The Pennyhill show
This week Diane Lane heads off to Bagshot in Surrey to try out the menu at the winner of the AA's 2002 Hotel of the Year award for England.
Diners at Pennyhill Park hotel's Latymer restaurant in Bagshot, Surrey, need not be concerned. For while head chef Marc Wilkinson is planning an inspirational trip to Ferran Adri…'s revolutionary three-Michelin-starred El Bulli restaurant in Catalonia, he isn't planning any radical changes to the 36-seat restaurant's cuisine on his return.
"I've also been to the Fat Duck in Bray, and while I can take ideas from such places, I won't be going in that direction," says 32-year-old Wilkinson, who arrived in Bagshot just under a year ago after two years as head chef of the Mirabelle restaurant in Eastbourne's Grand hotel.
His main aim for the Latymer is to achieve a fourth AA rosette, and to this end, he and his brigade of four are striving for consistency. The menu is updated in line with the seasons, rather than being changed as a whole, and new dishes are thoroughly practised before being added to the line-up of 20 starters, mains and desserts.
The three-course menu, priced at £50 including canapés, amuse-bouche, pre-dessert and petits fours, has modern influences but draws on Wilkinson's classical background in the kitchens of the Chester Grosvenor and Lincoln's Winteringham Fields as well as ideas gleaned from three months spent travelling and eating out in France. "It doesn't revolve around luxury items, although we do use some, such as foie gras and truffles," he says.
Foie gras appears among the starters, served as a mousse with Calvados jelly, mixed fruit chutney and balsamic dressing. A firm favourite with diners are the scallops, seared and served with caper vinaigrette, roast potatoes and smoked salmon, having been delivered overnight from Scotland along with live langoustines. The langoustines appear as tortellinis with sautéd cèpes and a Jerusalem artichoke sauce.
Among the main choices, pigeon has recently replaced venison - which sold well before Christmas - and is also proving a hit with diners, who number anything between 10 and 30 during the week, rising to 36 on Friday and Saturday evenings. The roasted pigeon is served with a casserole of lentils, confit garlic and wild mushrooms and a sweet and sour reduction of beetroot.
Fish is always included, and Wilkinson is particularly pleased with a dish of orange-dusted halibut with a tartare of spiced oysters, herb salad and spiced leeks - the orange dust being dried and ground orange zest. Average spend at dinner is about £70-£75 including wine.
Desserts are all made by Wilkinson himself, until such time as he can find a pastry chef. At the moment a millefeuille of warm caramelised bananas with coconut sorbet is the runaway favourite, although he is planning to add an assiette of three or four miniature desserts, which he expects to be popular. A weekly changing lunch menu, priced at £20 for two courses and £25 for three, attracts 10-15 customers at lunchtimes. n
The Latymer Restaurant, Pennyhill Park Hotel, London Road, Bagshot, Surrey GU19 5EU. Tel: 01276 471774
A selection from the menu at the Latymer
(£50 for three courses)
Tian of goats' cheese and truffle with honey-pickled vegetables
Free-range quail, poached and served in a bergamot and grapefruit bouillon, with honey-roasted leg and prune purée
Roasted red mullet wrapped in pancetta with fennel and ginger cream
Sautéd veal sweetbreads and pan-fried scallops with carrot sauce and girolles
Fillet of pork with farce of black pudding, parsnip purée and caramelised apple
Fillet of zander with crisp salsify, haricot beans and truffle dressing
Hot chocolate fondant with rice praline and almond milk ice-cream
Parfait of Agen prunes with Earl Grey sauce and apple sorbet
Light praline mousse with cherry foam and marinated cherries
