Large helpings of old England

A note on the back of the Dorchester Grill Room menu reads thus: "The Grill Room decor is exactly the same today as on the day it opened in 1931.

"Although the decor is Spanish in style, The Grill Room features British classics prepared using the finest and freshest ingredients from some of this country's outstanding producers".

It's good to know. Then again, I cannot quite decide whether this quirky pronouncement is anything more than a combination of the mildest of disclaimers (the Spanish decor) together with a full-on clamour for the British bit.

And, as it turns out, the latter is a most creditable plundering of the fruit-and-vegetable gardens of Audley End, in Essex, tended by the organic organisation HDRA.

I do think that all of this is another good thing and helps promote a tradition of eating well in a grand, London hotel dining-room. And Henri Brosi, the executive chef, should be applauded for searching out exemplary ingredients such as these, to supplement his menu.

A couple of points to discuss, however. First, couldn't the horseradish sauce served with the excellent roast beef from the trolley be grated from fresh roots (mixed with cream and a little sugar) rather than spooned from a catering tub from Frank Cooper?

Apart from the root growing wild all over the countryside, mostly along roadside verges, it is freely available in wholesale markets.

Second, if Yorkshire puddings are purposefully kept enclosed within a steam-laden trolley, then surely this is a case of everyone responsible - both kitchen and dining-room staff - being fully aware that they would actually prefer to serve up soggy Yorkshires rather than crisp ones.

And as the beef itself is very fine indeed - two joints on offer, one rare, one more than, and served at lunch and dinner all week - this seems almost an insult.

A daily special of "boiled chicken" (gently poached, in fact) - carved from whole, juicy birds concealed within a secondary trolley and dressed with a lightly herbed sauce made from the reduced chicken's cooking liquor enriched with cream - was, controversially, though deliciously, as French as a dish can be.