Returning to the Dining Room at Whatley Manor

On the 29th of July last year we made our first visit to Whatley Manor for the tasting menu in their restaurant called simply 'The Dining Room'.  

Last July, Niall Keating was Executive Chef here, but he left at the end of last year. He was replaced by the former Head Chef Ricki Weston. We met Ricki last year when he served us the early courses of the menu.

Ricki Weston - July 2021

Seeing him behind the pass in charge of his own brigade, it looks like the move has been good for him. It looked like he had grown a few inches and spent some time in the gym, as he led his team tonight. We had a few seconds to chat to him while his team worked around us. It is a really impressive achievement on his part that within weeks of being appointed to the role he had gained a Michelin Star.

Pre-Dinner

Dinner began with drinks in the lounge at 6:30am I opted for Elderflower Presse and Drew had Ginger Ale.

These were served with a light bite of tapioca crisps and hummus. The barman amused as he put them down said: 'just what you need before a ten-course meal'. Though in fact they were light and tasty with a soft texture to the hummus, a perfect start or what was to come. 

Into the Kitchen

Drinks finished we were led into the kitchen, by the hotel's Deputy General Manager, Attila Tornyi. He even showed us some of his tray whirling skills learnt back home in Hungary.

We stood at the tables set up in the kitchen for this part of the meal.

And this year it was another young member of the team's opportunity to serve us. I wonder, if we will bring him the progress Ricki got out of meeting us last year. 😉

Ricki has made a clear impact on the menu, which is noticeably different from last year, but all the innovation seems to have been positive. This was evidenced by these first two dishes.

The first dish was called beetroot with suet, pine and thyme. This was an amazingly delicate beetroot pie, with the crust made of suet. The pine and thyme were on fire below the pie to add their wonderful smell to the eating experience. It was astounding to watch smoke coming up from our plate but the pie was easy to eat and full of amazing flavours.

The second dish, called beef from the manor with date and whey, this saw some more Tapioca, this time a black tapioca and on top was some delicate beef tartare with dates, sorrel, marigold and tiny pieces of whey - Placing it on the tongue and having a pop of tapioca before the rich flavours was such a treat. It was one of those moments when it felt like time stopped as the flavours exploded - but it wasn't enough time, as the flavours faded from the tongue, but will live a lot longer on the memory.

The Dining Room

After the two taste treats, we were taken through to the dining room by Clare, the Dining Room Manager, for the next three plates.

First, was the dish called potato, skate and grenobloise, this was a tasty morsel with the skate and grenobloise inside the spiralised potato cases, the butter, capers, parsley and lemon of the grenobloise, enhanced the gentle softness of the skate and the crispy potato provided an excellent contrast with the insides.     

The chestnut mushrooms with truffle and Jerusalem artichoke was the next little bite, this mix of flavours were delightful, crisp and amazing - our tongues went zing, zing as we tasted it.

The lobster bisque and caviar was the third of these little delights. The N25 caviar was salty rich with the thick lobster bisque underneath the caviar, they were both delicious, but together they were really stunning.  

Bread

Before we moved to our larger courses, we were served a white rye sourdough with a delightful malted butter ring, this was a beurre noisette heavily whipped to make this butter more nutty than buttery, which suits my taste perfectly. And, as my sister is bound to ask, yes, I did nibble of the herbs in the middle of the butter, they were too good to leave as a decoration. 

Third Course 

I don't know whether to call the next course the sixth course or the third, as it is the sixth different taste since the beginning of the meal, but I guess we can count the first two appetisers served in the kitchen as one course and the next three at the table as the second, which makes this scallop course the third!

The scallop was served with crème fraiche and trout roe. My initial reaction was Wow, Wow, Wow and it remains that way now. [Co-pilot's note: He got, dear readers, a touch excitable at the time. Closing his eyes and humming!] 

It was as amazing as it looks. The scallop was in slices with scallop mousse and crème fraiche with sharpness from the berries and trout roe and other garden herbs - to borrow the words of the film Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, it was truly scrumptious.

Fourth Course

The next course was Jacobs’ ladder with burnt leek, aged parmesan and truffle. Many of my friends will be surprised by this, but I don't have words to tell you how wonderful this is!! But I'll try my best. 

It had an amazing depth of flavour on the wonderful tender beef, the parmesan and truffle themselves were delightful but combined with the meat were enough to have me almost crying with delight. [Co-pilot's note: I had twelve courses of this, dear readers!!]

Next, came a beef and ginger consommé, though it was better descried as a traditional beef tea with the tea imbibed with radish, ginger and lemon. It was delicious; warm with a sense it was health giving and a perfect palette cleanser between the beef and the fish.

[Co-pilot's note: My Nanny Burrows, dear reader, used to swear by an Oxo cube in hot water!!!]

Fifth Course

The fish course was wild bass with gooseberry, grape and hollandaise.  A lovely piece of bass with a crispy skin of excellent quality. It would have been enough on its own, but with the soft fish, just cooked, almost translucent and the nuttiness of the almond volute, I was sighing with pleasure.

Sixth Course

Next came the main meat course of the meal. A delightful piece of aged lamb with lamb fat potato and pesto. The Lamb was cooked together with chicken mousse, I assume as a ballotine, by cooking them together the flavours combined with strong aged lamb and soft mousse served with a rich lamb jus. There were also three delightful parcels of pesto over cucumber with marigold and dill. The fat potato brought another dimension of lamb flavour to the dish, a great triumph. 

Seventh Course

Friends of mine will know that the worse crime in the culinary world for me is for people to mess with cheese in a way which dilutes the flavour of the cheese by adding too many sweet elements to the dish. This meant that when I read the words 'Baron Bigod with bacon, berkswell and apple' I was nervous, that the Baron Bigod, one of those raw cow milk Brie style British cheeses that I absolutely love, might be ill-treated. I should have had more trust in Ricki and his brigade. This was the exact opposite of my fears, the chef has made the cheese even better with his magic touch. 

The Baron Bigod was combined with the Berkswell, a hard ewe's milk cheese. The delicious saltiness of the bacon jam and tasty bacon pieces through the cheese added to by the small flakes of sharp granny smith apple made the whole dish amazingly tasty. 

Eighth Course

The first of the dessert courses came next. It was a 75% Chocolate with blackberry and sweet woodruff. The chocolate and blackberry were combined with a twig of chocolate on top and was mouth-watering. The sweet Woodruff ice cream was no sweeter than the herb itself and was enhanced with the Oabika gel (the white pulp of the cocoa bean) in the centre adding another cocoa flavour to the whole dish.

Ninth Course

The final course was a second dessert, in many restaurants Drew is forced to eat both the desserts for both of us, as I don't like sweet food. But he didn't have to help out here. The plum, custard and apple blossom were just satisfyingly tasty not sugary at all. 

The sharp plum gel had a white chocolate tweel between it and the sweet pink plum with the addition of a ginger crumb, a real delight and pleasure. I concluded at the end of this meal that this chef is a genius!! 

Coffee 

We finished dinner with espressos in the lounge, the coffee was a strong bitter finish to a perfect meal. There wasn't one element that wasn't just perfect, something I don't often say about a meal.

A well-paced meal which we began with drinks at 6.30pm comes to a dreamy end at 10.30pm. A perfect end to the holiday.