Creativity is in perpetual motion in the Hambleton kitchen. Aaron, Charlie and James write the daily menus between 7am and midday depending on the unique combination of the freshest ingredients that arrive that morning. The chefs’ foragers and farmers appear at the kitchen door in person offering incredible local ingredients from blewits and puffballs to salsify, apples or Jerusalem artichokes, quince or crab apples, sea vegetables or zander, woodcock or teal.
The chefs will unite these new finds with existing combinations to create recipe evolutions each day. Dishes such as breast of Merrifield duck with watermelon, feta and endive, grouse with blackberry sauce and traditional accompaniments, roast mallard with corn and a pie of its own leg meat, roast pheasant with Jerusalem artichoke and truffle, hare wellington with root vegetables and a prune and Armagnac sauce.
Hambleton’s long standing suppliers save their best for us as we have facilitated their business, helped them to expand and with whom they have grown together over the decades. Some grow some ingredients only for Hambleton, such is the loyalty and friendship they have nurtured over the years.
“Aaron has created and maintained very special relationships with independent growers and producers for three decades and developed a network around Hambleton Hall that makes the restaurant completely unique in the world.”
Special Mentions
One of Hambleton’s special suppliers is a breeder of rare-breed pigs and cattle, one of the few farms in the UK to rear woolly Mangalista pigs who are well known for producing exceptional bacon and very tasty meat. The pigs are kept in the wooded areas of the Chater Valley and have futuristic-looking domed accommodation. You will find this delicious Mangalista pork served with braised fennel and crackling in Hambleton’s Gourmet Corner, to accompany the Menu of the Day at either lunch or dinner.
Alex and Gwilym started Launde Farm Foods in 2008 as a means to supply ethically reared lamb with outstanding flavour to friends and family. Members of the Red Tractor accreditation scheme demonstrates that their farming methods are best in class and they grass feed all year until the ewes need extra calories for lambing, when they feed them a local bean crop instead of imported soya. You will find this delicious lamb served with pickled aubergine, slow-cooked lamb belly and mint caviar.
Windy Ridge Farm in Melton Mowbray produces all the eggs that the Hambleton team use in their cooking. Farmer Katie Machin chose mobile hen houses which she moves every few weeks to provide fresh grass for the hens.