Nothing beats nostalgia, but Lake District hotel comes close

With age comes nostalgia.

Though, to be honest, I’ve always thought about the past more than the future. I keep a birthdays/anniversaries book where I note significant events as fodder for nostalgia in years to come. I see that a colleague died on this day in 2006, and that I travelled to Tropea in 2022.

Anyways, the particular memory that I have is of a visit to the Lake District in 1981. I went with my then-girlfriend to Miller Howe, a hotel that had a reputation for its fabulous restaurant. It was a foodie destination before foodies existed, at a time when dining was hardly a priority for most of us.

The food didn’t disappoint, though the relationship was less of a success. She dumped me soon afterwards and, as is usually the case with my style of nostalgia, the memories are bittersweet.

All of which is by way of introduction to a trip I made to the Lake District this week to stay at the five-star Gilpin Hotel & Lake House, near Windermere.

Kentucky fried pheasant

It’s a family hotel that in recent years has embellished its reputation as a food destination under executive chef Hrishikesh Desai, who brought kudos and a Michelin star. He left in December after almost eight years in charge.

(More nostalgia: I was guest judge on the Roux Scholarship in 2009. The first judges’ meeting was at Le Gavroche, where I found myself sitting among the likes of Heston Blumenthal, Gary Rhodes, Andrew Fairlie and Michel Roux Sr. Imposter syndrome doesn’t come into it.

We had to evaluate recipes submitted by candidates. I’m not even a decent home cook, so I was far out of my depth, but Rishi’s stood out.

On the day of the finals, at the Mandarin Hotel, I traipsed round behind Michel Roux Sr and Jr, Albert and Alain Roux. They all stopped dead at one dish and began enthusing. I failed O Level French, so my understanding was sorely stretched, but it was clear they had found the winner. It was Rishi.

He and I became friends. I even once planned a trip to the Gilpin, but never made it.)

You can probably imagine what a challenge it was for the hotel when he quit in December, but the owners came up with an original solution: They appointed three chefs to replace him, one for each of the Gilpin’s three restaurants.

Crispy duck salad

Ollie Bridgwater (ex-Fat Duck) took over at the fine-dining SOURCE restaurant (formerly named HRiSHi); Tom Westerland (Lucknam Park) was named to head the more-casual Knipe Grill; and Head Chef Akash Ohol stepped up to take charge at Gilpin Spice.

Over the course of two days, I tried all three. Each was good enough to challenge my nostalgia for the long-gone Miller Howe. All three combined make the Gilpin a strong dining destination in itself,

I’d better emphasize here that, as a guest, I wasn’t paying, so you might want to pop that into your mental pipe and smoke it before being entirely persuaded. Looking online, the cheapest room on the cheapest date I can find in coming months is £305 a night. It’s a luxury hotel.

Each restaurant has its own personality and prices. I love Asian food, so have a bit of a soft spot for Gilpin Spice, where most small plates and salads are around £10-£12 and mains £22. I ‘d generally go for a restaurant focused on a single cuisine, but the pan-Asian concept works here.

Even something as simple as chicken sate (or ginger & chili marinated skewers with a peanut dipping sauce as it’s called) is thoughtful and attractive. And I particularly enjoyed the crispy duck salad (pulled leg in a spiced sauce, served with watercress, apple and radish).

Over at the Knipe Grill, Westy gets playful with starters such as Kentucky Fried Pheasant, at £12 (pickled cucumber, chorizo ketchup, buttermilk), which tastes great, though I’m not so sure pheasant beats chicken. Among the other dishes I enjoyed was “Coal” (£12), burnt mandarin, bitter chocolate, popping candy and crispy orange, looking like lumps of coal in embers.

The flagship SOURCE serves a £120 tasting menu that references what we used to call molecular gastronomy (gin & tonic is served in gel on a spoon) without getting lost in it. The menu is accessible and modern, but not so modern you’d wonder what you are eating.

It’s seasonal and local, without needing to shout about it.

Inventive dishes include “Reuben”, with braided beef, pickles and mustard. And a dessert of sushi rice pudding, miso caramel, sesame and sake ice cream. English Strawberry was good, too.

On the evening I ate there, diners were talking to each other across different tables saying how much they were enjoying it. We don’t do that kind of thing much in London, but my years in Yorkshire have taught me that folks are different Oop North.

It’s going to sound like very faint praise if I said my two dinners and a lunch at the Gilpin were better than at Miller Howe 40 years ago, but that was among the most memorable meals of my life. And, after multiple failed relationships, I was on my own this time, with fewer distractions.

It’s food for thought. And nostalgia.

I was a guest of Gilpin Hotel & Lake House, Crook Road, Windermere, LA23 3NE. https://thegilpin.co.uk/