Ston Easton Park Announces New Chef and Unveils ‘Home-grown’ Tasting Menu

Somerset country house hotel Ston Easton Park has unveiled its new head chef and a seven-course ‘home-grown’ tasting menu.

The new cuisine has been heavily influenced by newly appointed chef, Ashley Lewis, who has spent time perfecting his craft in kitchens across both the UK and France.

As well as home-grown and local produce, the new tasting menu features classical flavours with French and Asian influences and focusses on modernised culinary techniques and exquisite presentation.

It offers dishes such as torched mackerel with Dorset crab apple jelly; foie gras with rhubarb chutney; pan-fried red mullet with lemon puree and duck breast with Lyonnaise-style potatoes, milk chocolate mousse and fruit sorbets.

Ashley Lewis said: “It is essential that the cuisine matches the surroundings, and I take inspiration from everything that makes Ston Easton Park special to give guests a fitting, original and tasty dining experience.”

The 18th-century hotel is situated within 36 acres of private parkland which is lovingly tended by its small team of talented gardeners.

The majority of fruits and vegetables used in many of the new menu’s courses is nurtured within the gardens and then hand-selected by Ston Easton Park’s chefs in accordance with the season.

Ston Easton Park is famed for its gardens and home-grown produce; in particular its gigantic vegetables, for which it has appeared in the national press on many occasions.

In recent years the hotel hit the headlines when one of its chefs mistakingly plucked gardener Dale Toten’s prize giant cabbage from the garden and used it to make a confit.

Ston Easton Park’s seven-course tasting menu costs £75 per person.