A couple of weeks ago, I was invited to Food At Webbs for an event called ‘Meet & Eat: Master The Christmas Day Roast’. It was the first time I had been to Webbs for ages. I was looking forward to seeing what had changed and learn new tricks for cooking the Christmas dinner. I was warmly welcomed to the event with a glass of fizz and had a brief chat with Louise Webb’s (one of the owners) who gave me a very quick tour of the food hall.
Soon it was time to sit down for a demonstration from Nigel Buxton of Buxton Butchers, located in the food hall and David Colcombe, formerly Chef Director of Opus in Birmingham. Nigel spoke about where his Christmas meats come from and how they ensure a higher welfare for their animals and he also spoke about his butchery team could make things a little bit easier for his customers this Christmas. They are making sausage meat stuffing in a foil tray ready to go into the oven and all turkeys that they sell come with a thermometer so that you can tell when they are cooked without any stress. David showed us a few chefs tricks to help you spend less time in the kitchen on Christmas day with tips such as blanching all the vegetables in advance and putting them in the fridge for a day or so before and finishing them off quickly on Christmas day.
Once the demonstration had finished, we moved into the restaurant area and had a brief talk on wines from their resident wine expert. The wines that we drank throughout the evening were:
Paul Mas Cremant de Limoux (fizz)
Whitehaven Sauvignon Blanc
My favourite was the Jean Loron as it was a red wine that was rich but not overpowering. It went perfectly with our main and would be perfect with turkey too.
Next, it was time for dinner. For our main, we had pork cutlet with a Welsh rarebit crust, Jansson potatoes and braised red cabbage with apple and star anise (pictured at top of the post.) I loved the pork as it was a large cutlet which was thickly topped with cheese and mustard. The red cabbage cut through the richness of the pork and was so good, I have decided to serve it on Christmas day for the first time. For dessert, we had a mince pie brownie with pistachio gelato which I was a bit sceptical about if I am being honest. I was pleasantly surprised though when I tasted it as it the mincemeat did not overpower the brownie and complimented the chocolate really well. The pistachio gelato was all eaten too which surprised me as I am not a nut lover at all. To go with our coffee, we had some fudge which was the perfect end to our meal.
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At the end of our meal, we were given time to browse the food hall. I loved how open and accessible it was and how everything was clearly displayed. It was all well signposted and showed exactly where all the products have come from and whether they were local or not. To be honest, I was in foodie heaven and would quite happily shop there all the time if I could. To thank me for coming to the event, Webb’s very kindly put together a hamper of items that you can buy in the food hall to show the vast array of products that they sell. I have filmed a haul video to show you what is in the hamper below.
Overall, I really enjoyed the event and hope to go back there soon for another masterclass. Thank you to Louise, David, Nigel, Chloe and everyone for a fantastic event. I hope to see you all again soon!
I attended the event as a guest of Webbs’s. I have been given a hamper of food products and a turkey in exchange for this post. All opinions are my own. I was not required to give a positive review.
New post: Christmas Masterclass With @FoodatWebbs @WebbsGC (Video Post) feat @ChefColcombe A couple of weeks ago, I was invited to Food At Webbs for an event called 'Meet & Eat: Master The Christmas Day Roast'.
