Christopher Gray enjoys a seven-course £50-a-head feast at the Varsity Club in Oxford’s High Street

It was a wonderful night for foodies at Oxford’s Varsity Club as Madeiran chef Jorges Fernendes took over the first-floor cocktail bar and dance floor to offer a Lucullan Feast for 36 lucky punters, me included.

The Varsity Food Experience was a ‘pop-up’ operation from Jorges destined to be repeated, in a different style, in a few weeks’ time and thereafter once a month.

Do you know the Varsity Club? It occupies a four-storey building above the Covered Market in the High Street which housed Webbers department store. After that, it was leased by a variety of short-lived restaurants before entrepreneur Jake Oppon recognised its potential and worked with wife Yvonne to create the stylish venue of today, and my first visit came in the summer of 2014 when its rooftop lounge opened, with views over the city.

Jorges Fernendes has worked since 1997 variously as chef, waiter and barman, across lots of Oxford restaurants, including the Lemon Tree, Petit Blanc and Whites (where the Turl Kitchen now is). Latterly, he has been part of the team at Branca, in Walton Street.

From 2009 to 2011 he had his own restaurant in Madeira’s capital, Funchal, where he also ran a club.

Self-taught as a chef, he has keenly followed recent developments in the science of the subject, and last year attended a molecular cookery course in London.

By then he had already given us the first of his pop-up nights in a themed dinner in the Vaults and Garden Café below the University Church, with Portuguese dishes teamed with appropriate wines.

For the Varsity do, his menu was more eclectic – seven courses, as I said, involving no fewer than 280 plates sent to the candlelit tables amid the bookcases and artistically pixellated portraits of the famous (Mrs Thatcher, David Beckham, Russell Brand) that supply the pleasing décor here.

At ours, besides Rosemarie and myself, sat fellow Osneyite Kerr Drummond who is currently filming a new Channel 4 property series Coast vs Country. His brother Craig and pal Jacob completed our merry quintet, with quantities of French wine (Domaine Eric Louis pinot noir and Lorosco Reserva sauvignon blanc) assisting in the jollity.

First came cocktails at the bar (a rose and raspberry bellini) where I met the Varsity’s manager Bella Newman, full of enthusiasm for the new venture. Live music from a pair of cellists accompanied conversation. Atmosphere is important to Jorges.

Our meal began with winter carrot, a dish borrowed from the Copenhagen restaurant Noma, often judged best in the world. The vegetables are fried for 90 minutes in butter with sage, then two strips are placed crossways on the plate, with carrot purée (from yellow and purple heritage varieties) topped with dried sage.

Next was the mini pâté lolly, as seen with Kerr in the picture. Featuring chicken livers blended with assorted booze (port, brandy and dry Madeira), grape chutney and gelatine coated in sourdough breadcrumbs, it was served with sweet potato bread.

King crab leg, extracted from the shell, was fried in butter and served with a spicy red pepper sauce designed to complement its sweetness and an onion and garlic vinaigrette featuring dill, parsley and thyme.

Oxford Mail:

  • Jorges Fernendes at work

Goat cheese mousse and roasted beetroot with balsamic vinaigrette brought a welcome reacquaintance for Rosemarie and me with a dish we’d enjoyed at Jorges’ Madeira night at the Vaults. Egg white and cream added to the Spanish goat cheese accounted for its light smoothness. The fish course was a chunk of line-caught turbot, poached in butter and served on pumpkin mash with a vermouth and dill cream sauce.

Some two hours from kick-off we now reached meat in the shape of rib-eye steak, with polenta chips, a red wine sauce imbued with the smoky flavour of lapsang souchong tea and smoked beef.

The well-balanced menu, and sensible portion sizes, meant there was room for pudding, and we finished this memorable meal with a panna cotta duo – one vanilla and caramel, the other passion fruit.

THE PARTICULARS
The Varsity Food Experience, The Varsity Club, 9 High St, Oxford, 
OX1 4DB,
Telephone: 01865 248777, tvcoxford.co.uk.

Jorges Fernendes will be organising further experiences at the club. For further information contact the club, or email mymadeiraexpereince@gmail.com 

The Varsity Club is open noon till midnight Sunday to Thursday, noon till late Friday and Saturday. The Roof is open noon till 11pm. 

The Kitchen is open 6-9pm weekdays, noon till 9pm at weekends