446. Grace And Savour.

 

    It had been over a year since I had last visited David Taylor’s Grace and Savour and I had forgotten my way through the dark from Hampton in Arden railway station to Hampton Manor and so it took a little wandering around in the near-pitch blackness to eventually almost literally stumble on the brightly lit entrance to this immaculate restaurant. But I was glad to be there and was welcomed kindly. The price of a single gin and tonic - £18 - was a little less welcoming but fortunately I had ordered it without looking at the price and so I did not experience indigestion before I sat down to eat. Though if I had seen the price I might not have ordered a second. Still, it soothed me after the journey from Birmingham which is not far away in theory but longer when using public transport with all its many failures and pitfalls.

    I felt relaxed and content - remember, I had not seen that I owed £36 for two single gins and tonics - and I was delighted with all the food that was presented to me - 14 courses - as the evening moved on.

  Still, let’s put gin behind us and proceed with the food. The first course took the form of a bowl of warming and delicious broth made from roasted venison bones with salsify garnished with pleasing crispy deep fried Savoy cabbage shreds alongside a lovely juniper milk bun made on the estate and fermented butter. This reminded me of my first visit to Grace and Savour, soon after it first opened, on a cold, black night, when Chef Director David Taylor himself greeted me and served me a comforting bowl of broth, as they might have done in centuries past when travellers arrived at a post inn after a long day in a stage coach, and immediately ringing the note of sincere welcome and the promise of the repast that was to be served. Then a fine tartlet, a deep cerise in colour and yet autumnal in appearance - this stemming from the lovely biodynamic yogurt fused with honey and Chapel Organics north Berwick) beetroot. Delicious.

  Next an arresting autumnal visual experience - thin slices of Warwickshire Jerusalem artichokes paired with apple - a fine coupling - presented on a bed of dried artichoke stems. Then, a fine wagyu tartar croustade, the meat originating at Dunwood Farm near Stoke on Trent, with black garlic, the sweet tang of pickled elderflower along with peppery nasturtium leaves.

  The remarkable presentations continued with a dish of field mushroom, buckwheat and Welsh black truffle. I was particularly pleased with how very much I enjoyed the next dish of pumpkin and apple with the very agreeable texture of slices of Kent walnut. This may well have been my favourite dish from out of all the very fine dishes.

  All the time, the service was very good, perfectly judged, with the food being delivered to the table, sometimes by the front of house staff, sometimes by the chefs themselves and when the cooks were in the very open kitchen, as I have remarked in a previous Blog, there was the sight of a well-oiled culinary machine operating in unison to prepare and plate up the food; the smartly white jacketed younger chefs all gathered around David Taylor like medical students around their professor, observing and learning and assisting as he goes about the various stages of the complex operation. A memorable sight.

  The dishes continued to come along. A bread course - perhaps more to showcase the bread made on the estate rather than as a vital part of the dinner but - grained sourdough and butter infused with the grain used to produce the bread. The bread was nicely textured and tasty and moved the diner on to a dish of finely chopped razor clams, cobnuts, a profusion of Cornish sea herbs and an aptly maritime clear broth punchy with mussel, sweet with apple and finished off with sea pepper, served like a still sea.

    Accurately cooked monkfish - very accurately - prepared with a bisque-like sauce derived from preserved tomatoes, peaso (an improbable-sounding somewhat floral miso-like condiment produced from organic split peas, rice Kori and elderflower, less sweet and salty than miso) and crab, was the nextdish to bring great pleasure and it lead up to some gorgeously tender and beautifully flavoured fallow venison loin which had been gently smoked over juniper as well as venison belly which was rather dry, I thought. The venison was accompanied by celeriac, elderberry and crispy deep fried reindeer moss and a spectacularly unctious blackberry sauce. 

  Autumn fruit made up the focus of the desserts - the first based on blackcurrants from the Manor’s garden with a buttermilk infused with the wood of the blackcurrant along with blackcurrant oil. Then the distinctive sharpness of homegrown redcurrants necessarily countering the sweetness of a local honey parfait and soothed by a brown butter ice cream.

   The evening was almost over. The kitchen was emptying of the dramatis personae. There was coffee to drink to see me home and a final dish of choux pastry, which did not really have the right texture for me, filled with a preserved fermented plum cream nestling inside it (the photo shows it half eaten, I’m afraid).

  This, as you would expect, was a very fine meal. I shall be interested to see if Michelin wheels out a second star at the start of 2025. I think it will.

Rating:- 🌞🌞🌞.

27/November 2025.

As a footnote, the following morning it was announced that Stu Deeley was to leave his role at the end of os 2024 as Executive Chef at Hampton Manor in the hotel’s other Michelin-listed restaurant Smoke which is to close and be reopened in February 2025 under the guidance of David Taylor. The new restaurant will be named Kynd.

386. Laghi’s With Stuart Deeley Now As Executive Chef.

 In February 2024, some changes took place at Laghi’s (see Blog ) with Leo Kattou making way for Smoke’s Stuart Deeley who took on the role of Executive Chef and a Smoke sous chef, Patrick Hukins, taking on the role of Head Chef. While Deeley remained in his role of Chef Director at Smoke he worked with Laghi’s to develop new dishes and a new approach. The changes at Laghi’s received some attention in the local and catering press particularly of course because of Deeley’s achievement of winning Masterchef The Professionals in 2019.

Here’s how The Caterer announced Deeley’s latest venture - 

And Birmingham Live featured a photograph of Deeley and Hukins (though the reporter did spell Hukins’ name incorrectly) -

  Needless to say, and bearing in mind I had been intending to revisit Laghi’s recently regardless of any new chef appointments there, I made reservations for lunch for just three days or so after the introduction of the new menus. Stuart Deeley was in the kitchen at this lunchtime and so what was served was certainly under his direct guidance.

 The menu certainly had the air of Deeley about with the list of dishes reminiscent of when he was at The Wilderness while others featured his renderings of Italian dishes as we have come to expect and look forward to at Laghi’s. There were small plates but there were also larger ‘plates from the barbecue’ which brought Deeley’s other venture at Smoke to mind.

  My companion and I settled on sharing the polenta panisses with pecorino which were delicious and beautifully crispy exteriorly but served as a plate of three which is irritating when there are two diners. We also chose - and enjoyed - the accurately barbecued Queenies with a good Espelette pepper sauce which nicely partnered the scallops and also found the courgette and ricotta fritters to our liking.

    Small plates, it seems, are served as and when they come out. I do so dislike it when the table is flooded with plates not necessarily all compatible with each other and much of the food hastily chilling while the diner picks first at one dish then another, then another and then back again to the first. I like a semblance of order in my meal. Fortunately Deeley seemed to appreciate this too so that while we were having a veritable macedoine of dishes we were at least getting them in a logical order. I suspect Deeley is too good a chef to allow chaos on one of his diners’ tables. So next, quite rationally, came two half dishes of pasta for us to share - a very al dente and silky coated spaghetti carbonara with pieces of guanciale, an excellent Italian cured pork jowl ingredient and a frighteningly delicious ‘nduja campanelli - the ‘nduja giving the dish a pleasing but not excessive spiciness to it and the campanelli having a texture more pleasing to me than that of the spaghetti.

  Neither my companion nor I could resist the whole plaice with warm tartare sauce. I felt that the fish, very pleasingly sized and very nicely cooked, was a great pleasure and also good value. I think I have liked a greater hit of citrus and perhaps a plain butter sauce; the parsley sauce seemed to have some sweetness in it and I should have preferred quite the opposite.

  We had eaten well but not excessively and we felt quite able to indulge ourselves with dessert. My companion enjoyed Deeley’s tiramisu (‘tirami-Stu’) and I wallowed in the pleasure of a fine buttermilk pannacotta which was accompanied by the lively sweetness of a cold blood orange soup.

  Laghi’s has obviously changed. It felt more like ‘Deeley’s’. Regardless, I had very much enjoyed the large part of what had been served to me. I hope the Italian element remains dominant because the city needs one or two fine Italian-style dining establishments. The wine list has just one Italian wine on it. I hope they think about that. On my last visit under the old style I had a very pleasing Primitivo and had been looking forward to renewing my acquaintance with it. Laghi’s’ journey has definitely taken a new branch in the road.

Rating:- 🌞

310. Nikita Pathakji At Grace And Savour.

 

  Nikita Pathakji, winner of the BBC’s Masterchef The Professionals in 2022, took on a week’s residency at Grace and Savour during the second week of April. I was delighted to have the chance to experience this charming young chef’s cuisine for myself at one of the popular dinners she was serving during the course of the week though disappointed to be away with the Labrador at the seaside for the triple Masterchef Sunday lunch which was to be participated in by Stu Deeley of Smoke, Dan Lee, soon to begin four months at Hockley Social Club, and Nikita herself - oh well, you can’t have everything in life. This dinner however gave the opportunity to fully experience Nikita’s impressive culinary talents. The dishes served were generally related to those she served during the Masterchef heats and finals.

  Firstly how delightful it was to be back at Grace and Savour and to be able to order a glass of fine Cambridge gin and tonic. Then to the Chef’s table (well, a counter really) where Nikita Pathakji was busying herself with the kitchen staff to prepare to present what was going to be a fine dinner. For her Masterchef final starter she had served sea bass cured in a citrus dressing with smoked aubergine purée, spicy red pepper purée with pomegranate, preserved lemon, parsley oil and a side of aubergine crisps. Here at Grace and Favour, the very edible crisps came out with a creamy wasabi dip, the heat of the wasabi perfectly judged, ahead of the starter which was broadly the Masterchef-winning dish - citrus cured sea bass with harissa, preserved lemon and preserved lemon and the pomegranate seeds were there for good measure.  A very fine and pleasing dish. Then a vegetable course of Jerusalem and globe artichokes nicely served with a potato emulsion. The ‘fish course’ took the form of a tender and robustly flavoured octopus - delightfully meaty and full of flavour - the tastiest octopus I can remember eating in fact - the flavour, of course, enhanced with a Takoyaki sauce and ‘Japanese mayo’. Less successful was the accompanying ‘octopus doughnut’, a sizeable beignet containing octopus head meat - the octopus itself was tasty but the doughnut too dry - an interesting idea but the dish didn’t really need it.

  The main course borrowed heavily from that served by Pathakji in the Masterchef final which had been crispy chicken thighs, tortellini filled with chicken, mushrooms, coriander and coriander oil, topped with handmade sev, finished with coconut curry sauce and a side of crispy chicken skin dusted with chilli powder and topped with mango, cumin and onion purée. The menu described the dish served at Grace and Savour as Khao soi style chicken, mushroom tortellini and pickled shallots. The chicken was delicious but the skin not particularly crispy, the tortellini were fine and the curry sauce very well matched and delcious. I used the remain# of the bread I had been served to mop up the coconut curry, too tasty to waste.

   I loved the first dessert - well cooked rhubarb, with a beautiful custard espuma and delicious rhubarb sorbet. Next came banana pudding, chocolate mousse and peanut crumble. This too was delightful and Chef was able to come around to have a few words with her diners during the dessert phase of the meal. I, like all the other informed diners there, was keen to know Nikita’s plans for the future. Not surprisingly Nikita is hoping to open her own restaurant when funding can be found. I suggested to her that the West Midlands was the gastronomic centre of Britain now and where better could there by for a chef of her talents to open a restaurant than in the region to which she was very receptive though of course, coming from Derby, she was also open to setting up in the East Midlands.

  It was time to go home. Nikita distributed nice little boxes containing a pair of petits fours - a fudge and a jelly - as parting gifts and I set off for Hampton station having passed a very pleasant evening eating the food of a fine - and now famous - chef.