Review: Royal Ascot fine dining preview dinner 2024
Review: Royal Ascot fine dining preview dinner 2024
By Angela Zaher
Image: Lisa Goodwin-Allen’s Lake District Lamb
Royal Ascot is the most prestigious horse racing event in the calendar. But those four glorious days (18-22 June) are about so much more than the sport. There’s the fashion; a catwalk of magnificent millinery, exquisite tailoring and head turning outfits. And then the food. Britain’s culinary stars are given centre stage at the Royal Enclosure and they bring the finest of British food and drink along with them. We were treated to a sneak preview of the Fine Dining Packages and here’s a glimpse of what to expect.
Making her Royal Ascot debut this year is Lisa Goodwin-Allen, executive chef at Michelin starred Northcote restaurant in Lancashire and highly recognisable from her tv work. Lisa will be at the Queen Anne Enclosure, in the flagship fine dining restaurant ON 5. On the night, she was in charge of the main course; Lake District lamb, slow cooked belly, caramelised carrots, goat’s curd and pine nuts- tempting shades of pinks and orange, like a sunset you don’t want to let go of. Just as beautiful to gaze at as to eat with its contrast of melt in your mouth gooeyness and crunchy textures. Another newcomer is Tom Shepherd who heads Upstairs, a Michelin starred restaurant in Lichfield (awarded two months after opening). He will be at the exclusive Sandringham restaurant which caters for 250 guests a day. He served Orkney scallops with a peanut satay sauce topped off with radish and coriander. This playful pairing worked perfectly and will no doubt delight racegoers in the summer. Raymond Blanc OBE is a seasoned chef at Royal Ascot and guests this year will see him again at the Panoramic- he offered us a simple and refreshing beetroot terrine with horseradish sorbet.
The Preview Dinner was hosted in the opulent The Grill by Tom Booton at The Dorchester. Tom is coming back to Royal Ascot for the third time this year with his pop-up restaurant in the Royal Enclosure Gardens. He will be serving a 3 course set menu as well as bar food all day; walk in welcomes in case you haven’t booked ahead. He was in charge of dessert on the preview night: raspberry, cream and mint soft serve with homemade hundreds and thousands. This wowed both the child and grown up in all of us. If he’s bringing his soft serve machine to Royal Ascot then put aside some of your winnings for that.
Left to right: Tom Shepherd’s Orkney scallop with peanut satay sauce, Raymond Blanc’s beetroot terrine with horseradish sorbet.
THE BEST FOODIE CONTENT:
The Preview Dinner was hosted in the opulent The Grill by Tom Booton at The Dorchester. Tom is coming back to Royal Ascot for the third time this year with his pop-up restaurant in the Royal Enclosure Gardens. He will be serving a 3 course set menu as well as bar food all day; walk in welcomes in case you haven’t booked ahead. He was in charge of dessert on the preview night: raspberry, cream and mint soft serve with homemade hundreds and thousands. This wowed both the child and grown up in all of us. If he’s bringing his soft serve machine to Royal Ascot then put aside some of your winnings for that.
