On Tuesday 6 March, to mark British Pie Week, Terry Blake, Head Chef and Co-Founder of Sparrow, will welcome Holborn Dining Room’s Calum Franklin into the kitchen for an evening celebrating the humble British pie.
Blake and Franklin will join forces for a one-off menu of specially created pies with 50% of profits going to Bloom Bakery, a local Lewisham charity helping local unemployed people enter the hospitality industry.
Also, on 14 March, Sparrow’s new lunch menu will launch, where a rotating selection of pies from around the world take centre stage.
The evening will kick off with a welcome rum and sherry cocktail based on Sparrow’s apple pie recipe, followed by their light, crisp pie with trotter, leek and coolea for starters.
Franklin will take charge of the main course, bringing seasonality and his expertise to the table with a dry aged mutton, wild garlic and morel pie in in a butter puff pastry. This will be accompanied by a selection of Sparrow’s signature sides, including Berkswell beans and crushed buttered turnips.
Finally, Blake, previously Head Pastry Chef at St. John, will be rounding off the evening with a black sesame, banana and passion fruit dessert encased in a biscuit crust.
For vegetarians, the best of March produce will be showcase a leek and wigmore pie with a dash of truffle oil for an indulgent starter, followed by Jersey Royal, wild garlic and morel pie.
Co-Founder Yohini Nandakumar said, “We are such big fans of Calum, his skill in pastry work is just jaw dropping, so we’re really excited to be having him at our little kitchen. Even better that the charity to benefit from the evening are doing great work in the area.'
Blake added, “I’m a New Zealander and us Kiwis love a good pie - devoting a whole evening to it seems like a perfect night out. We’ve also been planning on a pie focussed lunch menu for a while, so it’s fantastic that there’s a week out there already celebrating a food we love - and just in time for it to launch!”
Dishes from Sparrow's new lunch menu will include beef cheek and suet pie, chicken curry pie and spring leek and shitake pie.