TAKE a traditional carvery, revamp it from the Spanish oven up, throw in a French chef whose ancestors kneaded bread before Marie Antoinette lost her pretty little head and voila! You have Flame, Blunsdon House Hotel’s answer to fine dining.

Walking a tightrope between tradition and originality, the four-star hotel at the heart of the village never quite did things by the book.

When time came to overhaul its two restaurants ahead of its 55th anniversary and launch a single unique eatery, the Clifford family, who reinvented a farmhouse B&B into Wiltshire’s first four-star hotel, turned orthodoxy on its head.

First, they hired head chef Jean-Pierre Gillet, the last in a generation of Breton bakers and the first to leave the family boulangerie near Rennes to work as a chef.

Then, they tasked him with designing an entire dining concept around an oven – a Spanish charcoal grill to be precise.

“Once we had the oven, it fell into place,” said banqueting and restaurant manager Alex Roupelis. “ “We knew we needed to evolve. And we had to get it right. We did that with the same passion we always have. And with the same family feel and quality of service and food people expected.”

Flame welcomed diners for the very first time in September. But it would take another six months for Jean-Pierre and his team to finalise the menu which includes an array of dishes each concocted specifically to retain rich flavours from the charcoal oven and grill.

New offerings include smoked salmon mousse and avocado, lamb shank in a Madeira sauce, Bourbon marinated flat iron steak and apple and chocolate Far Breton (a decidedly French infusion in an otherwise firmly British menu).

“When I came here we had the old carvery and we had Tawny’s A la carte restaurant,” said Jean-Pierre who joined Blunsdon House two and a half years ago after a stint at Cirencester’s The Fleece. “Running two dining operations didn’t make sense. We decided to start from scratch and started planning a year ago. In the end we chose a Josper, which is a barbecue cast iron oven and cooks at a very high temperature. It seals in the flavour.”

The oven chosen, the refurbishment began. The kitchen was extended and a show kitchen for everyone diner to peak into was created.

The finished menu was introduced last month.

Well aware of Blunsdon’s rich history and no stranger to family tradition himself, Jean-Pierre and his team strived to preserve its legacy while injecting modernity and a soupcon of continental fancy to the prestigious hotel.

“I come from a long line of bakers,” he explained. “We’ve been bakers and in pastry since at least the 1780s, before the French Revolution. We weren’t all very good. One of my ancestors - it was a time when people didn’t have last names - was given the name of Mal Cuit which means badly cooked because he was such a bad baker.”

After training in his father’s bakery, he ‘broke the mould’ by becoming a chef before moving to the UK 18 years ago.

“I broke the mould twice, by moving out of baking and moving out of France. Creating the new restraint was my biggest challenge, no doubt.”

And breaking the mould was exactly what the Cliffords were looking for.

“I was brought here to bring some changes and be more adventurous,” added Jean-Pierre or J-P as he is known to his colleagues. “So that’s what I did. Of course the menu has French influences but it’s not French food – except for the Far Breton.”

Blunsdon House was built as a hunting lodge in the early 1800s and was later used as a family home for those who farmed the associated land.

The hotel’s founders Peter Clifford and his wife Zan, who passed away two years ago, became the sole owners of the property in the early 1950s and initially used the estate as a farm, keeping pigs, poultry and other animals.

The hotel side of the business started by chance in 1957 when the touring Bath and West Show came to the Polo Ground in Swindon.

The landlord of the Mason’s Arms, in Swindon, telephoned Peter to ask whether he could put up some extra agricultural reps and Blunsdon House was changed into a make-shift guest house.

Peter and Zan continued to run their farm guest house over the next few years. On August 2, 1960 – it became Blunsdon House Hotel and Country Club.

The hotel, which has won several prestigious awards since, has been expanded and is one of only four four-star hotels in Swindon.

Peter is now retired but his son John and his daughter-in-law Carrie have taken over as directors.

John and Carrie’s children, Christopher, Ben and Grace – and Christopher’s wife Mandy – have also joined the family business.

“Times have changed,” said Grace, 31, who acts as the venue’s wedding coordinator. “We wanted to do something a bit different.

“It’s important for the staff to continue Blunsdon House’s tradition and be part of it – they’ve become family- and it’s also important to be innovative and contemporary. I’m very excited about the restaurant. It’s been like watching a butterfly coming out of its chrysalis.”

The restaurant offers a carvery every week day at lunchtime and on Sundays (“We have to keep this tradition,” pointed out J-P.) as well as an express lunch menu for £12. The Tawny Restaurant is available for private dining, weddings and other events.

Blunsdon House Hotel is located at The Ridge, Blunsdon, SN26 7AS To find out more or make a reservation go to www.blunsdonhouse.co.uk or call 01793 721701.

 

RECIPE

Far Breton

480 g plain flour

10 eggs

1 pinch of salt

2L of full fat milk

600 g of sugar

300 g melted butter

200 g dark chocolate

Mix the sugar and eggs together until light and fluffy and then add the flour, mixing until well blended.

Warm the milk gently and add the dark chocolate, butter and salt stirring gently on a low heat until smooth and all the chocolate is dissolved.

Add the chocolate mix to the sugar and egg mix and fold till fully combined. Pour into a flan dish and cook at 175C for 30 to 40 minutes.

Dip the blade of a knife in cold water and pierce the middle of the flan, if the blades comes out clean it is cooked.

Slice and serve with caramelised cinnamon apples and vanilla ice cream.