FOOD & DRINK
Restaurants Tracey MacLeod Larder essentials
It’s Monday lunchtime, and in country pubs across the land, under-employed staff are polishing glasses and staring into the middle RESTAURANT REVIEWER OF distance. But here in Suffolk, THE YEAR a newly opened pub on a quiet rural road is doing brisk business. The place vibrates with the unmistakable static of anticipation more usually found at a big restaurant opening. And that’s because many of the lunchers here have made a special pilgrimage, drawn by the reputation of the pub’s chefproprietor, Madalene Bonvini-Hamel. She doesn’t appear on TV, and hasn’t a cookbook to her name (yet). But her food blog, The British Larder, an “inspirational recipe diary” chronicling her obsessive love of cooking and eating, has won her a big enough fan base to encourage her to launch a bricks-and-mortar restaurant. South African-born Bonvini-Hamel, together with partner, Sugar Club graduate Ross Pike, has bravely given up her day job as a development chef, and taken over a roadhouse a few miles from the Suffolk coast. They aim to give their fans a chance “to taste and touch what you see on the British Larder website”. Their menus, which change daily and draw heavily on the region’s abundance of quality suppliers, artfully steer a course between traditional pub fare and the more ambitious dishes documented on the blog. The remodelled pub has been gutted and decorated in the kind of unshowy good taste – all sombre heritage paint tones, tongue and groove panelling and exposed brickwork – which is easy to take for granted until you glimpse the last surviving trace of hellish swirly carpet in the unmodernised ladies’ loo. A small bar area serving Adnams beer and superior bar snacks ensures that it still feels like a real pub rather than a restaurant in mufti, while the lunchtime menu ranges from sandwiches through to roasts with all the trimmings. A long wait for our starters was repaid by a quartet of dishes which produced a rapt chorus of “oohs” and “wows!”. Everything looked exquisite, with drizzled sauces and filigreed herb shoots giving a polish to even the simplest fare. Swoonily creamy celeriac soup came swirled with herb oil, while a dainty scroll of pea shoots adorned an open tart of caramelised beetroot and airy, whipped goats’ cheese.
The British Larder Orford Road Bromeswell Suffolk (01394 460310) Food Ambience Service
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Around £25 each for three courses, before wine and service Tipping policy “No service charge; all tips go to the staff”
The fine visual sense extends to the Waiting staff are numerous and efficient; tableware; we admired the hand-thrown the delay clearly emanated from the bowls and slate platters. A heavy wooden kitchen, where Bonvini-Hamel was, paddle supported the lavish assortment of unusually, cooking solo. smoked fish that comprised the “Orford Our mains, when they eventually smoke house experience”. A heap of silky appeared, proved that she is an intuitive smoked salmon dressed with and gifted chef (she trained caperberries, a bowl of shell-on with Rowley Leigh, and A long wait for smoked shrimps, a kilner jar worked in the Gordon our starters was of smoked trout pâté – simple Ramsay empire for many repaid by a components, elevated by the years). Only one choice – quartet of dishes elegance of their accessories. some dense and heavy peawhich produced Best of the starters was a fritters with a mushroom a chorus of ‘oohs’ sizzling tranche of pan-fried ragu – was less than firstand ‘wows!’ mackerel, its golden skin crisp, the rate. Big, clear flavours flesh melting, surrounded by a characterised a dish of tracery of herb shoots and scattering of pan-roasted hake, with steamed clams, peas and shelled broad beans. roasted tomatoes and a seasidey tangle of Those shelled beans were called to samphire, in a chervil-scented white wine account, when another long wait for main sauce. Perfectly poached salmon with courses had us pondering the slowerlemon crème fraîche was a more delicate than-acceptable download times; is that pleasure, while chicken Caesar salad was kind of attention to detail compatible with deconstructed into its separate elements – the hurly-burly of a busy pub service? silverskin anchovies, slices of roasted
Side Orders Succulent Suffolk
Trinity at Crown and Castle Hotel Awarded a Michelin Bib Gourmand and two AA rosettes, the game dishes, like guinea fowl (£16.50), are a must. Market Square, Orford (01394 450205)
breast meat (from nearby Sutton Hoo) , springy leaves with a mini kilner of dressing and as a little extra, a ramekin of tarragon-fragrant potted chicken. With a couple of shared puddings, including an ambrosial goats’ milk panacotta with merlot-steeped blueberries and orange polenta shortbread, we paid around £25 a head, which felt like excellent value for food this good. Before we left, we coaxed BonviniHamel from the kitchen to share her tips for cooking mackerel. Her enthusiasm bodes well for the cookery school planned as phase two of the project. The British Larder was only a few weeks old when we visited, so the neophyte restaurateurs can be forgiven if they’re struggling to cope with the transition from writing recipes to turning them out at speed on a daily basis. Assuming Bonvini-Hamel can crack that, I predict blog-to-riches success for this foodie Girl With a One Track Mind. E
Maison Bleue Maison Bleue offers French cuisine – and seafood – at its best. Try the Dover sole (£26.95) or halibut (£15.95). 30/31 Churchgate St, Bury St Edmunds (01284 760623)
The New Roundhouse The father and son team here offer local seasonal produce and a simple menu, highlighting the quality of their ingredients. Thorington (01502 478220) The Independent Magazine 35