The Times
Chitra Ramaswamy returned to a “lost era of dining” at one of the final weekend meals to be cooked by chef Tony Pierce, who has served a changing tasting menu every day for 32 years at this 10-bedroom hotel in a former Victorian hunting lodge.
His cooking is “unfussy, elegant, ingredient-led, guided by classic French technique and a mantra of not putting too many things on the plate”. Well judge canapés – a gougere piped with St Andrews cheddar, Scotch egg veined with haggis, olives and crisps – were followed by salmon caught nearby and cured in local gin, a white bean velouté of “velveteen depths”, perfectly cooked Galloway beef and a “sublime Yorkshire rhubarb soufflé crossed with a crumble”.
With change on the horizon (the new head chef has yet to be named), Chitra gave the owners one piece of advice: “upright, old-fashioned hotel restaurants like this are virtually extinct in this country, and while no history should be preserved in aspic, Knockinaam Lodge is a jewel worth conserving. My plea? Don’t change too much.”
chitra Ramaswamy - 2026-05-10
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