La Belle Assiette

La Belle Assiette

labelleassiette.co.uk

La Belle Assiette is an online private chef booking platform that was founded in 2012 in France. It allows guests to browse and book menus and chefs online, offering a set price per head. Once guests pick a menu (three courses are available), the chef buys the ingredients, comes to your home at an agreed time and cooks for you and your guests before cleaning up. The service is available in six countries with over 550 registered chefs. Menu browsing is easy, and there are cuisines to suit every taste!

You can have up to seven dinner guests, and chefs are available for any occasion from dinner parties to birthdays to lazy cooking nights at home. The Gourmet Girls were fortunate enough to be offered the opportunity to review the company with chef Jeannick Conver, a Reunion Islands native who worked at the prestigious Berner's Tavern in Fitzrovia before going freelance with his cooking.

Jeannick arrived to my home, his first time cooking with La Belle Assiette, fully prepared with a very professional approach to my kitchen. My guests talked and laughed over a glass of wine as he promptly set up his work station on my kitchen bench, asking a few questions and getting right to work. He was to be cooking the 'Validation' menu: crod coquettes to start followed by a fresh mango and apple crab salad. For mains: smoked mash, roast chicken, roast carrot with tarragon sauce, followed by the chef's special crème brulee for pudding.



It was fantastic to watch the way Jeannick worked. It's not every day you have a private chef in your home, and I could definitely use a few cooking lessons after watching how he created the dishes. Jeannick brought fresh bread and butter over to our dining table before lightly frying the cod croquette starter in our air fryer and presenting it on a wooden board with a garlic aioli. The croquettes went in a blink of an eye and were cooked to perfection. Following this, he presented us with a Summery crab salad mixed in with fruit and chives and scooped into a lettuce leave. The sweet and savoury flavours contrasted beautifully and left us eager for our mains.


Dinner came at a good time after we had finished our starters, Jeannick was very efficient, and also kept his work station very organised. The signs of a great chef. There was a chorus of happy agreement after my guests and I tried our meal. The chicken skin had been both baked and fried, turning it into a crackling texture which made for a phenomenal taste. We were all unsure how Jeannick had 'smoked' the mash, but it also tasted superb and perfectly complimented the oven roasted herb carrots, parsnips and Brussel sprouts.
Jeannick began to clean up the dishes, pots, pans, knives and kitchen bench as my guests and I let our meal digest. We conversed solely about the fantastic food, and marvelled at how he had been able to create such flavours out of basic ingredients in our fairly basic kitchen. We finished our evening with crème brulee topped with toasted sugar, the torching process was a highlight to watch. At many occasions throughout the evening, Jeannick had an audience of amateur photographers around him. The crème brulee was topped with an edible flower and presented beautifully.

We had agreed that our favourite course of the evening was between the cod croquettes and the chicken mains, it was too difficult to pick just one. Jeannick happily sat with us for a glass of wine and answered many of our questions after leaving our kitchen completely spotless. It was an evening of great company and even better food. Jeannick is exceptionally professional star restaurant quality chef and I wouldn't hesitate to use La Belle Assiette again.