A magnificent lakeside setting comes together with hands-on cooking dictated by the seasons and the soil.
A restaurant that’s near unrivalled in its commitment to a closed-loop ethos, Millbrook does things the hard way. The pork will likely come from a whole pig, broken down in-house and served in various guises throughout the week. Vegetables and fruit? Drawn from the orchard and gardens, often heirloom, and full of life and flavour.
The rustic approach keeps things pleasantly grounded and as aligned to the seasons as it gets.
The two- or three-course menu starts by showing off the harvest, which might mean land cress and raw fennel shoots topping beautifully rare beef rump or meaty rainbow chard stems and leaves cooked into tortilla (made with their eggs). To go with it, cured scallops are piqued with orange vinegar and sweet chicken-liver parfait is topped with nasturtium flowers and served with crisp toasts.
Grazing these plates, taking in the views of the lake, perhaps walking the gardens and pairing it with (affordable) estate wines are the things that make a meal at Millbrook such a celebrated experience. Dishes can sometimes lack finesse (why go to so much trouble to break down a pig, for example, then serve today’s cut so overdone?), but in the main, the rustic approach keeps things pleasantly grounded and as aligned to the seasons as it gets. If that’s not worth celebrating, what is?
