Yapp Brothers Blog

Those Cath Kidston aproned Domestic Godesses are often preaching on the educational and nurturing benefits of cooking with your children. They rustle up a picture of 1950s homely bliss and product designers have given them the props with retro kitchenware to match. Beautiful children help make picture perfect cakes in a spotless kitchen (I suspect Daddy was having an affair with his secretary and Mummy was on Valium but never mind).

The reality of cooking with young children is more prosaic. First off don’t expect it to be edible – egg shell in the cake mix and tough pastry overworked by hot little hands are more likely. The kitchen will look as though there was an explosion in a flour mill and you may be as tense as a coiled spring as junior handles potentially lethal kitchen gadgetary (better check he’s still got all his digits).

Now that our boys are older (10 and 13) a much more satisfactory arrangement is to allow them to cook for us. William – our 10 year old – rustles up toast and scrambled egg for us on the weekend (not quite so keen on the washing up) while Alfred sees cooking as a competitive challenge pawing over cook books until he finds the shortest recipe/ingredient list (River Cafe Cookbook).

Clever Aunty Katy bought the boys a great teen cookbook, Cooking Up A Storm, by Sam Stern so now they have their own recipes which they treat us to (chicken breasts stuffed with Boursin and wrapped in Parma Ham is a favourite).

So despite my lack of mothering skills we’ve managed to turn out two culinary aware boys. We can’t take full credit though – they’re avid viewers of Masterchef and regularly do spoof crits on their fishfingers and baked beans. Perhaps we’ll get a take out this evening….

My date with destiny in the Pyrenees approaches faster than I would like. Three months into proper training for the Etape 2012 (see January blog) and I have covered 700 training miles on the bike (I had hoped to have 1,000 miles under the belt by Easter). Speaking of the belt, while I am getting stronger on the bike, the weight is proving obstinately tenacious to shift, just a paltry 2kg shed in 3 months! I put this down to several factors. Firstly, the last six weeks have included not one, not two, but three buying trips to France. Mercifully, there are no more planned between now and July, so that is one less excuse.

Secondly, I have been putting in a new kitchen at home in Shepherd’s Bush, the disruption of which has, inevitably, led to a diet of takeaway food. Having said that, if you were going to survive anywhere on takeaways, there are far worse places to be than W12. Forget your run-of-the-mill takeouts, the Uxbridge Road has terrific Northern Thai ‘Esarn Kheaw’, the best of the Caribbean in ‘Ochi’ (frequented by Bajan bombshell Rihanna when she’s touring the UK), lip-smacking Lebanese ‘Naama’, the ‘Falafel Hut’ (in the market) which dispenses the best falafels this side of Khartoum, while nearby Shepherd’s Bush Road provides posh fish and chips courtesy of ‘Kerbisher and Malt’.

Furthermore, my builders are no help. Tim (my old school pal, cycling compadre, choral scholar-turned plasterer) tends to stay over when working in London and has refined tastes when it comes to matching what’s left of my wine cellar with the evening’s takeaway menu – Domaine Richeaume Tradition with kibbeh and baba ghanoush. He and workmate Ryan combine day jobs in construction while moonlighting in the Arts – Tim knocks off early to sing counter-tenor at Westminster Abbey, Ryan to play double bass in the ENO’s recent performances of Strauss’s Der Rosenkavalier. I think that they may be the only builders in the world who could construct your conservatory extension and then perform an opera in it.

I look forward to updating you on my progress in a couple of months and a few pounds lighter.

BTW, don’t miss our wine and cycling quiz that’s on the main website.

Another wine fair...

If one were guiding a tourist to the quintessential English village, Teffont Evias in the Nadder valley 15 miles west of Salisbury would be right up there in my UK top ten. Approached from the Salisbury direction, one descends past sheep grazing on the terraced fields, the impossibly picturesque church and you arrive among 17th century thatched houses alongside a babbling stream. In the centre of the village is Howards House Hotel which dates back to the same era, but has been stylishly modernised, firstly by Noele Thompson and then by current owner Grahame Senior.

Howards House Hotel

Being 10 miles down the road from Mere, this was very much a home ‘gig’ which attracted an enthusiastic crowd of loyal Yapp locals. The evening was focused on seasonal English ingredients (given an enterprising twist by chef, Nick Wentworth), partnered by Rhône wines. Hence, we kicked off with St Péray mousseux and the challenging starter that included rhubard and ginger was matched with Vernay’s terrific Viognier, Le Pied de Samson. Champet’s Cote Rotie 2006 was a terrific accompaniment to the lamb, particularly the loin cut, while (my table condsidered) the confit element went well with the Lirac La Fermade 2009.

Colsten Basset stilton followed and white chocolate mousse was the finale. Durban’ Muscat de Beaumes de Venise (natch.) was a good friend to both dishes, and needed to be for those who had finished their reds before the cheese arrived!

A fine night in an idyllic setting.

Les Grands Jours de Bourgogne is a 5 day wine tasting extravaganza that takes place every other year in March. It begins on a Monday morning in Chablis and descends southwards to Macon passing through swathes of France’s most illustrious viticultural real estate. Amazingly it is free for wine trade professionals to participate in and unsurprisingly it attracts a diverse international clientele keen to sample a broad cross-section of Burgundy.

Meursault

This was an opportunity not to be missed and over a frenzied 4 day tasting tour (we had to give day 1 in Chablis a miss) we sampled something in the region of 300 wines. Never mind the logistics of trying to source even a fraction of that number independently, the cost would be ruinous.

Wine tasting is always most pleasurable when the wine maker is on hand to explain their ethos and methodology and that is what makes Les Grands Jours de Bourgogne so enjoyable. Happily the Côte d’Or was blessed with a week of Spring sunshine so as we passed through Marsannay, Gevrey-Chambertin, Nuits-Saint-Georges Beaune, Mersault and Puligny and Chassagne-Montrachet we had some great photo opportunities and literally saw Burgundy in a very good light.

Burning vine prunings in Marsannay

It is hard to generalise about France’s (ergo the world’s) most complex region in terms of wine classification (there is much debate as to whether named vineyard sites constitute true appellations or some sub-sect of official Appellation Contrôlée nomenclature but no-one denies that it is arcane) but our impressions were largely positive. Recent vintages have yielded rich rewards. 2009 is a great year for rich, ripe, reds of voluptuous charm that should age well on the weight of their fruit alone for at least a decade. 2010 was arguably a more typical vintage and we sampled lots of nervy, dry whites underscored by a terrific acidity that will see them age well too. The 2010 reds, although very young, were also impressive with lots of body and grip – we look forward to re-visiting them with a few years bottle-age. Our sampling of 2011 was limited to a handful of barrel tastings of Gevrey-Chambertin, Beaune and Corton-Charlemagne – it was clearly a more varied vintage but good producers will make some great wines.

Le Gourmandin in Beaune boasts a short menu and a long wine list!

Finally it would be remiss not to mention the marvellous Burgundian cuisine for which the region is justifiably acclaimed – jambon persillé (potted ham with parsley), escargots (snails stewed in Chablis and stuffed with garlic and butter), oeufs en meurette (eggs poached in red wine), bœuf bourguignon and too many cheeses to list individually all accompanied wines to perfection but won’t help Tom’s cycling regime! Our best meal of the week was in Le Gourmandin [8 Place Carnot, Beaune] – unpretentious, honest Gallic cuisine at its best. We can’t wait to go back but are not sure we can wait until the next Les Grands Jours de Bourgogne in 2014!

Anarchy for the Cote d'Or?

I had great fun composing the montage for this year’s list cover in homage to my Dad, Robin Yapp, loosely inspired by classic 1970s album covers such as (the inside sleeve) of Eric Clapton’s Slowhand and the Rolling Stone’s seminal Exile on Main Street. Appropriately I took the shot on the inside sill of Robin’s kitchen window which gets great natural light on a summer’s morning. The camera I used was a Nikon D80 SLR which made a stark contrast to Dad’s old Zeiss Iron ‘Contaflex’ that can be seen to the extreme left of the picture. He may well have used that camera to take the wonderful, sepia, mid 1970’s picture of my sister Arabella standing on a fully functional alambic sporting a providentially nostalgic Laura Ashley dress, that can be seen on the postcard on the left-hand side. The dark navy wine list in the centre dates from 1971 back in the days of 3 digit phone numbers.

The well-thumbed books and maps are all from the parental archive and I selected a view showing Valence and Tain L’Hermitage as that is undoubtedly the page that we have most traversed over the last 43 years. The wine labels are 4 personal favourites – Quentin Blake’s inimitable Muscadet illustration, a classic, gothic Côte Rôtie from Jasmin and Cornas from Clape and ‘Le Vieux Donjon’ in Châteauneuf-du-Pape. The frog ashtray (from Dijon) cicada tablecloth (from Saint-Rémy-de-Provence) and Ricard picher (can’t remember) are all Francophile ephemera accrued over many years. The grape key-ring is Robin’s own and comes from O & H Bour in Tricastin, the Jarraud glasses and Eifel tower key rings and ‘Usines du Rhône’ aspirin case were all junk shop finds.

To fully qualify for ‘anoraks’ corner’ I can tell you that wine in the glass was a Cassis: Clos Sainte Magdeleine 2009 and the restaurant bill is from the superb Hôtel du France in Saint- Pardoux-La Rivière but don’t all rush there at once. The spiral note books are my own and the open page records a visit to see Auguste Clape in Cornas. The fountain pen is a Parker 25, a design classic and the only model style-conscious schoolboys would be seen with in the 1970s. The calculator is my own Sharp Elsi Mate EL 392L – not an object I could in anyway endorse except for its tenacious longevity. The tooth-pick and matchbox are both originals from Le Gavroche – our old friend Silvano Giraldin must have got a good deal on a job lot back in the day. The corkscrew is a brass pocket model from Yapp Brothers’ burgeoning collection and the francs were kicking around at the bottom of a drawer in the office along with a vintage copy of Penthouse that is almost certainly Robin’s own although he is bound to deny that! There is no justifiable reason for including the packet of OCB cigarette papers (top right) other than they look good and the font is fabulous. On the subject of fonts (might need a second anorak here) I am deeply indebted to my annual collaborator graphic designer Andy Batchelor (at www.blackmore.co.uk) for unearthing the Albertus typeface from our 1971 list and adding the ‘YAPP 2012’ text as well as some very subtle toning which gives the whole image a warm, retro feel.

You can see from this early draft that a picture like that doesn’t come together in an instant and although I nearly drove myself bonkers trying to get the definitive shot I am now, several months later, happy with the end result.

Any (sensible) suggestions on how we illustrate next year’s list will be gratefully received.

We used to do this sort of thing a lot B.C. (before children). Jason would be booked in to give a wine talk and I’d accompany him for a luxurious night out. Work for him, play for me.
Our lives are busier now and the headache of farming out kids with hectic schedules and needy dogs tends to put me off going along. But this time we decided that it would be worthwhile and as the wine dinner was on a Friday night and not too far away we could cope with the byzantine arrangements.

Lords of the Manor (http://www.lordsofthemanor.com) is a country house hotel in the old style – a beautiful 17th Century Cotswold stone rectory in the ominously named Upper Slaughter.
The staff are friendly and helpful (just about the most important part of the experience in my mind), the rooms beautiful and comfortable – neither chintzy nor self-consciously cool. Speaking of which, they weren’t overheated either.

The dinner was billed as a Rhône wine evening and unusually the menu was designed to compliment the wines rather than the other way around. Jason had just given a Rhône masterclass to the Hotel du Vin sommeliers the previous week so I urged him to ease off the technical aspects and give some interesting anecdotage.

We were warmly welcomed by manager Paul Thompson and served with a delicious aperitif of Saint Péray Mousseux: Jean-Louis Thiers which was accompanied by lovely (tiny) fish and chip canapés. After being seated in the elegant dining room we moved on to the silky smooth Viognier ‘Le Pied de Samson’ 2010: Georges Vernay which was served with a delightful bosky white asparagus, artichoke puree, cep confit & cep velouté appetiser topped with a poached pheasant egg (not something I often rustle up at home). Jason gave his introduction to the first two wines to a very appreciative audience.

As the evening moved on we progressed through a sumptuous menu devised by Michelin-starred chef Matt Weedon and accompanying wines: roast salmon with Alain Graillot’s 2010 Crozes Hermitage Blanc, duck with Châteauneuf-du-Pape: Domaine du Pere Caboche 2009, Côte Rôtie 2006: Jasmin with an interesting cheese Beignet and finally Muscat Beaumes de Venise 2009: Domaine de Durban with a classic Tarte Tatin and vanilla ice cream. It sounds like a menu that would challenge Mr Creosote but the portions were dainty enough to enjoy every course. We skipped the coffee and petit fours and propped up the bar with a friendly group of guests before retiring to our commodious room.

It was a real treat and certainly beats the usual Friday night pizza. Hope I don’t have to wait ten years for my next trip!