With less than seventy-five days to go until Royal Ascot, Ascot Racecourse has launched a competition to find diners for the UK’s first ever, horse-drawn, Michelin starred dining experience. The pop-up restaurant will open on Observation Point, Queen’s Walk on London’s Southbank on 16 April, giving two lucky diners an early preview of Royal Ascot’s fine dining offering.
Unusual but luxurious dining
The winners of the competition will dine on a three course Royal Ascot taster menu prepared by twice Michelin starred chefs, Michael Caines (Gidleigh Park, Devon) and Phil Howard (The Square, Mayfair) who are both hosting restaurants at this year’s Royal meeting. Michael and Phil have partnered with Steve Golding (Executive Chef, Ascot Racecourse) to create an unusual, but luxurious, dining experience. The lunch will be served with paired white, red and desert wine from Ascot’s own wine cellar.
Touring between courses!
The beautiful restaurant, which sits inside a painstakingly restored, Victorian landau carriage akin to the one used in the Royal Procession, can accommodate just two diners at any one time around a specially crafted dining table. Diners will be welcomed by Ascot’s famous Greencoats, before being served Champagne Bollinger and canapés to whet their appetites. Once aboard the carriage, diners will embark on a tour of London’s Southbank overlooking the River Thames, Saint Paul’s Cathedral and the City of London. The diners will be pulled by two immaculately turned out grey horses called Otto and Bullet. Each course on the menu will be served at a fixed point on the route, so that the motion of the carriage doesn’t detract from the quality of the dining experience.
Taster of the Royal Ascot experience
Speaking about experience Juliet Slot, Commercial Director, Ascot Racecourse said, “Royal Ascot is one of the highlights of the British summer calendar, because it combines the spectacle of the world’s best horses, with stunning pageantry, amazing fashion and fine food. We wanted to treat people to an early taster of the Royal Ascot experience and so we are working with Michael and Phil to create what we believe to be the world’s first Michelin starred horse drawn dining experience. Whoever wins this competition is in for a truly memorable day.”
Fun challenge for the chefs
Michael Caines said, “As an experienced chef, I am used to cooking food under pressure and have worked in some challenging culinary environments. However, I have to say this is probably the most unusual restaurant I will have ever helped to prepare food for – whoever wins the competition is in for a truly memorable experience.”
Phil Howard added, “Hosting a restaurant at Ascot is both an enormous privilege but also represents an exciting challenge, in terms of delivering a high quality dining experience that fits around the racing. Similarly, creating dishes of an exceptional standard that can be served in a genuinely horse drawn restaurant has been fun and far from straightforward. I hope that whoever wins will appreciate the craft and care that has gone into designing the experience.”
How to enter
Members of the public can enter the competition through the Ascot Racecourse website here or via the Ascot Racecourse Facebook page