Le Champignon Sauvage * | Cheltenham (UK)
This kitchen rely’s on good old confidence and technical abilities. With massive flavours showcasing vigorous stocks, honest sauces and quality ingredients!
Situated in the historic spa town of Cheltenham, in the English Cotswolds, we find Le Champignon Sauvage, just outside the city centre. The restrained building stands out by it’s simplicity amongst the elaborate and chichi buildings we passed when we walked there from our Airbnb apartment. The rather plain and low key dining room is in line with the outside, so it must be all about the food here!
But let’s be clear, Le Champignon Sauvage is a true institution in this area. Run by David Everitt-Matthias and his wife Helen since 1987, the restaurant received numerous accolades. Also from the Michelin guide, who awarded them their first star in 1995. The second Michelin star followed in 2000, which they managed to retain for 18 years. A huge achievement. Unfortunately one star was lost last year.
How often have you eaten at a Michelin starred restaurant and the chef has not been there? The more stars, the greater likelihood of celebrity opportunities outside the kitchen, with the absent chef becoming an increasing phenomenon in the world of fine dining. Not at Le Champignon Sauvage. While Helen runs the front of house, David is, famously, always at the stoves. They have never missed a single service since its opening in 1987.
Chef Proprietor David Everitt-Matthias started his career in 1978 at the Four Seasons (formerly Inn on the Park) in his home city of London, where he worked for five years under legendary French chef Jean Michel Bonin. This is also where he met his wife Helen who worked front of house. A stage at Pierre Koffmann’s La Tante Claire opened David’s eyes to the freedom that cooking in a restaurant can bring. He left the Four Seasons and became Head Chef in three very different London restaurants: Steamer’s, a Seychelles fish restaurant, the Grand Café with its American brasserie fayre. and Fingals, a small fine-dining eatery on Fulham Road, before opening Le Champignon Sauvage.
Le Champignon Sauvage is open on Wednesday to Saturday for both lunch and dinner. The full menu let’s you select 2 courses (at £60), 3 courses (at £75), or add cheese for 4 courses (at £90). They also offer a set menu for lunch and dinner (except Saturday evening) with 2 courses (at £33) or 3 courses (at £40)
We had dinner two weeks ago on Saturday and selected 3 courses from the menu.
An array of amuse bouches to start us off with. A small crunchy cornet filled with goat cheese and onion marmalade was lovely. As was the flavoursome Parmesan mousse coated in powdered chorizo. Beautiful.
For me a delicate malt cracker with pouting (like cod) tartare, smoked mayonnaise and pickled pear. And for Joanne something with chicken (sorry, was distracted while enjoying my malt cracker).
And last but not least, smoked bone marrow custard, with shimeji mushroom jelly and wasabi mayonnaise. Gentle smokiness from the bone marrow, shimeji mushrooms with a nutty flavour and umami taste. Very delicate citrus and the pea shoots add to the flavour as well. This is just excellent!
House-made selection of breads, included this brioche with bacon and onion and a brown bun with oats.
First starter was pigeon breast, deep burgundy, just the right side of over-ripeness. It comes with chervil tuber (a root vegetable), granola and black pudding and a sauce with dark notes of chocolate. Excellent dish and a very comforting pleasure.
The pig’s trotter was succulent and stuffed with deliciousness. Moist and ever so tasty. The braised pork cheek was well seasoned and the parsley purée complemented the pork perfectly. Excellent! The snails unfortunately had some grains of sand in them, which was unpleasant and actually they didn’t add anything to the dish in the first place. Would have been nice to have a crunch in this dish (other than the sand that is…. ).
The partridge was slight overdone, but the deep flavoured jus and morteau sausage bits made this really nice. The Turnip Choucroute (sauerkraut made from turnip) underneath tasted like cabbage. Delicious. As were the Hen of the Wood mushrooms. Lovely flavours and tastes. Texture wise, this dish could do with a bit more.
Venison cooked well, but a bit under-seasoned. But the rest on the plate made up for that. Beetroot and the dark flavour jus with smoky pine flavoured lapsang souchong (a Chinese smoked tea) delivered quite some earthiness, but a touch of lemongrass did cut through that nicely. Didn’t understand the fig on there, but other than that a very nice flavour palette.
Dandelion and root ice cream, with coffee granita and milk foam. Strong bold, rather dark flavours. Not what you would expect in the average palate cleanser. But it works. Clever!
Pretty plate with inviting bright colours. The white chocolate dome was quite hard to break. Roasted white chocolate inside was perfectly smooth. Apple marigold (herb with an intense and fragrant apple flavour, which has zesty citrus undertones) is a classic combination with the strawberry and strawberry sorbet. Overall it was quite sweet, but very nice.
The second dessert was even prettier. Delicate blueberry cannelloni filled with a smashing wood sorrel cream. Love the contrast with the yoghurt sorbet and sweet meringue disks. Excellent dessert. Best we’ve had for a while!
Service was attentive, to the point, without being to formal. This was on all accounts a very satisfying dinner. High level fine dining in a restrained way. No frills in the dining room nor on the plate and the menu doesn’t bore on about provenance or follow other modish trends. This kitchen rely’s on good old confidence and technical abilities. With massive flavours showcasing vigorous stocks, honest sauces and quality ingredients. But there’s modernity too with smoked bone marrow custard clinging to sshimeji mushroom jelly, And that last dessert was just perfect!
