A restaurant in East Sussex received a mixed review from one of the new hosts of television cooking show MasterChef.
Food critic Grace Dent wrote about her visit to Tillingham, a winery and restaurant near Rye, in a recent column for The Guardian – and she didn't seem overly impressed.
Although Dent – recently named as one of the new MasterChef hosts following the sacking of Gregg Wallace and John Torode – enjoyed some of the dishes at Tillingham, she concluded by saying "there was very little to remember".
The 70-acre Tillingham estate contains a winery and restaurant, as well as a recently renovated farm accommodation for overnight stays.
The mixed farm, which dates from the 13th century, is home to vineyards, fruit trees, ancient woodland, and livestock.
Dent described the setting as "breathtakingly pretty countryside".
However, she was less impressed by the staff, writing that "no one on the floor seemed to be in charge or trained to work in a semi-formal restaurant".
She didn't have much nice to say about the starters, with the focaccia described as having seen "brighter, crisper days" alongside a halibut with fennel dish that "lacked any discernible zing".
Fortunately for Dent and for Tillingham, the Guardian critic was much happier with the main dishes – "the stars of the show".
The lobster linguine topped with half a native lobster, was "well judged, drenched in garlic butter and impossible not to love".
She was equally pleased with a lamb chop with crispy lamb, and with a cooked skate wing with brown shrimp.
"We saw some great cooking here, and sumptuous sides of heritage tomatoes and broccoli chargrilled with honey glaze were further clues that we were eating farm to fork", Dent wrote.
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Dessert was another disappointment though, with a rhubarb cheesecake that Dent felt was "clearly pre-made".
"So many cooks, not a great deal of cooking", she felt.
"This is a restaurant that seems to be currently working to a fraction of its potential", she concluded, adding that she didn't bother visiting the gift shop, as "there was very little here to remember".
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