La Belle Assiette - book a private chef to cook dinner for you.

Do you love entertaining and serving great food to friends but don't like all the hassle of shopping, cooking and washing up afterwards. 

Well we have a solution for you, say hello to La Belle Assiette, the easy book private chef service where  a talented professional chef comes to your home and serves dinner to your party. 

The chef does all the shopping, preparation, cooking and washing up for you in your home (or holiday home), all you need provide is a kitchen and the drinks for your guests. Nothing could be easier. Leaving you free to relax and enjoy the company of your guests and enjoy great food without any stress.

How it works

• Your chef buys the finest ingredients
• They cook in your kitchen
• They serve each dish
• They clean up before they leave

Menus start at around £39 per head and can be tailored in discussion with your chef, so catering for special dietary requirements is not a problem. All the chefs you can book have been validated by diners so you are assured of a high quality experience.

La Belle Assiette was founded in 2013 by two friends, Stephen and Giorgio. Paris is where it all started. Parisians love to entertain at home, so sending chefs into their kitchens was a no-brainer. Four years on, they are proud to have become Europe's leading chef service.

Despite the very French name , La Belle Assiette has been overwhelmingly accepted in the UK. Our chefs are welcomed into people's homes and trusted to deliver, time and again. 

We were lucky enough to experience chef Michael Thomas for our dinner party recently, a talented chef with over 17 years experience of fine dining and high quality catering reasonably local to our home. We had agreed the menu by telephone a couple of weeks earlier after Michael suggested a number of delicious sounding seasonal menu's and also discussed my requirements for a gluten free meal. All was no problem and a creative fresh flavoured menu was created.

Starter 

Gin cured salmon served with a celeriac slaw, pickled cucumber and avocado cream. Finished with pea shoots, smoked rapeseed oil and fresh dill.

Main

Trio of pork:  pan fried pork fillet, braised pig cheeks and pressed pork belly. Served with fondant potato, celeriac puree and jus, finished with a broadbean pesto.

Dessert

Lemon and elderflower cheesecake served with lemon curd, meringue, fresh berries and elderflower jelly.

We can thoroughly recommend the La Belle Assiette service and especially Michael Thomas our chef, the evening went without a hitch and our guests thoroughly enjoyed their evening and the food was amazing.

The La Belle Assiette service is great for a special occasion or that special meal whilst away on your holidays at your holiday home.

The validation dinner service was provided on a complementary  basis to enable a review of the chef and the La Belle Assiette Service to be undertaken, all thoughts, opinions and views are our own. We were not expected to give a positive review of the service.

Winter Menu at the Olive Tree Brasserie, Preston.

We had a fabulous lunch last Sunday at the Olive Tree Brasserie in Preston, wonderful food and great service. The brasserie serves Modern Greek inspired food in a fabulous setting, the interiors are particularly special, especially at night.

Modern Greek food, served in  a contemporary setting in the fabulous Grade 1 listed Victorian shopping arcade in the heart of the city, we just had to indulge in some exterior shots of the Miller Arcade as it wonderful and this is where you will find the Olive Tree in Preston.

The Olive Tree also has branches (see what I did there) in Lytham St Annes and Chester too.

More detail indulgence of the Miller Arcade before we get on with our review. Its just so beautiful and is currently seriously under used. The upper floors are magnificent.

On escaping from a cold blustery wintery Preston in to the warm brasserie we just knew we were in for a treat, the Christmas decorations were tasteful and complemented the contemporary decor, it was quiet when we arrived but we were early and that's great for us as we can take a few interior shots without disturbing other diners. Things soon got busier as other diners joined us to eat lunch.

Lots of  urban chic decor, dark wood, funky lighting and lots of glassware, cool and contemporary are what you can expect. Classy without trying too hard.

The menu is extensive whether for food, wine or cocktails and has something for everyone and helpfully includes translation of the Greek terms used so you can be confident of your choices. The cellar of the Olive Tree is also a cocktail bar called Elia which is open in the evenings. As we visited for lunch I can't comment on this but have friends who have partaken and they love the bar area, its also handy for a pre dinner drink too.

This is my mocktail (as the designated driver) an Earl Grey Iced tea - it was very tasty and refreshing but could maybe have been a little colder,it had a good earl grey tea flavour and contained peach puree, lemon juice and sugar.

On the waiters recommendation we chose an appetizer of Greek marinated green and black olives, mild green chillies and ciabatta to have whilst our food was cooked for us, the olives were great. We both love olives, I particularly enjoyed the black ones. Also pictured in this shot is Mr LF's Fine and Dandy Cocktail but more of that later.

For one of our starters we  ordered Marida, whitebait and aioli with a beautifully dressed lambs lettuce salad. A delicious start to the meal, crispy and light, the portion size was very good and well complemented with the aioli, to cut the richness of the fish.

Our other starter was Manitaria Skordata, roast mushrooms, cream and garlic served with toasted ciabatta. This dish was very popular with Mr LF who loved the creamy garlicky sauce and the dinky little pallets that they used for serving the dish on.

I chose a Classic Greek Moussaka as my main, this the second best Moussaka I've eaten and the best was in a beachside taverna in small fishing village on the West coast of Mainland Greece about 25 years ago whilst on holiday, eaten in blistering August heat, so pretty stiff competition to any dish served in a wintery Preston. This version had potatoes, courgettes, aubergines and a rich beef mince in tomato sauce and a creamy bechamel sauce, maybe if it had been lamb it might have been number one, who knows....

A shot of the wine cages in the cellar

Now that Fine and Dandy cocktail

Fine and dandy cocktail - Havana 3 year old, Havana Especial, Dandelion and Burdock syrup, Dandelion and Burdock bitters, lime juice and whites. A taste revelation and very much enjoyed by Mr LF who loves the traditional flavours of Dandelion and Burdock and he also loved that his cocktail was served in a heavy crystal glass, very masculine.

Mr LF's main was Lavraki - two  pan fried sea bass fillets, accompanied by a feta potato cake herby, perhaps a little too herby in this case, a delicious sweety silky parsnip skordalia (garlic and parsnip puree)and lots  kolokithakia (courgette fries). Overall very tasty just slightly let down by a heavy hand with the thyme in the potato cake.

So now it was time for pudding, our waiter informed us that two of the options were unavailable as they had sold out of the Saturday night. But we still had plenty of choice, Mr LF has loved Turkish Delight since he was a child so was happy to order the Loukomia - sugar coated Turkish Delight, the menu promised some with a chocolate coating, so we were a little disappointed as was looking forward to trying this classic flavour combination when they didn't appear in the dish when served.

Our other choice was the Sokolata tahini brownie, with haynoto syrup (Greek liqueur) and deliciously creamy hazelnut ice cream. So a rich dense nutty chocolate brownie with tahini, boozy syrup and ice cream. Very scrummy and a very large piece, so much so that we had to take away some of the Loukomia as we couldn't finish it all.

All in all, we had a great time and the food was very very good, going Greek for a change was good fun. The Olive Tree also have a good lunchtime offering of a limited menu for a bargain price and even a Greek Roast on Sundays too. So check out their website and book yourself a table.

We dined on a complementary basis after being invited to give a review, all thoughts, views, opinions are our own. We were not expected to give a positive review.

Goodwins Bar and Kitchen, Chorley.

Goodwins Bar and Kitchen is part of the Greene King Group, the Chorley venue is currently one of only 4 in the country with this branding, the idea is to be provide a different offering than the other Greene King brands, Gloriously simple food with a more intimate feel and with more focus on the overall eating experience. We recently popped along for lunch at the newly open Chorley venue.

Martin the manager and the team gave us a friendly welcome on a busy  Saturday lunchtime, the venue was proving popular with family parties. Due to its location on a busy set of road abouts near a junction to the motorway, the location should also prove popular with business travellers and general passing trade. Service was very good and the food came out promptly, so no problems there.

We choose from the main menu despite it being lunchtime, the website can be found here

So for our starters. Mr LF chose the Homemade Cumberland scotch egg with dressed watercress and brown sauce. The dish  overall was tasty not standout but as described,it needed the brown sauce to accompany the sausage meat and egg combination.

I chose the Scallops on crushed peas,  a nicely presented dish, but too much pea and mint puree in my opinion, the scallops were well cooked but lacked flavour, the bacon was fine and helped to lift the dish. A little disappointing as I love a good scallop.

On to our Mains, Mr LF always goes for the pie, in this case the Goodwins steak and ale pie, British beef in Ruddles ale, normally with mash but swapped for chips on request and seasonal vegetables an a cute jug of tasty gravy.This was a tasty pie with flaky tender pastry, plenty of gravy and filling in the pie, the chips were crispy and fluffy and the perfect choice to soak up all that lovely gravy. Vegetables were fine a good selection of peas, endamame beans, sugar snap peas and chunky carrots.

I ordered the Hunters chicken with bbq sauce, streaky bacon, mature cheddar cheese and triple cooked chips. Served with onion loaf, thyme grilled tomato and dressed watercress.The dish was good, a nicely cooked tender juicy chicken breast, topped with a dark smoky bbq sauce, bacon and tangy cheese, tasty chips and the unusual onion loaf,  this was very savoury and a little different. The dressed watercress nicely irony and a good contrast to the sweeter flavours in play from the onion loaf and the bbq sauce. My only gripe on this dish was the grilled tomato, nice touch using the thyme but if you are grilling a tomato make sure its a thing of melting beauty and not one that's barely cooked.

On to desserts Mr LF ordered Basked Alaska - berries topped with cookie dough cheese cake, treacle toffee ice cream and toasted meringue. Served in a dinky pot, the dish was sweet and decadent, Mr LF  particularly enjoyed the treacle toffee ice cream part, but not sure it was toasted meringue on top, looked and tasted more like toasted marshmallow fluff. It disappeared all the same however.

My menu choice was the Elderflower posset - with summer berries and shortbread. My dessert choice was disappointing as the portion was way too large for such a rich dish, I also couldn't taste the elderflower either, the berries on the top helped but were more of a compote than berries, I would have also have liked to have seen the shortbread be larger pieces. I chatted this through with Martin and they are looking to adjust this dish in the future.

Martin the manager explained to us that their drinks menu is aimed at being more gender neutral, so no craft beers on draft here ( only Peroni or Prahva both lager style), everything else comes in a bottle, beer and cider wise. Lancashire Food doesn't have a problem with this per say but would have liked to have seen some beers and ciders that where more locally produced. Plenty of choice if wine or a cocktail is your thing, they even make lemonade and iced tea on the premises and their Gin menu has quite a few choices too.

Nice touch is that when they serve you your drinks this is accompanied with a small dish of salted popcorn.

Menu prices represent reasonable value and they have a special price lunch offer too. Sunday lunch is sure to be popular too.

You can find Goodwins Bar and Kitchen, Chorley

Preston Road
Chorley,
Lancashire,
PR6 7AX

It's next door to the Hartwood Hall Hotel, which has also recently been refurbished

We dined on a complementary basis after being invited to give a review, all thoughts, views, opinions are our own. We were not expected to give a positive review.