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M Restaurants: The new wave of gluten-free fare
At the two London outposts of M Raw, responsibly sourced seafood is always the catch of the day, says executive chef Michael Reid
M Raw is about showcasing produce in its purest form. It's 100-per-cent gluten-free and everything on the menu is sustainable, ethically sourced and mostly organic. It's food as it's meant to be eaten, prepared with respect.
There's definitely a demand at the moment for restaurants such as M Raw – a lot of people have intolerances and we're all more educated about having a balanced diet. But I wanted to offer something that wasn't your bog-standard gluten-free fare. I wanted it to be more fun, more creative and inventive. There's a big Asian influence evident in our menu – a cuisine both Martin [Williams, M Restaurants' founder] and I are very passionate about. I really got to develop that side of my cooking when I launched Jardin Tan with Shannon Bennett during my time in Australia. The menu there was French-Vietnamese fusion, so I had to do a lot of research and spent time in Vietnam and I've brought that to M.
Creating the menu was challenging – the amount of hidden gluten in our food is incredible. It meant adapting things we were already doing: for example, banh xeo [a type of Vietnamese pancake]. It has wheat in it, so I had to develop a new recipe that was wheat-free but equally good. It was fun – I saw it as a competition against gluten.
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It was while in Australia, too, that I was first introduced to ike jime, which totally blew me away. Ike jime is a traditional Japanese method of catching and killing fish that immediately cuts off the creature's nervous system so it doesn't go into rigor mortis. That means you get a firmer flesh, no aroma and a longer shelf life and the fish tastes as it should. Fish actually have no aroma; they just smell of the sea. What we associate with a "fishy" smell is actually lactic acid – if a fish is caught properly, this isn't released and it doesn’t smell.
(Image credit: Jodi Hinds 2015)
When we launched M Raw, I wanted to use only ike jime fish and cobia from Open Blue [the largest deep-water, open-ocean fish farm in the world], for which I'm an ambassador. Our produce comes from Mark W Eather, a Tasmanian fisherman with whom I was lucky to spend time. He takes ike jime to another level: for him, it's one man, one boat, one fish at a time. There's no mass-catching whatsoever. It really is the most ethical way of fishing, which means the quality is unbelievable – it's the best fish I've ever tasted. I'm very happy with our sashimis and tartares, and the reception to them has been incredible.
I'm very ambitious and I've relished the challenge of developing and executing the menu at M Raw. I've worked with some great chefs during my career and the most important thing I've learnt is you need to love what you do. I try to teach the young guys in my kitchen that: if you don't wake up looking forward to doing what you do, there's no point doing it. Cheffing is hard, the hours are long and it's nowhere near as glamorous as people think it is. A good work ethic is something you can't teach – you either have it or you don't – but as long as you have it, you'll be fine.
MICHAEL REID is executive chef at M Restaurants. He trained at Le Gavroche and Restaurant Gordon Ramsay before joining Gaucho, where he worked with then managing director Martin Williams. During a three-year sojourn in Australia, he was involved in some of Melbourne's most exciting establishments, including Attica, Cutler & Co and Jardin Tan. Having been a consultant on its launch, he joined the M group in a full-time capacity in 2014. M Raw is at Threadneedle Street, London EC2, and Victoria Street, London SW1; mrestaurants.co.uk
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