We explore the tasting menu of York’s newest fine-dining restaurant, Legacy

Legacy at The Grand, York’s, Head Chef reveals the secrets behind the flavour combinations in his dishes that have caused quite a stir.

York’s newest fine-dining restaurant has opened its doors in the heart of one of the UK’s top five-star hotels: The Grand, York.

Inside Legacy, you’ll get a taste of luxury thanks to their memorable culinary experience on offer – with an indulgent eight-course tasting menu that’s been carefully curated with locally sourced ingredients and a wine pairing led by an in-house sommelier.

Head Chef, Ahmed Abdalla, has created a menu which is dedicated to local provenance and showcases classic Yorkshire produce with a modern twist. With environmentally friendly culinary decisions being his top priority, one of Ahmed’s locally sourced ingredients that has been a massive hit is The Grand’s honey that’s produced by bees on the roof of this luxurious hotel.

From colourful baby vegetables, tender locally reared lamb and freshly caught langoustine, Ahmed has created ingenious bursts of flavour at every turn, ensuring that each dish is a taste sensation.

But what makes this dining destination so unique is that Ahmed personally greets guests and brings the delicious dishes to life by talking through some of the collaborations of flavours on the menu.

For those of you foodies who can’t wait to find out more, we caught up with the man behind the menu to find out the creative process behind each flavour combination that has proven a massive hit with diners.

CELERIAC

This is one dish I don’t see much change happening, we’ll only look to changing the truffle on this dish as it changes with the seasons. This was the first dish that I created for the menu and one I worked the hardest on tweaking.

We serve this with a black garlic puree and celeriac puree which balance the level of sharpness and silkiness from another. Served on the side is a hazelnut pesto made with parmesan and truffle honey. We make this by using the trimmings from our truffles and placing them in a sealed container with the honey.

HALIBUT

Our halibut is sourced from the best Yorkshire supplier of fresh seafood. The main flavour at work in this dish is fennel we use a variety of flowers and sea herbs but the real player is the fantastic bit of fish which we pan fry and finish off with butter.

The sauce was a tricky one at first, but we decided to stick to a simple yet effective classic – mousseline sauce (which is very similar to a hollandaise but with whipped cream folded in). It’s a lovely sauce that takes expertise to get completely right but with a brilliant kitchen brigade, ours absolutely oozes flavour and perfectly suits the atmosphere at Legacy.

TRIO OF YORKSHIRE LAMB

The lamb dish is the pinnacle of the menu as it’s the one everyone comes for – it’s the big hitter. The menu changes with the seasons though, so make sure to try it while you still can.

Three types of lamb:

The belly –  slowly cook this down in red wine and mix of aromatics before pressing it and portioning it accordingly.

The sweetbread – we cook it classically by bringing it up to a boil in a stock made from vegetables and herbs then slowly simmer till it’s slightly cooked. We then peel away any sinew before putting it through a breadcrumb mix, this is then fried and served with a tarragon emulsion.

The rack – this takes special attention as the cooking has to be very precise to ensure it is perfect. A few minutes of cooking is the difference between an overcooked rack and a tender, juicy piece. We take some of the fat off before seasoning it heavily in salt and rendering it right down. We finish in the oven with butter and some thyme and garlic and allow maximum rest time before carving. We add some pickled turnips on the plate to balance all the richness around and finish with a Madeira sauce in which we add sherry vinegar to get it just right.

GRAND HONEY 

Our honey dessert is a favourite amongst our guests and chefs. I believe by using our own honey to create anything it then shows our passion for the locality because we can’t get any fresher than the honey from the bees on our roof.

We use the honey to make a panna cotta in a quenelle form, we serve Yuzu chocolate in aero and some lemon gel to break up all the sweetness. Our ice cream is also made from honey, we try to focus on one predominant flavour across the dish and work that to the best of our skills. In this case, it’s the honey.

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