Here is how a weekend at Heckfield Place goes. You arrive and have tea and cake in one of the sitting rooms and nobody rushes you. The grounds stretch out through the windows and you kind of forget you had plans. Later you wander down to the Bothy, the hotel’s spa, which is tucked into the estate and feels like its own little world. No electronics allowed, which at first sounds like a rule and then very quickly feels like a gift. There is a bit of magic to Heckfield that is hard to pin down but you feel it in every detail. Then Sunday evening comes and you walk into the Hearth dining room for something Heckfield has quietly launched. It might be the best reason to book a weekend stay.
The Sunday Supper Table is a weekly gathering exclusively for hotel guests, served every Sunday from 6pm in the Hearth dining room. The format is simple. Seasonal dishes from the estate are laid out along the bar and hearth, and you help yourself. Chefs are on hand to walk you through everything and keep things coming. You sit at your own table. There is no set menu, no courses, no formality. It is intentionally unfussy, which at a place like Heckfield is a deliberate choice and a fun one.
When we visited, most of the proteins had been cooked over the open hearth. Lamb from the estate, chicken with salsa verde, trout. The sides were just as considered. A potato gratin, BBQ carrots, celeriac remoulade, a citrus and radish salad, a savory tart, cheese, and crackers with foraged wild garlic laminated into the dough. Everything felt seasonal without trying too hard to announce itself. The kind of cooking where you go back for seconds of the carrots and nobody thinks twice about it.
Dessert was a coconut cake and a rhubarb jelly with set cream. Save room. Both were worth it.
The cocktails were excellent too. There is something about having a well made drink by a fire in a room like this on a Sunday evening that just works.
What I liked most about the Sunday Supper Table is that it felt like the right ending to a weekend in the countryside. Not a big production. Not a tasting menu. Just good food from the farm, served generously, in a beautiful room with a fire going.
The Sunday Supper Table runs every Sunday from 6pm. It is available to residents only, so you will need to book a stay. Honestly, that is not the worst excuse to come back.
Note: Heckfield Place provided support for the reporting of this story.