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British Airways Taste Team
Liam Tomlin, Cape Town, South Africa
Liam Tomlin began his career at the age of 14 in his hometown of Dublin in Ireland.
After spending a year at Renvyle House in Galway, Liam acquired a position at the London Hilton. Being inspired by Executive Chef Bruno Enderli at the Hotel Central in Zurich, he went on to gain experience in some of the better kitchens in Europe.
Tomlin arrived on Australian shores in 1991, and spent his first 2 years working at The Regent in Melbourne. On arriving in Sydney in 1993, he exercised his culinary talents first as Executive Sous Chef at the Park Lane Hotel (now the Sheraton On The Park), then as Chef de Cuisine at Level 41 and Executive Chef at Brasserie Cassis.
Since leaving Sydney in 2003, Liam is consultant to many hotels and restaurants and is Food Editor for South Africa's largest travel magazine, as well as currently developing a new restaurant and leisure complex in the heart of Cape Town.
Tomato and basil consommé
Serves 4
- 1 kg over-ripe, vine ripened tomatoes.
- 1 shallot, sliced
- 3 sprigs fresh chervil, roughly chopped
- 3 sprigs fresh tarragon, roughly chopped
- 1 small bunch fresh basil, roughly chopped
- 10 ml white wine
- Pinch Maldon sea salt
- Pinch sugar
- 80g tomato concasse
- 20 picked leaves baby basil
- 20 picked leaves baby tarragon
- 24 slices black olive
- Salt
- Freshly ground pepper
- Core the tomatoes and roughly chop. Place in a bowl with the sliced shallot, roughly chopped herbs, white wine, sea salt, sugar and a twist of freshly ground pepper. Mix the ingredients together and cover with cling-film. Refrigerate for 4 hours to allow the flavours to infuse. After 4 hours transfer the contents of the bowl into a double-layer of muslin cloth and tie it up as tightly as possible. Place in a sieve over a large bowl to catch the juice released from the tomatoes and return to the fridge for 12 hours.
- The tomatoes will have released all their juice and the sediment will have dropped to the bottom of the bowl. Using a coffee filter paper carefully decant the consommé into a clean bowl - take care not to disturb the sediment at the bottom of the bowl. Discard the sediment and tomato pulp.
- The consommé can be served either hot or cold. If hot, place the consommé in a saucepan and gently warm over a very low heat. Lightly season the tomato concasse with salt and freshly ground pepper and spoon into a soup bowl. Pour over the consommé and garnish with the picked basil and tarragon leaves and slices of olive.
The British Airways Taste Team
