Featured chef

Our featured chef for summer is Kai Taylor, Executive Chef at The Bristol Hotel - a member of the Doyle Collection. You can taste his work at The River Grille Restaurant on the harbourside.

Kai Taylor and his pork cakes

About Kai

Kai has spent most of his career working in 4 and 5 star hotels in Wiltshire including the 5 star Chilsden House Hotel and the 4 star Ivy House Hotel and Park lands Hotel. He joins The Bristol Hotel team from his most recent role at a 16th Century Pub in Oxfordshire which he and the new owners completely transformed into a thriving business. Over his years as a Head Chef he has achieved an impressive total of 8 AA rosettes and 1 RAC Blue ribbon, including 2 AA rosettes at the 4star Copthorne Hotel.

He has come to Bristol to further his career in a top quality city centre hotel and utilise all his skills across all the diverse food and beverage outlets, including the very busy River Grille Restaurant and the hotel's banqueting operation.

Kai's menus demonstrate the use of great seasonal products with the emphasis on fun and playful dining. Try his new table d'hôte menu at The River Grille Restaurant

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Kai's top recipe

Kai has been kind enough to let us in on his secret recipe for pork cakes with mago salsa... Have a go at home!

For the pork cakes...

You will need:
1 ham hock
1 white onion
A pinch of Black Pepper
1 tbsp double cream
1 tbsp BBQ sauce
1 egg
5oz plain flour
4oz Penka Japanese breadcrumbs (normal breadcrumb will do)

For the Mango Salsa:

You will need:
1 mango (not too ripe)
1 red chilli
1 small red onion
1 oz caster sugar
1 tbsp white wine vinegar

To garnish: Rocket leaves and Sakura cress

How to:

Start the pork cakes by putting the ham hock into a pan of water, covering completely and cooking for four hours until the meat falls off the bone. While the meat cooks, prepare your mango salsa by fine dicing the mango, red onion and chilli, and mixing it with the sugar and white wine vinegar. Once combined, set aside in the fridge for at least 2 hours.

Once the meat is cooked, seperate it from the fat and leave to one side. Next, finely dice the onion and fry until soft, then mix with half the ham hock meat and blend in the food processor until the mixture looks like course pate (not totally smooth) before adding the cream, black pepper and BBQ sauce. Finely strip the other half of the ham hock and combine to the BBQ pork mixture, and then mould into four ball shapes and coat in flour, whisked up egg and then breadcrumbs. Deep fry until golden brown, set aside to cool slightly.

To serve, spoon the mango salsa around the plate in a thin ring shape, place rocket leaves in the middle, place the pork cake on the leaves and then add sakura cress.

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Find out more about the Bristol Hotel and the River Grille Restaurant.