Gidleigh Park

Amused

Daisy has been a way in Devon, Ashburton to be precise, doing a month cookery course here http://www.ashburtoncookeryschool.co.uk/ which by all accounts was excellent. I went up a couple of times over the month & we scoffed our way through most of South Devon. One place I was really interested in going to was Gidleigh Park, a 2 Michelin starred hotel within Dartmoor National Park where Michael Caines is the executive head chef http://www.gidleigh.com/restaurant.

Toms & melons

We went for saturday lunch & had a beautiful drive through Dartmoor, then into the grounds of Gidleigh Park which is stunning. On entering we were shown to the lounge, a very comfortable & spacious room & ordered 2 aperitivos & browsed the menu. There was the Signature menu, A la carte menu & Seasonal Lunch Menu, all sounded amazing. We decided on the 3 course Seasonal Lunch menu & ordered in the lounge where we were also given a Amuse Bouche of turbot which was delicious.

Salmon

We were shown to our table which was very nice & ordered a local Rose' which was lovely & Daisy had a glass of Sancerre which was equally good. There was some amazing homemade bread & another wonderful Amuse Bouche of Crab Bisque. There was a little wait, then our starters arrived! I had ordered "Tomato & melon salad with tomato jelly & basil oil" & Daisy had ordered "Loch Duart salmon with tagliatelle of courgette & cucumber beurre blanc". We were pretty excited. Both dishes looked exquisite, my tomatoes were tangy, the scoops of melon with the basil oil were very refreshing & there was a crispy side of fried bread I think, should of asked but very good. I really enjoyed the dish but I wasn't wowed on first impressions though thinking about it after I actually thought it was excellent & was glad that I ordered it. Daisy's salmon was beautifully cooked, the courgette tagliatelle wasn't what we were expecting but in a good way & there were salmon eggs exploding every so often in the odd mouthful. It was quite a salty dish but very tasty & I had quite a few mouthfuls of it.

Porky

Jackson  

On to mains! I ordered "Local pork loin with pea puree, boulangere potato, girolles & a marjoram pork jus" WOW! The pork was a little rare, I recently read how the food safety & Inspection service had lowered porks cooking temperature, so it was very juicy & tender, the boulangere potato mind blowing & the pea puree & girolles all combined to make this a wonderful dish. KNOCKOUT!

Daisy had "Cornish pollock with leek puree, wild mushrooms & a chive butter sauce", cooked to perfection. The pollock was delicious & the buttery sauce, buttery! Again a great dish & I can't remember thinking of any gripes. Amazing Mains!

Dessert! My favorite part were both extroadinary! I had "Banana parfait with chocolate & lime sorbet" Thin crisp chocolate stacked up with the banana parfait in between & I wasn't sure about the sound of the lime sorbet but it worked perfectly. Absolutely delicious. Daisy had the "Poached cherries with tuile basket & cherry & Kirsch ice cream". The cherry ice cream was absolutely lovely & the poached cherries divine.

We followed this by having coffee & petit fours in the lounge which were almost as good as the dessert. It consisted of one little dumpling, a mini creme brulee & a pannacotta. All amazing as well as the staff who were all friendly, very professional & the manager Sue Williams came & had a chat with us which was very nice. Next time at Gidleigh Park a room for the night would go down very well! Might have to start saving.

  

Bocca Di Lupo & Gelupo

Zucchini Flowers

The other friday I wasn't feeling to hot & had an amazing hunger for Italian food for lunch. I tend not to eat much Italian out because I love eating my dad's cooking but I needed some sort of pasta. So I phoned up my friend Will from Bristol who happens to be working in London for a month & told him to meet me at Bocca Di Lupo on Archer street. They cook across Italy's twenty regions, so there's some amazing dishes & they do small or large plates so ideal for sharing. There is a desert from my dads region, Abruzzo, called Sanguinaccio which is a pigs blood dessert mixed with chocolate. Pretty delicious, like an intense Nutella served with bread.

Anyway, back to lunch! We sat at the bar which is great fun getting to watch the chefs in action & ordered a starter to share of "Courgette flowers with mozzarella & anchovy"! It was delicious, the batter slightly greasy & crispy but in a good way & a lovely taste of the saltiness from the anchovy. Very tasty indeed.

More rabbit then Sainsbury's

We then ordered mains from A the one dish lunch menu. I ordered "Bucatini al coniglio all'Ischitana" (which translates as Rabbit braised with chilli & tamato; bucatini in the sauce thereof) which is from Ischia & Will ordered "Grilled home made spicy Italian sausages with soft golden polenta & grilled Treviso" (no translation) from Veneto.

My main was a knockout. A really lovely bit of rabbit with bucatini, which is a thick spaghetti like pasta with a hole running through the center, lovely spicy tomato sauce with parsley sprinkled on top & a dried chilli on the side. Will had food envy even though his sausage & polenta was equally delicious.
                                                                                           

Phenomenale

Rather then have dessert at Bocca Di Lupo I popped over to Gelupo, I've mentioned them before & had a espresso, they do a great espresso with a watermelon & clementine sorbet! I'm not joking when I say this but there ice cream really is phenomenal! I've had so much ice cream since a baby & Gelupo wows me every time. Goooooo there.