Hall you could want
stays in a foodie haven hotel where wellness is also on the menu
VISIT Ludlow and you will find a quaint market town with food at its core. Famed for its annual food festival celebrating the best of the Welsh Marches, the charming narrow streets are littered with fresh grocers and delicatessens offering an abundance of cheese, meats and homemade pickles.
With such rich surrounds, it’s little surprise that nearby lies a retreat celebrated for its focus on food.
Tucked at the end of a country lane at a gentle 20 minutes amble from town sits the 15-room Fishmore Hall.
Once a derelict Georgian house, this luxury retreat has been exquisitely renovated and transformed into a boutique hotel and contemporary spa.
The décor is modern and understated, but it is the attention to detail which makes all the difference – from the local magazines left in our room to the lavender pillow sprays, moisturisers and soaps lying on the over-sized bed, along with the next day’s weather forecast.
Like the area in which it sits, it is the food at the hall which brings our stay to life. Sitting in the middle of Forelles Fine Dining Restaurant I am lucky enough to meet head chef Joe Gould.
Harbouring dreams of becoming an aircraft mechanic but unable to get a bus to college, the man in charge of the hall’s gleaming reputation entered the world of cuisine as a teenager, before working his way from pub grub to fine dining and hotel management.
When it comes to food, quality is paramount. While using local produce may have become an oft-repeated mantra, Joe is quick to point out that local produce is not always best, both for the environment or for its taste.
While there is no question that Shropshire lamb will always be on the table – “I would buy it even if I was in Australia”, he quips – the best beetroot is bought in from Yorkshire.
To create the restaurant’s nine-course taster menu, each dish is added and removed one at a time after months of careful editing by its team of chefs.
Joe proudly tells me that a scallop and frog’s leg dish is the product of a year of fine-tuning before becoming launching on the menu this summer.
By the time each dish is launched, the whole team will know exactly how it is made and what it tastes like, so diners can be told exactly what to expect.
And in an industry infamous for high pressure and long hours, Joe also speaks with a man who treats the wellbeing of his team as utmost priority.
Currently seven chefs work in the kitchen, with hopes to employ a further three before Christmas to allow the group to work a four-day week.
Surrounded by glass on two sides and with a view to the countryside outside, the dining room is a great setting for us to embark on our three-hour gastronomic journey.
We begin with an array of different, yet complementary amuse-bouches, from Thai fish cakes to heavily smoked salmon presented on squid inkcoloured rice cakes.
There follows freshly baked onion bread with Marmite butter and sourdough with paprika salt to melt onto the butter slathered on top.
From this point the dishes follow seamlessly, guided by the warmth and expertise of the team serving us. We’re treated to a rich and deep mushroom risotto oozing with melting blue cheese, dotted with pickled walnut and the crunch of pear.
Particular highlights include the smoked eel, with a crispy chicken wing in a delicate sauce with cauliflower and shallot, then the tender squab breast bursts with the vibrancy of the pumpkin purée, blackberry and broccoli, matching up to its elegant appearance.
From there we go on to taste a combination of smoked mackerel and minestrone before coming to duck, shiitake, avocado and fivespice.
At this point fear sets in at the prospect of three more courses, only to be assuaged by a light, sharp gin and tonic lemon crumble before we’re lulled into sleepy conclusion by a pistachio soufflé and chai latte ice cream.
Sadly, a final cheese course proves too much, but we leave the restaurant with a selection of home-made sweets.
After waking the next morning to yet more food – a heathy serving of eggs Benedict – we are treated to a half day in the hotel’s blissfully quiet SPAshell before returning home.
Enclosed behind the treatment rooms, a wooden decking area looks onto the rolling Shropshire hills and boasts an oversized hammock, impressive cedar wood hot tub, sauna and steam room.
To top off a perfect stay I opt for the full-body 55-minute Garden of England Rose Restore Massage. Starting at my heels and working up towards a final scalp massage, I am reduced to a gently kneaded mass of jelly at the hands of my magic-working masseuse.
The perfect way to round off this weekend break.