LE MANOIR Raymond Blanc's English Idyll In Oxford By Carol Sorgen “Oh, to be in England Now that April's there,” wrote Robert Browning. And it actually was in April when I visited the idyllic Le Manoir aux Quat’ Saisons in Oxford, but my experience there would have been equally as magical at any other time of the year as well. Le Manoir is the vision of French chef Raymond Blanc who bought the 15th century Chiltern manor house in Oxfordshire and in 1984 transformed it into a 32-room hotel, restaurant, and cookery school. You don’t have to stay at the hotel to dine there (although if you can, it is an experience not to be missed), and indeed visitors from all over Europe have been known to helicopter over just to enjoy what can only be described as a sublime dining experience. Dinner starts in the elegant but comfortable lounge where you are served drinks and appetizers—-which included during my stay, Parmesan cheese straws, tartlets of ground lamb and spring pea puree, scallops with wasabi cucumbers, watercress soup, and foie gras with housemade chutney—-while reading the menu. After placing your food order with the server, you continue sipping and nibbling in the lounge, as if you were visiting dear friends in their own home. (I should only have friends with a home like this!) Once you’re escorted into the glass-walled dining room that overlooks Le Manoir’s picture-perfect English gardens, the meal begins with an amuse-bouche…that evening, a beetroot terrine accompanied by mango-dressed crab, followed by an absolutely divine risotto with spring vegetables (from Le Manoir’s own garden), Sicilian cherry tomatoes, and mascarpone cheese (I was so in love with this risotto that I ordered it again for lunch the next day). I never miss an opportunity to order lamb when it’s available, so my main course was an assiette of different cuts of lamb, while dessert was a chocoholic’s delight with an assortment of chocolate confections which included a petit gateau with caramel fondant and an almond milk glace. My departure the following day was delayed (how lucky for me!) so I was able to enjoy lunch before I left. The to-die-for risotto was followed this time by a filet of sea bream in a bouillabaisse sauce, with braised fennel, and for dessert an ethereal millefeuille with fresh raspberries served with a dollop of an intense raspberry sorbet. Blanc’s philosophy of cuisine is that a meal should be a “voyage of discovery.” This is one voyage that is not to be missed. Le Manoir aux Quat’ Saisons, Church Road, Great Milton, Oxford OX44 7PD, United Kingdom, www.manoir.com . |
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