Menuwatch – The Dining Room at TerraVina
George Blogg tells Amanda Afiya why an abundance of quality, local produce made his move to TerraVina in the New Forest such an easy decision to make.
There are so many qualities about Hotel TerraVina that it's nigh on impossible to pin down exactly what it was that drew 2011 Acorn Award winner George Blogg to the 11-bedroom property for his first head chef's position.
Blogg was appointed to his new position as head chef in October last year. Hotel TerraVina is owned and run by the uniquely talented Gerard and Nina Basset, who were looking to extend the property's food and beverage offering to include a fine-dining restaurant open for dinner only on Saturday, Sunday and Monday evenings.
While Blogg also oversees the hotel's main 55-seat restaurant, he says the 24-seat Dining Room at TerraVina is about offering "a very personal and special experience to a small amount of diners, which is as representational of its surroundings as it can be".
Offering nine or 12-course tasting menus, priced at £72 and £85 respectively, excluding wines, Blogg uses foraged ingredients and fresh produce exclusively from Hampshire and Dorset.
Inspired by the smells, shapes, colours and simple natural beauty of the New Forest, Blogg is fortunate to be able to draw not only on the larder of foraged produce at Exbury Gardens but also the estate's fallen bark, which is lacquered by Blogg's sister Alice, a furniture maker, and turned into serving plates.
Dishes from the tasting menus, undoubtedly influenced by his mentors Everitt-Matthias and Howard, are given brief menu descriptors, but hide powerful and complex flavours.
Take turbot with tidal greens and cockles (pictured). A reasonably simple dish, Blogg uses coastal greens such as sea plantain, sea purslane, sea buck's horn and sea brassicas either blanched to form a base or raw on top. The turbot is filleted and skinned, and coloured on one side. Blogg then takes the pan off the heat, adds some butter, the cockles' feet and some seasoned seaweed vinegar to add acidity, sweetness and a coastal perfume. The turbot is then flipped over and basted in butter to finish cooking and positioned on the greens with the cockles. The butter left in the pan is added to a brown chicken sauce to form a jus gras. The dish is finished with toasted linseeds and some seaweed vinegar jelly balls.
"I feel that elaborating a menu with food proximity, cooking techniques and descriptive words removes the customer from what is ultimately the most important information: the ingredients," explains Blogg, who has a BSc and MSc in geology. "The customers already know that I source all my fresh produce from Hampshire and Dorset. If there are any questions I will happily explain anything to them as I deliver a lot of the dishes to the table myself."
Of course, much of the individuality of the dining experience at TerraVina is down to the perfect wine matches from World Champion Sommelier Gerard Basset and his team. But do any of the foraged ingredients prove too fiddly to match?
"One of the dishes is a layered goose terrine with celeriac remoulade, pear sorbet and a goose skin crumble," says Blogg. "They found it a bit tricky to find a wine that did not overpower the delicate notes of the pear and celeriac, but would still match up to the strength of the goose. It is interesting that the best two matches have been a completely different colour and style - a 2008 Schloss Gobelsburg Lamm GrÁ¼ner Veltliner from Austria and a 2009 Franck Massard Licis Ribeira Sacra from Spain."
Dishes from the 12-course tasting menu, £85
- Onion & mustard
- Snail, malt & garlic
- Pumpkin & Dorset truffle
- Lobster, carrots & buttermilk
- Goose, celecriac & pear
- Turbot, sea greens & cockles
- Ok & lardon
- Aged Old Winchester & cobnut
- Sloe & tonic
- Brambleberries, ewe's yogurt & sheep's sorrel
- Acorn, chocolate & sugards
- Little things
Hotel TerraVina 174 Woodlands Road,
Woodlands, Netley Marsh,
New Forest,
Hampshire SO40 7GL
02380 293784
www.hotelterravina.co.uk
