Stoke Park club

13 June 2003 by
Stoke Park club

Chris Wheeler is probably best known for his role as Jean-Christophe Novelli's right-hand man. But while Wheeler admits that his position with Novelli covered all manner of things, from general manager to executor of the payroll system, his last year was mostly spent ensconced in the kitchen of Maison Novelli in Clerkenwell, London.

In 2002, when Novelli moved out of London to take up the position of chef-director of Auberge du Lac at Brocket Hall, in Hertfordshire, Wheeler decided it was time (after an amazing nine years at Novelli's side) to part company with his mentor.

Three months ago the opportunity arose for Wheeler to take on a substantial challenge in the sprawling kitchens of Stoke Park Club - a private members' club with hotel facilities, restaurants, a sports club and health spa in Stoke Poges, Buckinghamshire.

You might not have been to Stoke Park - or even heard of it, for that matter - but I bet you're familiar with it. Stoke Park was where that weasely publisher Daniel Cleaver (played by Hugh Grant) took Bridget Jones (Renée Zellwegger) boating before seducing her in that magnificent four-poster bed in Bridget Jones's Diary. And that's not Stoke Park's only starring role in the movies. Two Bond films - Goldfinger and Tomorrow Never Dies - included scenes filmed in the property's grounds.

So what tempted the 29-year-old chef into his new post? "The second I drove up the sweeping driveway I thought ‘This is it'," he says. " But the main reason I came here was because, with five different outlets to look after, it's a challenge."

Wheeler and his brigade of 17 are responsible for four kitchens serving the Park (the fine-dining restaurant), the Orange Room members' clubhouse, the Beach Bar at the spa and banqueting venues and a marquis erected for five weeks of the year, serving 1,000 cover a day.

The menus on offer are heavily influenced by Wheeler's customers, the club's members. "As this has been a members' club for many years, there are certain items on the menu that have to be included, for example, sausage and mash and steak and kidney pudding, which we tend to serve in the Orange Room."

But the menu in the 40-seat Park restaurant allows Wheeler to push the boundaries and customers are warming to his style. Smoked salmon would originally have been served flat on a plate with bread and butter, but now comes rolled and stuffed with Dorset crab meat with a balsamic reduction and lemon oil, and cod and chips has evolved to roast cod fillet with spinach, saut‚ potatoes and poached egg hollandaise.

Even dishes such as chargrilled tuna with olive mash, green beans and herb oil - which Wheeler initially thought would not appeal to his customers - have sold in the hundreds since appearing on the menu. A daily-changing dish of the day enables Wheeler to titillate the diner's palates further before he makes the decision to make a dish a permanent fixture on the menu.

Wheeler is keen for the waiting staff to display their skills set too, and so a number of dishes on the menu involve gu‚ridon work - such as exotic fruit kebabs with passion fruit sorbet, flamb‚d with Malibu and crˆpe suzette. Other puds include white, dark and milk chocolate terrine with Bailey's sauce and peach tarte tatin with clotted cream ice-cream.

While Novelli has undoubtedly influenced Wheeler's cooking, the food at Stoke Park Club is essentially British, Wheeler says. However, a recently installed wood-burning oven is about to change all that when Wheeler starts making home-made pizzas for the spa. So where did that influence come from? "My girlfriend. Her family own four restaurants in Italy and they are helping me to source some special ingredients from Italy so that we can make authentic pizzas for the Beach Bar."

Stoke Park Club, Park Road, Stoke Poges, Buckinghamshire SL2 4PG
Tel: 01753 717171
Web site:
www.stokeparkclub.com

What's on the menu

(two courses £29, three courses £34)

  • Chilled vine plum tomato gazpacho with an avocado and red pepper tian
  • Pan-fried scallops, chorizo and artichokes with frisée salad and pesto dressing (£5 supplement)
  • Ham hock, foie gras and shiitake mushroom terrine with white bean vinaigrette
  • Pan-fried corn-fed chicken breast with creamed leeks, asparagus, fondant potato and port sauce
  • Roast rack of lamb with ratatouille, crushed new potatoes, tomato and garlic tortellini and tarragon jus (£5 supplement)
  • Fillet of beef with rösti potato, Puy lentils and foie gras jus
  • Pistachio crème brûlée with bitter chocolate sorbet and mini cookies
  • Strawberry and mango pavlova, vanilla cream and strawberry coulis
  • Club collection: raspberry and vanilla crème brûlée chocolate tarte, panna cotta and trifle (£3 supplement)

Chef's Cheat

When making fresh pizza dough, replace a third of the water with milk - it will make your pizza crust more crispy.

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