Ex-Benu chef to oversee F&B concept at Whatley Manor

Whatley Manor in Malmesbury, Wiltshire, has appointed a chef from the three-Michelin-star restaurant Benu in San Francisco to oversee the launch of a new food and beverage concept.

Laetizia Madsen will head up the Green Room, a new multi-functional open kitchen space that will host lunches, dinners, cookery demonstrations, cheese and wine tastings, cocktails tutorials and small music events. Featuring Gaggenau's kitchen appliances and gadgets to, it will also be available for exclusive private and corporate use.

The Green Room will sit alongside the hotel's the Dining Room, which offers a gastronomic tasting menu and has just achieved a 7/10 rating in the Good Food Guide 2018, and Grey's Brasserie, an informal restaurant serving British comfort dishes.

The Green Room will open on 1 November, alongside the relaunched Grey's Brasserie, which is undergoing a transformation with a new design which will replace the décor of what was previously the Swiss-style Le Mazot. Banquette seating, leather-clad walls and a neutral colour scheme will be introduced.

The Menu at Grey's Brasserie will feature water crust pork pies served on a trolley and traditional Sunday roasts.

Madsen will work alongside Whatley Manor's executive chef Niall Keating, who joined the five-red-AA-star, 23-bedroom hotel in December 2016. Keating also previously worked at Benu, as well as at Kong Hans Kaelder in Copenhagen, Denmark, and at Restaurant Sat Bains in Nottingham.

Whatley Manor is owned by Christian Landolt, a Swiss equestrian rider, and his mother Alix. Sue Williams joined the hotel as general manager from Cliveden House, last year.

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