Posts filed under 'Troy Lamb'
Up Close with The Lambs at the Market restaurant in Mansfield, Nottingham
Go dine and the Nottinghamshire tourism board had the pleasure of the spending the afternoon with Troy Lamb, the head chef and owner of the fabulous Lambs at the Market restaurant in Mansfield. The plan; to understand just how Troy, with the support of a loving family, has propelled the restaurant into the forefront of the Nottinghamshire restaurant scene, picking up numerous Nottingham Restaurant awards as well as a coveted AA rosette.
Lambs at the Market was launched under stressful circumstances, its Grade II listed building causing plenty of potential heartache, “it just felt like the council wanted to make it difficult for us, the building lay dilapidated for a number of years and all we wanted to was bring it back to life”. Troy and his wife Alison ended up investing more than the budget in updating the facade, fixtures and fittings, and by the time Lambs at the Market opened its doors Alison was 8 months pregnant. An hour before the doors opened tables were still being made up; it just begged the question, “Why put yourself through the stress!?”
Troy’s love for food, like many top-class chefs, started in his early teens. Troy was exposed to a kitchen with a simple ethos of carvery and substance, rather than style cooking. At 15 Troy watched a frustrated chef dictated to with regard to what and how to cook and Troy started to understand what was wrong with this. Thoughts of having his own kitchen and doing things his own way entered the mind of the budding entrepreneur.
“It got to a stage where the idea of opening a restaurant was constantly playing on my mind and with Alison pregnant it was now or never. Part of opening the restaurant was so we could do it our way. Seeing the family isn’t just limited to home time.”
“My daughter spends time in the restaurant and runs around on a Sunday, she comes into the kitchen; not when we’re busy, I must add, when pans are flying everywhere. This restaurant is my livelihood and it’s important to involve her in this. She is extremely well behaved as she has spent a big part of her life either in this restaurant or others when we are dining out.”
Working 18 hour days, father of a new born baby, Troy rolled his sleeves up and with help from life-long friend Martin the dream began. Working so closely together, team work and interaction are a must and watching the two chefs working their wonderful local produce to plate certainly is a pleasure.
Troy spent a week working with Sat Bains and found it to be a privilege, “the way they organise the kitchen, the actual respect they have for the ingredients and the amount of detail that goes into the preparation was something I wanted to emulate”. Troy’s love for local produce can be seen in the way he describes dishes; he aims to make his dishes appealing and accessible to any diner and looks for a relaxed fine dining angle. “I don’t tend to go out into the restaurant, so all I see is what comes back on the plates, most of which are empty!”
Troy’s cuisine is based on unpretentious, honest food and he doesn’t like looking at menus filled with extravagant language that then disappoint when the plate is presented.
“We get quite a lot of people coming in who are celiac and we are happy to cater for them. We prefer to have some notice, and we can easily tailor dishes especially as we create everything from scratch in our kitchens. I don’t like to lose my concentration during service so having notice of special dietary requirements is preferred.” – a good indication of a perfectionist.
Troy takes extreme pride in everything that leaves the kitchen. Unless each dish is perfect in presentation and flavour, as well as reflecting the concept and ideology and the reason for putting the ingredients together, the dish simply doesn’t leave the kitchen no matter how busy the service, “it’s my name above the door, Lambs at the Market is just that, my restaurant with my levels of quality.”
It was at this point that Troy passed me over an A5 piece of paper headed ‘Go dine menu’, which put a huge smile on my face. Three dishes described so eloquently with mention of the source of the ingredients brought an amazing blend of flavours to my mind. We walked through the restaurant admiring Alison’s design and entered the kitchen to be greeted by Martin. We stood to one side and watched the dishes being pieced together so intricately but in a flash.
Puff Pastry Tart of Tollerton- Shot pigeon breast with Scottish Girolles.
Assierre of Nottingham Pork- Slow cooked belly, deep fried rillette and mini pork chop with Southwell butternut squash
A taste of Kirklington damsons- Damson jelly, star anise rice pudding and plum “minifeuille” – Wow!
While I had been speaking to Troy and Allison in the reception area of the restaurant, Martin had been preparing the pastry tart and potato fondant for the main course. Troy now joined him and off they went. Troy spent time as he cooked describing the people who make the dishes possible and told us about a good friend of his who shoots the wood pigeon only 10miles east of the restaurant specifically for Lambs at the Market.
Within 2 minutes we were watching Troy apply the final touches to our starter, Tart of Tollerton ready for our delectation. But we had to contain our appetites while the main course got underway, and the three different cuts of pork were lovingly produced. Again Troy spoke in an animated fashion, local produce really is high on the list of priorities.
On went the bed of lentils, potato fondant carefully placed on top, the pork placed on top of that, the pork belly to one side with a large amount of crackling, followed by the mini pork chop that had been hand trimmed and voila, a hearty dish that, as Catherine remarked, “certainly is a man size portion”. Troy takes a huge amount of pride in the presentation of the dish, “I don’t want people walking out of here hungry!”
We then shuffled over towards the other end of the kitchen and watched Martin carefully pull together a delicious take on a British classic, using damson in 3 different fashions. His sentences starting with “well I just do this, and I just place this” made me smile. They don’t just do this or that, the skill by which they create their masterpieces is second nature to these guys, the skills on show and the thought that goes into every step certainly is something I could not emulate quickly!
We took the dishes carefully up the stairs and onto a table in a more light and airy part of the restaurant. Troy sat down opposite Helen and me with a smile on his face. Getting across to Troy what we thought of the food was not as easy as we thought, the pigeon so soft and flavoursome, and the light yet crispy tartlet complemented the pan fried mushrooms.
Second up, the main course and where to start? I went straight for the pork belly and crackling and it took me straight back to my Nan’s crackling, but sorry Nan this was better! The soft pork and the fresh local vegetables were simply amazing and we had to invite our photographer in at this point to taste the fare; the immediate smile on his face spoke volumes.
Lambs at the Market really is an absolute gem in Mansfield: the absolute commitment to local produce, the passion and skill that goes into every element of every dish. Troy truly is a talented young chef and with a loyal and loving family behind him, Lambs at the Market will go from strength to strength. There is no doubt Troy deserves his ‘best use of local produce’ award and his AA rosette and any diner will be guaranteed to be delighted with the flavours, textures and presentation that goes into every dish. Not only that but diners will walk out feeling satisfied with the portions; they will feel that what they just ate was really worth every single penny.
This is not the last time we will hear about Troy; the journey has just begun and for a chef who when asked “who would you most like to cook for?” answered “Gordon Ramsay” just shows the confidence and self belief of a down to earth, kind and welcoming man.
We wish Lambs at the Market the very best of luck, although something tells me they won’t need it!
______________________________
Book Lambs at the Market online for free or call 01623 220 915
