Opening Night

Yesterday evening Annie and her Maitre d' were delighted to welcome ten guests to dine with them.

The evening started with home made ham and pecorino romano cheese choux bites served to diners along with a glass of Grande Reserve de Gassac 2009. The guests mingled and introduced themselves and the conversation was soon flowing.

As this was our opening night, we had given our guests a choice for their dinner.

Six guests chose the roasted cherry tomato soup (the tomatoes from our own kitchen garden) served with freshly made chive and sea salt gluten free dinner rolls. The other guests enjoyed a warm salad of French beans (from our garden), red pepper, chorizo and goat's cheese.

The first feedback from guests was about the generous nature of the portions - a theme which continued throughout the night!

For le plat principal, we served a choice of either roasted pork tenderloin stuffed with sun dried peppers or an individual, gluten free beef wellington. Both were accompanied by a traditionally made chateubriand sauce.

The photos are kindly supplied by guests.

The vegetarian option was a pie made with chestnuts, chestnut mushrooms and shallot all simmered in red wine.

Roasted carrots and dauphinoise potatoes accompanied the dishes.

Other than guests who were already full, the plates were returned to the kitchen empty - which is always encouraging for any chef!

Our diners had a chance to make room for dessert, for which there was a choice of either an individual gluten free steamed double chocolate pudding (served with two sauces, one dark chocolate and one white) or home made chocolate and honeycomb ice cream.

The ice cream caused comments as it had been made in slabs and was served in a "jenga" tower!

None of our guests on our opening night were gluten free, so it was particularly rewarding that, on asking for feedback, no one had felt that any of the dishes were lacking.  Indeed both the bread rolls and the pastry were commented on as being extremely tasty and enjoyable.

This proves that gluten free food doesn't have to be boring, and definately doesn't have to be taste-free!

We finished the meal with coffee served with a trio of home made chocolates: milk chocolate with orange, white chocolate with lemon, and bitter chocolate covered peppermint creams.

We were delighted that our guests mixed well, talked and laughed a lot, and enjoyed the food.  We have had some lovely comments left in our visitor's book and our first review can be read here on our facebook page.

We are looking forward to welcoming more guests in the future.  Check out our upcoming dates and book now to join us!