizo was a perfect example of how to cook and present salmon. The skin was so "brittle" crisp that the knife crunched through it, but the chef’s skill lay in the difference between that crunch and the juicy, flake-soft flesh below.

How he timed that to nano-second perfection is one of the culinary mysteries. The butterbean chorizo stew was the ideal foil with powdery, nutty beans and the mellow chilli fizz of the sausage accentuating the subtlety of the fish ... all in all, a dish that was completely satisfying.