Food & Drink

 
Many of the world’s finest chefs are working their magic in England today.
 
England’s emergence as a world-class culinary innovator has its roots deep in the country’s green and pleasant land, meaning you’ll find superb cooking all over the country.
“Restaurants like L’Enclume, with produce from its own farm in Cumbria, Nathan Outlaw’s seafood restaurant in Cornwall, with shellfish sourced from within sight of the hotel, and Tom Kerridge’s The Hand & Flowers in Buckinghamshire, probably the most famous pub in the world, show the amazing range of choice, quality and sheer outstanding cooking to be found here,” says Elizabeth Carter, Consultant Editor of The Good Food Guide. We couldn’t have said it better ourselves.
To experience England’s exceptional cuisine in a neat little nutshell, head for Bray. This pretty riverside village boasts two of the country’s four three- Michelin-starred restaurants – The Waterside Inn and The Fat Duck – plus another restaurant with a single Michelin star, The Hinds Head.
The undisputed star of Bray is Heston Blumenthal, celebrity chef and Chef-Patron of The Fat Duck (he owns The Hinds Head, too). Nobody cooks like Heston – his scientific and creative style has turned gastronomy on its head (astonishingly, he is entirely self-taught) and his restaurant is regularly voted the best in the world. Set aside three and a half hours and go for the tasting menu, and whatever you do, don’t miss his famous snail porridge.
Many of our top chefs are renowned for their use of local seasonal produce. How do they ensure it’s local? Easy. Many of them grow their own. Raymond Blanc, Chef and Patron of Le Manoir aux Quat’Saisons and another of our favourite celebrity chefs, has a two-acre vegetable and herb garden as well as an orchard bursting with apples, pears, peaches, plums, quinces and apricots. At this intimate, honey-hued hotel in the heart of leafy Oxfordshire, Raymond creates innovative, two- Michelin-star cuisine – he runs a renowned cookery school there too.