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Von Essen considering restructure at Cliveden where Chris Horridge is head chef

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Chris HorridgeLuxury hotel group Von Essen is considering a restructure of the restaurant offering at Cliveden in Berkshire. 

The company confirmed that it was looking to potentially reshuffle the operation at the hotel following industry rumours that Chris Horridge, head chef at the property's Waldo's restaurant, was leaving. 

"We are considering a possible restructure at Cliveden and have no further details," a spokeswoman for Von Essen said. 

A restructure of the operation at Cliveden could see the closure of Waldo's restaurant, where Horridge, who declined to comment, has been head chef for just under a year. 

He joined the property last spring from the Bath Priory, where he held a Michelin star, replacing Robert Thompson, who had left after just eight months to set up his own restaurant on the Isle of Wight. 

A Great British Menu contestant Horridge has garnered critical acclaim for his health-conscious approach to fine dining. At Waldo's he offers a nutritionally-balanced tasting menu which contains no sugar, dairy or wheat. 

What the Critics Say - a round up of the weekend's reviews

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What the Critics SayFishy FishyX Factor presenter Dermot O'Leary' s seafood restaurant in Brighton, is eager to please, but needs to try harder, according to the Guardian.

Food critic Matthew Norman says while the restaurant isn't bad or without potential, its cheery amateurism isn't good enough.

"All three starters were poor," Norman says, adding: "The FF fish pie was a miserably under-seasoned, sludgy mess beneath slightly clumpy pastry."

Meanwhile the Sunday Telegraph's Tim Auld is impressed with the Michelin-starred Seaham Hall in County Durham, where Great British Menu winner Kenny Atkinson is the head chef.

"You'd be hard-pushed to eat this well, for so little, in such welcoming surroundings anywhere else in Britain," he says.

The Observer's Jay Rayner says Bjorn van der Horst's Eastside Inn in London has survived the recession because the food is "so damn good", while the Sunday Times' AA Gill feels the food at MasterChef judge John Torode's new restaurant The Luxe is little more than good.

The Times' Giles Coren and the Independent's Tracey MacLeod are both impressed with Mark Hix's latest venture Hix in Soho, with the latter describing it as a great new restaurant that already feels like a copper-bottomed success.

Restaurant of the Week: Launceston Place

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Launceston PlaceThis week's Restaurant of the Week is Launceston Place, the D&D London-owned restaurant in Kensington.

You might recognise head chef Tristan Welch from this year's Great British Menu series where he impressed judges with his rhubarb and custard crumble ice cream (pictured below).

He joined Launceston Place in autumn 2007 from the former Pétrus where he worked under Marcus Wareing. The move saw the young chef not only front his own restaurant but also switch from modern French to modern British cooking.

Launceston Place is perched among rows of quaint multimillion-pound housing - all stucco frontages and cherry blossom gardens - and there's certainly no lack of loaded local custom here for Welch to woo. Interiors include chocolaty walls, white tablecloths and a convivial, chic feel that maintains a formality to suit the moneyed Kensington crowd.

Welch's menu is littered with seasonal British produce - nettle, peas, asparagus, rhubarb - a springtime Top of the Crops.

Mark Sargeant no longer at Claridges

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Gordon Ramsay and Mark SargeantMark Sargeant, known by many as Gordon Ramsay's right-hand-man, has left his position of chef de cuisine at Claridge's.

Sargeant, who is competing on the BBC's Great British Menu against former Gordon Ramsay stable mate Tristan Welch this week, apparently left the Michelin-starred restaurant some time ago.

He has been replaced by chef de cuisine Steve Allen, who has been head chef at the restaurant since 2007.

Ramsay and his team of PRs have been keeping the move under tight wraps, which is unsurprising as "Sarge" is very much represented as the head chef of Claridge's on the Great British Menu.

The official line from Ramsay is that Sargeant left Claridge's to allow him "more time to concentrate on the demands made by Gordon's publishing and television commitments".

He remains involved in the group's London pubs, the Narrow in Limehouse, the Warrington in Maida Vale, and the Devonshire in Chiswick, which he has overseen since the start. Sargeant also co-wrote many of Ramsay's cookery books including the most recent one, Gordon Ramsay's Great British Pub Food.

But with the pubs having been rumoured to be on the market for months, could this be the beginning of the end of yet another beautiful relationship?

Restaurant of the Week: The White Room at Seaham Hall

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Thumbnail image for The White RoomThis week's Restaurant of the Week is the Michelin-starred White Room at Von Essen's Seaham Hall in County Durham.

Overseen by head chef Kenny Atkinson, the Geordie chef you may recognise from the current series of the BBC Two's Great British Menu, the White Room is an intimate 40-cover restaurant housed in the stunning five-star Seaham Hall country manor hotel.

Atkinson joined last August, six months after famously winning a Michelin star at Tean in the Isles of Scilly, a move vindicated in January this year, when he retained the White Room's Michelin star.

His classically-based cuisine, which regularly marries numerous cuts of meat in a menu of technically astute, multifaceted dishes, has transplanted well to County Durham, with local pork, beef and lamb joining other north-east produce such as Yorkshire quails on his menu.

Those who have watched Atkinson compete on the Great British Menu will be familiar with the amount of work that goes into each dish. Take, for example, his main course of Northumberland Blackface lamb, asparagus, young leeks and pease pudding, which currently features on his à la carte menu.

Seaham Hall - Food.jpgOther dishes include terrine of Isle of Skye scallops with cauliflower textures, pineapple and coriander (pictured); as well as Goosnargh duck breast, cannelloni of confit leg, fillet mousse and gizzard sauce accompanied by carrots, beetroot and lime.

Desserts are equally multifaceted and include warm vanilla rice pudding with raspberries, praline and caramel; next to blackberry jelly with lemon foam, blackberry sorbet and apple beignets.

The menu is complemented by an extensive wine list that spans both Old and New World varieties and offers something for every budget.

Kenny Atkinson waved goodbye to the islands to move closer to his spiritual home of Newcastle. He well and truly has returned home.

£60 for three courses à la carte excluding wine. Seaham Hall, Lord Byron's Walk, Seaham SR7 7AG, County Durham; Tel: 01915 161 400

Recent Comments

  • live2 eat: A wonderfully talented chef - totally wasted on Von Essen. read more
  • Guide Girl: Thanks for your message, I'm on it. Spoke to Chris read more
  • live2eat: I just read that Chris Horridge is leaving Cliveden; is read more
  • Adam Tinworth: Certainly not boring. Not 100% convinced that a knee-trembler in read more
  • john v: Received from Raymond Blanc today... I have been amazed and read more
  • Anonymous. : Raymond Blanc will always be an inspiration to me. He read more
  • Charlotte Wood: I usually watch reality cooking programmes to learn new recipes read more
  • carrie holden: Have i missed something? Why does everyone keep talking about read more
  • James Beswick: What? you think the 'concept' of these clowns will catch read more
  • Summer House Rocks: All the negative comments - all wrong. JJ and James read more