A food lover's visit to Askham Hall

For my first visit to the Lake District, I think I may have set my standards too high. Until very recently Askham Hall was the home of the Dowager Countess of Lonsdale, Caroline Lowther, but has been transformed by her son Charles into a boutique hotel and has retained the feel of a stately home rather than hotel.

Huge wrought iron door knockers are mounted on the wall as you go in; they were found in the loft during restoration but were originally on the doors of nearby Lowther Castle, also part of the family’s estate. Reminders of the Hall’s previous life as a family home are everywhere: the grand sweeping staircase is lined with coats of arms showing families linked with the Lowthers through trade and marriages as well as newer paintings by Charles’ wife Juno. His father’s study has become the bar – of the help yourself honesty bar type – and you can sit at his desk to look through photo albums of Lowther Castle.

The village of Askham is in the eastern – and, so I discovered, quieter– side of the Lakes, near picturesque Ullswater, with easy walking from the hotel through the Lowther Estate and around the castle (which is currently undergoing extensive restorations) or up on to Askham Fell. A short drive away is Pooley Bridge, on the northern shore of Ullswater, and slightly further is Glenridding, the starting point for harder hiking up to Helvellyn. That’s if you can drag yourself out of the hotel and its gardens.

The immaculate gardens are open to the public and there’s a wonderfully cosy café selling stone-baked pizzas, cakes and coffees. Housed in a converted cowshed, there’s a woodburner in the corner, and it’s easy to imagine sitting there for hours in the winter after a long walk. For warm summery days, you can sit outside near the hotel’s kitchen garden. Late autumn was not the ideal time to see the gardens at their finest but I was assured that the rose garden in particular is fantastic to see when in full bloom.

A real highlight of my stay at Askham Hall was the food. Richard Swales grew up in Cumbria, worked with John Burton Race and Anthony Demetre in London, had a stint at NOMA in Copenhagen and another with the famous 3 Michelin star French chef Marc Veyrat in Annecy (who specialises in mountain plants and herbs) before returning home to head up the kitchen at Askham Hall. The dining room is the only new addition to the hotel, and I love how they have changed what would have been a window into a view for diners into the kitchen.

Breakfast is a selection of fruits, cereals, freshly made bread and pastries, with hot food cooked to order. I can vouch for the eggs benedict and apple pancakes. Dinner was simply one of the best meals I’ve ever eaten. Rather than going straight into the restaurant, Nico – the very affable host and general manager – welcomes you into the lounge, and in front of a roaring open fire gave us the menu to choose from along with some canapés. Only once the food was ready did he invite us to go through to the dining room: a simple touch but it made us feel like we were guests at an exclusive dinner party, rather than being in a hotel restaurant.

Between my partner and I, we tried pan-fried scallops and chicken to start, followed by pork reared on the Lowthers’ own farm and roasted cod (the chef made a last minute change from the monkfish we’d ordered as he wasn’t happy with the quality) and all of it was faultless. For dessert I couldn’t resist Richard’s caramelised white chocolate ice cream with garden strawberries, lemon and cucumber. Firstly it sounded – and did taste – like Pimm’s on a plate, but more intriguing was the caramelised ice cream. I wasn’t disappointed – it was the absolute climax of the meal.

After dinner, we retreated back to the lounge and open fire. Nico brought in coffees with delicious melt-in-the-mouth petit fours: macaroons, marshmallows and homemade chocolates. With a selection of old family photo albums and books to browse through, as well as board games and cards, it was a delicious end to my first – but certainly not last – visit to the Lake District.

MasterChef Travel currently offers a foodie short break to Cumbria, with a stay at Askham Hall. For more information, visit the tour page >

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