When Raymond Blanc travelled to St Petersberg for the opening of the Grand Hotel Europe, he took one very important piece of equipment with him – a Clifton Food Range® water bath. These are manufactured by temperature control equipment specialists Nickel–Electro, who adapted their scientific application water baths to create the range.
Situated in the heart of St Petersberg, the Grand Hotel Europe is now owned by the Orient Express Group, which also part owns Raymond Blanc’s Le Manoir Aux Quat’ Saisons. The opening night took place earlier this summer, and in attendance from Le Manoir were Raymond Blanc, his Senior Sous Chef Craig Harden and apprentice chef Ollie.
Their task was to prepare appetisers for over 400 Orient Express Group General Managers together with a host of glittering VIP’s. One of these was foie gras, which was slow cooked in a Clifton Food Range® water bath, because the baths offer users unparalleled specific temperature control to produce sublime textures and flavours – and perfect results.
Melvin Dickson, Managing Director of Nickel–Electro says: “Raymond Blanc has used Clifton Food Range® water baths for slow cooking for some time, and we are delighted that he took one to Russia with him for such an auspicious occasion. It was clearly a gastronomic event, as I understand 15 kilos of caviar was eaten in one night!.”