JournalSeasonal notes14 October 20266 min
A winter at the hearth
Every October the hearth stops being decoration and becomes the busiest station in the kitchen.
We light it at two in the afternoon and it stays lit until the last guest leaves. Celeriac goes into the hay first, then the duck crowns, then the pears, which take the gentlest heat at the very end of the night.
Cooking over embers forces a slower rhythm. You cannot rush oak. The brigade learns to read colour rather than thermometers, and the room fills with a smell that guests mention more often than any dish.
“You cannot rush oak. The brigade learns to read colour rather than thermometers.”
The autumn menu is built around that rhythm. Fewer components, more time. Eight courses that taste like the season is turning.