Rogan & Co , Cartmel Village.

I head back down to the delightful village of Cartmel for lunch at Chef Simon Rogan’s restaurant, Rogan & Co , little sister of the wonderful L`Enlcume (5 minutes’ walk away). Newly appointed Chef Tom Barnes joined the L`Enclume team in 2011 and went on to win the Roux Scholarship 2 years later in 2014. Tom continued to work as Head Chef at L`Enclume for 3 years before taking up a year long position at Restaurant Geranium in Copenhagen , Denmark. The word soon spread out that Tom was heading back over to Cumbria to take up the position of Chef Patron at Rogan & Co in Cartmel village. I gave it a couple of weeks for Tom to settle into role, tweak his Menu, and then I booked straight in to eat there.

We turned up for lunch on a stunning sunny Saturday morning. Parking is currently quite a problem in Cartmel with the new addition of double Yellow lines encircling the village. The adjacent racecourse offers ample parking so just set off early to avoid being late. There`s no Tasting menu on at R&Co and so our only choice was to choose off the ALC menu. We just decided to let Chef Tom send us whatever he wanted to cook , creating our own little Tasting menu consisting of 4 different Appetisers , 4 starters , 2 mains and 3 desserts to share between ourselves.

Salt Cod Gougeres £5 – Traditional classic Gougeres filled with a mixture of creamy Salt Cod.

Crispy Beetroot, Ragstone £5 – Dehydrated Melt in the mouth Beetroot Meringue Wafers containing a Ragstone Cheese Creamy filling.

Truffle pudding £5 – I found it really unusual to have Pud as a savoury course but it worked really well. Basically a cooked and cooled Brioche & Butter Pudding which was pressed, portioned and then sautéed off to order. The Truffle blobs complemented perfectly.

Beef Croquette , Ramson puree and flowers – £5

Mackerel Tartare, Turnip, Horseradish leaf £11 – Chef Toms Scandinavian influences showing strongly on this one. Stunning looks and a light ,refreshing course.

Hen of the Woods mushroom, cured Egg yolk, Hazelnut Whey £9

Duck leg with Jerusalem Artichoke, Elderflower £10 – I found this course to be the weakest of the meal. The combination of the Duck , Artichoke Crisps and Elderflower scented Shallots worked well together but the construction of the dish needed some work compared to the other visually beautiful courses of our lunch.

Caramelised Potatoes, Smoked Eel & Buttermilk £10 – Very rich and full of flavour. Salty smoked Eel paired up with creamy Potatoes worked well.

Aged short Rib of Beef, Creamed Potato & Bone Marrow £25 – Faultless , tender and the sauce was perfection.

Valley Venison, glazed Beetroots, Riesling Cabbage £24

Baked Cheesecake with lightly spiced Pineapple £9 – A very safe dessert and a perfect demonstration of a classic Cheesecake.

Meadowsweet , Rhubarb, White Chocolate, Strawberry & Sweet Cicely £9 – Ohhh this was so good , my good lady got this one and I watched wide eyed like a dribbling Dog. She was so tight that she only gave me 2 samples of it. Fantastic flavour combination , classic Rogan.

Caramelised Brioche, Apple, Woodruff & Vanilla ice Cream £9 – This course was hard work after so much food. My good lady just couldn`t manage it and so I had to eat the lot on my own…. Bring on a second portion .

Coffee with sweet treats – Hay scented Truffles were awesome.

So all in all an enjoyable and very filling lunch. A 3 course meal with 2 glasses of Wine will work out at approximately £65 per person. You can always make up your own little tasting menu if you have bigger appetites like myself. No doubt the menu will be changing again very soon at Rogan & Co so we`ll pop down again for another lunch and next visit we`ll go check out Rogans farm and gardens and report back….. More to follow shortly. We met up with Simon after our lunch and took a tour of the new developments at L`Enclume (there`s some amazing changes in the pipeline). Exciting times lay ahead down in Cartmel.