Housebites

Laurent Rossi is a classically-trained French chef with 20 years experience in fine-dining restaurants all over the world.  Cooking is in his blood.  He grew up in Provence watching his grandmother cooking in the farmhouse at home.  It’s no surprise then that he can turn his hand to Le Terroir – authentic dishes, made with local ingredients – and high-end Michelin-starred cuisine.

He’s now dividing his time between cooking for private Housebites clients and making divine chocolates, cakes and biscuits to order.

He was developing his new menu when I visited.  The kitchen smelled of freshly roasted poussin and spicy Toulouse sausage.  Laurent is very true to his French roots so you can expect a menu not only inspired by France but know that he’ll source the very best ingredients from there too.

Laurent’s speciality is chocolate, truffles, bars, dipped fruit, you name it he can make it. When I visited he offered me one of his olive truffles.  Sounds wrong, tastes amazing.

It’s white chocolate with an olive ganache and not being a lover of white chocolate I was hesitant. This particular truffle took him months and months to develop, experimenting with different chocolate and different olives.  In the end, he found that white chocolate worked with a particular olive from his home region of France.

Almonds, champagne, cognac, rose, gin and tonic, gingerbread, spice and a grapefruit and cherry ganache these are just some of the creations Laurent develops in his kitchen.

Expect good things to come from this chef.  Not only can you eat like a king at a takeaway price (see my Housebites post).  He’s developing his chocolate line to selling at a market near you very soon.