Ben Wilkinson at The Pass at South Lodge is a Michelin star and 4 AA Rosette restaurant. It’s small enough to be intimate and has glass walls that allow views straight into the kitchen.
Ben Wilkinson is a rising star in the culinary world. He has previously worked at The Cottage in the Wood in the Lake District, Midsummer House in Cambridge and Savelberg just outside The Hague. Before arriving at The Pass two years ago, he was working at Holbeck Ghyll in Windemere.
Sussex Exclusive was invited to try The Pass’s seven-course tasting menu. So, having enjoyed a quick aperitif on the terrace at South Lodge watching the sun fade over the South Downs, we drifted in to take up the challenge.
Let’s be honest, it’s always ambitious to attempt to eat seven courses. But I am relieved to be able to say at the outset that this is a menu carefully designed so as not to overwhelm either your palate or your digestion. The dishes are each sufficiently petite to leave you wanting another but at the end of the evening, they leave you feeling nicely replete rather than begging for mercy. This is what you want from a tasting menu.
Your seven course tasting menu
I am always interested in where ingredients are sourced and although not everything for this menu comes from within the immediate locality, this is a menu that very much feels like it represents the terroir of Sussex. Scallops, squid and prawn speak of our Sussex shores, whilst lamb, beef and truffle definitely speak of our woodlands and Weald. There is Sussex wine too stitched into the fabric of this menu as you might expect, and in particular, providing the sparkling back note to turbot and squid.
Checking in with the kitchen, Brighton and Newhaven supply all the fish: turbot, tuna, oysters, trout, and Shrub from Brighton supplies most of the fruit and vegetables, whilst their mushrooms are from small specialist growers in Sussex, Surrey and Kent. All of which left my sense of locality feeling satisfied.
I won’t pretend to be a food critic but what is clear, even for me, is that each dish allows your palate the chance to identify and understand the different ingredients and how they all work together. The dishes are complex but not fussy. You’ll have your own favourites but celeriac, beef fillet, with hen of the woods and truffle takes you to the heart of the forest and was one of mine, and although sweetbread dumpling might seem a bold choice, for the meat eaters, I defy you not to love it.
We forewent the cheese course and went straight for the two desserts. Ewe’s milk curd, strawberry sorbet and elderflower, followed by chocolate délice, cherry and almond. Perfectly balanced. Need I say more?
During our meal, my companion and I discussed whether this was a summer or an autumn menu. But as the evening drew to a close, I realised it was both. This is a menu that captures those hot, sweet, sticky notes of the last of summer just as they cool to become the earthy, muted tones of autumn. And each course is a mini masterpiece, to be seen and savoured in its own right. Each course has its own delicate brush strokes, colour, texture and emotion, just like a great painting. But at the same time, each of these mini-masterpieces has a place and plays a role in the larger canvas. It’s subtle, it’s nuanced and it’s very clever.
You can find out more about The Pass at South Lodge here: The Pass
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