- Wine expert Olly Smith, who grew up in Jersey, is back to co-host a fundraising dinner at the Royal Yacht
- He will be teaming up with top London chef, Atul Kochhar, for the event
- Competition: Win a Barocco Choco gift box
THE Royal Yacht will be offering Islanders a (Michelin) star-studded celebrity charity dinner on Thursday.
TV presenter, columnist, author and, above all, wine expert Olly Smith will be overseeing the event, which is being held in aid of Jersey Hospice Care and Jersey Alzheimer’s Association.
‘I’ll be ringmaster for the evening,’ says Olly, who grew up in Jersey.
‘I’ll be giving speeches at the start and end of the night and chatting to all of the guests. There’s going to be a lot of fun and banter.’
Olly is senior judge of the International Wine Challenge and The Decanter World Wine Awards.
But he is perhaps best known for his regular appearances on BBC1’s Saturday Kitchen, on which he is occasionally joined by master chef Atul Kochhar, who will also be holding forth at the Royal Yacht.
‘Atul has personally chosen Thursday’s menu,’ says Olly. ‘He’s my all-time favourite chef as well as one of my best friends.
‘I’m really looking forward to showing him around the Island, too. Mind you, that’s assuming he’s never been here before.
‘Atul’s been all over the world so it’s more likely he’ll be the one saying to me, “Come on, let’s go to Snow Hill chippy” or “Let’s go get a burger from the Hungry Man”.’
The twice Michelin-starred chef is behind London’s renowned Benares restaurant and will be overseeing the five-course modern Indian cuisine menu alongside his two senior chefs and Steve Walker, head chef at the Royal Yacht.
Alongside this, Olly will be introducing each individual wine throughout the evening – and if the descriptions he gives on the night are anything like as enthusiastic and entertaining as those he gives me then the audience are in for a treat.
For instance, Australian winemakers Ten Minutes by Tractor’s 2013 Pinot Noir is described as being ‘more of a Darcey Bussell than a Geoff Capes. It’s a superbly polished wine’.
Spanish red La Rioja Alta Reserva ‘Vina Ardanza’ meanwhile, which will be accompanying the main course, has ‘won so many awards, it’s got gold medals dangling off it. It’s covered in tinsel.’
Olly has been specifically tasked with choosing a suitable wine to accompany each of Atul’s chosen courses – not easy when faced with such original dishes as rose and raspberry steamed yoghurt.
‘For that, I chose Peller Estates’ Vidal Ice Wine, which is like dynamite with an amazing sugary oomph,’ he says.
‘It’s wine made in sub-zero temperatures by people wearing gauntlets riding ski-doos.’
Accompanying pan-fried sea bass with coconut and curry leaf sauce meanwhile, will be Palladius by South African winemaker Eben Sadie: ‘I’m going to stick my neck out and say it’s the finest white wine in South Africa, or at the very least in the top two or three. Everyone attending is going to have the opportunity to taste an absolute corker!’
Raised in Jersey from the age of three, London-based Olly says he is looking forward to returning to the Island.
‘My family grew up near Green Island,’ he said.
‘We’d go exploring around all the little islands and you knew we were properly local because we never got cut off by the tide.
‘It was wonderful growing up in such a beautiful place and feeling so free.’
Olly got his first taste of working in the wine industry after landing a job with local wine merchants Orange & Company.
‘I was lugging boxes and filling up store rooms,’ he says. ‘It was my first introduction to how wine could taste so hugely different depending on when and where it was produced.
‘This was 20 or so years ago when Australian wines were just starting to make an impact and Chile was just starting to come into play.
‘Suddenly it was sunshine in a bottle. There was a real buzz.’
Aside from a brief spell working at the Chocolate Box (‘chocolates and wine – pretty good career choices I’d say’, he laughs), Olly has worked in wine for his entire professional life and seen his career grow from strength to strength – and it is a career that he clearly still relishes.
‘I’m really looking forward to taking part in the Celebrity Charity Dinner on Thursday,’ says Olly. ‘Hats off to Carey Olsen, who have organised it. They’ve really put together something top quality.
‘The Royal Yacht is a great venue and of course it’s all for a very good cause.’
For more information about the Celebrity Charity Dinner, or to reserve a place and/or table, email bookatulandolly@careyolsen.com
Any readers wanting to ask Olly for wine tips and info can contact him on Twitter @jollyolly or on Facebook.com/jollyolly
A NEW range of chocolate has arrived in Jersey.
Barocco Choco, which is artisan rather than mass-produced, is a vegan Sicilian dark chocolate variety.
The range, which has just hit the shelves of The Chocolate Bar in St Helier, is inspired by a recipe the ancient Aztecs passed on.
The chocolate is cold-pressed and made with minimal ingredients – cocoa, sugar and fruit or spice. It’s also certified organic and contains only Fair Trade ingredients.
Barocco Choco co-director Louise Pyne, a qualified nutritionist, says that it comes as a bit of a surprise the first time you taste it.
Earthy and granular as a result of adding sugar to cocoa mass at a low temperature, the chocolate has a distinctive crunch as the sugar crystals never fully dissolve into the cocoa.
‘Barocco Choco is a far cry from chocolate as most of us know it,’ she said. ‘It exudes indulgence while offering health benefits such as heart-helping, brain-boosting antioxidants thanks to the unique production process which keeps the nutrients naturally contained within cocoa intact.
The entire range is also gluten-, dairy- and soya-free too, so no one has to miss out.’
Louise founded the brand with her partner Ozy after visiting Modica in south-eastern Sicily, a Baroque town which the brand is named after (Baroque translates as Barocco in Italian).
There are six varieties in the Barocco Choco range.
Click here for more information.
The range is currently available here priced at £3.85 per bar.
WE have a gift box of six bars of Barocco Choco to give away. All you have to do is answer this question:
Which Italian island inspired the Barocco Choco brand?
Send your answer to:
Barocco Choco Competition,
Features Desk,
Jersey Evening Post,
PO Box 582,
Jersey,
JE4 8XQ
or email features@jerseyeveningpost.com with Barocco Choco in the subject line.
The closing date is Thursday 30 April.
