It’s come sailing through a storm and a pandemic, no wonder Brook’s in Brighouse is looking on the bright side
Brook’s, 6 Bradford Road, Brighouse, West Yorkshire HD6 1RW (01484 715284). Small plates £7.50-£10, large plates £16.50-£25, desserts £6.50-£7, wine from £21
My name is Jay Rayner and I am powerless in the face of good bread. I am especially powerless in the face of the treacle and malt bread with a whipped peak of Marmite butter, served to me at Brook’s, a startlingly good modern brasserie opposite the civic hall in Brighouse, West Yorkshire. It arrives oven hot and shaped as a tall, pert muffin. The top is glazed to a shine with a slick of sticky treacle. I tear at it, so that it puffs warm, sweet-savoury gusts of come-hither hot air. The texture seems open until I chew and it becomes satisfyingly cakey. When spread lavishly with the butter, it reminds me of the dark slices of Soreen paved with salted Anchor, eaten on winter afternoons when I was a kid. Only this malt loaf has grown up a bit. It is Soreen’s older brother, the more sophisticated one who has seen things.
