A cosmopolitan city like London offers plenty of opportunities for restaurant concepts that would never work anywhere else, but here in London, they are more popular than ever! One perfect example is Bubbledogs &, owned by James Knappett and Sandia Chang. Both having trained in the world’s best restaurants, James and Sandia wanted to start something together; anything other than a large restaurant. They also wanted it to be a place that everyone could afford to eat in. Sandia is American, which is what brought her to hotdogs, hamburgers and milkshakes; and if you spot the people waiting in line for over 3 hours to get inside, you can be assured of their concept’s success. Moreover, everyone wants to know what the “&” means in the restaurant’s name. We soon found out once we ventured behind the small curtain hiding a secret room with a bar and 18 seats surrounding an open-plan kitchen. We asked James what he had to say about veal: “It’s a beautiful kind of meat and you can use every single part of it. Just take the tongue for example. If you prepare it well, then the structure is comparable to prime cuts; in fact, if it’s done well, it’s even better.”
Peel the beetroots and slice them into thin strips using a spaghetti machine. Dress with a drizzle of olive oil, salt and pepper and place on top of the warmed meat. Sprinkle watercress and pickled salad stems over the dish and pipe dots of crème in between. Season the meat with salt and pepper and grate some horseradish over the top.
Place an egg yolk on the plate. Cover partially with the veal tenderloin and season generously with Maldon salt and freshly-ground pepper. Mix the ingredients for the crème and season to taste with salt and pepper. Pipe drops of the crème on top and along the side of the meat and grate the roe over the top. Finish with the capers and sheep’s sorrel.
Bring the bouillon with seawater and cognac to the boil. Add pepper, celery and lovage and lower the temperature to 75°C/165°F. Poach the veal cheeks in the bouillon for 150 to 180 minutes. Remove from the liquid, leave to cool, clean and cut into squares. Reduce some of the liquid and glaze the cheeks à la minute with a knob of butter. Sieve the liquid and heat to 60°C/140°F and cook the calamari (cleaned) in it for 90 minutes. Remove the tentacles and deep fry à la minute until nice and crunchy. Slice part of the body into thin rings and the rest into small cubes. Reduce a third of the liquid by three quarters and add some cream. Drop the rings in and thicken with egg yolk. Press and fry the cubed calamari on a plancha. For the sauce, reduce the rest of the liquid by two thirds, add cream, squid ink, lard and vinegar, and thicken.
Clean and peel the stick of celery, then finely-slice into long strips (julienne). Pickle these in white wine vinegar then cook the celery trimmings in strong veal bouillon. Process in a blender until smooth, rub through a sieve and season to taste. Fry the guanciale (bacon) on the plancha until crisp. Pour some sauce in a dish and place the glazed veal cheeks, plancha-fried calamari, and julienne celery on top. Put a drop of celery cream next to it and pipe some extra crème on the edge of the dish. Garnish with the algae, julienne celery, deep-fried tentacles and the crispy guanciale.
