Adam Jackson is a name with which anyone who’s serious about eating out in York is familiar, having been Head Chef at The Black Swan at Oldstead when it was awarded its Michelin Star, before opening his own restaurant. Latterly Adam has undertaken a stint leading the kitchen at The Feversham Arms in Helmsley but his appointment to The Bow Room Grays Court feels like a perfect fit for all concerned. To do a building such as this justice, dinner here was always going to be a high end affair, which is reflected in the price of the tasting menu at £100 per person, with the matched wines demanding a further £65 contribution. Those might sound like big numbers, and in isolation they certainly are, but a little digging shows they stack up with comparative experiences in York which occupy less storied buildings. I also note a number of price rises being signposted by fine dining restaurants in the city too, a situation which doesn’t look like easing any time soon in the current global context.

Arriving at Grays Court is an event in itself as you duck along some of York’s quieter streets to find a courtyard festooned with fairy lights across an avenue of trees before descending a couple of steps to be welcomed into the building. From there it’s up to a gallery style bar area in which to enjoy a pre-dinner drink and amuse-bouche. This is one of those spaces that seems automatically to imbue one with a sense of calm as things slow down and you’ve time to take in your surroundings, enhanced in this case by a glass of sparkling wine and a charmingly light Lincolnshire poacher and truffle gougère to start things off. After polishing those off at a leisurely pace we were on our way through to our table in the dining room complete with personalised menu. Before the menu kicked off in earnest we were to enjoy a couple of snacks and a bread course that set the tone for the evening quite perfectly, with a venison tartare tart emboldened by capers and hazelnuts accompanying a venison ragout served under a celery foam also spiked with capers. This coupling was served across a striking bowl of foliage that, when arriving at the table, used dry ice to snake tendrils of spruce scent around us as we confirmed the balance of the snacks was as well resolved as the sense of occasion. Wild garlic is bang on season at the moment so not wholly unexpected cropping up to enhance a white onion butter that was served with a tiger bread, another exercise in restraint as neither garlic nor onion flavour dominated while both were present in quantity.

Having enjoyed that preamble, we started on the menu itself with a first course of cod, cucumber and a fennel element along with a champagne sauce, all of which harmonise beautifully to continue the sense of balance, before our next fish course of Sea Trout. This one was served with a beetroot and wasabi as well as a partnering piece of sushi giving a greater sense of scale. I’ve always admired Adam’s delicacy of touch with heat and the wasabi cutting through the rich fish was judged to perfection here, all underpinned by hard working beetroot and a scattering of nasturtium for presentation and a little extra pep.

The meat course in a menu like this needs to be a show stopper so fillet of beef is quite an appropriate indulgence, served here with watercress as an emulsion and potato obscured by an equally appropriate quantity of truffle. A couple more nasturtium leaves helped to temper the extremes of indulgence from the beef and truffle along with a punchy sauce spiked with green peppercorns.

At this point we were feeling the impact of all this indulgence before embarking on desserts but a good hit of sugar from the first sweet course quickly kickstarted our digestion and had us back on track. This was another dish of two parts with an apple cake in the lid of the serving vessel giving way to ginger and rhubarb in the bowl. Our last course balanced bitter dark chocolate with armagnac and prune sandwiched between two sugary crisp sheets with a flourish of edible gold for good measure. The wines that went along with each dish were a an original selection featuring an orange wine, a Georgian wine and a particularly well matched Hungarian Tokaji to bring out the best of the ginger, apple and rhubarb course.

Repeating that these dishes are well resolved, balanced, refined and generally executed with precision, detail and maturity has become a bit of a theme throughout this piece and sums up the experience nicely. There’s a strong sense of unity between space, location, service, approach to sourcing and cooking that speaks of a team working well together in a space that elevates an experience that already feels special. Many times in the history of York buildings, spaces and concepts have struggled to integrate with one another into something cohesive but The Bow Room at Grays Court is the antithesis of this. It can very happily count itself amongst the very best the city has to offer already, with a sense of more to come too.

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Afternoon Tea isn’t one of my favourite eating experiences, playing away from my preference for savoury (give me a cheese board rather than dessert every time), but The Feversham has recognised that limitation of this style of dining and now offers a savoury version that plays out over three tiers of treats along with as much tea or coffee as you can get down yourself. The Feversham is in good hands at the moment, as I found out recently when I went to try Sunday lunch after Adam Jackson took over the kitchen bringing with him a host of experience, accolades and industry respect.

Our first task on arriving to dine was to choose a tea with our household staple Yorkshire Tea available alongside a selection of 10 more unusual options explained through a bespoke menu housing samples of the loose leaves. We decided to run with a gentle Milk Oolong and a gently sweet Rooibos, both showing great complexity and making perfect partners to the coming food. A glass of champagne can be added on for an extra fee too, I suppose it’s worth mentioning that this style of dining would lend itself well to a few convivial drinks too should you be after something actually rather than euphemistically substantial as some more opportunistic venues are offering.

We decided to work our way through the three tiers housing our savoury selection from top to bottom, starting with the savouries that I found far more appealing than the usual selection of sweets. First up a delicate mouthful of chicken liver parfait that had been worked into a perfect scoop, characteristic of Adam’s presentation, and delivered on just enough toast to get it into my mouth without mess. This first snack’s success can be judged on how quickly it disappeared (very) and before long we were setting about a more substantial snack in the form of a venison sausage roll with a port and plum chutney, another well balanced and satisfying few bites that made the most of the venison filling for a refreshingly distinctive sausage roll. This theme of Afternoon Tea would be nothing without smoked salmon, here making an appearance as a roulade with cream cheese on a circle of Haxby Bakery rye bread and last up was a caramelised onion tart topped with goats cheese and two perfect rings of sharp onion. This was the most visually refined of the quartet and was a delicious note on which to descend to the next level, featuring scones.

Being a savoury afternoon tea I’m thankfully spared at this point the tiresome debate regarding the primacy of jam and cream in the application process, with the scone selection comprising pumpkin and chilli and mustard, cheddar and chive scones, with tomato chutney and and herby whipped cream to be applied however desired and without fear of reprisal. It’s not really an Afternoon Tea if you don’t take some leftovers home so we quickly earmarked a couple of scones for later consumption before tucking into the remainder, which showed off all the punch of the advertised flavours and had the required lightness of texture one hopes for.

That left us on the bottom level with just sandwiches left on our, literal and figurative, plates that started with prawn with marie rose sauce on brioche showing itself to be a retro-tinged delight. Coronation Chicken was a similarly nostalgic pleasure, with plenty of sweetness and tang to make it a bold flavour. Finally we enjoyed quality ham and mustard and cheese and chutney sandwiches, which need little in the way of elaboration save to say they reflected quality ingredients.

I guess at this point we knew 2020 would end in tiers, I just feel fortunate that the less enjoyable tiers we’re under restriction of still allowed for the enjoyment of these three tiers of savouries. 2021 is looking like a significant improvement on 2020 and judging by the evidence so far, The Feversham is well placed to take advantage of better times and has exciting plans to help 2021 along.

Disclaimer: Press meal. No charge made or conditions attached.

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Adam is well known across the the Yorkshire hospitality scene, and further afield, thanks to his most recent restaurant on Bootham in York, The Park, which racked up plenty of positivity throughout its life before his move to Helmsley. Prior to that Adam was also pivotal in earning The Black Swan at Oldstead its Michelin Star and setting the scene for that establishment’s illustrious future. I’ve been lucky enough to enjoy food from Adam on a number of occasions which generally involved multi-course intricacies of indulgence but never home comforts, something I was able to add to my list of experiences courtesy of A Feversham Sunday Lunch.

Sunday Lunch deserves to stand as the high point of that day’s half of the weekend. Some insist that this is a meal that must be enjoyed at home, preferably with someone else cooking, or that it should be no more formal than a pub. I’m happy to enjoy anything on its own merits though so made my way up to Helmsley with the expectation of a thoroughly good feeding. The only hitch with my arrival was my car grounding out slightly on the steep ramp into the car park that also brushed the front chin spoiler, not the end of the world in a slightly soiled 14 year old Golf GTI, but you might want to consider leaving the Ferrari at street level. Once that was dealt with, we made our way to the bright, airy and appropriately distanced dining room to settle in.

The Feversham Arms Sunday lunch menu was reassuringly focussed, with a trio each of starters, mains and desserts to form the inventory of decisions. We plumped for Ham Hock and Mackerel to start followed by Beef and Cod, resisting the temptation to double down on the traditional roast beef. Starters are a contentious issue for some when attached to a Sunday lunch, straying into the regional debate about when Yorkshire puddings should be served, but being a restaurant meal we ran with the concept and enjoyed our first dishes. These were of the high standard you’d expect from a chef and establishment with this reputation, both doing a great job of whetting our appetites for main courses. A pressing of ham hock with pig’s cheek croquette was brought to life by delicately balanced pickles and accents of lovage while mackerel tartare had just the right amount of heat from some wasabi and a refreshing amount of cucumber. With those formalities completed, it was onto main courses.

Little in life is as disappointing as overcooked roast beef but thankfully no such rug pulls came about here as blushing slices of beef drew the eye along with carrot, Yorkshire pud and roast potatoes. To augment this, we also received piping hot cauliflower cheese and some fresh greens to liberally splash gravy across. Everything was all a touch less fine dining than I’m used to from Adam, with no evidence of tweezering onto the plate, but none the worse for it. This was a Sunday Roast elevated to a the highest standard with every element delicious and complementary to one another, cauliflower cheese being particularly compelling. I’d have probably put a couple more roasties on the plate if I’d been serving, but frankly I’d probably be saying that regardless of how many I was presented with and there was certainly no argument to be made with the portions. Cod with curried mussels and cauliflower was equally convincing, though could be a bit far from “meat and veg” for some Sunday Roast preferences if you hold stubbornly traditional views. With my scant regard for tradition I very much enjoyed this dish though, which was deceptively filling thanks to a hefty portion of cod and plentiful cauliflower all wrapped up by a delicately spiced coconut sauce with some powerful micro herbs and crunchy shards to give plenty of variety.

With main courses in the book, we managed to muster just enough appetite to share a chocolate mousse that wore a thin disc of cherry jelly and an immaculate quenelle of cherry ice cream. We wasted no time in deconstructing this to finish the meal, with it continuing the theme of well balanced dishes that showed enough restraint as to be appropriate for a traditional meal. With food having all hit the mark, I’d have been quite happy loitering in the Feversham with the Sunday papers for a good couple of hours, an indulgence that tops off a Sunday lunch beautifully, but was sadly denied to us by the need to retrieve our daughter. I’ve been lucky enough to enjoy some superb Sunday roasts this year and this one more than stood toe to toe with the best, also representing very fair value at £25 for two courses. Adam Jackson is an asset to any kitchen and I’ll look forward to seeing the Feversham gain momentum under his leadership.

Disclaimer: No charge was made for this meal, opinions are impartial.

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He brings over 20-years of experience to the role and a reputation for accolades.  These include a Michelin star as Head Chef at The Black Swan, Oldstead; three rosettes as Executive Chef at Sutton Park, Sutton-the-Forest and three rosettes held for five years at The Park, York. 

Happy to be back in Ryedale, Adam is looking forward to establishing the Feversham Arms as the ‘go-to’ place for great food in a relaxing atmosphere.  He said: “I’m really excited about to bringing my own style of cooking to the Feversham Arms.  

“We’re creating an á la carte and tasting menu with vegetarian and pescatarian options as well as developing a wholesome, healthy-eating Spa menu with fresh, local ingredients.  The hotel has a great reputation and I’m looking forward to taking customers, old and new on an exciting food journey.”

Group General Manager, Ingo Wiangke, said: “We are delighted with Adam’s appointment and his vision of making the Feversham a food destination in its own right.  We know that customers and guests are going to love his proven style of cooking, hospitality and amazing food.”

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As widely reported last month, TV Chef Tim Bilton has battled on and off with cancer after first being diagnosed with a rare form of melanoma cancer in his eye six years ago.  After initial treatment, he was given the all clear until it came back a second time two years later.  Again, Tim underwent treatment and had operations to tackle the cancer and all was going well until earlier this year when he was sadly informed it had returned, but this time in a much more aggressive form and that it was now incurable.  The support for Tim from the hospitality industry since he shared this news has been overwhelming, with messages of moral support coming in from some of the country’s top chefs including Raymond Blanc and Tom Kerridge.

A fund was set up to help Tim and his wife Adele make special memories with their two young boys and also to help ease financial worries whilst Tim undergoes immune therapy treatment.  Upon hearing about this, chef Adam Jackson sent a message out to the Yorkshire restaurant and hospitality community and the response to support a dinner in aid of Tim and his family was immediate.

Last week the dinner was held at The Park by Adam Jackson in York and was attended by leading chefs and restaurateurs from around Yorkshire with many more who couldn’t make it also generously supplying meals and gifts as auction prizes to help boost funds.  The fantastic meal consisted of Adam’s renowned seven course tasting menu with the full ticket price of £65 per head going completely to the fund.  Dishes included sea trout broad beans peas and mint, a take on Tim Bilton’s signature dish of venison shepherds pie and liquorice; followed by cod, grapes lovage and girole; and pork cauliflower truffle and smoked garlic.  Desserts included lemon pistachio and cherry followed by an Earl Grey raspberry and vanilla pudding and summer truffle, all served with Adam’s pinpoint accuracy of flavour and presentation.

Acting as host front of house was HRH Group’s Managing Director, Simon Cotton, who welcomed the diners and became auctioneer after dinner, where the guests bid for a fantastic array of donated prizes including meals at Winteringham Fields, Skosh, The Burlington at Devonshire Arms, The Star Inn at Harome, Pipe & Glass and the Durham Ox to name a few.  Centrepiece of the lots was an amazing chocolate sculpture (pictured) of chef Tim Bilton in a kitchen kindly created and provided by chef chocolatier Ashley McCarthy of Ye Old Sun Inn at Colton.  The diners generously bid for this as a collective raising over £300 alone and then immediately donating it to Tim so he could share it with his children.

Food writer and photographer Wendy Preston was on hand on the night taking pictures and streaming live Facebook updates to Tim whose health sadly meant he couldn’t make it in person, but he was over the moon by the evening and social media ensured he could be part of the enjoyment without being there in person.

Tim’s wife Adele commented “It’s very overwhelming just how much love and support there is for Tim from his fellow chefs and peers in the industry. We both cannot thank Adam and his team enough for all the hard work that will have gone into to the evening and I’m sorry we couldn’t be there. At what is such a difficult time for us a family, it’s amazing people like all you guys that makes us all smile and be very grateful for each and every day.  As you know Tim is a very proud Yorkshire man and the hardest working man I know. To see him struggle to get out of bed every morning to go out to work to provide for his family just absolutely amazes me. This is what the hospitality industry has instilled into him. You can never ever take the chef out of him. Thank you to all you wonderful people and from the bottom of your hearts we are so very grateful. All our love The Biltons.”

Simon Cotton hosting said, “When Adam approached owner Philip Barker and I last month and said he wanted to put this dinner on for Tim and his family it was an easy decision to say yes and support it and we can’t thank everyone enough for their generous donations including many of our suppliers like Sykes House Farm, Anna Lupton, Hodgsons, Yorkshire Vintners, L’uva Italian Wines & Truffles and Cooper King Gin to name just some.  The response to wanting to either attend the dinner or at the very least provide a prize for auction was immediate and particularly generous and we were delighted that the night has raised over £5,000 for Tim and his family.  The Yorkshire hospitality scene is a very close knit one and when hearing of Tim’s heart-breaking story, it was humbling to see everyone rallying together to lend support.”  Adam added, “I was really touched by Tim’s story; he’s a chef in his forties with a young family. I thought, that could so easily be me and I immediately wanted to do something to help”.

With the generous audience, the evening raised in excess of £5,300 which will be going directly to Tim and his family to help with their memory making.  To help add to this and donate to Tim Bilton’s fund to help create further family memories please click here.

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