Careys Manor Hotel wins top food award
The Cambium restaurant at Careys Manor Hotel in Brockenhurst has been named Hotel Restaurant of the Year South in the Food Awards England 2017.
Cambium reflects the New Forest hotel’s love affair with its location, and head chef Alistair Craig crafts beautiful dishes designed to showcase the area’s rich natural resources. The restaurant also boasts one of the largest collections of English wine in the country, featuring vineyards such as Camel Valley, Ridgeview and Chapel Down.
Careys Manor Hotel’s general manager Sunil Kanjanghat said: “We are absolutely delighted that our efforts to make Cambium one of the best hotel restaurants in the south have been recognised with this award.
“Our head chef Alistair Craig works tirelessly to explore new ways to showcase the classic ingredients we all love, and the whole team works hard to give our guests an experience to savour.”
The fourth annual Food Awards England were held at the Mercure Manchester Piccadilly Hotel, to celebrate and reward the very best in English food hospitality – the servers, the specialists and the suppliers.
Voted for by the public, the awards are designed to recognise the efforts of England’s restaurants, takeaways, pubs, hotels, cafés and bistros, as well as shine a spotlight on the local producers who provide their ingredients.
Starters at the Cambium restaurant include goats cheese pannacotta, served with beetroot hand-picked from the garden or pickled white crab, sourced from S&J Shellfish in Lymington, accompanied by brown custard, avocado and pink grapefruit granita.
Main courses feature beef sirloin, sourced by a smallholding called Pond Head Farm near Lyndhurst, accompanied by oxtail ravioli, celeriac, rainbow chard and nasturtium or tarragon gnocchi served with smoked mushroom, courgette and herb purée, all built around the delicious courgettes picked from the kitchen garden.
Desserts range from a delicious baklava accompanied by pistachio, almond, cherry and mascarpone ice cream to a chocolate delice with milk ice cream, rum and raisin.