Venison Tartare, Sake-Pickled Golden Enoki, Rhubarb Hot Sauce, Shiso, Fire Pit Onions, Cacklebean Egg Yolk
Venison Tartare by Ben Chamberlain, Head Chef, Wild Restaurant, Bull at Burford
In the culinary world, few chefs possess the ability to harness fire as both a tool and an art form quite like Chef Ben Chamberlain. Renowned for his mastery of live fire cooking, Chamberlain has carved out a unique niche, combining bold live-fire cooking techniques with an immersive dining experience that places the elemental beauty of coal at their centre.
After 8 years on the Isle of Wight, Ben has returned to the mainland to take-up residency at WILD Restaurant. The menu concept, ‘Welcome to the Wild’, he fondly describes as his ‘dream job’, is an open-fire restaurant located within the award-winning luxury boutique hotel, Bull Burford, Oxfordshire. Situated in a sunken courtyard, it offers a communal dining experience centred around the elemental allure of fire. Guests can observe as locally-sourced meat, game, seafood, and a ‘zero food miles’ array of seasonal vegetables and microgreens from the Priory garden and polytunnels, owned by Bull Burford and are prepared on an open grill.
To book your immersive live fire dining experience with Ben, visit www.bullburford.com
Ingredients
Wilcote Estate Fallow Deer Loin
• 3oz fallow venison loin
• 50g shio koji
• coal oil
Coal-Scorched Oil
• 2000ml rapeseed oil
• 1 small to medium red-hot coals
Sake Pickle
• 100ml sake
• 50ml mirin
• 20g caster sugar
• 1 kombu sheet (3x3cm)
• 50g golden enoki mushrooms
Rhubarb Hot Sauce
• 200g Yorkshire rhubarb, chopped
• 50g Red chillies darken over fire
• 20g galangal, sliced
• 20g ginger, peeled sliced
• 50ml brown rice vinegar
Beer-Pickled Pit Onions
• 2 large Spanish onions
• 200ml Cotswold pale ale
• 30g coconut sugar
• 1 kombu sheet (3x3cm)
• 20g galangal, sliced
Pasilla Chilli Salt
• 20g dried pasilla chillies
• 100g Maldon salt
Method
Wilcote Estate Fallow Deer Loin
- Trim and marinate the fallow venison loin in shio koji for 24 hours.
- Wipe off excess koji, drizzle with coal oil, blowtorch until dark, and dice.
Coal-Scorched Oil
- Heat oil in a metal container until warm.
- Add coals and let cool for 2 hours or cold to touch.
- Strain, cool, and store.
Sake Pickle
- Combine sake, mirin, sugar, and kombu in a saucepan.
- Simmer gently, then cool naturally.
- Submerge enoki mushrooms in the pickle.
Rhubarb Hot Sauce
- Combine all ingredients in a saucepan and bring to a simmer.
- Blend until smooth and emulsified.
Beer-Pickled Pit Onions
- Chuck onions directly onto hot coals, moving regularly until soft. Rest, remove outer layer and dice.
- Boil ale, sugar, kombu, and galangal.
- Pour hot pickling liquid over diced onions and set aside.
Pasilla Chilli Salt
- Toast chillies lightly in a dry pan, then blend with half the salt until smooth.
- Fold in the remaining Maldon flakes to taste.
To Finish
- Mix 400g diced tartare, 50g beer-pickled onions, 50ml hot sauce.
- Drizzle with 10ml coal oil and season with 5g pasilla chilli salt.
- Plate, top with a Cacklebean egg yolk, and sprinkle with shiso furikake.
