15/05/2026
Earlier this week, Andy travelled up to Chester to join Gary Usher as his Guest Chef at
Such a fantastic evening of great food & some reminiscing (Gary trained with Andy at Chapter One!)
Thanks so much to Gary & his team 🙏 it was a pleasure to be involved.
🎥
A bit of a full-circle moment last night as we kicked off the latest in our 2026 Guest Chef Series — this time with Chef Andrew McLeish of Chapter One, where Gary trained early on in his career.
Hearing the two of them chat through those Chapter One days was pretty special. Gary spoke about just how much that kitchen shaped him as a chef - the standards, the detail, the graft - and Chef shared stories from those intense Michelin-starred years where everyone was running on very little sleep and a lot of adrenaline!
The shared menu began with a few dishes from The White Horse team — Usher’s Bakehouse sourdough with café de Paris butter, plus deep-fried Wye Valley asparagus ready to dip into ajo blanco and wild garlic.
Then onto Chef’s starter: wild fallow venison tartare using deer sourced from a private estate close to his restaurant in Kent. Served with warm potato rösti and smoked mayonnaise, it was rich, earthy and packed with flavour — nodding to the classic French pairing of tartare and fries.
Next came olive oil-poached Chalk Stream trout with whipped Jersey Royals before the main of slow-grown organic duck with smoked celeriac purée, charred celeriac and walnut purée. The duck was glazed and roasted with toasted citrus spices giving the whole dish an incredible warmth and fragrance. Chef described it as the sort of food he genuinely loves eating at home himself.
Dessert might have been our favourite story of the night though. Every January, once the madness of Christmas is over, the Chapter One team buy crates of Seville oranges and spend quieter service days making huge batches of marmalade together in the kitchen. Last night that marmalade found its way into a Jivara chocolate mousse with yoghurt sorbet and crisp white chocolate aero.
