Sam: From the Count to a Prince

Count Rumford (Benjamin Thompson) was an engineer, inventor and colonel in the British army, born in 1753 in America. 

Amongst his many endeavours, he looked into the world of thermal insulation. Exploring the notion of duck feathers and fur as natural insulations for human beings. His sensitivity toward poverty was at the heart of his work, hoping one day to find a solution to the rank conditions suffered by the world's masses. 

Count Rumford, who positioned himself in Bavaria, performed all kinds of experiments and was responsible for many inventions that we still use today. One of his discoveries was the insulating effects of egg whites. Some 100 years later, a chef at the Paris World Fair used this science to create a dish that he coined the Norwegian Omelette owing to the fact that he thought Norway was in Bavaria. The dish consisted of a base of cake topped with ice cream and then covered with whipped egg white and put in a very hot oven to scorch the meringue.  

Later in 1867, the USA purchased the land mass, which is now known as Alaska, from the Russians, and a chef in a New York hotel changed the name of the scientific desert to Baked Alaska in celebration of the purchase.

The highlight of our menu for the whole of last month was a baked Alaska that Jess made by creating a squash ice cream, sat atop a burnt honey cake, smothered in meringue and baked, afterwards sprinkled with a sage sugar. 

You’ve missed it. But luckily, she’s working on a version with smoked celeriac and stout cake, so get a move on and book a table for December.