DINING OUT Enjoying a super new menu at one of our favourite Lincolnshire hotel’s dining room, The Petwood in Woodhall Spa.

Enjoying High Quality Dining at The Petwood Hotel

A combination of established talent and consistency, but with a suffusion of fresh ideas and fresh talent. There’s never been a better time to visit The Petwood Hotel and to enjoy the talent of father and son chefs Philip and Charles Long...

REBOOTS are becoming increasingly popular in the cinema. Already we’ve had a few new Star Trek movies with JJ Abrams behind the camera, and in 2022 we’ve been promised new versions of Indiana Jones, Top Gun, Batman and Jurassic Park.

Meanwhile, at Woodhall’s Petwood Hotel, for the best part of a decade Philip Long has taken the lead role. His technical talent, creativity and consistency has ensured that hotel has remained one of the most elegant places to dine in the county, but also one of the most popular venues for afternoon tea, weddings and events.

Now, though, the kitchen also benefits from the presence of Philip’s son, Charles, a sort of chef reboot or a sequel, if you will. Working alongside one another in a team of 10 chefs, Charles, like the rest of the team, is helping to introduce fresh ideas and flair to an already excellent dining room, ensuring that the grand old hotel remains up to date in terms of its provision of dining.

Few will be unaware of the Petwood’s links to the 617 ‘Dambusters’ squadron, but the hotel’s history dates back much further. The village’s fortunes were transformed in 1811 when an underground spring of mineral-rich water was discovered and spa baths were established for visitors. Wealthy heiress Baroness Grace von Eckhardstein also made her home in the town, and in 1905 she built and later extended a bungalow into a much larger property; so large in fact, that it became a hotel in 1933. The grounds were originally landscaped by Harold Peto and in recent years much of his work has been reinstated. In the next few months, the surrounding grounds will be rich in spring bulbs, preceding colourful borders in the summer, when the hotel’s terrace will be a great place to enjoy outdoor dining and afternoon tea. Meanwhile, the wood panelled dining room and the drawing room with its open fire are both excellent places in which to wait out the chilly weather.

“Meanwhile, the wood panelled dining room and the drawing room with its open fire are both excellent places in which to wait out the chilly weather this winter...”

Just about the only saving grace of Covid for the hospitality industry is that the lack of guests has given hotels and restaurants the chance to get on with work that’s simply too disruptive to complete with lots of people around. The Petwood has used the time to crack on with the refurbishment of its kitchens and of a number of its 53 bedrooms, and to freshen up its communal areas. As such the place is looking nice and fresh for 2022, a great backdrop for the brigade’s new menus. During our recent visit, Charles wanted to present a number of the newest additions to the very same menus that have earned the Petwood an AA Rosette, an award that the hotel has retained for a number of years. There’s a single menu for daytime dining, and one for dining in the evening, plus a separate afternoon tea menu. During evening service, there’s a choice of seven starters, 12 main courses and six desserts plus ice cream and cheese board options. >>

MEET THE CHEF

SOUS CHEF CHARLES LONG

Background: “I moved to Lincolnshire as a youngster and have been working at The Petwood for four years, I love the place!” Food Heaven: “It changes all the time... I love game, though.” Food Hell: “Offal!”

>> Each of the Petwood Hotel’s dishes is underwritten by local suppliers like Mel Ward for butchery, Alfred Enderby and Moorcroft for fish plus Freshdrop for fruit and vegetables.

Each dish has been thoughtfully chosen to make the best of seasonal ingredients and it is – according to those customers giving their feedback – a truly brilliant menu.

The setting of the hotel also means they’re likely to be very busy indeed for afternoon tea, especially this spring with Valentine’s

OPENING TIMES

Lunch: 12 noon to 2.30pm. Afternoon Tea: 1.30pm - 5.30pm. Dinner: 6pm - 9pm. NB: Booking times subject to Covid-19 conditions; prior booking is advised online. Day, and Mothering Sunday just around the corner. This year the team is planning a special Valentine’s Day sharing menu, too, with dishes a deux. Also due to make an appearance this spring is the hotel’s comedy dining evening. ‘Faulty Towers: The Dining Experience,’ returns this June. This two hour interactive dining experience has been tweaked to ensure a Covid-secure performance without losing any of the fun. The premise is that Basil and the team combines dining at the Petwood Hotel with a live and interactive theatre, with guests involved... and the usual brutality exacted on poor Manuel. Live theatre, pretty grounds and days like Mothering Sunday aside, remember that Woodhall Spa’s appeal is further boosted, by the presence of places like Jubilee Park and Kinema in the Woods... the latter is a great place to enjoy one of those cinema reboots. As for the Petwood, the whole cast in the kitchen and at front of house are, as far as we’re concerned, superstars. n

on the MENU

FROM THE PETWOOD HOTEL’S WINTER MENU

Starters

Mushroom and pancetta quiche with rocket, pecan, and cranberries Game terrine with parsnip toffee and tonka bean mayonnaise Ham hock terrine with home made piccalilli and toasted brioche

Main Courses

Chicken breast with mushroom puree, creamed kale, straw potatoes, tarragon salt Pork fillet, pork belly, fondant potato, pear and hispi cabbage Seabass filled with olive oil mash, grilled hazelnut courgettes, mustard dressing Fillet steak with cherry tomatoes, flat mushroom, onion rings, Koffmann chips Desserts

White chocolate and peanut butter tart with raspberry jelly, raspberry sorbet, sugar shard Orange Jelly with cardamom infused fruits, and spiced mint syrup Chocolate mousse gateau with cookie crumble, vanilla chantilly, toasted hazelnuts, vanilla tuile

NB: Featured dishes are subject to change.

n The Petwood Hotel, Stixwould Road, Woodhall Spa, LN10 6QG. Call 01526 352411 or book online by visiting www.petwood.co.uk.

WHAT’S COOKING?

Ever wished you could brush up on the basics or take your cooking to the next level? Happily, Fiona Lucas can help. She’s created the most well-equipped, picturesque and... well.. enjoyable cooking school in the county. You can sign up for one of her courses this month!

THE TV SCHEDULES seem to be brimming with talented chefs. Mary Berry tells us she Loves to Cook, Greg Wallace and John Torode cast a judgemental eye over Masterchef’s contestants, and Simply Raymond sees the gallic gastronome whip up classic French dishes, delivering instructions with his mellifluous continental lilt.

And our bookshelves, too, are heaving with weighty volumes with lovely glossy pictures to accompany their recipes. When Pinch of Nom launched in 2019 it rapidly sold 1,000,000 copies and became the UK’s biggest selling non-fiction book. Cookery book sales soared during lockdown too as households stayed home and spent time in the kitchen.

The trouble is, as good as we are at laying on the sofa watching cookery programmes or walking into a bookshop and picking up the latest TV-tie-in, we’re less motivated to put theory into practice. That’s perhaps because, as tempting as those glossy images are, there’s really no substitute for being shown exactly how to create and present a dish.

Nor is there a substitute for a fun, sociable and well-equipped environment in which to learn from a proper professional. And that’s exactly why Fiona Lucas has founded her cookery school in the heart of the Lincolnshire countryside, just 15 minutes or so from the centre of Lincoln. It’s a pretty phenomenal place, too. Fiona has a background in chefcraft, having founded and run several restaurants. Her husband Mark, meanwhile, is a livestock farmer, and currently looks after about 1,500 Large White, Landrace and Durok pigs. The two married in 2006 and later relocated to the village of Snelland, equidistant from Lincoln, Wragby and Market Rasen where they renovated a 19th century farmhouse, creating a cookery school with eight stations and a main demonstration bench. Fiona worked with local building contractor Crossjoint Developments, Peter Rhodes of Market Rasen, and Howdens & Granite Earth to create the school. >>

>> Having already obtained her PGCE in teaching, the chef turned teacher had already gained experience working with youngsters in pupil referral facilities and with adults in prisons. Her own brand new school achieved planning permission in 2019, work was completed in 2020 and in April 2021 it opened, albeit with more than a little Covid-related disruption to the number and range of courses that Fiona wanted to offer. “Creating good food should mean pleasure not pressure,” says Fiona. “Cookery books are filled with images created by food stylists, and TV programmes are hosted by Michelinstarred chefs or presenters with production teams backing them up.” “As much as they foster a sense of desire, they can also create unrealistic ambitions. What I wanted to create is somewhere real, where things do occasionally go awry, where not every dish looks like it’s come from the pages of a glossy magazine, but where every dish has been prepared with love and with newly acquired skills.” “It’s an oversimplification to say that we no longer know how to cook, but the proliferation of processed food means skills like baking bread, making pasta and making our own pies and pasties have fallen by the wayside a little.” “The point of our classes isn’t to produce Michelin-star style food either in terms of its complexity or its appearance. Rather it’s about gaining new skills in a relaxed and supportive environment, and about having great fun creating something that you’re really proud of. Our classes are all designed to give you fundamental skills in an area of cooking you’d like to explore further, and to give you a foundation on which to take those skills further.”

Fiona’s classes so far have included one which concentrates on Asian cuisine, it’s among the most popular so far and typically involves the creation of a starter, a side dish and two main courses. The school’s fish course is also popular, as is a game course offered in season in which participants create dishes like pies. Being on a farm producing quality pork, there’s also a British Pork-based course in which participants create a traditional hand-raised pork pie, a quail Scotch egg and hand-made sausages. Bread also gets a look-in too, with a beginners breadmaking course in which participants create a white bloomer, a wholemeal loaf and a soda bread loaf too. An advanced course builds on those skills to create artisan baguettes, rustic breads and sourdough loaves with everyone taking part able to take home some of Fiona’s own starter culture.

“Having been involved in education I’m also really keen to work with youngsters too,” says Fiona. “We have classes for youngsters in the 8-11, 11-14 and 14-16 age brackets, and ‘let’s cook together’ courses where parents or grandparents and their children can spend time together.” “Children thrive on creating their own dishes and their eyes light up when they proudly show off what they’ve made. But you can see that same pleasure evident in adults, too. Food should be a pleasure, and cooking something even more so.” “The best thing about setting up my own independent school is that I’ve been able to do things my way and stick to my principles. Each course is between four and six hours in duration and there’s a lunch, refreshments and a good sense of humour included.” “Everyone gets a handout so there’s no need to take notes and no wasted time on theory; it’s all very practical. I try to weigh out all ingredients in advance so those taking part spend less time preparing and more time making, and we never repeat dishes. I write on our database what each participant has made on a particular course in order to ensure that people who return never make the same dish.” “There’s a little bit of housekeeping to be done at the start of each class, then there’s a small demonstration for the first dish, then everyone goes to their own kitchen area to try it for themselves. There’s two or three more demos and cooking sessions, with everyone’s work space having its own sink, fridge and induction hob, so it’s just like being in your own kitchen environment, not like being in a big commercial kitchen.” “It’s been an unusual time to launch a business, but I’ve got a huge amount of enthusiasm and every reason to believe 2022 will be our year.” “We’ve a better idea now of which courses will be most popular and we’ve had some great feedback from our existing participants. I’m already exploring preparing to launch sushi course, and a course themed around ‘proper pies and pasties.’” “We also hope to add a second adjacent barn with additional school space, a dining area and fridges designed for more complex courses like butchery.” “The future is looking really good but our ethos will remain the same; we want to make people feel good, help them to learn new skills and above all, promote great food.” n

Lincolnshire Cookery School: Courses coming up soon...

n Friday 4th February, 10am, Pasta Mania. n Sunday 6th February 10am, Game Meat. n Sat 12th February 10am, A Fishy Experience. n Saturday 19th Feb 6.30pm: Beer & Pie Night. n Friday 25th February, 10am: Artisan Breads. n Sat 26th February, 10am: Proper Pies & Pasties. n Sat 26th February, 6pm: Wine & Cheese. n Sunday 27th February, 10am: Sushi to go. n Thursday 3rd March, 10am: Asia to go.