Creative cocktails and waste-free cooking with Mr Lyan and Doug McMaster at Cub, London
‘This is our playground. We sit here and chat about our ideas all the time.’ Ryan Chetiyawardana relaxes into a custard-yellow banquette at Cub, the restaurant and bar he opened six months ago with chef Doug McMaster.
Chetiyawardana (otherwise known as Mr Lyan) has been crowned the world’s best bartender, and last year was recognised with a one-off award for Personality of the Decade by drinks-trade magazine Imbibe.
The best cocktail bar in the world? That would be Dandelyan, Chetiyawardana’s elegant riverside lounge in the Mondrian hotel on London’s South Bank, which took home the gong at the 2017 Spirited Awards.
The garlanded mixologist is about to roll out a new drinks menu at Dandelyan, and has so many projects on the go that he often keeps them secret. ‘It’s more fun to land them as if they’ve come out of nowhere,’ he explains.
With Cub, the latest venue in the Lyan family, buzz was unavoidable. It’s on the Hoxton site of Chetiyawardana’s original bar, White Lyan (which was groundbreaking in its refusal to use perishable ingredients). The bar closed for a week before reopening – first as Super Lyan in the basement, where familiar cocktails are given a serious makeover, and then, on street level, as Cub.
The latter has been one of Chetiyawardana’s most thrilling projects, undertaken with a chef who started his own revolution in Brighton at his zero-waste restaurant, Silo. There, everything not eaten is composted and raw ingredients arrive in reusable containers.
McMaster is just as thorough in his approach at Cub, where squeaky-clean sourcing and sustainable methods are top priorities. ‘If every morsel of food were considered precious by everyone, waste wouldn’t exist,’ he says.
You can do wonderful things when you break down the barrier between food and drink
Ryan Chetiyawardana
And – wow – the food. Delivered as a no-choice evening menu of six dishes, it’s eye-opening and meticulously created, with crystal-clear infusions and rich reductions. McMaster nails flavour balances with the precision of a surgeon; looking for ‘something clean, yet earthy’ to combine with ‘strong, deep’ black garlic, he turns to cauliflower, adding feta for a lactic tang and lemon thyme – ‘and boom, it works’.
Six cocktails are also served throughout the night, and share many elements with the dishes. So leftover beetroot granita turns into a sauce for the bar, or the pulp from a cocktail syrup becomes something for the kitchen to play with.
‘You can do wonderful things when you break down the barrier between food and drink,’ Chetiyawardana says – not least when the menu is turned out by two chefs and a bartender working shoulder to shoulder in a tiny open kitchen, with just two hotplates and a dinky fridge.
‘The bartender makes 500 drinks a night by himself,’ says Robin Honhold, operations director for the Lyan group, who explains how the pure pine flavour in a cocktail simply called ‘Douglas Fir – Belvedere – Mint Resin’ is preserved through a series of alkaline and acidic solutions. ‘We use all our offcuts to make something unique, until we’re sure we’ve used up all the flavour.’
Chetiyawardana and McMaster have found kinship in their creativity, and Cub, as a result, is the hottest place to be. ‘Come to our house and let us do everything for you,’ says Chetiyawardana. And they’ll have fun doing it, too.
Young cauliflower, black garlic and English ‘feta’
The beauty of the cauliflower ‘tree of life’ presentation makes this the ultimate dinner-party showstopper. Picking the lemon-thyme leaves is a slow, meticulous job, but can be done while the pan of water comes up to a simmer.
SERVES
2-3
INGREDIENTS
3 small cauliflowers (mini ones are ideal)
150g ready-peeled black garlic (available from delis or online)
50g feta-style cheese, ideally English, such as Kupros Dairy’s London Fettle
40g lemon thyme (a small bunch), leaves picked
smoked rapeseed oil, to finish
METHOD
Remove all the outer leaves from the cauliflowers and set aside for the black-garlic purée.
Turn a cauliflower head upside down and slice directly downwards to halve it through the centre of the stalk. Make a parallel cut about 2.5cm from the centre and slice through to release a beautiful ‘tree of life’ ‘steak’. Do the same with the other half of the cauliflower. You will get two steaks from one head. Repeat with the rest of the cauliflowers. Keep the cauliflower trimmings for the purée, and for future salads, soups or curries. Set the steaks aside.
To make the black-garlic purée, gather 300g of the cauliflower leaves and trimmings and boil or steam them until they are nice and soft. Remove with a slotted spoon and add to a blender with the black garlic.
Blend until super smooth, adding about 80ml water, bit by bit, to make a purée that’s nice and thick. Depending on how watery the cauliflower is you may need a touch more or less water.
Slice the cheese into strips as thick as a pound coin.
When you are ready to serve, bring a large pan of salted water to a simmer. Drop in the cauliflower steaks and simmer for 1-2 minutes, or until tender. Drain and set aside.
Meanwhile, spoon the black-garlic purée into warm shallow bowls (I allow one tablespoon per serving). Spread into a circle slightly wider than a cauliflower steak. Scatter the feta over the top of the purée and sprinkle the lemon-thyme leaves around the edges. Drizzle a generous amount of smoked rapeseed oil over each dish. Place two or three cauliflower steaks in the centre of each dish, adding a bit of rock salt to lightly season.
Baby shiitake, celeriac and kelp
This is the ‘meatiest’ plant-based dish one could possibly conjure. The baby shiitake mushrooms are so simple to cook but have such depth of umami flavour, and their fleshy texture is enough to satisfy any carnivore.
SERVES
4-6
INGREDIENTS
800g button mushrooms or mushroom trimmings
olive oil, for cooking
20g dried kelp (available from The Cornish Seaweed Company)
1kg celeriac
15g smoked garlic, peeled
600g baby shiitake mushrooms, stems removed if using larger ones
smoked rapeseed oil, to finish
METHOD
Preheat the oven to 180C/ gas mark 4.
Start by preparing the roasted-mushroom and kelp broth. Spread out the button mushrooms or mushroom trimmings on a baking tray in a single layer. Toss them in a little olive oil and salt and roast until golden brown.
Transfer to a large pan and cover with water. Simmer for an hour then strain, retaining the liquid. The mushrooms can be used in your next stir-fry, risotto or soup.
Spread out the kelp on a baking tray and dry-roast for 10 minutes, then immediately plunge it into the mushroom stock. Simmer for 20 minutes. Strain and set the kelp and broth to one side separately.
Peel the celeriac and cut it into small dice. Add a big splash of olive oil to a heavy-based pan set over a low heat. Add the celeriac with a good pinch of salt, and put the lid on.
Allow the celeriac to sweat slowly until mushy and soft (about 20 minutes), making sure it remains pale and doesn’t caramelise.
Spoon the celeriac into a blender. Finely grate in the smoked garlic. Place the lid on securely and blend until super smooth. If the blender struggles, add a little water, but you want this purée to be as thick as possible. Season, and keep warm in a container with a lid on.
Slice the kelp into fine noodles and bring the broth up to a simmer again.
Toss the shiitake mushrooms in a little bit of olive oil and salt, then spread on a baking tray and roast for 3-6 minutes, until slightly caramelised, but without drying out the edges (the time will depend on the size of the mushrooms).
To serve, spoon a large teaspoon of celeriac purée into each bowl. Add some of the roasted mushrooms in the centre of the bowl and spoon over two tablespoons of the hot broth, along with some of the kelp noodles. Finish with a nice drizzle of smoked rapeseed oil.
Miso parfait and Yorkshire rhubarb
The savoury umami aspect to this dessert is unapologetic, provocative and thrilling. It takes a bit of time to make and will yield more than you need, but everything can be used again in other dishes.
SERVES
10 or more
INGREDIENTS
For the parfait
180ml milk
140ml egg yolk
40g runny honey
145g caster sugar
270ml double cream
120ml egg white
For the miso caramel
150g brown-rice miso
100g molasses
50g muscovado
For the rhubarb granita
500g forced Yorkshire rhubarb
250g sugar
For the crispy quinoa
250g black quinoa
50g butter
METHOD
To prepare the parfait, bring the milk to a gentle simmer in a pan.
While that’s heating up, whisk the egg yolk with the honey and 25g sugar until, if you lift the whisk from the bowl, the mixture falls slowly, forming a ribbon.
Incorporate a third of the hot milk into the yolk mixture, then add all this back to the pan of hot milk while stirring with a spatula or a wooden spoon. Stir over a medium heat until the mixture reaches 82C on a digital thermometer, then remove from the heat and chill.
While the anglaise is chilling, whip the cream to soft peaks and set aside.
To make a French meringue, whisk the egg white at full speed, adding the rest of the sugar gradually. When all the sugar has been incorporated, whisk for a further minute.
Fold a quarter of the meringue into your whipped cream, then fold this mixture into the chilled anglaise. Fold in the remaining meringue until fully incorporated, but be gentle – the idea is to keep as much air in as possible by not over-mixing.
Divide the parfait mixture into silicone moulds (or metal ones lined with cling film), each with a capacity of 100g. Flatten the surfaces and freeze.
For the miso caramel, place all the ingredients in a pan with 125ml water and bring to a gentle simmer. Stir to incorporate and simmer for 10 minutes until the mixture looks glossy and is slightly viscous. Pass through a chinois or a very fine strainer, then pour into a squeezy bottle or two and chill.
Place the rhubarb and sugar for the granita in a pan with 250ml water and boil until the rhubarb is mushy (about 20 minutes). Blend until smooth then pass through a chinois or a fine strainer into a shallow container. Freeze until solid, then scrape the mixture with a fork until fluffy. Depending on the freezer temperature you may need to leave it out for a bit to soften first.
Boil the quinoa until very soft (slightly overcooked in fact), then strain well and allow to cool. Fry with the butter in a frying pan over a medium-high heat until the quinoa is crispy. Strain off any excess butter and season the quinoa with salt.
An hour before you want to serve, place your plates in the freezer.
Allow the parfait to soften a little if it’s brick-hard. Turn out the parfaits on to the chilled plates and add a teaspoon of miso caramel on top of each one. Top with a teaspoon of crispy quinoa and finish with some granita. Any leftover elements can be kept in the fridge or freezer, apart from the quinoa, which you can use in the place of croutons to top salads and soups.
Herefordshire cassis, GB vermouth, hibiscus Scotch
SERVES
5
INGREDIENTS
For the hibiscus tea
3 heaped tsp dried hibiscus
100g honey (the fancier/more sustainable the better)
To assemble
175ml Bruichladdich The Organic Scotch
75ml Cocchi Americano
50ml Fortnum & Mason cassis
5ml good-quality absinthe
To serve
big chunks of ice
slices of blood orange
METHOD
Pour 500ml boiling water into a jug with the dried hibiscus. Leave to brew until cold.
Strain the hibiscus tea through a tea strainer then stir in the honey to dissolve. It’s now ready to serve (anything leftover from the cocktail is delicious to drink on its own).
Combine 300ml of the sweetened hibiscus tea with the rest of the ingredients in a clean bottle. Store in the fridge to chill (this is good for about a week in the fridge).
Before serving, give the bottle a turn over. Serve over a big chunk of ice in a rocks glass, and garnish with a slice of blood orange.
Rare tea, tea stems, Angel Face plum
SERVES
10
INGREDIENTS
For the Angel Face plums
50ml gin
100ml apricot brandy
50ml Somerset Cider Brandy
5ml good-quality absinthe
2 purple plums
For the tea
1 tsp RareTea Co Malawi Antlers tea
1 tsp RareTea CoWhite Peony tea
50g caster sugar
10ml lemon juice
METHOD
Prepare the plums first. Combine the alcohols in a jug with 50ml water. Cut the plums into 5mm-thick half-moon slices. Add these to the jug and leave for an hour (or as long as you want; they’re ready after an hour). Store in the fridge if not using immediately.
For the tea, add 100ml cold water to 300ml boiling water then pour this over the tea leaves, sugar and lemon juice in a jug. Give the mixture a quick stir to dissolve the sugar then leave to steep for three minutes. Strain through a tea strainer into another jug and keep hold of the tea leaves.
Add the leaves back to original jug and boil another 300ml water. Add 50ml cold water to it, then pour over the leaves and leave for another three minutes. Strain into the jug that contains the already strained tea. Add the leaves back once more to the original jug. Pour in just 300ml boiling water this time and leave for four minutes.
Strain into the other jug and place the jug in the fridge to cool. Once at fridge temperature, the tea is ready to serve.
Pour 100ml tea into a small wine glass. Garnish with a slice of plum on a skewer
