The Daily Telegraph - Saturday - Travel
South Lodge Suite success in Sussex
Sherelle Jacobs checks in at the opulent hotel where Masterchef: The Professionals winner Tom Hamblet cooks
When someone says they work with a parent or partner, they can expect to be met with a smile that twitches with pitying horror or a wide-eyed declaration of: “Wow. That must be intense.”
An intriguing exception is the restaurant industry. Most of us can point to at least one solid family-run affair in our neighbourhood or village – but the trend also extends to fine dining. I have always been fascinated by this. After all, if working family units are still cropping up in high-stress environments such as restaurants, maybe there is something in the idea so often dismissed as a toxic recipe for disaster.
So when I heard that Tom Hamblet, sous chef at the five-star South Lodge in Sussex and this year’s winner of MasterChef: The Professionals, spends his days working under his dad, the hotel’s executive chef, and mum, its pastry chef, I had to pay them a visit.
“My parents are really supportive and they know a lot; they’ve been doing it for years,” Tom told me. “It’s a good support network.”
Of course, as with any family working together, there are ups and downs. “If we fall out, it gets a bit awkward,” he adds, “but for the most part it’s an advantage. You have that trust. We know none of us are going to send out anything bad.”
Clearly, working under his parents’ guidance has given Tom an edge. His current menu is injected with just the right amount of zany panache one would expect of a MasterChef victor. A starter of perfectly pink wood pigeon comes with a velveteen chocolate sauce. Lobster tail with curried carrot transports me from the South Downs to a Sri Lankan seafood shack. While beef is the signature main, I can vouch for the hogget, which has that enigmatic delicacy you only get with lamb. It is served both seared and as a tartare, with droplets of sheep’s curd.
Desserts include olive oil cake and tart with caramelised popcorn, but I had to get the deceptively complex chocolate and peanut mousse, served with caramelised banana, miso caramel and a peanut tuile.
While Tom Hamblet’s time-limited MasterChef-inspired menu at the Camellia restaurant is now fully booked for dining-only guests, there are still daily slots available for those staying overnight at the hotel.
That is a great excuse to book into a room at South Lodge. While all come with splashy wallpaper, plush seating, king-sized beds and Molton Brown toiletries, the suites also offer fabulous views of the grounds, enough space for turning cartwheels and sumptuous mosaic bathrooms with soaking tubs.
I am something of a South Lodge veteran, having visited numerous times over the years, most recently when it launched a multimillion-pound spa in 2019. If you are staying multiple nights, there is also the hotel’s other restaurant, Michelin-starred Pass. Here guests will again find a successful family affair, with Ben Wilkinson in the kitchen and his wife Monika running front of house.
Familiar, hyperlocal ingredients are cooked to the highest level, while service runs like a perfectly programmed machine, albeit fronted by waiting staff who brim with enthusiasm for the oak-matured smokiness of Slovenian pinot gris. The food is on another level, the work of a chef at the pinnacle of his confidence. I found his foaming scallop with Hokkaido squash and coppa ham to be a subtly brilliant dish, the meatiness of the fish elegantly overlapping with the salty sweetness of the ham.
The beef fillet is a formidable signature plate refined over time; delicate slakes of meat in smoked emulsion grated with truffle and cut through with celeriac. The beef broth served in a crystal glass enhances rather than distracts. Not usually a fan of desserts, for once I hoovered up the palate cleanser, a blackberry and thyme concoction popping with chartreuse and yoghurt crumble, and devoured the wreath-shaped chocolate delice oozing with caramel, hazelnut and raisin.
At a five-star institution such as South Lodge there is no shortage of ways to detox from a foodie overdose. I revisited the spa, complete with spin studio, outdoor hydrotherapy pool, indoor pool, aromatherapy steam room and sauna – as immaculate as the day it opened five years ago. The grounds framed with camellia bushes are perfect for walking off a heavy lunch (or working up an appetite for dinner). On checking out, I consoled myself with the promise to come back again sooner rather than later. Ben Wilkinson’s revelation that he already has “one guest who rings every month to see if the menu has changed yet,” doesn’t surprise me. I might just make the second.
Rooms come with splashy wallpaper, plush seating, king-sized beds and Molton Brown toiletries