by When someone says they work with a parent or partner they can expect a smile that is met with pitying horror or a wide-eyed declaration: “Wow. That must be tough.”
An interesting exception is the restaurant industry. Most of us can point to at least one solid family business in our neighborhood or village – but the trend extends into fine dining as well. I have always been interested in this. After all, if working family units are still thriving in high-stress environments like restaurants, perhaps there’s something to the idea of being so often dismissed as a toxic recipe for disaster.
So when I heard that Tom Hamblet – sous chef at the five-star South Lodge in Sussex and winner of this year’s MasterChef: The Professionals – spends his days working under his father, an executive chef, and his mother, the hotel’s pastry chef, I had to visit.
“My parents are very supportive and know a lot; they’ve been doing it for years… It’s a good support network,” Hamblet told me.
Of course, like any family working together he admits that there are ups and downs – although mainly ups.
“If we drop out it’s a bit strange, but for the most part it’s a plus. You have that confidence. We know that none of us are going to send out anything bad.”
Hamblet clearly has the advantage of working under the guidance of his parents. His current menu has just the right amount of panache to expect from a MasterChef winner. It starts with a perfectly pink wooden dove and is flirtatiously served with a velveteen chocolate sauce. Lobster tail with carrot curry transports one mindlessly from the South Downs to a Sri Lankan beach seafood shack. Although beef is the mainstay, I can vouch for the hogget, which has the flavor of prime steak but retains that enigmatic delicacy you only get with lamb. It is served as a cheese and tartar, with nice drops of sheep’s curd.
Desserts include olive oil cake and caramelized popcorn tart, but I had to go for the tantalizingly complex chocolate and peanut mousse, served with caramelized banana, miso caramel and peanut butter (which viewers will know regular MasterChef that effort, so often). ends in tears).
Although Hamblet’s limited-time MasterChef-inspired menu at Camellia restaurant is now reserved entirely for dining guests only, daily slots are still available for those staying overnight at the hotel.
That’s a great excuse to book into one of South Lodge’s rooms. While they all come with splashy wallpaper, plush seating, king-size beds and Molton Brown toiletries, the rooms also offer stunning views of the grounds, plenty of room for cartwheels and stunning mosaic bathrooms with soaking tubs.
I am a South Lodge veteran, having visited the hotel many times over the past few years, most recently when it launched its multi-million pound spa back in 2019.
If you are staying multiple nights, the hotel’s other restaurant, the Michelin-starred Pas. Here guests will again find a successful family business, with Ben Wilkinson in the kitchen and his wife Monika running the front of house.
Common, hyper-local ingredients are cooked to the highest level, and service runs like a perfectly programmed machine, albeit fronted by wait staff who are enthusiastic about the smoke-ripened Slovenian pinot gris. Of course, the food is on another level, the work of a chef at the top of his confidence. I found their foam scallop with Hokkaido squash and coppa ham to be an absolutely stunning dish, the meatiness of the fish overlapping gracefully with the salty sweetness of the ham – not so much a collision as a pairing of sea and land.
The fillet of beef refined over time is a great signature plate; tender hocks of meat in smoked emulsion grated with truffle and cut through with celery. The beef broth served in a crystal glass is enhanced rather than distracting. At Michelin level, I tend not to enjoy the dessert courses (the point in the menu where the desire to “challenge” guests often gets the best of the culinary professions). For once, though, I cranked up the palate cleanser, a blackberry and thyme concoction popping with chartreuse and yogurt crumbles, and ate the squiggly chocolate ooze oozing with caramel, hazelnuts and raisins.
At a five-star establishment like South Lodge there is no shortage of ways to detox from a food overdose. I revisited the spa, which featured a spin studio, outdoor hydrotherapy pool, indoor pool, aromatherapy steam room and sauna – still as pristine as the day it opened five years ago. The sprawling grounds framed by camellia bushes are also great for walking out on a heavy lunch (or working up an appetite for dinner).
When it came time to check out, I consoled myself with the promise that I would come back again sooner rather than later. Ben Wilkinson’s revelation that he has “one guest who comes in every month to see if the menu has changed yet,” doesn’t surprise me. I might do the latter.
Fundamentals
Book double rooms in the South Lodge (01403 891711; exclusive.co.uk) from £415, including breakfast.
