By The Kitchen
The menu changed yesterday, which means three things have arrived and four things have left. Wild garlic from the woods behind Plumpton is in (it pops up in our lamb dish and in a green sauce on the seabream). Jersey Royals from the new-season crop are pushing out the Cyprus potatoes. Forced rhubarb is finally finished, but outdoor rhubarb is here, which we will use sharper and rougher than the pink hothouse stuff.
What has gone: the venison ragu, the Jerusalem artichoke soup, the blood orange dressing, the chocolate orange tart. They were great while they lasted. They will be back in October.
People sometimes ask why we do not just keep a "classics" menu that runs all year. The honest answer is that ingredients at their best taste so much better than ingredients out of season that it would be embarrassing to cook the same dish in February that you cooked in June. The lamb in spring is a different animal to the lamb in autumn. The tomatoes in August do something no Spanish hothouse tomato can do in January.
If you are coming in this week, the dish to order is the lamb. Rosemary, smoky new potatoes, that wild garlic dressing. We are pretty pleased with it.
