The Beech Hill Hotel overlooking Lake Windermere with its beautiful views, is one of the Lake Districts most distinctive hotels.  Have planned a number of special events throughout 2013 to entertain and delight our guests.

With the exception of January, The Beech Hill has a busy calendar of special events for your pleasure, from Valentines and Guy Fawkes Night to Wedding Fayres and Gourmet Nights.

Try our Champagne and Strawberries Evening where we celebrate the start of the great British summer with an extravaganza of Champagne and strawberries, including a specially selected Champagne for each course of your meal.

Or how about our Summer Ball? Enjoy a Champagne Cocktail on the terrace, a delicious four course dinner full of fantastic Cumbrian summer fayre, followed by dancing until midnight to the loud salsa party tunes of The La Tinto Bros from South America.

On Fridays and Saturdays throughout December we have a series of Las Vegas and Hollywood party nights or you can try your luck at our special Charity Party Night, raising funds for the British Heart Foundation.

At the heart of each event is our stunning food. Mouth-watering masterpieces of English and French cuisine produced under the stewardship of Head Chef Chris Davies to AA Rosette standard, all using the finest produce our beautiful county has to offer.

Our range of attractive event and accommodation packages are available throughout the year and will give you a weekend to remember in the heart of the beautiful Lake District.

For further details click on the Special Events tab , call 0844 502 7587  or  take a look at our  Special Events Video

Fraser Richardson

Managing Director

Beech Hill Hotel Limited

Summer’s here and we have a great new Lounge and Terrace menu in full swing. This summer in the Lake District promises to be a hot one and here at the Beech Hill we have the perfect place to enjoy it! For those of you who haven’t yet experienced our fantastic lake view terrace, what are you waiting for?!

Take some time to look through our website and gallery and check out our latest special offers, many include dinner in our award winning restaurant. I use fresh, local produce throughout all my menus and the whole dining experience is one to remember!

With the new Terrace menu I have retained some of the favourites, but brought in some, soon to be, classics!

Here’s a small a taster;

Succulent Fell bred Steak & Smoked Stilton Burger-with caramelised onions, watercress & dill pickle.

Crispy Parma Ham & Sage Croquettes- with beetroot puree & mustard sauce.

Deep-fried Whitebait – homemade dill tartar sauce, smooth mushy pea dip.

Rustic Farmhouse Ham Terrine –served with hot crusty bread, homemade piccalilli, & ketchup.

Hot-chocolate Fondue- Shortbread & meringue soldiers, homemade mint marshmallow & English strawberries.

There’s plenty more where these came from – but you’ll have to come and try them for yourselves!

Have a great summer, and I hope to see you soon!

Christopher G. Davies

Executive Head Chef

I always get excited as this time of year approaches-

The arrival of the legendry Formby Asparagus is the forerunner to English peas and broad beans, my three favourite green vegetables.

A couple of examples of how we use these delicious vegetables at Burlington’s Restaurant are:

Roasted Salmon Pave-Fresh garden peas, lettuce, smoked Cumbrian pancetta,  with tangy Caesar dressing

• Some lovely contrasting flavours explode in this dish- the richness of the salmon is intensified by the roasting process – which is cut through by the sweetness of the peas and lettuce, the sharp yet rich sauce refreshes the palette

White Muncaster Crab Cocktail & beignet- formby asparagus “vichysoisse”

• Flaked local crab meat bound in a chive mayonnaise –topped with a fried crab  & choux pastry  puff- served  in a creamy chilled asparagus, leek & potato soup

Asparagus Taster –crispy soft free-range egg- purple frizzee-hollandaise sauce

• This dish celebrates three contrasting varieties of asparagus- steamed Lancashire asparagus –from the village of Formby- char-grilled German white asparagus, (the most prized in their neck of the woods, chunky) French wild asparagus (resembling ears of wheat!) warmed in nonna Gemma virgin olive oil.
• They are treated in three different ways to preserve (wild asparagus-warmed)- intensify (white asparagus –char-grilled) and enhance-(English – steamed & buttered)
• They are served on a little purple frizzee lettuce – which has a taste of boiled jersey royals!
• And to finish a soft free-range egg from Bannerigg Farm in Windermere coated in crispy crumbs.

If we’ve tingled your taste buds why not come along to the restaurant and take advantage of our Gourmet Diners Club where up to four of you can dine at the restaurant and get up to 50% off your food bill.

Bon appetite

Christopher Davies

Executive head chef

Country Fest … a real taste of the countryside.

Country Fest is a fantastic weekend which has proven to be a great success.  It is held on the 28^th and 29^th May at Crooklands, Milnthorpe; which is only a 30 minute drive from the Hotel.  It’s a show for all ages, show casing the quality and diversity of Cumbria’s independent food and drink producers and suppliers.  There is also a wide range of children’s activities and entertainment and demonstrations to keep the adults enthralled from sheep shearing to cooking.  We had a fantastic day last year, there was something there for all of us, my husband being a chef himself was loving all the food demonstrations and stalls, myself being a bit art and crafty was amazed by what people can produce and my two boys thought the mountain bike display was a treat.

Last year ex Coronation Street star turned cheese maker Sean Wilson wowed the packed audience with his mouth watering demonstrations. This year Claire Lara who won BBC’s Master Chef the professionals will be demonstrating in the food theatre.  In the demonstration arena this year will be K9-2000 dog display team and inch perfect motorcycle display team and many others.

After a busy day enjoying all the demonstrations and taking in all that local produce you can return to the hotel to relax and unwind and try out some of Cumbria’s best produce cooked by our Head Chef, Chris Davies, in our fantastic Burlington’s restaurant.

For more information on county feast go to www.westmorlandshow.co.uk

Cora Hansen

Operations Manager

I moved to England from Lithuania 6 years ago and have worked at The Beech Hill ever since arriving here.  When talking to our guests many of them ask me “What’s a traditional Lithuanian dish?” and I often struggle to answer, as our food is much more similar to English food than most would expect.  For example ‘bangers and mash’ although the name is something I have had to get used to, is very similar to a lunch dish from Lithuania, but served with a rich creamy sauce instead of gravy.  Also, meatballs, fish pie, sheppard’s pie and quite few other English style dishes are no stranger to our tables.

Lithuanians love potatoes, pork and sour cream based sauces (we like our rich food, not healthy, but very tasty!). The most popular dish in Lithuania is ‘cepelinai’ which are big dumplings made of potato dough and minced meat, and although it sounds like a very simple dish it actually takes about 3 hours to make. I remember as a child, before we had modern kitchen appliances my mum would spend 5 hours slaving over a hot stove so that we could enjoy this dish at least once a week.

It will come as no surprise, that after all of this time, I have grown to like most of the dishes English cuisine has to offer, but I have to say there are a few English dishes that I haven’t got used to – chip butties (I know it’s not meant to be a gourmet dish but for me it’s either potatoes or bread, not both) tea served with milk (I tried it once and decided to stick to coffee) and sage & onion stuffing!

That being said there are some traditional English dishes, which I hadn’t heard of 6 years ago, that are now making regular appearances on my table, mostly desserts!  Bread & butter pudding is one of my new favourites; cost affective, easy to cook and tasty … what else could you ask for?!

Chris Davies, our Head Chef here at the Beech Hill has been very patient with me and every time I have asked to taste something he has very kindly said yes and explained what it is, where the ingredients come from, what garnish and seasoning has been used and how long it takes to make.  I hope his kindness and patience never runs out!

Lina Martutaityte

Assistant Manager

Firstly a very happy new year to all our past, present and future guests.  May 2011 bring you happiness and prosperity.

On BBC Breakfast News this morning (Sunday 09/01/2011) two respected journalists/food critics were interviewed by the presenter about their predictions for top level food trends for 2011.  With great enthusiasm they cited how classic retro dishes – such as prawn cocktail and pie ‘n’ mash, scotch eggs, etc. would be returning with “twists” this year.

Well here are a few examples of dishes we have been bringing to the Beech Hill dining community for several years!

A couple of takes on the classic 70’s starter but not a lemon wedge in sight!

• Muncaster Crab & Flookburgh Shrimp “Cocktail” with lobster & tomato Marie rose sauce
• Warm Lobster & King Prawn Cocktail, with lobster & tomato béarnaise sauce

These small versions of a hearty pub or football match classic make great starters; the mini pastie comes with crimped edges just like a little Cornish pastie, very cute.

• Holker Partridge “Pie n Mash” – Char-grilled partridge breast & leek pie with celeriac mash
• Homemade Mini Oxtail & Foie Gras Pastie, with green beans and truffled mash
• Winster Rabbit Pie ‘n’ Mash – Rabbit and Parma ham pie, with watercress mash

A very grown up version of an 80’s kids favourite, but with ours it doesn’t have to be your dirty little food secret anymore!

• Crispy Mushroom, Spinach & Smoked Allerdale Cheese Pancake

Breakfast is too tasty to eat just once a day so we re-vamped it for dinner.

• “Ham ‘n’ Eggs” – Ham hock terrine with a mini foie gras scotch egg
• Micro “All Day Breakfast” – Kedgeree, pancetta cube, blood orange juice, grilled cherry tomatoes and an egg & mushroom frittata

Everybody’s favourite picnic snack …

• Mini Smoked Scotch Quail Egg with tomato chutney

So as Gok Wan has been known to say … ‘bang on trend!’

Have a great January.

Christopher G. Davies

Executive Head Chef