Winteringham Fields (North Lincolnshire)

...Highbury or the London Palladium, Winteringham Fields employs the top people in its profession. Chef and owner Germain Schwab has earned two Michelin stars. Only four other restaurants in the country hold this coveted honour. His head chef Robert Thompson was recently crowned Young Chef of the Year by the Craft Guild of Chefs.

Winteringham Fields' reputation did daunt me before I first ate there five years ago. Pizza Express is more ...
...Counties site for his business. Winteringham Fields is in the quiet North Lincolnshire village of Winteringham, six miles north of Scunthorpe and 10 minutes' drive from the Humber Bridge. The location has other benefits: the menus vary according to which fresh fish Germain can get in from Grimsby that day. The 'Fields' part of the name comes from the surrounding fertile arable land which provides fresh vegetables, some of which grow organically in ... more

I hesitated before writing this. It's about a restaurant rumoured to be a favourite of Robbie Williams. Lunch with wine will leave you little change from £50. Its website acknowledges that some guests prefer to arrive by helicopter. How could I make it sound anything but ludicrously exclusive?

But compare the cost with similar top-flight experiences, and it doesn't seem so elitist. A seat for Chitty Chitty Bang Bang will set you back £37.50. You can pay well over £100 to watch a Premiership football clash. By those standards, the bill for a couple of hours savouring the UK's finest cuisine and superb service in sumptuous surroundings doesn't seem too extravagant. And if you love good food and want a venue for a special occasion, sometimes the Burger King on the bypass just won't do.

Like Highbury or the London Palladium, Winteringham Fields employs the top people in its profession. Chef and owner Germain Schwab has earned two Michelin stars. Only four other restaurants in the country hold this coveted honour. His head chef Robert Thompson was recently crowned Young Chef of the Year by the Craft Guild of Chefs.

Winteringham Fields' reputation did daunt me before I first ate there five years ago. Pizza Express is more my thing. Would I feel comfortable among wine waiters, starched tablecloths and food from the Egon Ronay Guide's Kitchen of the Year? I've since lunched there another five or six times. Thanks to the relaxed atmosphere and friendly professionalism of the staff, I've never felt inhibited or out of place.

That could also be due to the modesty of Germain Schwab himself. He avoids the media limelight so beloved of his peers such as Gordon Ramsay. This is despite the fact that his restaurant was alongside Ramsay's in the Good Food Guide's top five last year. A friendly, unassuming man who grew up in Switzerland, he's given to wandering into his restaurant's lounge or dining room, and greeting you like an old friend.

Unlike other rivals, he has avoided central London or a chic Home Counties site for his business. Winteringham Fields is in the quiet North Lincolnshire village of Winteringham, six miles north of Scunthorpe and 10 minutes' drive from the Humber Bridge. The location has other benefits: the menus vary according to which fresh fish Germain can get in from Grimsby that day. The 'Fields' part of the name comes from the surrounding fertile arable land which provides fresh vegetables, some of which grow organically in the restaurant's own gardens.

This lack of pretension means that the standards set by the food can come as a surprise. There's a real emphasis on making the whole experience a treat. The restaurant occupies a small 16th-century manor house. The main dining room is a modern extension. Several lounges are tucked away off a narrow corridor. Sat in well-upholstered chairs and sofas, you peruse the menus and sip your aperitifs in front of crackling log fires. The staff are friendly and informative, eager to tell you about changes to the menu or explain obscure terminology. You can be as informal as you like - there is no unnecessary servility, yet your wishes and requests are met with unfailing politeness.

The decor is the opposite of minimal: gilt frames, swags and antique knick-knacks are everywhere. This is particularly so in the long narrow dining room, where mirrors give an impression of space - although I prefer not to catch glimpses of myself, there are probably patrons for whom this is an added pleasure. I haven't seen inside the private dining rooms which can be hired for larger groups. But I imagine they are as well-appointed as the other rooms.

And then there's the food. It's hard to avoid old clichés about feasts for the eyes, but you hesitate to dismantle the artworks laid before you. Even the shape of the crockery is chosen to complement each dish. The 'amuse-bouche' appetisers are miniature jewels: last month it was a tiny salad of pan-fried salmon with basil oil and pasta; previously it's been a morsel of marinated pigeon breast with red grapefruit.

Nor is there any scrimping on the presentation of the starters: I once had a soup with a 'lid' made of a latticework of fine, piped and deep-fried potato. If I'd make one criticism of the food, it's that style can risk dominating substance. For instance, a vegetable lasagne wasn't the pub-grub pasta staple, but a tiny rectangle of exquisitely-layered vegetables. Absolutely beautiful, but barely a couple of mouthfuls.

But mostly, the experience is a perfect balance of imagination and flavour. New twists on old classics usually succeed, whether it's a parfait flavoured with Christmas pud or an individual bread-and-butter pudding.

I wouldn't like to give the impression that it's all fussy nouvelle cuisine. When we went for lunch at Christmas, my friends opted for the saddle of lamb stuffed with kidney. This was accompanied by a roasted small pumpkin cut in half: a substantial meal by any standards. My main course was one of the recently-introduced vegetarian options. In this case, crisp but tender aubergine slices interleaved with tomato, on top of a pearl barley risotto. The real masterpiece though was the starter: a creamy Jerusalem artichoke soup. In it sat a ravioli stuffed with oyster and smoked salmon, pea-sized balls of cucumber and drops of flavoured oil.

As with all fine cooking, the greatest revelation is the way flavours and textures complement and contrast, making the whole far greater than the sum of the parts. Food like this makes you realise how poorly served our tastebuds are by 99 per cent of what we eat.

Of course, this excellence comes at a price. I've only eaten at Winteringham Fields at lunchtime. Then it's just about affordable by my standards, and justifiable for a special occasion, given the gold-standard quality of food and service. Wine starts at £22 a bottle. When you notice that the top end of the wine list nudges £700, you realise that some of the clientele are in a different league.

Look at the a la carte menu (it's on the website www.winteringhamfields.com) and you'll see what I mean. The cheapest starter if you dine in the evening is a jaw-dropping £22.50; meat courses begin at £30. A meal for two with the cheapest wine, plus coffee and (admittedly wonderful) petits fours will set you back £200, no trouble.

I'm not sure I could justify that myself. But there are clearly some who can. During our post-meal coffee in the lounge last month, the waiter came in and asked if any of us owned the Bentley in the car park. You can see the sort of customer we're dealing with here. (He did later ask whose was the VW Polo, just so we paupers didn't feel left out.)

And those prices, a long way from the haunts of the super-rich, may prove Winteringham Fields' downfall. Germain's wife Annie, who runs the business side, says the place may have to close this year. Its business rates bill has soared from £11,000 in 2000 to £62,500 from April 2005. Annie has threatened to shut up shop if they can't bring that sum down because they would effectively be working for nothing. They even put the restaurant up for sale for a while a couple of years ago. So its long-term future can't be guaranteed.

This may all be clever marketing bluster, and Winteringham Fields, which has been open since 1989, may still be going strong in another 16 years.

But as it might disappear, if you're in the area and want to push the boat out, you really owe it to yourself. One critic in The Guardian even urged readers to sell their grannies to pay for the experience. I wouldn't go that far, but it might be worth trading in the helicopter for a Bentley to scrape together the necessary.

Winteringham Fields
Silver Street
Winteringham
North Lincolnshire
DN15 9PF

Tel: 01724 733096 (Booking is advisable - ring at least a couple of weeks ahead to be sure of getting a lunchtime slot. To book a table in the evening, it's worth calling even further ahead.)

Email: enquiries@winteringhamfields.com

The restaurant also offers accommodation, starting at £95 a night for a single room including continental breakfast.

UPDATE: December 2005. During 2005, Annie and Germain Schwab sold the restaurant as a going concern. The previous waiting and kitchen staff have remained and I have heard that the standard of cuisine is still excellent, and menus have expanded. Reportedly, the ethos of the place has shifted though; prices have risen and there is more of a 'hard sell' from the staff which may deter many long-standing customers.

 

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