Orangery blossoms
Upgrading food served in nearby pubs coupled with a desire to make hotel dining more relaxed has motivated the owner and head chef of Congham Hall in Grimston, Norfolk, to introduce new, lighter, à la carte lunch menus for its Orangery restaurant.
Although proprietor Trevor Forecast says lunch business was slow to recover from the recession, when the average number of covers in the restaurant dropped to four per day, today Congham Hall's primary competition is upgraded pub food. "The trend for better pub food is exciting. But I want people to feel that lunching in our hotel is just as relaxing as a pub, wine bar or open-air café," says Forecast.
As the 14-bedroom Georgian manor house, set in 40 acres of parkland, is situated six miles east of King's Lynn, passing trade is unlikely. So Forecast realigned lunch menus earlier this spring to entice customers out of town. As a result, business has increased five-fold.
The man behind the new-format menus is Norfolk-born and bred Jonathan Nicholson, who took over as head chef 18 months ago. Having worked at establishments including Le Talbooth in Essex and London's Harvey's and The Canteen, Nicholson joined Congham Hall two years ago as sous chef and was promoted six months later.
Nicholson has created a series of flexible lunch-time menus, served in the bar, the terrace, the lounge or the 50-seat Orangery restaurant, and aimed at "business executives in a hurry, ladies who lunch and visitors travelling through the area". Forecast bought large marquee-style umbrellas to give a bistro feel to the terrace, creating a further 30 seats outside.Average spend on the terrace ranges from £5 to £10. In the more formal restaurant it has increased from about £15 per head to £21, excluding drinks.
The menu is divided into five sections - light- lunch or starters, meat and poultry, fish, vegetarian, and sweets, enabling customers to have anything from a sandwich to a three-course meal.
On the light lunch or starter menu, dishes include terrine of confit chicken studded with prunes and served with seasonal leaves (£3.25), salad of frisée lettuce, Congham Hall herbs, crispy bacon bits and a poached egg (£3.75) and a toasted chicken, lettuce, tomato and mayonnaise sandwich (£6.95).
Main dishes include pan-fried calves' liver with onion, bacon and potato purée (£8.75), fettucini of salmon, broccoli and sun-dried tomatoes in basil butter sauce (£8.85) and fricassée of local mushrooms in puff pastry with chive butter sauce (£8.15). And sweets include caramelised lavender and honey crème brûlée served with a vanilla tuille and a selection of home-made ice-creams (both £3).
Evening business at the Orangery has picked up with covers ranging from 30 to 50 per night. So Forecast and Nicholson retained the set-dinner format, of which there are two separate menus (£24 and £32). Nicholson has also devised a "heatwave" à la carte menu for the evening with lighter food. This includes salad of three salmons - gravadlax, salmon tartar and smoked salmon served with a rocket, potato and pesto salad (£14.95) and sautéd fillet of sea bass with a plum tomato and basil salad served with new potatoes (£18.50).
Nicholson's cooking is influenced by more than 500 varieties of herbs from the hotel's garden. Herbs and vegetables include sorrel, French and Russian tarragon, 20 varieties of basil, globe and Jerusalem artichokes, yellow and green zucchini and pak choi.
Nicholson has a brigade of six, who together make bread (including garlic, green olive and soda), biscuits, pastries and ice-creams. However, on certain days there are only three running the kitchen. On such occasions, time-consuming presentation of food is kept to a minimum.
