“Autumn carries more gold in its pocket than all the other seasons.” – Jim Bishop, Author.
Gold is not mined. It’s baked. An embarrassment of riches emerge from our ovens. Prosperity is proper food; Simply made and beautifully crafted.
As the landscape is painted with golden and roasted hues, it signals a shift – an opportunity to find rhythm in the rituals we create. Just as leaves gently cascade, so should we permit ourselves to pause, to savour lunchtime’s golden moments, rich in simplicity and comfort.
Because an autumn lunch should provide respite; a reprieve from cooler days. It should be warming and hearty – taken from the heart of the oven. Made with wholesome ingredients and autumn vegetables of deeper flavours rooted in the land; with an earthy quality that’s unique to these later months.
Deep bowls of steaming soup with doorstops of bread for dunking. Autumn bakes and buttery pastry cases filled with a heroic amount of root vegetables and herbs. Robust salads that restore. Sticky, drizzled cakes that warm us from within. This is not food to rush, but to savour.
The GAIL’s autumn menu embodies this sentiment; it is a welcome home within our bakeries.
FLAVOURS THAT GROUND US
Like the golden treasures unearthed from the soil, the flavours of this season ground and restore us. Shaping our routines and meals into something slower and altogether more considered.
In summer we celebrated food worth pausing over. As the season nudges into autumn, we celebrate food worth poring over. With a heart and soul that sustains our own. Centred around earthy flavours that root us to the season.
GAIL’S AUTUMN MENU
The GAIL’s autumn menu is abundant with recipes written by the season itself. Autumnal recipes that shine with the season’s finest fruit and vegetables, sourced from our friends at Natoora. Every dish is a testament to the beauty of simplicity and the value of harvesting produce in the right way, at the right time.
NOW SERVING
SEASONAL TOMATO SOUP
Natoora soup made with José and Antonio’s Black Ibériko Winter Tomatoes from Almería.
CARROT SOUP
Natoora soup made with British carrots and caraway seeds, subtly sweetened with maple syrup.
FREEKEH & ROASTED SWEET POTATO SALAD
Dressed freekeh topped with earthy sweet potato, spinach, pomegranate and spicy seeds.
MUSHROOM & CARAMELISED ONION QUICHE
Short pastry filled with mushrooms and caramelised onions, with a hint of sharpness from Quicke’s Devonshire Red cheese and the warmth of Dijon mustard.
SQUASH AND SAGE SLICE
Crustless pie with sweet undertones of butternut squash, combined with the rich flavours of feta, Quicke’s Devonshire Red cheese and sage.
SPICED CARROT & MUHAMMARA SALAD
Carrot with parsley, onion, chilli and cumin seeds. Paired with Superstraccia and Muhammara.
BROWN BUTTER FINANCIERS
Pack of five burnt butter and almond cakes.
SPICED APPLE CAKE
Spiced apple cake drizzled with sweet sesame butter.
GAIL’S AUTUMN MENU PARTNERS
NATOORA
Autumn is a season of inspiring abundance, as we gather the goodness from the earth before winter sets in. This season, enjoy the season’s best fruit in our bakeries, handpicked by our friends at Natoora. You’ll find crates of radically seasonal apples — always a variety that’s ripe and ready for the season, each with its own characteristic flavour.
We are also proud to serve Natoora soups within our bakeries, including Seasonal Tomato and Carrot Soup.
The Seasonal Tomato Soup is made with José and Antonio’s Black Ibériko Winter Tomatoes from Almería. We are all familiar with the tomatoes that grow in the warmer months, which grow rapidly and require a certain amount of water just to stay alive. Yet there are some varieties that develop distinct, valuable characteristics during the cooler months, when farmers can exert greater stress on the plants. Forced to mature slowly, these tomatoes are enriched with natural sugars as they tenaciously draw essential nutrients for survival. Natoora have coined such varieties as Winter Tomatoes. Along the southern coasts of Spain, the seawater’s saltiness intensifies the challenge for the Ibériko variety. This coastal influence is a signature trait of all Natoora’s growers, ensuring each Winter Tomato possesses a firm, crisp skin and a flesh balanced by bright acidity and distinct umami sweetness.
Natoora’s Carrot Soup is made with Duncan’s organic carrots from Lancashire. Here, he grows crops organically across 260 acres of land, working on a six-year rotation of potatoes, alliums, brassicas, cereals — and carrots, to build on his soil health. The soup is gently spiced with Hill & Vale caraway seeds and sweetened with Vermont maple syrup.
The GAIL’s autumn menu also features Natoora’s Muhammara in our Spiced Carrot & Muhammara Salad — a bold and vibrant Syrian-inspired dip with smoky roasted red peppers, toasted walnuts and a blend of heady spices.
JULIENNE BRUNO
By marrying modern techniques with simple, natural ingredients, our friends at Julienne Bruno have made the plant-based choice the most exciting choice. We are excited to be using their superb Superstraccia in our autumn menu — a dairy-free and vegan cheese with fresh, rich creamy curds. Find it in dishes including our Spiced Carrot & Muhammara Salad.
As the evenings draw in and the air becomes crisp as apples, let’s not rush. Let’s make lunch more than just a meal in the middle of the day. Let’s make it a celebration of the season, a pause in our routine, and, most importantly, a golden moment of connection to the earth and to each other.