More awards, this time a little closer to home. The 2008 Enjoy England Awards for Excellence (known as "the Oscars of tourism") were awarded last night in Liverpool.
Winners included the Devonshire Arms in the Yorkshire Dales for "Small Hotel of the Year" and Chewton Glen in the New Forest for "Large Hotel of the Year."
There was a distinct emphasis on sustainable tourism, with gold awards going to both Strattons Hotel and Restaurant in Swaffham, Norfolk, and The Cottage Lodge in Brockenhurst, New Forest.
The relatively new Taste of England Award for best restaurant went to Cornwall's Fifteen (pictured), narrowly pipping the family-run Old Bakery in Lincoln. I was there recently with my wife, who was reviewing the finalists for The Times, and we both had a ball.
The surf beach
location is truly magnificent, the people who work there are
infectiously enthusiastic, and head chef Neil Haydock has engineered a
proper working kitchen where everyone seems to know what they are doing
and why (this isn't always the case in professional kitchens, believe
it or not). They also have a cracking bar that turns out a "compressed"
GT Turbo that I still dream about – double Plymouth gin, fresh lime,
and their own home-made tonic syrup, shaken until ice-cold.
Fifteen
is run by the Cornwall Foundation of Promise charity along the lines of
Jamie Oliver's original concept, with profits used to run the training
programme for kitchen apprentices, all of whom are young people from
disdvantaged backgrounds living in Cornwall.
As Jill reported: "Fifteen has energy, style, self-confidence, great food, wine, cocktails and coffee, and an unbeatable location, even in gale-force winds. It sells itself relentlessly, but how can you take umbrage when it succeeds in its aim to give young people a chance to turn their lives around?"
The restaurant sources 80 per cent of its produce from the southwest, making the most of the local fish and top-notch producers such as Delifarm Charcuterie. I thought I would have to make allowances for it being in a relatively isolated spot, but instead, I now find myself feeling sorry for restaurants in London being so far away from the source of their produce.
Best dishes were Cornish brill with baby spring vegetables, light-as-air pillows of potato gnocchi with a rich, glossy Angus oxtail ragu, and the full English breakfast fry-up the following morning, along with an Origin 100% Arabica triple-certified espresso coffee that could have won the award all on its own. Talk about excellent.
Fifteen Cornwall, Watergate Bay, Cornwall Tel: 01637 861000
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