Hrishikesh Desai: "I could have easily gone down the foraging route"

Why did you decide to leave The Gilpin?

I was there for almost eight years, and I had a very good team and I realised that I didn’t have a job anymore – by that I mean because everything was working so perfectly, I just wanted to embark a bit more into being a food and beverage director. The Gilpin is a family-owned business, and it was tough for me to break the ranks, so I had no choice but to seek a different avenue. The other reason was that since the age of four I’ve always dreamt of running a hotel - and then a crème brulee changed my life and made me become a chef.

What attracted you to Farlam Hall?

As a chef-patron you’re normally taking on a property that requires a lot of work but Farlam Hall is finished absolutely beautifully. It is part of Relais & Châteaux, and it has got an immense amount of potential - kitchen gardens, beehives, beautiful surroundings. Farlam Hall was originally owned by the Quinion family who ran it for 40 years but in 2019 it was bought by Joe Walter and Kathy Mares who are Americans who used to stay there on their holidays. They did a full refurb of it during the 2020 lockdown. I’ve been mentored by some great hoteliers, including Michael Caines and Harry Murray at Lucknam Park and the time was right to step up and be a hotelier.

You’re taking over the Cedar Tree restaurant. What are your plans for it?

We’re keeping the name, but it will be called Cedar Tree by Hrishikesh Desai – my name will come into play. It is a typical country house hotel sort of restaurant with high ceilings and windows from floor to ceiling, but at the same time we are making a few changes to things such as the tablecloths and lighting. It’s going to have a maximum of 36 covers, and we are going to reopen it on 1 April.

What will the food offer be?

Farlam Hall has half an acre of kitchen gardens as well as two polytunnels and this will play an important role in the food. Whatever comes from there will be heavily utilised on our plates. We will serve two rotating tasting menus because we have only one restaurant but we have seen that people want to stay for two or three nights. If they have a tasting menu one day, they will have a different one the next. The menus are seven courses so in total they will be eating 14 brand new dishes. There is also an option to choose any of the dishes for a la carte.

How often will you change the menus?

Because the kitchen garden can only produce a certain amount of vegetables, I will need to change my dishes quite often. Baby leeks are coming up now, as is spring lamb. So, rather than every three months I’ll change at least one or two dishes a month. This is different to The Gilpin - we had rotating menus but they were more dictated by produce we got from suppliers, so one dish could stay on the menu for six months.

What’s on the menu?

One dish will be called carrots several ways. They will be salt baked with cumin and a carrot emulsion with a bit of lemongrass. It will also have a peanut cake to cut through the carrot flavour - carrots, peanut, cumin and lemongrass are the four dominant flavours. We’ve just bought a whole Longhorn cow that will come the second week of March and we’ll use that to make a tandoori beef wellington. The beef will marinate with dry spices and then it will be cooked like a standard beef wellington but there will be black cardamom in the sauce that will make it smokey and aromatic. We’ll serve crispy onions on the side.

And you’ll do afternoon tea...

Yes. We call it Tea with Charlie, which draws inspiration from the book The Tiger Who Came to Tea.​ Charlie is a labrador dog and we are going to do a panna cotta in the mould of a labrador. Daffodils will be flowering in Cumbria soon so we will create a frangipani with lemon icing that will be like daffodil petals.

It sounds different to what others are doing in Cumbria

We could have easily gone down the foraging route because of where Farlam Hall is but that is not my approach. I’ve trained with Paul Bocuse and have a very classical French cooking background. The idea is to use this classic base and to then twist it with spice, which comes naturally to me. This is how I make a difference with my food.

How big is your brigade?

At present there are just four of us, but the idea is to get to 10. We launched a recruitment campaign last week to help. Front of house we have a restaurant manager and assistant manager who has just joined but I still need sommeliers, chef de rangs, commis waiters, bar staff, receptionists and housekeeping.

Is the recruitment process tough?

It’s ambitious, but I’m sure we can find the people we need. We have a gardener working in the kitchen garden three days a week and we will have a member of the kitchen team put on the rota to work there - that will bring benefits for the kitchen team. The rotating menus will also create the fun element we need in the kitchen to attract people. A sense of belonging is important to me, whether it’s a commis or a kitchen porter, if they’ve got an idea about food it’s very welcome.

What are your ambitions for the restaurant?

We are aiming for rosettes, green stars, Michelin stars but we want to build it really slow and steadily

You worked at The French Laundry after winning the Roux Scholarship. What influence has that had on your career?

Winning the Roux Scholarship was phenomenal, it was the biggest stepping stone in my career. In 1999 when I was in France friends from Chicago had The French Laundry Cookbook​, and when I read it, I said that one day I should go and work there or at least eat there. Fast forward to 2010 I was there doing my stage. To work in the kitchen garden there was amazing. All that knowledge is now coming in handy and is something I would like to pass on to youngsters working with me.