Home comforts

Jul 11 2008 by Jane Hall, The Journal

Many chefs claim to use local ingredients – but they don’t come much fresher than those utilised by Vicky Turnbull, who will be showing off her cooking skills at The Journal Taste 2 food and drink festival in August. Jane Hall reports.

GRAFTON House promises much on the dining front. Words like “unpretentious,” “simple,” “delicious”, “local” and “seasonal” litter its glossy pamphlet and upmarket website, aiming to draw in those who care about the quality of their food.

It’s a common ploy used by even the most downmarket establishment to lull diners into thinking they are getting something more than the sum of the parts.

Many a restaurant has been forced to eat such self-congratulatory words, however, after being found humiliatingly wanting in the kitchen.

Thankfully it’s not an accusation that can be leveled at Grafton House and its head chef, Vicky Turnbull. The boutique hotel set in the heart of a conservation area overlooking Durham’s magnificent cathedral, is a model of understated contemporary elegance and design. In fact, it’s so discreet you could easily drive past it. Indeed, the only visible sign that 40 South Street is Durham’s newest hotel is the framed menu (changed daily) that hangs to the right of the main door.

This subtlety extends to the light and airy dining area where Vicky holds court. It only has nine tables and does no more than 30 covers a night. Diners are encouraged to relax and eat in their own time.

The menu is equally pared down; typically there is a choice of four starters, mains and desserts each, with two courses coming in at a more than reasonable £15.50 and three at £19.

Vicky describes her food as “multi-cultural,” then pauses before adding: “That makes it sound as if there’s a lot of foreign things.”

It’s true that Vietnamese spring rolls and Thai spiced pork are a favourite menu choice of both the 42-year-old and the diners who have been flocking to Grafton House since its restaurant opened for business late last year. But many of the ingredients in these two popular Asian-inspired dishes couldn’t have come from closer to home – Vicky’s own allotment to be precise.

Take the spring rolls made with soft rice paper stuffed with rice noodles and chicken with a chilli, lime and peanut dipping sauce. The added coriander, basil, mint and grated carrot that form an important element of this starter, are picked to order from Vicky’s sizeable vegetable patch across the road from her home in Spital Tongues, Newcastle.

It’s not an isolated instance. Home-grown strawberries have just started to make an appearance on her menu, along with lettuce, spinach and Swiss chard.

Her own home-grown potatoes are about to come into their own along with gooseberries, Tayberries, courgettes, and raspberries, with surplus from the latter being used to make her own raspberry vinaigrette, which she teams with pan fried goats’ cheese on mixed salad leaves with walnuts.

Gardeners’ Delight tomatoes will be ready later in the summer with leeks in the autumn, while Jerusalem artichokes, rhubarb, oregano, basil, rosemary and red onions, have already all made it into Vicky’s recipes.

She is a passionate cook who is passionate about the ingredients she uses. Sitting sipping a mid-afternoon cup of strong black coffee in the Grafton’s dining room, Durham Cathedral just visible through the trees, she describes herself as a “good cook who is also a glutton. Some people eat to live, I live to eat. I like eating; it’s as simple as that.”

What she can’t supply to the kitchen herself she sources from quality North East suppliers. Free range eggs come from Butterby’s at Croxdale on the outskirts of Durham; award-winning sausages for the cooked hotel breakfasts from H Coates & Son at nearby Framwellgate Moor; beef and pork from another local supplier, McMurchie Meat of Haswell; cream and milk from Rock Farm Dairy at Wheatley Hill; cheeses from Wooler-based Doddington and the Northumberland Cheese Co at Blagdon, both Northumberland; fish from North Shields and coffee served with Vicky’s homemade fudge, from Pumphreys of Blaydon, Gateshead.

She is currently in the process of sourcing a local supplier for game, which she is keen to add to Grafton’s in-season repertoire for the autumn.

While she usually makes everything that is on the menu – homemade bread using rosemary from her allotment is a speciality – she is a fan of Blaydon-based Artisan Foods, the people behind the Beckleberry’s range of luxury frozen desserts, and offers their chocolate or lemon meringue ice cream accompanied by a homemade shortbread biscuit.

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