Quietly, imperceptibly but definitely regrettably, there has been a significant change in one of the most distinctive aspects of British hospitality over the past five years as many of the individual, and in certain cases, mildly eccentric pioneers of the country house hotel movement have moved on.
The Hendersons have sold Gidleigh Park in Devon while Martin and Brigitta Skan have parted company from their beloved Chewton Glen in Hampshire. As others have sadly passed away numerous properties, previously privately owned, have moved into corporate hands (Von Essen Hotels manages more than two dozen across the UK including Cliveden, Sharrow Bay and Ston Easton Park) although, as though to prove the exception to any rule, Tim and Stefa Hart still preside over Hambleton Hall in Rutland after 26 years.
A similar fate could easily have overcome Corse Lawn House Hotel near Tewkesbury in Gloucestershire when its owner Denis Hine suddenly succumbed to a fatal heart attack almost two years ago. From the cognac family and with particularly good wine knowledge, he had opened the hotel as its ebullient host in 1978 with his wife Baba as chef. Instead, it led to an immediate change of career for Baba as she left the kitchen and took her husband’s place, maintaining the hotel’s approach and standards which she believes are ‘traditional but not old-fashioned.’
Baba, as she has been known since she was a baby, has not managed to desert the kitchen entirely. She explained these principles to me dressed in chef’s whites in front of an open fire in the hotel lounge, having cooked breakfast, including exemplary scrambled eggs. “I still cook breakfast four or five times a week because I think it is such an important meal, too significant for our guests just to leave to the less experienced chefs,” she explained. “And I still love cooking, although I have discovered that the conversation dealing with our guests is so much more interesting than the chat in the kitchen which, after almost 29 years, has rarely deviated from football, women and cars.
“When Denis died so suddenly I obviously thought of giving up but then I realised that this is really the only life I have known and I love it. Why throw it all away? I learnt to cook from watching chefs when I was PA to Gerald Harris at The Bell at Aston Clinton, which is where I met Denis. Here I have two chefs, Andrew Poole and Martin Kinahan who have been here for over 10 years, and a pastry chef who has been with me for 24. I think they were glad to get the old girl out of the kitchen but being a chef is tough for anyone over 50 and I thought at 62 it was time for a fresh challenge.”
Very jolly, and with a distinctly matronly air, Baba certainly seems to have settled into her new role with aplomb, keeping a maternal eye on the guests from the hotel’s reception area to its bar and bistro. Her intimate knowledge of the menu is an obvious boon when taking the orders but she knows only too well that her kitchen must deliver what her guests want. To any order for meat she responds promptly with “Pink or cooked through, however you want it” and to any game bird, for which the kitchen is justifiably renowned, “On or off the bone?” nodding approvingly to those who choose the former.
In fact, the approach, interior and bedrooms at The Corse Lawn can best be described as the very opposite of the modern hip hotel. If I say that friezes were obviously in fashion when the hotel was last decorated you will get the picture. But the bedrooms are comfortable, very large (Baba explained that they were deliberately constructed that way) and there are tins of ground coffee, fresh leaf tea and delicious home made biscuits on the dresser. Copies of Shooting Times and Country Life are conspicuously displayed.
Equally conspicuously the menu relies on the more traditional dishes that were obviously the mainstay of Baba’s cooking but there are one or two nods to modernity, most notably a dish of razor clams with white beans and tomatoes and belly of pork with creamed polenta and quince. Just as well executed were a wild mushroom vol-au-vent; a terrine of pressed duckling and foie gras; braised oxtail and tongue with a beetroot puree; and a perfectly pink roast partridge. Desserts are just as good and the only irritation is that the conversation has to stop whenever a waiter arrives at the table with food because, as the orders were taken in the lounge, no-one knows which guest has ordered what.
No-one could, however, find fault with the Corse Lawn’s wine list which Denis initiated and manifestly conveys his passion for the classic wines of
France. Copies of the list are left out on the reception desk and after we had been shown to our bedroom my wife retreated for a good 20 minutes with it and a cup of tea before coming up with a long shortlist of what we and our friends might enjoy over dinner. Although the list is maintained long distance by their son, Giles, now based in New Zealand and includes some of the best New World wines, this is definitely the place to enjoy mature claret (including 1947 Clos Fourtet at £420 per magnum which has been in the cellar for 20 years) and some very fairly priced red burgundies such as a 1992 Pommard from Ampeau (£56.20) and a 1972 Bonnes Mares from Domaine Georges de Vogue (£111), delicious despite having lost its label.
Baba has clearly maintained standards as well as a family atmosphere for over 29 years – quiet a feat – so I asked her which had been the most conspicuous changes she had witnessed. “I think above all that the money has changed and that today our custom is much younger, less county set. I don’t think we were ever posh but if we still tried to enforce our original dress code of smart casual and ban T shirts and jeans from the dining room then we would have gone out of business. On the business side, while I try to ensure we have a core of local staff the influx of young, hard working Eastern Europeans has been a great boon. Above all, it means that I don’t have to worry that we may have to do the washing up ourselves at the end of a busy service. The biggest disappointment is just seeing how little trainee chefs know when they first arrive – the blank expression on their faces when you ask them to go out to the store and fetch a box of peppers.”
Obviously relishing her new role Baba has plans for her hotel’s development with a spa scheduled to open in spring 2008. But feeding others will always remain her priority, I would imagine. When Baba is not taking orders or cooking breakfast she is to be found round the hotel feeding her labradors and ponies.
Corse Lawn House Hotel, Corse Lawn, Gloucestershire, GL19 4LZ.
01452-780479. www.corselawn.com
