CE20_p42_p43_Made by Bob 6/8/2009 13:59 Page 1
Food Made by Bob
started on the food yet.
Lose
Owner/chef James ‘Bob’ Parkinson
is no flash in the frying pan.
His credentials are impressively
pucker, head chef at The Swan at
Southrop and years of learning his
yourself
craft at Terence Conran’s Bibendum
where he was trained by Simon
Hopkinson and then alongside
Australian chef David Thompson at
Nahm.
in food
Oh and does it show. Along with his
chef Ben Round, also from
Bibendum, the duo change the menu
daily but it might include fish soup
with rouille, gruyere and croutons,
utopia
grilled pork belly with oriental salad,
chilli, mint and coriander or
Malloreddus pasta with salsicia, sweet
tomato and basil.
My grilled focaccia with creamed
Sometimes you just strike
goats cheese, grilled courgettes,
beetroot and broad beans was an
lucky in life and if you love explosion of tastes and textures that
good food and a great new
had me mopping up every last morsel
with the freshest of home-made
restaurant opens up on your
bread.
doorstep it must surely count
My companion’s ribeye steak with
bearnaise sauce, pomme frites and
as one of those moments.
green salad was requested rare and
arrived about as perfect as it is
Sue Smith went along to
humanly possible to get a rare steak,
Made By Bob a new café/
just bursting with flavour.
And the beautifully fresh and tender
restaurant in Cirencester’s
salad leaves could not have had more
than a skip and a hop from the
redeveloped Corn Hall and garden.
lost herself in food utopia.
But it was the deserts that were the
real piste de resistance - and that from
someone who never eats puddings.
Words by Sue Smith
My apricot and almond tart literally
Pictures by Richard Pasco
melted in the mouth and whereas I
would normally take a few mouthfuls
to show willing I was greedily
scapping the plate and emailing
C
USTOMERS almost
hang from the rafters
friends about it that same afternoon.
A visit to the deli at the far end of
at this latest food the restaurant before you leave is a
emporium to open up in the
must to stock up on everything from
the finest Parmesan to the pots of red
Cotswolds.
wine jus and stocks to use at home for
The restaurant doesn’t take bookings your own dinner party.
yet it has averaged 60 - 100 people for At the moment Made By Bob is not
lunch on weekdays and weekends open in the evenings but they work
respectively since opening in March. flat out from 7.30 am providing coffee
It must only be a matter of time before and croissants for breakfast while the
the serious foodies start queuing to get in bread and pastries get underway in
here at dawn just like the shopaholics in the ovens until lunch ends at 3pm.
the January sales. There is already a huge demand for
With its clotted cream walls, natural
Quirky pictures of shoes hang on the
weddings and outside catering and
woods and flashes of black and stainless
walls and customers can, if they wish, sit
there may come a point when the
steel this is one of the hippest, hottest,
and eat at the counter dividing the open-
restaurant opens for tapas and wine in
eateries around. the evening.
Pendant lampshades in different sizes
plan kitchen from the restaurant and
Living around here just gets better
create a warm, soft, yellow ambient glow
watch the steam rise into the extractor
by the day.
and there is a constant buzz, usually only
fans against a backdrop of sizzling meat
Made By Bob is at Unit 6,
found in the packed restaurants of our
on the grill.
The Corn Hall, 26 Market Place,
capital city. So far, so brilliant and we haven’t even Cirencester. Tel 01285 641818
42 COTSWOLDESSENCE | SEPTEMBER ~ NOVEMBER 2009 www.cotswoldessence.co.uk
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