For three years, Restaurant of the Week has been a mainstay in the weekly Elite Traveler calendar – a chance to share our top new openings, our favorite dishes and the chefs you need to know about. Now, though, with the dawn of our fresh new look, comes the dawn of a fresh new fine dining column: The Reservation.
For the first iteration of The Reservation, we bring you something different: not just a restaurant to while away an evening or a languid lunch, but a whole food-lovers’ estate, centered around one epic al fresco feast.
For a second year running, the team at Carousel (a restaurant that hosts a revolving lineup of guest chefs) has departed the lights of London for Ashcombe Estate – a sprawling farm property in the rolling hills of Wiltshire, owned by iconic British film director Guy Ritchie. Like at the London HQ, the Carouself team has invited a series of their chef friends to head to Ashcombe over the summer to cook a one-off dinner at the estate’s lakeside WildKitchen.
Occupying a starring role in Netflix’s The Gentlemen (directed by Guy Ritchie, of course), WildKitchen is Ritchie’s proprietary indoor/outdoor kitchen and dining room, born of his love for cooking over fire. Ever-so-slightly more refined than an open flame in the woods, WildKitchen’s tented set up is fully temperature-controlled and smoke-free, with retractable canvas walls protecting guests who sit around a shiny copper table from the elements.
So popular is the set up that several other luxe properties around the world – including Beaverbrook in Surrey, England, and The Lodge at Blue Sky, Utah – have installed their own WildKitchen. (David Beckham also famously has his own one, too.)
Unlike last year, where the Carousel partnership offered the chance to book individual dinners and lunches only, the 2025 season has upped the ante with the chance to head to Ashcome for an entire weekend of feasting. Tight for time? Fear not – the Carousel x WildKitchen dinners can be booked on an evening-only basis (but we highly recommend making a weekend of it).
Chefs
The beauty of the Carousel x Wild Kitchen collab is that each weekend, a different high-profile chef takes to the kitchens. Launch weekend on April 29-May 3 will see Debora Fadul, of Diacá in Guatemala City, head to the Dorset countryside for an evening of imaginative modern Guatemalan dishes.
Other headline acts include Charlie Taylor of London’s Michelin-starred Aulis on July 5, East and West fusion from Dinings SW3’s Masaki Sugisaki on May 24, and Jesús Durón, who previously helmed Mexico City’s industry-defining Pujol, on August 23.
For a special preview weekend, James Knappett made the pilgrimage from London to Ashcombe to heat up Wildkitchen coals before the season launches in earnest. Knappett founded Kitchen Table with his wife Sandia Chang in 2012, and it has gone on to undisputedly become one of the city’s best restaurants – a fact that its two Michelin stars gladly pay testament to.
The Carousel x Ashcombe Estate weekend kicks off with welcome drinks in the Old Brewery (Ritchie once upon a time operated the Gritchie Brewing Company), a space where classic British pub (bar snacks and all) meets elevated country house. The house champagne is Charles Heidsieck and the cocktails are killer – the Vesper Martini is especially good.
Friday’s evening meal is created by the Carousel team, led by head chef and co-founder Ollie Templeton. Although technically an opener to Saturday’s main event, the dinner is an event in itself. Primarily served family style, the dishes are rich, indulgent and more-ish.
There are slightly charred, finger-burning hot flatbreads, smothered in curry leaf butter, and salty padron peppers, to be used as a vessel for scooping up spicy ‘nduja. Next, there are overflowing plates of moist roast chicken with lashings of garlicky aioli, and meaty hunks of monkfish swimming in smoky butter.
Salty, piping hot hand-cut chips are on hand to mop up the remaining buttery sauces and a vinegar-y green salad eases health-aware consciences. Carousel’s house wines pour freely and generously. If I’d traveled two hours into the countryside for this meal alone, I’d have left Ashcombe happy.
But alas, the real reason for the journey comes the following day. Come Saturday evening, guests are transported en masse via tractor-pulled bus (with animal fur throws for added comfort) to the lake, where trails of festoon lights illuminate the alfresco WildKitchen set-up. Centered around cooking primarily over open fire, WildKitchen invites chefs who are typically confined to squeaky clean professional kitchens to let loose a little, and each visiting chef will inevitably interpret the challenge uniquely.
While Knappett’s menu at Kitchen Table follows a formal, tasting-menu-only structure, his WildKitchen offering was a bit more informal. Some dishes were replicated directly (including the seemingly never-ending supply of the restaurant’s signature crisped chicken skin, rosemary mascarpone and bacon chilli jam snacks), but others have been reimagined to fit the WildKitchen set up.
Cornish lobster is gently steamed and wrapped in a delicately spiced Goan-style curry, and beef fat-laden sourdough is gently charred, ready to be coated with pickle-spiked beef tartare. Mains are served to the table to share, and gratefully kept warm by fires built into the table: there’s piping hot Jersey Royal potatoes, each with a gentle crisp; pink BBQed lamb rump, coated in garishly green wild garlic sauce; and a tangy swipe of sheep’s milk yoghurt.
Like the food, the vibe is more relaxed than the chefs might be used to: Knappett himself was on hand to spoon more helpings of salad onto the plates of anyone he deemed to have not had enough, and gently cajole those whose plates weren’t clean.
Stay
Ashcombe Estate’s main guest accommodations are in the cutesy farmhouse. New for this year, the farmhouse was reimagined by interior design consultant Edward Hurst. Working closely with Ritchie and his wife Jacqui (who both spent a large portion of their time on a private corner of the estate), Hurst reimagined the classic English country home aesthetic with maximalist floral wallpapers, vintage furnishings and muted but colorful palettes. Little luxuries are not done away with either – toiletries are by British brand Bamford and the bed linens are silky soft.
Two penthouse suites, which will cover a larger square footage and offer commanding countryside views, are set to launch mid-way through the summer season.
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Aside from cossetting accommodations, guests can also make the most of Ashcombe’s facilities, including a lakeside wood-fired sauna, a toasty hot tub and wild swimming. There are yoga classes and hiking, and there are cocktails by the fire. As we’re generously told from the minute we arrive at Ashcombe, we can do as little or as much as we please; what luxury.
carousel-london.com