Chef who soothed my cabin fever
Hotel inspector Alex Polizzi dines en famille in the woods
I AM city born and bred. I like bustling urban chaos, and large open spaces where no one can hear you scream make me nervous. However, weekends for my children in London often entail too much lazy parenting with the TV, too much eating out and not enough fresh air and mud.
So when I was invited to the Forest Holiday site near Winchester to try the new dine-in experience – where a private chef comes and cooks a pre-ordered menu of your choice in your cabin kitchen – I enthusiastically agreed and invited best friend Oonagh and her little dog Boris to join me and the kids.
Blackwood Forest feels enormous and mysterious. There are 60 cabins on land leased from the Forestry Commission.
Our Forest Ranger Dave was one of the highlights of our stay. He gets us hooked with the basic survival stuff – den-building and fire-lighting – then searching for insects and mini-beasts which we look at under a microscope.
I am a complete control freak and so was well out of my comfort zone when Michal the chef, who was supposed to come at 5pm to prepare for dinner after we returned from a trek through the forest, wasn’t with me by 5.50pm, by which time I was making contingency plans to feed my children.
However, when chef did arrive, he was admirably organised and managed to cook us a five-course meal in what seemed like minutes. My children liked the long curls of cucumber chef rustled up for them and he won their hearts with a predessert of lemon and thyme sorbet. There aren’t many luxuries that please me as much as eating a nice, freshly prepared meal in my pyjamas. The food was carefully presented and perfectly cooked.
I liked how he cleared as he went along and by the time he left, as we were eating chocolate mousse, the kitchen was immaculate.
I was asleep in front of a film by 10pm and awoke the next morning in a marvellous mood. By the time we departed, after enjoying our second hot-tub session, I was completely sold on the benefits of spending time in nature. Research suggests it helps our physical, mental and spiritual wellbeing. I certainly felt like a nicer, calmer parent for two days – long may it last! Forest Holidays (forestholidays.co.uk, offers a three-night weekend from €160pp at Blackwood Forest in a cabin sleeping eight, with hot tub. In-cabin chef from €78pp (for a minimum of seven).