Taste of the ‘70s gourmet night at The Mulberry Tree
Mark Pearson, the new Head Chef at the award-winning Mulberry Tree restaurant in Boughton Monchelsea, Kent, has designed a Taste of the ‘70s 7-course gourmet menu to celebrate the decade which brought us platform shoes, loon pants and wing collars; Watergate; glam rock; permed footballers; video cassettes and hand-held calculators; Jaws, Star Wars and Saturday Night Fever.
The 7-couse tasting menu of classic dishes of the period with a fine dining twist, will be served on Thursday 24th March at £49 a head – or £75 with accompanying wines, which will not include Blue Nun or Black Tower. The retro menu features former favourites as pineapple and cheese cubes, prawn cocktail, Babycham trifle and Black Forrest arctic roll that are guaranteed to invoked pangs of nostalgia and embarrassment for those who lived through that era.
“The Seventies were an iconic decade, before food became the new rock and roll, when many of us first began to cook and host dinner parties for the first time,” said Mulberry Tree owner Karen Williams.
Mark Person concurs, “Although many of the staple dishes of that era became clichéd and cooking moved on, their essential qualities have a lot to commend them and I’ve added a culinary sophistication to bring them in line with the more discerning taste of present day dinners,” said Mark, who began his career under the esteemed chef David Nichols (now Global Director of Food and Beverage for Mandarin Oriental Hotels). Mark worked with him at both The Royal Garden and The Ritz Hotel in London.
He also worked in some of Canada and South Africa’s finest hotels before coming back to the UK as Head Chef at The Starr in Great Dunmow, Essex.
Having won the Taste of Kent, Restaurant of the Year two years running (and is again on the shortlist), Mark has been brought in to take the Mulberry Tree to the next level. He has built a strong team of chefs and is putting his own stamp on the cuisine.
Ahead of the Taste of the Eighties night, The Mulberry is to host ‘An Evening with Dean Martin and Elvis’ featuring renowned tribute artist Neil Duncan, with a special £37 3-course menu.
On Wednesday 18th May there will be ‘An Evening of Smooth Jazz’, when The Smooth Jazz Trio – the popular house band of Pizza Express in Maidstone – will perform well-known classics. A 3-couse choice menu will be £28.95.
For Mother’s Day, Sunday 3rd April, the 3-course £25.95 menu includes a special gift for mum.
The Mulberry Tree, Hermitage Lane, Boughton Monchelsea, Kent ME17 4DA
themulberrytreekent.co.uk
