St Michaels Resort in Falmouth has found the missing piece of its puzzle with the arrival of an exciting new head chef, discovers Jo Rees
Lush gardens with hot tub, sauna and plunge pool. Stylish contemporary bedrooms. Health club and hydrotherapy pool. Tick, tick, tick. St Michaels Resort has long ticked all the boxes for a good-time getaway in Cornwall.
However, until very recently, its restaurant had a period without a head chef – although its three sous chefs did a solid job of manning the pass. But kitchens work best with a leader, or it’s like attempting the Normandy Landings without Monty to coordinate the troops.
Like field marshals, chefs need a strategy, and I was intrigued to find out what the resort’s newly arrived head chef, Dave Waters, had up his sleeve. Most recently, he led the kitchen at Hotel Meudon and also spent six years working with Nathan Outlaw, so he knows his oysters.
Earlier in the day, I caught up with Dave and chef Stephane Delourme (who led Rick and Jill Stein’s The Seafood Restaurant for two decades), which provided an inkling as to what the strategy might be. Stephane had stepped in to oversee the kitchen for a couple of months before Dave’s arrival and was finishing his tenure there. And yes, you’ll be delighted to discover, they’re transforming Brasserie on the Bay into a seafood restaurant.
Our expectations were high when we arrived for dinner. We kicked things off with rock oysters dressed in hogwash (rice vinegar, minced shallot, jalapeño and coriander), which were bracingly fresh, and ordered a board of bread to accompany. So many decent restaurants let the side down with underwhelming bread (and coffee, but let’s not go there). However, these springy slabs of focaccia and brown and white sourdough, served with black olive tapenade, green olive and smoked-almond tapenade, and olive oil and balsamic, were so good they require significant self-restraint.
For starters, we moved on to crispy pig’s cheek with pineapple, rum and mango salsa, and a delicate salad of salt-baked red and golden beetroot with apple, whipped goat’s curd and candied walnuts. It was exactly the kind of opener needed when you plan to follow it with a big fat lemon sole swimming in garlic, ginger and chilli butter. To be sated before that hit the table would be a dereliction of duty.
The fish was cooked beautifully and presented (with head on) in a jacket of buttery herbs – a delicious portent for the restaurant’s new seafood direction. Sticking to the theme, we paired it with lobster thermidor with salad and fries, and it was everything you’d hope for when ordering the most expensive thing on the menu.
For pudding, a shared mini tarte tatin – crisp pastry and caramelised apple (with bite) on a shoreline of cinnamon sugar – delivered apple and cinnamon doughnut vibes.
As the kitchen team knew we were in that night, they also sent out a new and not-yet-on-the-menu dessert to sample. The perfectly wobbly coconut pannacotta with strawberry and pineapple salsa referenced piña coladas without even a whisper of kitsch. A clue perhaps to the crowd-pleasing holiday vibes at which Dave is aiming? If that’s the case, consider the last box well and truly ticked.
