Michael Wignall at The Latymer

[david goodfellow]

Anybody been fortunate enough to sample new Michelin starred Michael Wignall's food yet.

We dined there on Thursday and had a terrific meal .

When I have a bit more time I will write it up!

[david goodfellow]

Pennyhill Park, or should I say Michael Wignall at The Latymer, Pennyhill Park was not on my" to visit "list!

The reason simply was that it was deemed too far away for a day trip,so that an overnight stay was inevitable.

Another reason was, that I already have two lists of " to visit ".

One for London.

And one for the rest of the country,north and south of my home base.

So my next four or five meals were pencilled in so to speak.

That abruptly changed when I stumbled upon some photos of Michael Wignalls food on another website only last Wednesday.

Well, I was captivated somewhat. The food looked absolutley stunning!

Needless to say it captured my imagination.

I just had to eat it

Well, within the hour, I had booked the table, planned the journey, checked the car, and all for the following day.

We set off at 9.30 and three hours later arrived at the somewhat stunning five star venue.

We stretched our legs with a walk around the fabulous grounds pondering, who it was who once owned this stately pile?

Very Lloyd Grossman.

The original house is magnificent, perched atop a hill overlooking some of the estate to the valley below.

Not surprisingly the car park is littered with Ferrari's, Porsche, Bentley's etc.

However don't be put off, we spotted the odd Corsa or three.

The greeting was good, (as it should be), then?

Surprise,Surprise,

A very welcome glass of champagne from Michael!

Plus some extremely nice nibbles, to get the ball rolling.

Seems the front of house have told him of our journey, and a request, from me to try and have a few of the dishes that were photographed, put on to the menu.

There is a lot on offer at lunch service.

3 courses for £32

A tasting menu of 8 courses inc amuse, and pre dessert.

Or you can take the all singing and dancing, 10 course tasting menu.

Thats the one we had.

Cannelloni of foie gras, Jabugo ham marshmallow, cantaloupe melon, Sauternes and camomile film

Seared tuna, terriyaki mackerel, oyster,grapefruit, carrot jelly, sugar snap and ginger salad.

Corn fed poussin, pork belly, Hereford snails, morels,Jeres jus.

Hand dived scallops, slow cooked octopus, cuttlefish chips, confit tomato, lettuce crisp.

Cauliflower risotto, baby squid, spring truffles, poached quail egg, Glazed comte', warm pea jelly.

Poached and glazed royal Anjou pigeon, calves sweetbread, broad beans, crosnes, jasmine jus.

Roquefort and warm raclette with pickled pear, celery cress, gherkin beignets.

Gariguette strawberries, lychees, marscapone mousse, lime sherbet tapioca, granny smith apple sorbet.

Fig tarte tatin, poached pears in spiced syrup, liquorice sabayon.

White chocolate parfait, hibiscus truffles, passion fruit, honey comb.

Wow does that not read well?

And it ate as well as it read.

Each and every dish that we ate was absolutely top notch, I could not pick fault, (not that I wanted too)

The meal lived up to, and in a way exceeded our expectations.

Michael Wignall's dishes are intricate works of art.

He's the Nicki Clarke of cuisine. not an angel hair out of place.

It seems almost a shame to deconstruct them.

I would love to be in the kitchen to watch the plating up, this is precision stuff. I would imagine tweasers on some of it, not spoons.

I found out later from the man himself that I had in all probabillity already eaten some of his food as he worked in John Burton-Race's L'Ortolan, then a Two star Michelin, plus The Old Beams,Staffordshires now sadly defunct Michelin starred eatery.

He started off working for Michelin man Paul Heathcote, and during his career worked at Cliveden in Waldo's another Michelin starred restaurant, which incidentley I was turned away from, for wearing jeans" pompous arses" but thats another story.

Michael told me another story about Liam Gallagher and his lack of tie!

He then won a Michelin star at The Devonshire Arms, before ending up at Pennyhill Park.

To sum up then, did we enjoy?

You bet!

The only problem that I had was, one of my own making.

You see I'm a trencherman at heart, and tasting menus bring out the Oliver Twist in me.

I could have demolished platefuls of those dishes

So there you have it.

Look forward to Michael Wignall at The Latymer The Return!!!!!!

Food Miles 334

Cost to the planet £201.

[david goodfellow]

Sorry, clicked on a link on Catersearch with what I thought was a bit of news, but it was out of date.

Anybody been here, able to post a report, it was one of our best meals this year.

Edited July 1, 2009 by david goodfellow (log)

[LizzyWizzy]

Pennyhill Park, or should I say Michael Wignall at The Latymer, Pennyhill Park was not on my" to visit "list!

The reason simply was that it was deemed too far away for a day trip,so that an overnight stay was inevitable.

Another reason was, that I already have two lists of " to visit ".

One for London.

And one for the rest of the country,north and south of my home base.

So my next four or five meals were pencilled in so to speak.

That abruptly changed when I stumbled upon some photos of Michael Wignalls food on another website only last Wednesday.

Well, I was captivated somewhat. The food looked absolutley stunning!

Needless to say it captured my imagination.

I just had to eat it

Well, within the hour, I had booked the table, planned the journey, checked the car, and all for the following day.

We set off at 9.30 and three hours later arrived at the somewhat stunning five star venue.

We stretched our legs with a walk around the fabulous grounds pondering, who it was who once owned this stately pile?

Very Lloyd Grossman.

The original house is magnificent, perched atop a hill overlooking some of the estate to the valley below.

Not surprisingly the car park is littered with Ferrari's, Porsche, Bentley's etc.

However don't be put off, we spotted the odd Corsa or three.

The greeting  was good, (as it should be), then?

Surprise,Surprise,

A very welcome glass of champagne from Michael!

Plus some extremely nice nibbles, to get the ball rolling.

Seems the front of house have told him of our journey, and a request, from me to try and have a few of the dishes that were photographed, put on to the menu.

There is a lot on offer at lunch service.

3 courses for £32

A tasting menu of 8 courses inc amuse, and pre dessert.

Or you can take the all singing and dancing, 10 course tasting menu.

Thats the one we had.

Cannelloni of foie gras, Jabugo ham marshmallow, cantaloupe melon, Sauternes and camomile film

Seared tuna, terriyaki mackerel, oyster,grapefruit, carrot jelly, sugar snap and ginger salad.

Corn fed poussin, pork belly, Hereford snails, morels,Jeres jus.

Hand dived scallops, slow cooked octopus, cuttlefish chips, confit tomato, lettuce crisp.

Cauliflower risotto, baby squid, spring truffles, poached quail egg, Glazed comte', warm pea jelly.

Poached and glazed royal Anjou pigeon, calves sweetbread, broad beans, crosnes, jasmine jus.

Roquefort and warm raclette with pickled pear, celery cress, gherkin beignets.

Gariguette strawberries, lychees, marscapone mousse, lime sherbet tapioca, granny smith apple sorbet.

Fig tarte tatin, poached pears in spiced syrup, liquorice sabayon.

White chocolate parfait, hibiscus truffles, passion fruit, honey comb.

Wow does that not read well?

And it ate as well as it read.

Each and every dish that we ate was absolutely top notch, I could not pick fault, (not that I wanted too)

The meal lived up to, and in a way exceeded our expectations.

Michael Wignall's dishes are intricate works of art.

He's the Nicki Clarke of cuisine. not an angel hair out of place.

It seems almost a shame to deconstruct them.

I would love to be in the kitchen to watch the plating up, this is precision stuff. I would imagine tweasers on some of it, not spoons.

I found out later from the man himself that I had in all probabillity already eaten some of his food as he worked in John Burton-Race's L'Ortolan, then a Two star Michelin, plus The Old Beams,Staffordshires now sadly defunct Michelin starred eatery.

He started off working for Michelin man Paul Heathcote, and during his career worked at Cliveden in Waldo's another Michelin starred restaurant, which incidentley I was turned away from, for wearing jeans" pompous arses" but thats another story.

Michael told me another story about Liam Gallagher and his lack of tie!

He then won a Michelin star at The Devonshire Arms, before ending up at Pennyhill Park.

To sum up then, did we enjoy?

You bet!

The only problem that I had was, one of my own making.

You see I'm a trencherman at heart, and tasting menus bring out the Oliver Twist in me.

I could have demolished platefuls of those dishes

So there you have it.

Look forward to Michael Wignall at The Latymer    The Return!!!!!!

Food Miles 334

Cost to the planet £201.

←

Similer to David after looking at the inspired menu had to go, so from thursday afternoon we were booked in for friday night, a room and a couple of spa treatments on the saturday

We had very much the same tasting menu, a few ingredients swapped here and there, on the whole absolutly fantastic, i just thought there was maybe an ingredient to far on many of the dishes, or just not enough of the stated flavours to warrent a mention, 3 droplets of pomelo is hardly a taste, what does that bring to a dish, portions were almost to small as just when you were enjying the dish it was gone, i almost feel maybe six course of a larger portion would be a more enjoyable dining experience, the bread was poor, petit fours unbelievable, service was good and friendly for a 5star hotel, they told me i could only book at 9.30 which we did, we were taken in about 9 after a couple of drinks on the terrace, and half the restaurant was empty, very strange, i also heard them turn somebody away at the reception desk when checking in, because they were full, which certainly was not the case!! very interesting food and certainly one of the most appealing menus around at the moment!!

[david goodfellow]

Pennyhill Park, or should I say Michael Wignall at The Latymer, Pennyhill Park was not on my" to visit "list!

The reason simply was that it was deemed too far away for a day trip,so that an overnight stay was inevitable.

Another reason was, that I already have two lists of " to visit ".

One for London.

And one for the rest of the country,north and south of my home base.

So my next four or five meals were pencilled in so to speak.

That abruptly changed when I stumbled upon some photos of Michael Wignalls food on another website only last Wednesday.

Well, I was captivated somewhat. The food looked absolutley stunning!

Needless to say it captured my imagination.

I just had to eat it

Well, within the hour, I had booked the table, planned the journey, checked the car, and all for the following day.

We set off at 9.30 and three hours later arrived at the somewhat stunning five star venue.

We stretched our legs with a walk around the fabulous grounds pondering, who it was who once owned this stately pile?

Very Lloyd Grossman.

The original house is magnificent, perched atop a hill overlooking some of the estate to the valley below.

Not surprisingly the car park is littered with Ferrari's, Porsche, Bentley's etc.

However don't be put off, we spotted the odd Corsa or three.

The greeting  was good, (as it should be), then?

Surprise,Surprise,

A very welcome glass of champagne from Michael!

Plus some extremely nice nibbles, to get the ball rolling.

Seems the front of house have told him of our journey, and a request, from me to try and have a few of the dishes that were photographed, put on to the menu.

There is a lot on offer at lunch service.

3 courses for £32

A tasting menu of 8 courses inc amuse, and pre dessert.

Or you can take the all singing and dancing, 10 course tasting menu.

Thats the one we had.

Cannelloni of foie gras, Jabugo ham marshmallow, cantaloupe melon, Sauternes and camomile film

Seared tuna, terriyaki mackerel, oyster,grapefruit, carrot jelly, sugar snap and ginger salad.

Corn fed poussin, pork belly, Hereford snails, morels,Jeres jus.

Hand dived scallops, slow cooked octopus, cuttlefish chips, confit tomato, lettuce crisp.

Cauliflower risotto, baby squid, spring truffles, poached quail egg, Glazed comte', warm pea jelly.

Poached and glazed royal Anjou pigeon, calves sweetbread, broad beans, crosnes, jasmine jus.

Roquefort and warm raclette with pickled pear, celery cress, gherkin beignets.

Gariguette strawberries, lychees, marscapone mousse, lime sherbet tapioca, granny smith apple sorbet.

Fig tarte tatin, poached pears in spiced syrup, liquorice sabayon.

White chocolate parfait, hibiscus truffles, passion fruit, honey comb.

Wow does that not read well?

And it ate as well as it read.

Each and every dish that we ate was absolutely top notch, I could not pick fault, (not that I wanted too)

The meal lived up to, and in a way exceeded our expectations.

Michael Wignall's dishes are intricate works of art.

He's the Nicki Clarke of cuisine. not an angel hair out of place.

It seems almost a shame to deconstruct them.

I would love to be in the kitchen to watch the plating up, this is precision stuff. I would imagine tweasers on some of it, not spoons.

I found out later from the man himself that I had in all probabillity already eaten some of his food as he worked in John Burton-Race's L'Ortolan, then a Two star Michelin, plus The Old Beams,Staffordshires now sadly defunct Michelin starred eatery.

He started off working for Michelin man Paul Heathcote, and during his career worked at Cliveden in Waldo's another Michelin starred restaurant, which incidentley I was turned away from, for wearing jeans" pompous arses" but thats another story.

Michael told me another story about Liam Gallagher and his lack of tie!

He then won a Michelin star at The Devonshire Arms, before ending up at Pennyhill Park.

To sum up then, did we enjoy?

You bet!

The only problem that I had was, one of my own making.

You see I'm a trencherman at heart, and tasting menus bring out the Oliver Twist in me.

I could have demolished platefuls of those dishes

So there you have it.

Look forward to Michael Wignall at The Latymer    The Return!!!!!!

Food Miles 334

Cost to the planet £201.

←

Similer to David after looking at the inspired menu had to go, so from thursday afternoon we were booked in for friday night, a room and a couple of spa treatments on the saturday

We had very much the same tasting menu, a few ingredients swapped here and there, on the whole absolutly fantastic, i just thought there was maybe an ingredient to far on many of the dishes, or just not enough of the stated flavours to warrent a mention, 3 droplets of pomelo is hardly a taste, what does that bring to a dish, portions were almost to small as just when you were enjying the dish it was gone, i almost feel maybe six course of a larger portion would be a more enjoyable dining experience, the bread was poor, petit fours unbelievable, service was good and friendly for a 5star hotel, they told me i could only book at 9.30 which we did, we were taken in about 9 after a couple of drinks on the terrace, and half the restaurant was empty, very strange, i also heard them turn somebody away at the reception desk when checking in, because they were full, which certainly was not the case!! very interesting food and certainly one of the most appealing menus around at the moment!!

←

Glad you enjoyed it.

It is a bit of a niggle of mine," portion size", you echo my thoughts, especially as his food is outstanding

Service from the young lady who came from the Devonshire with Michael, was excellent, however I'm not so sure on the sommelier whom we never saw once during the meal, I reached the conclusion later that, because I'm not a wine buff, he sort of lost interest, but at this level thats not good enough.

If this was my business and I found out we were turning people away, with massive overheads that they must have, she? he? would be down the road by now

On a lighter note, looks like you know how to enjoy yourselves, happy days.

[genuineness]

So phoned yesterday to try to get a table at the Latymer. Apparently they had tables available but only for people who were staying at the hotel. I suppose that kinda makes sense - the restaurant is funded by the hotel so has to have a certain number of tables for people who are staying at the hotel.

[Peter Green]

We had dinner the other night at Latymer. I have the pictures and blow by blow over here.

As comments on what's been written, I would agree. The attention to detail, and the work ethic that Michael shows is admirable. The plates are beautifully turned out, and I can picture him (having seen other chefs I admire doing it) bent over each plate doing the arrangement.

Having enjoyed the room to ourselves, it's bemusing to read of people being turned away. But they did say that they were full up the night before, so it may just be that they are, unfortunately, really busy most of the time.

The sommelier was pushing the more expensive wines, but, when we weakened and gave in on one, it was well worth it (mind you, Ean paid for the wine).

Cheers,

Peter

[MaLO]

Had a very good lunch here yesterday. There is an offer on at the moment "ten good reasons" one lunch at £32 one for £10. Dont know if the offer runs past the end of october but if you can take advantage it is well worth a go. Fantasticly well crafted and very tasty food. Will add more another time.

[david goodfellow]

Thanks for reviving this thread Martin. The offer is terrific for the quality of the food.

One of our best (perhaps the best) meals of last year. A very talented chef indeed.

[MaLO]

Michael Wignall at Pennyhill Park

So day three of a nice little break down south saw us visit Pennyhill Park.

The offer we took advantage of runs until the end of November and makes for as huge a bargain as you could hope for.

The food was amazingly intricate and flavour packed.

We ate

Goats cheese with truffle on a filo type crisp – clear tomato jelly with carrot caviar and flying fish roe – Lemon marshmallow and some bready nibbles.

Smoked salmon and red pepper cannelloni with lemon curd and micro salad.

The bread selection was very good. Better than Apsleys and Le Gavroche.

Starters

Ballottine of marinated Foie gras, Iberico ham, Manchego, Autumn truffles, Sourdough crisp and Pedro Ximenes jelly.

Calves sweetbread, Comte veil, Girolles, Sorrel, Confit onion tart fine, Jerusalem artichoke jus.

An intermediate course of Salt cod croquette with samphire and other bits and bobs was an unexpected bonus.

Mains

Red mullet, Cassoulet of squid, Salsify, Globe artichokes, Clam veloute.

Quail, Black pudding, Braised veal tongue, Chocroute, Trompettes de la morte, Salsify in red wine, Jeres jus.

We shared some very good cheese.

Pre Dessert was a Prune panna cotta with caramelised apple and muscovado sugar.

We also shared a Delice of dark chocolate, Coffee Jelly, Mocha butter, Honeycombe, Pistachio cake.

This was a very impressive lunch. The entire meal was picture perfect. Technique and flavours were remarkable. It was complex, although some may find the portion size a bit dainty. It really was amazingly good. The AA rating of four rosettes is a fairer reflection than its one Michelin star. It is among the best one star meals I have eaten and at £42 (for 2) a real bargain.

Service was very good. Booze was a Vioginer from Argentina for £25. The list had decent options for reasonable money.

8 course tasting menu for lunch is £58 and featured many great sounding choices; lunch offers four choices per course and with the additional bits makes for a great couple of hours.

Well worth a go.

Edited October 27, 2010 by MaLO (log)

[thampik]

Thanks David and MaLO for the inspiration.

Four of us took up the offer and had lunch at the Latymer today. As mentioned by you gents, the food was excellent and I echo MaLO's comment about it being one of the best 1* meals around. The amuse and the small bites between the courses really stood out for me - an intense mushroom capuccino, a Brill brandade with cauliflower puree and an apple foam, fruit, sorbet combo. I feel a bit mealy-mouthed saying this, but my main course was unremarkable (Quail) in comparison. My companions were however well pleased with their Sweetbread and Red mullet...

Still, fantastic value for £21/head (with the offer), lots of reasonably priced wines on the list (we had a white Chateau Musar), excellent dining experience and we all agreed we would come again for the parts of the food that were exceptional and probably take in the tasting menu next time around.

[MaLO]

I enjoyed my lunch here back in October so I decided as we were in the area to go again.

The offer at the moment for lunch is one at £34 and one at £15. It remains good value.

We ate

Breads as mini loaves sliced. The bread is good.

Canapés were bread sticks with taramasalata, A shot of clear tomato consommé with spherical tomato and a chicken liver parfait sandwich. Each was tiny and each was tasty.

Amuse was smoked trout with salmon roe and yuzu, I think..

To start we ordered the Loire valley rabbit and veal sweetbread. The rabbit was very good; it came with a little crispy chicken. It looked and tasted good. The sweetbread came with long thin slices of tongue, almost bacon like in taste and texture. The egg yolk had a crisp coating and was just set – not hard but not runny. Nothing was left on either plate.

There was a tiny intermediate course which I just can’t recall. I don’t make notes, didn’t photograph everything and ate so much last week that it has simply gone. Whatever it was, it too was nice.

Mains

Confit suckling pig, poached fillet of old spot, trompettes de la morte, pork popcorn, Hereford snails, coco beans. The pork dishes are something of a signature dish here. This was very tasty. Cooked sous vide the fillet might be a little rare for some people but hot /warm through. The confit came fried, a pork finger if you like. Really good. The rest of the garnish was equally good.

Poached and roast quail, confit leg, Scottish girolles, braised turnips, celery salad, thyme and confit garlic cream. This also came with a tasty little black pudding croquette. I only tried a little of this. I enjoyed what I ate. There was another empty plate.

We took one plate of cheese - some Wigmore, a bit of Morbier and something from Alsace with a washed rind. They came with a selection of biscuits – the cheese ones were very good and I gorged on them by themselves.

The pre dessert was almond panna cotta with apple jelly.

We also shared dessert; Apricots, fresh almonds, banana cake, apricot sorbet.

It was all rather good. Service was fine. The dining room was half full on Thursday, about fifteen people or thereabouts. The hotel was full of England rugby players doing interviews and generally mooching about.

Good value and very good food.

I took a couple of photos that for some reason are at the end of this post. The pics are of the pork, the quail and the apricots - oh and the menu so you can see what we could have had.

Edited August 29, 2011 by MaLO (log)

[david goodfellow]

Michael Wignall featured on yesterdays episode of Britains Best Dish- The Chefs. His dessert of Blackberry and Pear won.

According to the programme it had sixty different processes to it.

He now has also gained his fifth AA rosette, "Cooking stands comparison with the best in the World", and one of only eight chefs in the UK to do so.

I think he is a fantastic chef and can feel a return visit coming very soon.

Anyone else been recently? who can post a report, so as to whet my appetite.

Best Dish, The Chefs.

[Matthew Grant]

Is that really what the 5 star AA rating means? Do they even rate restaurants outside the UK, if not how on earth can that rating be taken seriously?

[Pam Brunning]

David

I reviewed it a year ago see Michelin Stars

We weren't impressed then and haven't been back.

Edited to try and make link work!!

Edited November 16, 2011 by heidih
Fix link (log)

[olicollett]

Oh no, not that thread again Pam! That put me off going to the waterside inn..

[david goodfellow]

----kin hell. Just watched Michael Wignall up against another top Michelin technician Adam Simmonds doing desserts on Britains Best Dish---The Chefs.

Phenomenal

John Burton Race, Ed Bains, and Jilly Goolden were astonishingly gushing and blown away by the quality of both desserts.

Michaels dish won it.

I hope to try it out on my next visit.

Simply can't wait. Bring it on.

Best Dish------The Chefs.