This Lake District hotel has three incredible UK chefs and one Michelin star
Three culinary hotshots are building the Lake District’s most exciting gastrotourism destination at the Gilpin Hotel, says Sophie Ibbotson
It is often said that “too many cooks spoil the broth” but Gilpin Hotel & Lake House is counting on healthy rivalry to drive innovation in its kitchens.
The Cumbrian hotel, which occupies a magnificent 100 acre estate a short drive from Windermere, has recently appointed three of Britain’s top chefs, allocating them a restaurant each so they have complete freedom to put their stamp on the menus and impress the hotel’s guests.
Ollie Bridgwater has joined Gilpin from The Fat Duck and is now Executive Chef at Michelin-starred Source at Gilpin Hotel. He was drawn here by the location and by the proximity to his producers: “You have the opportunity to really develop relationships and work together. There are so many passionate people in the Lakes […] We work directly with the farmer whose cows are in the fields surrounding us, and the same with the guy who ages the beef for us.”
Tom ‘Westy’ Westerland, head chef of Knipe Grill at Gilpin Lake House, cites Gilpin’s “out of this world” landscape as his inspiration, and why wouldn’t it be? It overlooks Knipe Tarn and is surrounded by forest.
Sustainability and food miles are a recurrent part of everyone’s conversation here. Tom sources his Herdwick lamb from a farm 10 minutes up the road, and I wouldn’t be surprised if the pigs snuffling about near Source at Gilpin Hotel at some point make their way into the hands of Gilpin’s on-site butcher, Chris, who makes his own charcuterie. (I assume that the pigs’ neighbours, the alpacas, are safe!).
Aakash Ohol, head chef at Gilpin’s third restaurant, Gilpin Spice, demands more exotic ingredients which would normally be imported from Asia, but he is experimenting growing them in an indoor vertical farm. Sheltered from the sometimes inclement British weather, the wasabi crop is coming along well.
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Aakash has also reinvented some classic recipes to incorporate local ingredients, including an ingenious take on what is essentially a korma, re-envisioned with pumpkin seeds as the base of the gravy to give it a luscious texture. This dish has a special place in his heart: “All of them are my baby, but if I gave one of them a bigger piece of chocolate, it would be the korma based curry!”
Inevitably there is competitiveness between the three chefs; “We all want our restaurants to be the most popular, our menus to be the best,” says Tom. But there’s also a strong team spirit and a sense of pride in what can be accomplished through collaboration.
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“On the sustainability side, for example, when we’re looking at using the whole animals, we work together on how we divvy that up and what we can do creatively to make sure all of the cuts are used. An idea that one of us has may not suit one restaurant, but we can carry it across to the different restaurants instead.” Such an approach is good for the environment, good for the hotel, and good for the diners.
Stay at Gilpin for a long weekend and dine in a different restaurant every night, with very different experiences, but without having to go off site. This encourages guests to slow down and stay local, which is very much the ethos of the hotel.
Stay at the Gilpin yourself
Rooms at Gilpin Hotel & Lake House are bookable via thegilpin.co.uk and start from £305 per night