Over eight weeks of summer, Selfridges will be running a ‘Meet the Makers’ event to showcase the heros and producers behind the fabulous food found at Selfridges. It is a celebration of the Selfridge’s foodie artisans, and as part of the occasion there will be walking tours of the confectionery and food halls as well as tantalising daily demonstrations by top chefs. And to kick the ‘Meet the Makers’ Celebration off, Mark Mix hosted a ‘Meet the Makers’ dinner at his restaurant in Selfridges, Hix Restaurant and Champagne Bar last week. It was an opportunity to meet his ‘Makers’, the people who supply him with his great British produce.

The menu started with Hix’s De Beauvoir smoked salmon ‘Hix cure’ with Corrigan’s soda bread, a starter which can be found throughout his restaurants. I have had this salmon before and adore the sweetness of the cure and the gentle smokiness of the fish. The smoked salmon had its origins in Hix’s former East London home, back in the days when Hix use to home cure, hence the name given to this dish. The bread is from a recipe by the king of Irish, Richard Corrigan.

‘Hix cured’ smoked salmon

We then moved on to a wild herb salad with a crispy-fried Bantam’s egg containing an array of fresh herbs by Miles Irving from Forager, a foraging company that supplies only wild, foraged products. There was a fantastic provenance on our plate including a delicious selection of common purslane, fat hen leaves, wood sorrel and fennel herbs.

Foraged salad

The main course was a meat fest of a roasted barn-reared Indian Rock chicken served on a spit and Glenarm Estate chateaubriand that had been aged using Himalayan salt. Reg Johnson supplied the chicken and is known not only for his corn-fed chicken but his Goosnargh ducklings, both of which are used by Michelin chefs up and down the country including the likes of Gordon Ramsay and Claude Bosi at Hibiscus. The glorious steak was by Irish meat merchant Peter Hannan and was sublimely tender and tasty. Hix is known for serving chicken and steak at his Tramshed Restaurant, and it is Reg’s chicken and Peter’s steak that he uses.

The steak

For dessert, a Nyetimber demi-sec and summer fruit jelly made for a refreshing finish. Nyetimber is an English product and it was great to see how good this English wine could be in such a dessert.

Nyetimber jelly

It was lovely to meet the suppliers and have them share their passion of their produce and the care they take in to bring their products to us. Selfridges will also be running a series of ‘Meet The Michelin’ dinners cooked by some of country’s top chefs. Check out this link for more details.