Cuisine: 2 Michelin starred pub food
Location: Marlow, UK
Date: December 2013
Occasion: Friend's birthday
Having heard about this place several times from various cooking TV programmes, including Masterchef and of course Tom Kerridge's own programme, I was intrigued by the idea. The only Michelin starred pub in the country, boasting high quality and award-winning food, but in a pub environment as opposed to the usual fine dining restaurant experience. I should say that when it comes to fine dining, I am far from an expert - this was only my second experience of eating somewhere with a Michelin star (I was lucky enough to have lunch at Heston Blumenthal's 'The Fat Duck' 2 years ago, which was mind blowing). So the concept of Michelin starred pub food was fascinating to me, and my friend's (significant) birthday seemed like the perfect opportunity.
Partly another reason for going was that, and I don't think she'll mind me saying this, my friend is perhaps not quite as adventurous when it comes to food as me. This is by no means an insult, or a bad thing. She has, and always will have, my complete respect, because she will always try something - if she then doesn't like it, that's absolutely fair enough. I have very little patience for people where the conversation goes something like "I don't like such and such - I've never tried it, but I know I don't like it". She is not like that. That being said, the last thing I wanted was to take her somewhere weird, that would try to make her eat things like lamb's lung or ox's heart. So The Hand & Flowers seemed like a good choice.
The first issue was getting a table. Thanks to its reputation and, more likely, Tom Kerridge's TV appearances (which is perhaps cynical but probably true) the place is booked up several months ahead, particularly on Friday and Saturday nights. We chose to go on a weekday, and I arranged this a month in advance, but even then times for tables were limited. Eventually I got a table for 9:30 PM, which is later than we would normally want but the best I could do.
Having been told there was a bar separate to the restaurant, we arrived slightly early and enjoyed a quiet drink (from memory a Réserve de Gassac 2012) in a kind of "waiting area". The decor was very much as in a country pub - wooden beams, comfy sofas, homely Christmas tree in the corner. The place was busy, but not crowded. At our allotted time, we were invited through to the restaurant area, which again was a nice balance between country pub and smarter restaurant - wooden tables and sofa-type seating, but at the same time clearly quite trendy, modern and stylish (not a plastic glass in sight).
Our meal began with an amuse bouche - a French term meaning literally "to amuse the mouth", normally consisting of something bite-sized that comes before the starter. Surprisingly, this one however turned out to be a little portion of whitebait, wrapped in newspaper and accompanied by freshly baked bread. The whitebait were superb - very lightly deep-fried and with the merest hint of flour coating (not, like many I have had before, covered in thick batter). Despite a couple of protests along the lines of "I'm eating it's brains!", I think my companion enjoyed them. As always, the temptation to eat the lovely bread (and therefore risk filling up) was too great, so we did.
Our starters then arrived. My companion went for the Glazed omelette of smoked haddock and Parmesan, whereas I had the Parfait of duck and foie gras with orange chutney and toasted brioche. The omelette came very neatly in its own tiny frying pan, and was extremely rich and covered in a thick cheesy sauce. My parfait was somewhat smaller and lighter, but no less rich - the sweetness of the brioche went extremely well with the velvety foie gras and slightly tart chutney.
For a main course, my companion went for the Slow cooked duck breast and I chose my all-time favourite, South Coast sea bass. I appreciate this was perhaps slightly unadventurous, given that I eat sea bass fairly regularly, however it is a favourite. The duck was extremely tender and (to my relief) not too rare for my friend - it came with savoy cabbage and chunky chips cooked in duck fat, both of which looked excellent. My sea bass came with a variety of sauces, covering the place in the standard cheffy way, as well as a very nice mille-feuille of mushrooms and other vegetables. All extremely good.
So, all in all, a success. I would certainly go back there, as it was a great combination of unpretentious cooking but still done extremely well. I thoroughly enjoyed it, and I sincerely hope my friend did as well.
