On Saturday 22 October, Alan and I tentatively went along to a tasting event at Create. It had been advertised on Twitter but when making the booking, Alan got a rather dubious and frankly unedited response from one of their staff, so we didn't really know what to expect. We were pleasantly surprised. Despite being greeted by a window cleaner, the hospitality was very attentive right from the start. We had some good quality coffee and then we were led upstairs to a long table with multicoloured chairs and some inviting glasses of wine.
Next followed a presentation by Chris from Latitude Wines and we enjoyed three samples of England's finest: two sparklers - Ridgeview 2009 and Nyetimber 2005, and a less impressive Madeleine Angevine from our very own Leventhorpe vineyard. I'm not sure I would recommend wine tasting at 11am but it was a good presentation, our fellow diners knew their stuff, and I would definitely purchase the Ridgeview.
We then had some pastries. One was a puff pastry filled with mushrooms, caramelised red onions and brie; and easy win. The other was an incredibly beautiful, soft and sweet cake, almost marzipan-like. I want more!
And then we headed back downstairs for a cooking demonstration and some more tasting. The head chef could have used some lessons in smiling but the demo was pretty good in comparison to some disasters I've seen over the years. We were allowed to sniff, prod and squeeze various ingredients, then tasted the final dishes. Sadly the poached pears with goats cheese and a mustard dressing was horrendously vinegary, but the sea bream was full of flavour, and the blackberry and apple crumble with elderberry ice cream was really innovative. The crumble is cooked separately and is almost biscuity with really interesting hints of orange zest.
We asked questions and it was great to hear about the concept behind Create. The foundation supports people who have struggled with employment for many reasons such as homelessness, addictions, or mental health, and gives them access to a 12 week work experience programme. After gaining this experience, the foundation works with local employers in the food sector to help the graduates get into employment. It seems to be working well and was a really interesting concept to have a restaurant which is purely based on social enterprise.
As a little farewell gift, we were handed some goodie boxes filled with cakes, flapjacks, meringues. They were very sweet but you'll never hear me complaining. They used some donated boxes which looked straight out of a friend chicken vendor, but hey, why turn away free stuff.
Overall, we were really impressed. Good concept, clean decor, delicious dishes using local and seasonal food, and a good marketing strategy. We'll be back to try the full menu soon ...
