29th May: Gidleigh Park

Not all of the UK’s top ten restaurants are in London. It would be pretty bad if that were the case, I suppose.

For me that means though, that I’m going to have to plan in some weekends away.

On the upside, none of the UK’s top ten restaurants seem to be in Milton Keynes or Blackpool, but rather in very pretty places. Gidleigh Park for example is in Dartmoor National Park, in Devon. There are worse places to go for a weekend away, I reckon.

How to get there though? I don’t own a car, so the options are train or bike. Or train and bike.

So we packed our bikes onto a train to Exceter and then cycled to Mortenhampstead where we had booked a hotel. Gidleigh Park also has rooms, but at £310 per night, they are a little outside my budget.

Despite having the lovely Clarisse book this quite far in advance and having her call a few times in the weeks before, we were only able to get a lunch booking. In hindsight though, lunch was  definitely the better choice

Moretonhampstead is pretty close to Gidleigh, but not exactly walking distance.  We could take a taxi. But we also wanted a bit of a cycling weekend. So we ended up carefully rolling up our trousers and dress shirts into our bags, packing the good shoes and the deodorant and mounting our bikes.

Dartmoor is rather hilly, which meant that we ended up working up a bit of a sweat, but also a bit of an appetite. Probably a good thing ahead of a Michelin-starred feast. The appetite that is, not the sweat.

After 2 hours of cycling we stopped in Chagford, the closest village to Gidleigh Park and used the public toilets to freshen up. Very classy, I know.

We then got onto our bikes again in our smart casuals and started cycling towards Gidleigh.

The private road that leads to Gidleigh Park is already very pretty and as soon as you enter the actual property, the landscape becomes absolutely stunning.

A little brook, spring flowers and a beautiful old building in front of a lush green hill. Rather stunning.

A little less stunning: we stopped to change our shoes behind a bush by the road.

Arriving at the hotel, it was clear that we were the first people to ever arrive there on bicycles -the guy from the valet parking looking at us slightly disconcerted.

We got there a bit early and were led into the drawing room. All very lush. Countryside Britain at its very best.

They brought us the menu, wine list and a lovely amuse bouche, consisting of salmon mousse and a fantastic shot of pea and mint soup.

After a short debate we opted again for the 8-course tasting menu. After all we had cycled to the restaurant!

The wine list was similarly impressive as at Le Gavroche, but included wines from all over the world. Even a nice Riesling from Schloss Rheinhardtshausen, which I picked because the estate is close to where my mum lives and I had been there before.

We were then led to the table to start our second gastronomic feast.

The Brixham scallops were actually just one scallop, but probably one of the biggest I had seen and extremely nice.

Every French restaurant has to have some foie gras appetizer on the menu. Here it was a terrine of foie gras with Madeira jelly and truffled green bean salad. I do like foie gras, so was quite happy with this.

The Cornish Salt Cod was one of the dishes that the waiter had “warned” us about before. He had explained that this dish was a bit different, that it was only warm, not hot and that it comes with a rather acidic lemon puree. Apparently customers have often been a bit surprised by this dish.

For me this was actually the best dish on the menu. Cornish salt cot, Beesands crab, chorizo, samphire, tarragon and lemon puree. An absolutely brilliant combination of flavours with the acidic lemon puree cutting through the rich chorizo. So good!

The Cornish duckling with cabbage, turnips and roast garlic was lovely, really well done, but felt like grandma’s home-cooking after the salt cod adventure.

Then, once again, a bone marrow dish. Seems to be the thing to do if you're a posh French restaurant. Wild Dartmoor beef with smoked bone marrow, a horseradish confit and red wine sauce.

I’m discovering that I’m not a big fan of bone marrow. It came as a big cube topped with something crunchy that I couldn’t quite identify. The smoky flavour was actually very nice. So was the crunchy topping. But I just find the gelatinous texture rather unpleasant. Loved the horseradish confit though.

I really like the fact that all produce at Gidleigh Park is locally sourced. But the selection of South West Cheeses was not particularly impressive. Compared to the amazing cheese cart at Le Gavroche, overflowing with smelly, creamy, runny French goodness, this felt like Sainsbury’s party cheese selection.

6 courses done, it was now time for the puddings.

A “starter desert” of exotic fruit salad with a passion fruit sorbet. Nice and tart.

The Plate of Apricot looked brilliant – food architecture. A pyramid of apricot and almond nougatine parfait, a perfect cube of silky apricot mousse and a sphere of sorbet. The texture of the mousse was amazing.

For coffee and petits fours we moved outside to the lovely, sunny terrace overlooking the gardens. The petit fours were not really petit fours, but rather a desert lover’s dream.  Crème Brulee, a raspberry tartlet and a chocolate fondant. My three favourite puddings, all on one plate. Christmas had come early!

Afterwards we went for a nice walk through the gardens, trying to digest the 8 or 9 courses. The whole Gidleigh Park experience lasted almost 5 hours.

As an overall experience it was great. 

The setting is simply stunning. 

The food is very good, but I would say that the salt cod was the only truly memorable dish.

The service was impeccable. But there is always such an army of waiters - every course seemed to be brought in by a different person - that it somehow lacks a personal touch.

And the bill? Again we didn’t quite manage to stay within the £300.

£120 each for the signature menu.

£44 for a bottle of Riesling

Plus another glass of wine, water and service makes £330.

Would I go again? Probably yes. The setting and the overall experience are lovely. Perhaps I would go for afternoon tea tough. A couple of ladies were having tea out on the terrace next to us and the tea tray looked fantastic. It’s probably a lot less expensive and you still get the same beautiful surroundings.


http://www.gidleigh.com/

16th May, Le Gavroche

It’s Dewi’s, my partner’s birthday. A Monday. We have a booking for 8PM.

We’ve both had the Monday from hell, only just manage to leave the office in time, and feel more like a couple of pints at the pub or a bottle of wine in front of the telly, rather than putting on a suit and going for a fancy, probably rather stiff meal.

We get there, still rather stressed. A friendly waiter greets us as we walk in, checks the reservation and takes us to our table straight away. Upstairs they have a bar, the restaurant itself is in the basement. The ceilings are quite low, the décor rather dark. The lighting is quite nice though. It feels cosy, old-school, elegant but not to formal or stiff.

Dewi, being an architect and a bit of a Design-Nazi, is not impressed though. The light fittings are awful!

They have put us on one of the tables right next to the kitchen, so there is a constant banging of pots and plates and shouting of orders. And no background music to cover it up. I don’t mind seeing the kitchen, if it is meant to be part of the dining experience, but this is just a bit annoying.

The service is impeccable though.  When they hand us the menus I get asked discretely if I’m Mr Canthal. As the reservation was in my name, this meant that I was handed the menu with the prices. Felt like a very classy way of doing it.

We didn’t really spend much time looking at the menu as we had already decided to go for the 8-course tasting menu, “Menu Exceptionnel”. And a peach and champagne cocktail to kick the evening off.

I then got handed the wine list. Even though list is not quite the right word in this case. It was more a book. An encyclopedia. Of French wine only. Nothing else. The prices start in the mid 30s and seemed to be pretty much open end. I got bored (and a bit scared) looking for the most expensive one.

Not being a wine buff I gave up and asked for help. The friendly, young, female sommelier (Or is a female sommelier a sommeliere? Sommelisse?) seemed to sense my lack of expertise and just asked me to tell her what type of wine I usually like to drink, reassuringly pointing out that I could also mention new world wines. Phew.

She ended up recommending a moderately priced but very nice Margaux.

And here the feast starts.

An amuse bouche of something that seemed like a spring roll filled with chorizo and little crackers with artichoke puree did indeed amuse my bouche. Lovely. Keep this coming.

Souffle Suisesse. A cheese soufflé, covered in a creamy cheese sauce did absolutely taste like Switzerland. Beautifully cheesy. A bit heavy though for the first course, with 7 more to come.

Next we had marinated salmon, vodka jelly and asparagus. Sounds good, tastes rather weird. The vodka jelly was quite bitter, the salmon a tad salty, the asparagus a bit bland. Not a winner.

The langoustine and snails in Hollandaise sauce with Basque chilli and parsley were a whole different story. Great textures, a smooth creamy sauce with a fantastic spicy kick. Great! But again quite rich, considering there are 5 more courses to come. We’ll be rolling out of here. Better go easy on the bread.

Now roast bone marrow with ceps and air dried ham. Not something I would usually order on a menu. The whole mad cow era kind of got me off bone marrow – should I have ever been on it. But if you are going to eat it somewhere, in a place like this it should be fine. And it actually tasted pretty good. Again really nice textures. Something soft, something crunchy, something meaty.

From the start we had been looking forward to the braised monkfish in red wine. I love monkfish. And it didn’t disappoint. A beautiful fish, well seasoned, with glazed salsify. Even Wikipedia couldn’t tell me much more than the fact that salsify is a vegetable. I could have guessed the same. A tasty one on top.

The grilled Scotch beef in red wine shallot sauce and potato puffs was sliced and served by the Maitre D’ at the table. Red, soft, fantastic.

We had already seen and smelled the cheese cart being pushed through the restaurant. It is nothing less than impressive. Almost the size of a ping pong table and covered in the most amazing cheeses. We went for four different ones each, all quite generous chunks, crispy bread, chutney, quince jelly… I couldn’t finish the plate. Beaten by cheese.

The desert was a bit of a chocolate feast. A rich chocolate truffle on puffed rice, rum jelly and a bitter chocolate sorbet. The sorbet was very nice. Rum jelly works a lot better than vodka jelly. The chocolate rice crispy had some of that space dust in it that explodes in your mouth. It’s interesting, but doesn’t really make it taste better. A bit Heston Blumenthal I would say.

Done? Nope. There is still a plate of petits fours, including a macaroon that topped Luxemburgerlis from Spruengli. And coffee and chocolates and nougat.

Stick a fork in me, I’m done!

So what was it like overall? Since this is the first restaurant of the list, it is hard to give it a mark. We decided on an 8.

The food was really nice, some dishes were amazing.

The service was extremely friendly and attentive.

The place is quite cosy, but nothing special really and could do with a revamp.

And the bill? Well, we didn’t stay within the £300.

£100 each for the tasting menu.

A £69 bottle of wine.

Plus champagne cocktails, water and service make for a grand total of £339.75.

Is it worth it? Maybe. Possibly. What you get for the £100 tasting menu is pretty impressive.

Would I go again with my own money? Probably not.

Already looking forward to the next one though.


http://www.le-gavroche.co.uk/

I clicked on something!

Who the hell wins competitions?

I for one don’t. No raffles, no prize-draws, not a hook-a-duck, niente.

And apart from buying the occasional lottery ticket whenever the Euromillion Jackpot reaches some figure beyond comprehension, I generally don’t even bother entering competitions.

So I was rather surprised when I had several messages on my voicemail from a lady telling me that I had won a competition from The Times and Harden's Restaurant Guide.

I dimly remember getting a Facebook message and clicking on something … Eat like a King, the Times’ list of the UK top restaurants… win a meal or something…

Hence when I finally managed to speak to the lady I was rather nonchalant about the whole thing. “Oh, I won. That’s nice. Thanks.”

It was only later that evening, when I thought, hold on, what was that? The lady left several messages and sent me two emails. I must have won something worth all that effort.

So I checked again online and it was indeed worth something: £300 to spend, not just at one, but at each of the UK’s top ten restaurants. How cool is that?!

Not being a native English speaker, I didn’t quite trust my reading comprehension skills and sent another email to the lady that had contacted me, asking if it meant that I had won £300 to spend at any of the top ten restaurants or indeed £300 to spend at each, meaning a grand total of £3000.

She reassured me that it was my lucky day and I would be dining like a king at each of the UK’s top ten restaurants. Yes, at each. Yes, that’s all of them. Yes, the top ten. Yes, each of the top ten. Yes, £300 at each.

As you can tell, at this point I was getting rather excited and Clarisse, that’s the lady from the competition, was probably getting a bit annoyed.

I spent the next 4 hours googling the 10 restaurants, reading menus and drooling all over my keyboard.

Gidleigh Park

Le Gavroche

The Fat Duck

Le Manoir aux Quat’ Saisons

The Ledbury

Waterside Inn

Markus Wareing at the Berkley

Kitchin

L’Enclume

One-o-One

In case you wondered, no, I’m not vegan or vegetarian. I don’t have any allergies and there really isn’t much I don’t eat.

I like food. Actually, I love food. I love looking at it, buying it, cooking it, eating it.

A good cooking show is my version of soft-porn. And that doesn’t mean it has to be one of Nigella’s.

I love eating out too. But haven’t been to any of the places on the list as they’d usually be a bit outside of my budget. Hence I was loving this prize.

Over the next few days Clarisse became my new best friend as I tried booking the first restaurants through her. Almost like having my own PA!

“Clarisse, could you book me a table for 2 at Le Gavroche please?” Love it!

Unfortunately Clarisse doesn’t get any priority bookings and all the places are pretty much booked out well in advance. So it required a bit of advance planning and I’ll have to wait a while for the first gastronomic extravaganza.

First booking: Le Gavroche 16^th May.

As the date of the first booking comes closer and I’ve managed to secure a few more, I ask Clarisse how it works with the payment. Will they know how much I can spend? Do I get a voucher?

She just asked me for my bank details and a few days later I had an extra £3,000 on my account. Hmmmm.

Excellent, one could think. Now I can just pocket the cash. Or spend it how and where I want to.

But in some ways it ruined it a bit for me. I really loved the idea of the prize. It’s a treat that I would never give myself. Yes, maybe one of the restaurants on that list, sometime for a special birthday. But I would probably go and be really frugal, look at the prices, never spend £300.

No. I do want to stick to the original idea. I'm going to eat and lick the plate clean.
So I've started looking for competitions to win a personal trainer.