What
Meat Porter Supper Club at London City Island by Ballymore
Experience
Meat Porter is an online artisan butchers which sources and delivers great quality cuts of free-range British farmed meat to your door. It’s been done before but I have found most of these services expensive and inconvenient, with impractical minimum orders; but the ethos behind Meat Porter is much simpler. Founder Stefan Porter uses the same farmers who supply high quality meat to some of Britain’s best restaurants so that you can have a fine dining experience at home for a price that roughly equates to shopping at Tesco’s Finest or Waitrose. Minimum orders are £25, they deliver to pretty much anywhere in the UK for free and if you order before 3pm you will get it the next day. You can have it delivered to work and the meat keeps cool in the box for up to 30 hours. Sounds easy! Each box comes with some simple recipes based on the premise that the best meat requires only minimal seasoning and the taste depends on it’s quality and origin.
I was invited to the first ever Meat Porter Supper Club on City Island by Ballymore to try what they had to offer. The night started off intriguingly to say the least. We were taxied to London City Island which is essentially a building site and made our way – terrified – to the only building with lights on. But once inside, it was a dream! All the Meat Porter team were there to feed us champagne and Michelin star Chef Simon Hulstone cooked us up four courses of amazing using their finest cuts and we all chatted about how great free range meat is.
The first course was Salted Toffee and Spring Pea Soup with Smoked Bacon. I’ll let you read that again. It was absolutely unreal and left everyone in the room a bit speechless. I want to try and make it myself at home but I’m scared! This was followed by Compression of Tamworth Pork Belly and Drummond Chicken, Cameralized Apple, Cider Gel Baby Leeks and Pickled Baby Onions and then Breast of Aylesbury Duck, Jerusalem Artichoke Puree, Star Anise and Duck Fat Confit Heritage Carrots, Watercress and Spiced Honey Jus. Everything tasted perfect, and despite the clear advantage of having one of Britain’s best chefs prepare it, the meat was just clearly far tastier than anything you get from off the shelf. And for dessert – all of my favourite northern puddings! Warm Vanilla Rice Pudding, Yorkshire Rhubarb in various guises with White Chocolate and Sorrel. Not meat, true, but dessert always wins.
We were all packed off home with a stylish box of meat and some recipes to ruin. Stefan was so passionate about what they were doing and it was definitely inspiring. Meat Porter is making it a lot easier for people to support the British farming industry and the night was a really nice celebration of the quality of local farming produce on offer in the UK. #wehatetesco
Cost
6x rare breed Cumberland sausages £3.50
Whole large barn reared chicken £7
2 x free range Aylesbury duck breasts £10
2x 6-7oz venison haunch steaks £10.50
2x 8oz ribeye steaks £15
Address
Life's Loves 