Tag Archives: Winteringham Fields

BEST MEAL OUT EVER: THE NEW DINING EXPERIENCE AT WINTERINGHAM FIELDS

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It’s always a scary moment when your favourite restaurant announces a new dining experience. Exciting too, but for me the predominant thought was ‘please, please, don’t mess this up.’ Especially when for us, it’s a seven hour drive to get there.

I need not have worried. The friendly welcome from Janet at reception, the freshly baked gluten free cakes waiting in our gorgeous room; our stay started on a resounding high. We even had time for our favourite walk out to the Humber and through the village – a place I love so much I set Endless Skies there.

But dinner was, of course, the main event. And dinner was the part that had changed. A new dining room, now advertised as being part of the kitchen, hidden behind a curtain as you take your pre-dinner drinks and snacks (oh, what snacks!) in a cosy new bar. And when you are ready, you are led down the hallways of the old farmhouse and into the bright, modern kitchen.

We were greeted by James, the sous chef, as Gareth, the head chef, was unwell. He told us not to worry, we were in safe hands, and we definitely were. And this is all part of the experience; you feel you get to know the chefs a little as you work your way through the courses. Think chef’s table, but brought to a whole dining room, and in a relaxed and friendly manner.

After chatting to James over a delicious bowl of lovage soup (food miles are second only to ingredient quality at Winteringham Fields, and lovage had come just a few yards from the bed in the garden outside) we were taken to our table, which had a great view of the pass so we could see and hear everything that was going on. It takes great confidence in your team to open a kitchen to that extent; some guests who hadn’t visited before were even invited to walk around.

Dinner at Winteringham Fields is a lavish tasting menu, and we always play a game where we rank the courses in order. This time there was a clear winner; the Isle of Wight heritage tomatoes with watermelon, ponzu and nori. Tomatoes and watermelon? Who knew? And the consommé was one of the most spectacular things I have ever tasted. Almost as good as the langoustine terrine we had on our first visit… and when I told chef James about this he said he would try to track down the recipe.

We discussed our second favourite course for a very long time, without really coming to a conclusion. The huge hand dived scallop in laksa sauce was genius, but the lamb belly with asparagus, curds and mint such a clever blend of flavours and so completely melt in the mouth, it was hard to separate them. And both dessert (Winteringham Fields’ take on a Solero with mango, passion fruit, coconut and basil) and the lemon, thyme and honeycomb pre-dessert, were top notch.

Each course is brought to the table and introduced by the chef who prepared it, with as much or as little information as you like. It isn’t formal or stiff, there is genuine enthusiasm here, especially from the young lady who cooked the duck. The amount of care and attention poured into the dish was astonishing – and it showed.

So I need not have worried. Yes, it’s expensive. Yes, it’s a treat, but I would rather save up to eat here a couple of times a year than have pub grub every other week. Winteringham Fields, once again, you have smashed it!

 

All photos courtesy of Winteringham Fields, who have extended their midweek offers to cover the whole summer. Find out more here: https://winteringhamfields.co.uk/

SISTER SCRIBES: JANE CABLE ON HOW WINNING A FACEBOOK COMPETITION INSPIRED A BOOK

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As an author, the most frequently asked questions are without a doubt about what inspires you. Sometimes it’s the very smallest thing, but wherever an idea starts it needs to become a snowball, slowly gathering size and pace, to create the perfect storm – if you’ll excuse my rather poorly mixed weather metaphors.

My lastest book Endless Skies had the strangest of starts. My husband Jim and I are huge fans of The Great British Menu, and when one of the then finalists, Colin McGurran, organised a Facebook competition to win a stay at his restaurant with rooms in Lincolnshire, Winteringham Fields, we decided to enter. It was a simple ‘yes or no’ question followed by a draw, so Jim decided to take ‘yes’ and I would take ‘no’. Unfortunately I never did complete my half of the bargain as my mother was rushed into hospital. Fortunately the answer was ‘yes’ and even more fortunately, Jim’s name was drawn out of the hat.

One of Colin’s signature dishes

We arrived at the village of Winteringham on the banks of the Humber on a glorious summer day and once we had checked in went for a walk. The skies above us were blue and quite immense – on a different scale to anything we had seen elsewhere – but half way back across a field of stubble we heard what sounded like thousands of running footsteps behind us. We turned, only to see a curtain of rain approaching. It was a scene so incredible it had to find its way into a book and a tiny seed was planted.

For a while it rattled around in my head as I was working on Another You. Eventually I did some research about the area and discovered it was where Ermine Street ended and the Romans probably tried to cross the Humber. What a great place for an archaeologist to find herself. Alone, under that vast, empty sky.

We returned to Winteringham Fields the next year to celebrate our twentieth wedding anniversary and explored the area further, including the wonderful museum and library at Scunthorpe, where I was able to find out more about archaeological digs in the area. By this time I was writing; Rachel was alive in my head and we were having such fun disappearing down Roman rabbit holes together.

The settings; gorgeous Winteringham with its spectral remoteness and the bustling city of Lincoln were firmly established and the characters were coming along nicely too. Not just Rachel, but her octogenarian friend Esther (based more than a little on my mother, who had died between our first and second visits), and then men in Rachel’s life; Ben, Jem and Jonathan. I had an intricate plot as well, but something just wasn’t working.

The war memorial at Hemswell

It took another visit to Lincolnshire to fathom it out. Jim is a keen cook and for his fiftieth birthday I arranged for him to spend a day in the kitchen at Winteringham Fields with Colin and his team. While he was up to his elbows in fish preparation I decided to visit the vast antiques centre at the old RAF base at Hemswell in search of a wooden towel rail for our spare room.

I found so much more. Standing in a quiet room at the back of the centre, with the sounds of schoolchildren in the playground next door drifting through the open window, it came to me. World War Two. I was in an old barrack block used by Polish airmen during the conflict and I could almost hear their feet on the lino as they ran down the stairs. The last piece of the jigsaw was in place and I could finish Endless Skies.

 

During our first visit to Winteringham Fields I reviewed it for Frost and you can read that review here. But not if you’re hungry.

Winteringham Fields Review

 

 

Winteringham Fields Review

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When you live in the south of England it’s a long way to Winteringham Fields; indeed most of us would struggle to place the chic Lincolnshire village of Winteringham on a map. Think just south of the Humber, right at the end of Ermine Street where the Romans stopped and pondered for a while before crossing that great river. In modern terms, think Sheffield then right a bit.

Don’t let the journey put you off. In fact, their rooms are so gorgeous it would be a shame to miss out on that part of the experience. Or on walking along dykes with the huge Lincolnshire skies above you – perfect country for thinking enormous (if not a little pretentious) thoughts.

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Winteringham

You do need to splash the cash but it’s worth it. My canny husband won us the room, breakfast and a very generous glass of champagne and canapés in a Facebook competition after Winteringham’s chef patron, Colin McGurran, reached the final of The Great British Menu. And (whisper it quietly) they have also been known to do Groupons.

But enough of this waffle – on to the main event – the food. Now we like our food and we do sometimes treat ourselves to lunch of dinner at Michelin starred restaurants. But the tasting menu at Winteringham Fields was quite probably the best meal we have ever eaten. Which is why, dear reader, I thought you ought to know about it.

Entitled Menu Surprise, and available in seven or nine courses and with or without a flight of complementary wines, our culinary journey started in the restaurant’s pretty courtyard. Almost before we had finished our canapés a deep red watermelon shot arrived, which rather surprisingly didn’t ruin the remains of our champagne, and set us on our way nicely. Inside the dining room a second amuse bouche awaited us in the form of a luxurious fois gras and cherry cup where the fresh and preserved fruit cut through the richness of the pate to perfection.

Winteringham photosreview

The first of two starters was as clean and fresh as it was ingenious. I have seen TV chefs prepare edible facsimile tomatoes, but having watched the process of making something which isn’t actually a tomato resemble one in minute detail, I was always left wondering if they actually tasted of anything. This one certainly did; a gorgeous garlicky gazpacho which packed an enormous punch of flavour, brilliantly accompanied by humble basil and feta and matched with a Spanish sauvignon blanc. Almost impossible to match a tomato with a wine successfully. As an afterthought, perhaps a salty Manzanilla might have stood up better. But that is splitting hairs – especially as the Argentinian chardonnay offered with the pork and smoked salmon ravioli which came next was a match made in heaven.

Winteringhamreview

I freely admit to watching far too much food on TV. And I’m glad I do, because we would never have discovered Colin McGurran otherwise. But I am a little cynical about the worst excesses of praise – how can a plate of food make you want to weep? Get a grip, people. Or try the langoustine terrine at Winteringham Fields. Perfectly cooked fish surrounded by melting leeks. So simple. And quite the best thing I have ever eaten. My husband disagreed. Or at least he did once he’d tasted the Cornish red mullet and mango salsa which followed. Me? I was still savouring my Muscadet (which thankfully accompanied both fish courses) and dreaming of lobsters.

The main course was duck. Exquisitely cooked, in that it was hardly cooked at all. It was accompanied by more melting vegetables from the restaurant’s own polytunnels and more foie gras (not really necessary) as well as an excellent Cotes de Brouilly.

Just as I was running out of superlatives a small white chocolate ball sitting in a bed of desiccated coconut arrived. It was a warm night and we were counselled to eat it quickly by the extremely attentive front of house manager. Having taken a cautious sniff and encouraged by my other half’s look of ecstasy I dived in. I discovered afterwards it was a called a pineapple and basil bomb. Wow. Suited it perfectly.

Sadly it was too hard an act for the dessert to follow. I love apricots and there was nothing wrong with their ‘textures’, or the pistachio ice cream which accompanied them, but in such a brilliant meal it somehow got lost. Perhaps I’m being unfair and the wine was beginning to get to me.

It was the port which threatened to finish me off, but it was worth travelling hundreds of miles to see my husband’s face as the cheese trolley was wheeled in. The young lady who accompanied it was more curator than waitress and offered her wares in sensible selections; blue, hard, soft, goat – and in each category mild, medium and strong. I was past counting, but there had to be about fifty cheeses on show and the ones we tried were different and interesting.

As our peppermint tea was brewing the lovely front of house manager asked if we would like a kitchen tour as Colin was in that night and loved showing people around. Knowing how much I’d had to drink, my husband was extremely dubious, but I don’t think I was too embarrassing; McGurran is a real enthusiast for his food, both the growing of it and the cooking of it. He seemed a reluctant celebrity chef, happier in the kitchen or a polytunnel than in front of a TV camera, and I have to say I liked him all the more for it.

One final word. I’ve spouted on a great deal about the food, but in many ways it was the atmosphere and style of service which made our stay. When we watched the promotional video on their website we did wonder if Winteringham Fields was really for us; perhaps we’re not young enough or glamorous enough, perhaps we don’t drive the right car. But we needn’t have worried because we were welcomed with informality and genuine warmth. And when I told Mr McGurran I’d feared we’d have to park our Peugeot 308 around the corner, his laugh said it all.