00:00Two main dining areas, and the newest addition would be this one, we've got a live lobster tank.
00:07Wow. His name is Lobby the Lobster, we've decided to make him the restaurant pet instead of putting him on the table.
00:13Okay. He's been a survivor. Yeah. Excellent.
00:17And then this is one of our dry ages, what you see here are bashes that have been aged for 50 plus days.
00:24Right, okay.
00:25These ones are your band cube, this is your tomahawk, and we do seafood varieties as well.
00:30As far as I know in West Sussex we're the only ones who does dry aged seafood.
00:35I'm Chef Azam, self-taught cricket coach, player, cricket enthusiast, who's turned a chef,
00:45and you know I've been doing this chefing for the last six years, seven years now.
00:51Properly seven years, but before that it was just clicking burgers and making kids want to come and play cricket at a cricket club.
00:59This is our main dry age, which after we cut it from the whole hind, so we do it over here.
01:10So we do have Australian A plus grade, plus nine, nine plus grade Wagyu, as well there.
01:20Then we do have British beef, imported beef from Finland, then we've got Irish beef as well, the tomahawk's Irish.
01:29Right, okay.
01:30Then we've got lobster there, seabass, salmon, and then we have on the bone, what we do is we dry it through a certain number of days,
01:40around 40 days, 40 days plus, then we put it over there, and then we basically do more longevity to it.
01:49Aged steakhouse, I was not supposed to be on the high street.
01:55I found this beautiful building, I visited this place about five years ago, 85,000 pounds was on the price,
02:04and I just walked out and said, no way I can afford that.
02:07But we have come back into one of Crawley's most prestigious buildings.
02:13It's got a lot of history, and it's got a lot of character as well.
02:19Pre-Tudor building, owned by very renowned people prior to me.
02:24It's been always a success, whoever did it, whatever they did here.
02:27So we rebranded because of the building as well, the structural aspect of things,
02:34and what we did is got something to do with aging, aged building, aged steak,
02:40and we rebranded the whole concept and started trading from here, from last year.
02:47Okay, and is it quite rare that you dry age fish and seafood, is that right?
02:51I think nobody does it in Sussex.
02:54Wow, and why have you made that choice?
02:58Because it's a delicacy, when you come to the clubhouse it's an experience,
03:02it's not just you come and eat and you go, it's an experience.
03:05You see what is being cut, how it's cut, thickness, you decide how much you want to eat, not me.
03:12Everything is done for the customer.
03:15It's a beautiful experience that we're trying to achieve here, so that's the whole point.
03:21Obviously we have a very old building as well, so to provoke the decor and everything,
03:28that's why we call ourselves aged as well.
03:31There's a lot of history in the building, and what we do is try to preserve the best beef as well.
03:35And what is it about aged food and aged meat, and obviously you do seafood as well,
03:40why have you gone down that route with the food?
03:43Because there's a massive gap in the market, and especially you need to travel to London
03:50and travel overseas, mainland Europe where a lot of this aged concept is very popular.
03:57Aging beef in Spain is very big, Portugal, France, Italy, it's been there for decades.
04:05The British public only had an opportunity when they were abroad to try this,
04:10and absolutely brilliant food.
04:13So what it does is it gives you enhanced flavours of a particular product, for example fish.
04:20Leave a fish in there, it becomes ten times tastier, because it loses the water content
04:27and it becomes more flavoursome.
04:31You use the right ingredients, you use the premium ingredients I would say,
04:35and it becomes something that, it's an experience, it's not an everyday thing,
04:40you just come in and have a munch.
04:42It's a treat, and the people who value good time, it takes time, nothing's overnight.
04:50So even the tomahawk you had is like 20 days, 15 days, there's always a calibre of meat
04:56which goes in there.
04:57The ones we have on the display, both the carcasses are almost 40 days,
05:05we don't touch them until it's 45 days.
05:07So that basically intensifies the flavour, so it's about patience, it's about ageing,
05:13it's about being in the building, it's a whole package.
05:17And it's preserving rather than wasting, so throw anything into it, it preserves it.
05:24Because the machine does fight bacteria, UV protection, it does what it needs to do.
05:30So it's an incredible machine, lucky to have it in Crawley I would say.
05:36But what we are trying to achieve is get more people through the doors
05:40and educate them about slightly premium product.
05:44Is it on?
05:51Yes, it's nothing like Crawley's seen before, is it?
05:54No, I don't think so.
05:56I hope it catches on fire, because Crawley needs to understand that
06:02the product is not a normal, it's not a weather spoon.
06:06It's certainly not.
06:08It's not a harvester, it's something totally different.
06:11So everybody thinks, why is it so expensive?
06:14It's expensive for a reason, because it takes time to mature.
06:17Even the standard steaks are Australian, high-grade, grass-fed or grain-fed beef as well.
06:23So we pay a price, we need to charge a premium for us to keep doing what we love doing.
06:32So it's an experience.
06:35When you came out and cut the Tomahawk steak for us, it was like theatre.
06:40Is that how you would describe it?
06:42Yes, it is.
06:43Normally we have the hinds of beef, we cut the whole hind into three different...
06:47You've got the ribeye end, the sirloin end, the T-bone and the porterhouse end.
06:51So what we try to achieve is give theatre as well.
06:55It's about cutting, weighing, showing the customer how it looks
06:59and serving it while they see what's happening.
07:03So everything is done in front of them, nothing is hidden.
07:06Nothing is basically not for the customer to know.
07:11They know exactly what they're paying for, they know where it came from,
07:15they've got traceability.
07:17So it's very important that it's understood in that manner
07:20rather than, oh, why is it a steakhouse in Crawley, why are you so expensive?
07:24But it's an opportunity for me, myself.
07:28The personal goal is to get at least a Michelin 1 or a Rosette.
07:34Just need to be out there.
07:36I think positive reviews and good food reviewers coming and trying our food,
07:43it's very important that they understand what it's all about.
07:46It's not just coming and having food.
07:48So we are very particular who we invite as well to get our voice heard.
07:54Noah's having the dynamite shrimp at the moment.
07:57I'll let him swallow and then I'll get him.
07:59Oh, he's liking it, I can tell.
08:02So talk us through the shrimp, Noah.
08:04There's a seafood taste and it's got a very nice kick to it as well.
08:08Nice kick to it.
08:10And then we've got the wings coming, the jumbo wings coming here
08:13with Korean barbecue and a mango habanero, is that right?
08:17Yeah, two flavors in one.
08:19Excellent.
08:20Lovely thing.
08:21It's about respecting the animal, making sure that the beast has given its rights
08:30in a proper way as well, the last rights given in a respectable manner
08:35so people do enjoy high-end product.
08:46So do you come out and cut it up every time when you serve one of these?
08:50It's all part of the experience, yeah?
08:52Yes, it is.
08:53And sometimes we ask customers if they want it cut in the kitchen
08:56so we do cut it up as well.
08:58Okay.
09:04Oh, that's lovely.
09:08So I'm just about to try the tomahawk steak.
09:12Mmm.
09:17First time I've ever had a tomahawk and it is beautiful.
09:20The crust of it, as Anne was just explaining, that it's from the dry-aged
09:25that causes the crust and that adds a real crunch
09:28but it is really melting in your mouth when you eat it.
09:30It's fantastic, really good and I can't wait to not let Noah have any more of this
09:35and I'm going to have the rest.
09:41Mmm.
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