When someone says they’re working with a parent or partner, they can expect to be greeted with a twitchy smile or wide-eyed expression of pitying dismay: “Wow. That must be intense.”
An interesting exception is the restaurant industry. Most of us can point to at least one solid family business in our neighborhood or village; but this trend also extends to fine dining. I’ve always admired this. After all, if working family units still occur in high-stress environments like restaurants, then perhaps there’s something to the idea that’s too often dismissed as a toxic recipe for disaster.
When I heard that Tom Hamblet, sous chef at the five-star South Lodge in Sussex and this year’s MasterChef: The Professionals winner, spends his days working alongside his father, the executive chef, and his mother, the hotel’s pastry chef, I had to visit.
“My mom and dad are really supportive and know a lot; they’ve been doing this for years… It’s a good support network,” Hamblet told me.
Of course, like any family that works together, he admits there are ups and downs; but mostly ups.
“It would be a little weird if we went down, but for the most part it’s an advantage. You have that trust. We know none of us are going to send anything bad.
Clearly working under his parents’ guidance gave Hamblet an advantage. Its current menu has been injected with the amount of crazy panache you’d expect from a MasterChef winner. The starter, consisting of perfectly pink wood pigeon, is served flirtatiously with velvety chocolate sauce. Lobster tail with curried carrot transports one mentally from the South Downs to a seafood shack on the Sri Lankan coast. While beef is the main course, I can vouch for the pork, which has all the flavor of a prime steak but retains that uncanny flavor you can only get with lamb. It’s served both fried and as tartare, with artful drippings of sheep’s cheese.
Desserts include olive oil cake and caramelised popcorn tart, but I had to go for the deceptively complex chocolate and peanut mousse served with caramelised banana, miso caramel and peanut tuile (as regular MasterChef viewers will know, these attempts often end in tears). .
While the MasterChef-inspired limited-time menu at Hamblet’s Camellia restaurant is now fully stocked for dine-in guests, daily slots are still available for those staying overnight at the hotel.
This is a great excuse to book one of South Lodge’s rooms. All decked out with sumptuous wallpaper, plush sofas, king-size beds and Molton Brown toiletries, the suites also offer spectacular views of the grounds, ample room for tumbles and sumptuous mosaic bathrooms with soaking tubs.
I’m a veteran of South Lodge, having visited the hotel many times over the last few years, most recently in 2019 when it opened a multi-million pound spa.
If you’re staying more than one night, the hotel also has another restaurant, the Michelin-starred Pass. Here guests will once again find a thriving family affair with Ben Wilkinson in the kitchen and his wife Monika running the front of house.
Familiar, hyper-local ingredients are cooked to the highest level, while the service runs like a perfectly programmed machine, albeit with the waiting staff brimming with enthusiasm for the oak-ripened smoky taste of Slovenian pinot gris. Of course, the food is on another level, the work of a chef at the peak of his confidence. I found the foaming scallops with Hokkaido squash and coppa ham to be a subtly wonderful dish; the meatiness of the fish meshes elegantly with the salty sweetness of the ham; a collision rather than a fusion of sea and land.
Sirloin is a terrific signature dish that has been refined over time; Tender slices of meat in smoked emulsion grated with truffle and cut with celery. Broth served in a crystal glass enhances rather than distracts. At the Michelin level, I tend not to be too fond of dessert courses (the point on the menu where the desire to “challenge” guests wins out over the culinary geniuses). But for once, I gobbled up the palate cleanser, a blend of blackberries and thyme bursting with chartreuse and yogurt sprinkles, and swallowed the wreath-shaped chocolate flavor oozing with caramel, hazelnuts and raisins.
At a five-star establishment like South Lodge, there’s no shortage of ways to avoid a food overdose. I revisited the spa, complete with spin studio, outdoor hydrotherapy pool, indoor pool, aromatherapy steam room and sauna; It was still as clean as the day it opened five years ago. Large spaces framed by camellia bushes are also perfect for recovering from a heavy lunch (or working up an appetite for dinner).
When it was time to check out, I consoled myself by promising to return as soon as possible. It didn’t surprise me when Ben Wilkinson revealed that he currently has “a guest who calls every month to see if the menu has changed.” I can do the second one too.
Fundamentals
Book double rooms at South Lodge (01403 891711; exclu.co.uk) from £415 including breakfast.