You may have seen the Angel’s head chef Elly Wentworth representing the South West, on BBC2’s Great British Menu last week…
If you did, you will know she is producing amazing quality food in our beautiful restaurant The Angel, Taste of Devon, in Dartmouth.
Elly was delighted to be asked to take part in the competition, with a fantastic result; getting through to the second round. This year’s brief for the programme was celebrating British Science and Innovation, and Elly really shone through with her amazing theatre on her presentation and an outstanding score of 10 on her desert. She worked incredibly hard to come up with relevant dishes to the brief and, for the food lovers among you, they were:
Starter – ” Can You Picture it “
Based on the inventor William Henry Fox Talbot, born in Dorset and the first man to invent salt print photography. Consisting of Jerusalem Artichoke gratin with Parmesan Mornay, a feuille de brick cylinder filled with chervil leaf crémeux, apple pickle, Jerusalem artichoke pickle and cloudy apple jelly. All served within amazing theatre in a replica of Talbot’s mousetrap camera.
Fish Dish – Elly created a dish dedicated to celebrated 19th century English palaeontologist, Mary Anning, famous for discovering the existence of the ichthyosaurus. For this she prepared red mullet sous-vide, which she then blowtorched and served to resemble a fossil with baby violet artichokes, quinoa, salted grapes and a cucumber beurre blanc, topped with salty fingers and parsley.
Main Course – “Full Steam Ahead”
Inspired by Thomas Newcomen, Elly cooked crispy duck breast served with a lavender jus, smoked duck slices, squid ink tempura tender stem broccoli, alongside a burnt leek and smoked black garlic risotto.
Dessert – “Penny Black”
This course almost kept Elly in the competition: a tribute to the inventor of the postage stamp, social reformer Sir Rowland Hill, it comprised a sesame cake layered with chocolate marquis and banana bavarois, served with a black sesame seed tuile, banana and sesame ice cream sandwich. It blew Richard and show host Andi Oliver away and scored the perfect 10!
Having worked at 3 AA rosette Tanner’s restaurant, as well as 3 Michelin starred restaurants – the Elephant, The Bybrook and Lucknam Park – Elly is no stranger to hard work and has proven her dedication and experience. Having competed in the prestigious Royal Academy of Culinary Arts awards, she was one of only four chefs to be given an Award of Excellence and coming runner up in 2016 Professional Masterchef.
Elly and her team are passionate about using seasonal, local ingredients served in a relaxed fine dining environment, and we at the Holland Group are all super proud of her! The Angel won Gold at the Devon Tourism Awards 20/21 in the Best Restaurant category, and Silver in the South West Tourism Awards. Dartmouth is blessed indeed to have such a talented first-class chef working with her wonderful team within the town. You can catch up on BBC iPlayer.
To book a table at the Angel, and enjoy an outstanding food and drink experience, click here.
