465. Kynd.

 The day after my most recent visit to David Taylor’s immaculate Grace and Savour at Hampton Manor back in November 2024, it was announced that the manor’s other esteemed restaurant, Stuart Deeley’s Smoke, would close in February 2025 with Deeley leaving at the end of 2024, and would be replaced by a second David Taylor restaurant to be called Kynd (see Blog 446). I’m sure the time relationship between my visit to Hampton Manor and the important announcement was purely coincidental.

  Kynd opened on 28 February 2025 as planned and I was delighted to be the first paying customer through the door on that opening day. I was in a happy mood as I headed along the country lane, walking from the railway station to Hampton Manor and I was buoyed up by the late afternoon sunset and the groups of snowdrops in the hedgerows on either side of the road. It was only the second time I have visited one of the manor’s restaurants while it was still daylight and it was certainly easier to find my way around the grounds with the light still present. And so I alighted on Kynd in the building which had once been home to Smoke. Where once Stu Deeley had been Lord of this particular part of the manor, now David Taylor held the reigns of culinary power.

  I was the first diner. Not quite the first man at the top of Everest or on the moon but a nice feeling especially after the relaxed, friendly greeting from Keoghan who had been so helpful in arranging a taxi for me when I was last at Grace and Savour. To all intents and purposes this was just like a revisit to Smoke which was not a bad thing at all. It was cosy and warm and nicely lit and decoratively rustic. It was  easy to make myself comfortable and feeling vaguely euphoric, I launched straight into a decidedly lip smacking, spicy margarita which was an absolute riot in the mouth and then a ‘snack’ of three different types of charcuterie including venison with fennel and cured beef and then I was presented with fresh, delightful sourdough with Ampersand butter, one of my favourites (fie! though marmite or miso or seaweed butters! give me rich, golden traditional butter to spread on to my comforting fresh, delicious bread any day! Fie, I say!)

  I would have opted for the Tasting menu but to be honest I found that the à la carte included dishes more to my liking, including gurnard instead of skate of which I am not a fan. The starter was a pretty and delicious dish of Cornish crab with salted turnip espuma and pickled fennel which bought great pleasure.

  The line-caught gurnard was delicious and meticulously cooked giving me good, tender, moist white fish meat and the happy flavour of fennel all in a tasty velvety bisque with the lovely salty texture of little pieces of sopressata adding little hits of a comforting texture. Alongside was a dish of crispy, tasty potato rosti which did not go unloved.

    Winter was coming to an end and I was delighted with what I thought was a seasonally apt choice for dessert of organic Welsh rum-soaked Tipsy cake with lovely brown butter ice cream. The cake was beautifully light though perhaps not quite discernibly tipsy enough. The feeling of seasonality was rounded off by the dessert being accompanied by a rhubarb and ginger sauce and I felt contented enough to drink a gorgeous ice cider with it.

  Night has fallen. It was a clear night and as I walked back to Hampton station, I thought about my new love - Kynd - and I was planning my next visit there as I walked through the deep darkness of Hampton village. In these gloomy times, pleasures such as those which David Taylor is delivering at Kynd make dark streets suddenly flood with the light of great pleasure.

Rating:- 🌞🌞.

  Meanwhile next week, the 20th season of the BBC’s Great British Menu enters the final week of the regional heats and will feature chefs representing the Central region. Apart from an East Anglian chef who works in London and yet another appearance by East Midlander Sally Abé who also works in London when she’s not appearing on The Great British Menu, there are two West Midlands chefs featured. One is Thom Bateman of The Flintlock in Staffordshire who, on his first appearance was beaten by Tom Shepherd of Tom Shepherd at Upstairs in Lichfield, in the end-of-week Judges episode and the other is none other than David Taylor who with his meticulous, inventive, fine cooking must surely be in line to go through to the final week ‘cook-off’.

  Meanwhile, I’ve had a very pleasing week - a night in Stratford upon Avon staying at the excellent Hotel Du Vin where I dined before going to the Royal Shakespeare Theatre to see the present fabulous production of Hamlet (meets the Titanic) which, improbable as it may sound, worked wonderfully well particularly with its spectacular special effects and remarkable acting though here the director is worthy of special mention. Luke Thallon was a splendid Hamlet, the best I have seen in the theatre, and Nancy Carroll, was the best Gertrude, stately and long suffering like Queen Camilla, I have ever seen, full of convincing emotion highlighting her guilt and shock and horror of what is going on around her and how much she is responsible for it all. Few scenes in the theatre will ever be as memorable as that where the dead and dying characters slide down the severely sloping deck of the sinking ship Elsinore and plunge into the ocean while Horatio prays that flights of angels will give Hamlet a good send off.

  But back to my Stratford dinner. On this occasion I chose the excellent prix fixé menu and enjoyed 2 courses for £29. To start I had a generous slice of Wye and Severn smoked salmon which was entirely edible and no problem for the chef to place on the plate. I liked being served a large piece of lemon in a muslin bag- no chance of having to deal with annoying lemon pips - but the accompanying dill creème Fraiche was more soothing than tasty.

  The main course was a large, nicely cooked chicken schnitzel accompanied by a salad of sweetly picked red pepper and red pickled red cabbage, capers and rocket which, like mange touts, remains a personal enemy of mine. The schnitzel was very generously portioned and though nice became a little boring as the meal went along - it really needed a sauce, or perhaps a defibrillator, to add a bit of life to it. 

  I was too full for any dessert and though I thought the meal could have been a little more exciting it was well cooked and enjoyable though the dishes seemed to be veering a little too far away from the overall French-style theme, I still have an affection for the hotel’s restaurant. It needs to revisit its character, restore the Gallic element and give us a bit of can can au Moulin Rouge.

  The following day I revisited The Wildmoor Oak near Bromsgrove. My dining companion ordered an impressive basket of breads and I started with an item from the ‘specials’ list - reasonably tasty ham hock croquettes which were rather large; the size I think was a problem as the contents seemed rather insubstantial and light. For the main, neither of us could countenance eating anything other than the truly remarkable, battered haddock and chips. The size was colossal and the magnificent fish was utterly accurately cooked, the batter as perfectly golden and crispy as one could ever imagine, the chips irreproachable and the lovely mushy peas nicely minted. This was a fabulous plate of fish and chips, very pleasingly priced and as memorable as the final scene of the previous evening’s production of Hamlet which as memorable as anything comes. Happy days. Happy Days indeed.