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Award-Winning
Restaurant
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on all pictures for full sized versions |
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We firmly adhere
to the Slow Food principles!! |
We
only serve locally sourced food in our restaurant, and grow as
much as we are able in these northern climes. We are self sufficient
in potatoes throughout the year, and spring sees the first home
grown salad leaves, in a spicy and fancy shaped mix. Summer brings
in all manner of fresh organic vegetables. We have our own hens
and our own bees produced heather honey each year.
Our style originates from the best of British cooking, together
with classic French cuisine, and a touch of the Orient
from recipes brought back from our travels. The quality and taste
of the food we serve is to us as important as the appearance on
the plate. Our meat comes from local farms through our butcher
in Nethy Bridge, and nearby estates provide the game - both birds
and animals. |
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Daily
changing Menu
As
we are primarily a hotel with a restaurant serving guests
who may stay for 3 days or more, we design our menu to offer
a small choice on each course which changes each day. In
this way, no-one will normally be given the same menu item
more than once, although we do get special requests to repeat
things which have been especially enjoyed. We like to serve
wild mushrooms each day, and there will usually be wild
game, and two interesting, contrasting, main courses. Vegetarian
and other restricted diets are catered for but we do ask
you to please give advance notice as we are a long way from
shops and even further from speciality suppliers. Our menu
always offers four courses, and we give each party the choice
of taking the cheese or sweet course first, the cheese being
brought to your table for explanation and left there for
you to enjoy. Not only do we give a selection of teas and
coffees in the bedrooms - including fresh milk and fresh
ground coffee - but we also give a choice after meals, including
Espresso, Cappucino, fruit teas etc. |
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The
dining room looking across the garden to the Cairngorms
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Click
here for sample menus
showing the type of food we offer - and
more recipes! |
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Home
Produced Organic Vegetables
We
use many products from our own garden in the restaurant
including over 30 varieties of potato (which are named
at table each night), and in season, sugar snap and old
fashioned peas, beans, squashes, summer herbs, salads, root
vegetables and soft fruit. All these are grown organically.
We also have bees for heather honey, and our own free-range
chickens for the hotel's eggs. We make all our own Marmalade,
Jams and Preserves. Vegetarian are specially catered for.
we ask that you give us advance warning as our menu does
not always carry a vegetarian - or other restricted diet
option.
Our use of Organically home-produced vegetables and own
picked wild fungi in the kitchen were recognised
in November 2000 by a prestigious MacAllan/Taste of
Scotland award. See our awards
page for this and other awards we have gained over the
years |
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Wild
Game
Is sourced from local
estates, including Mallard, Pheasant, Mountain Hare, Brown Hare,
Venison, Wood Pigeon, Rabbit, Partridge and Grouse.
Other
Meats
These come from Michael
Mustard's, Butcher of Nethy Bridge.
He chooses
the meat which he then hangs for the correct time before selling
on. He produces all his own sausages which we use on our breakfast
menu, including a haggis sausage which he makes especially for
us so that guests can try this Scottish speciality...
Fish
This
is brought to us fresh from the Moray Firth having been fished
in the North Sea. Occasionally we get in a supply from the NW
coast of Scotland at Achiltibuie. |
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Chicken livers and Pine
Kernels with Auchendean home grown spicy salad |
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Wild
Mushrooms
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are a speciality,
the menu having offered 47 varieties to date, ranging from St
George's, Ceps (and similar Boletus varieties) Chanterelles, Winter
Chanterelles, Oysters, Hedgehogs and Saffron Milk Caps to Field
and Horse Mushrooms. These are preserved in spiced oils, vinegars,
and various alcohols, as well as dried and frozen. They are presented
in various ways: Soufflés, Soups, with Pasta, Polenta, or on polenta
or French Toast. They can appear as part of a main meal, flavouring
meats or fish, and often as a vegetarian main course. On one special
"Fungal Feast", we even had fungi with the
sweet course!! |
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Winter Chanterelle Nibble
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