Buckinghamshire Life Food and Drink
Striding the stage at Paris House
IF Peter Chandler were not a chef, he could be an actor – a Michael Gambon, say, or the mighty-voiced Brian Blessed, both bigger than the roles they play. The fact is, he is a chef – but he still has a stage, in the shape of Paris House at Woburn, a 15 minute drive from Milton Keynes, Aylesbury, Bedford and Luton.
This surreal creation, built in 1878 for the Paris Exhibition as someone’s idea of what an English country house should look like, beguiled the ninth Duke of Bedford, who arranged for it to be dismantled, transported to England and rebuilt on his estate. Today it stands surrounded by deer and ancient trees, reached through a grand archway off the Toddington road.
All this alone suggests a meal at Paris House will be an occasion. The presence of Peter, who has been here for 25 years and just signed for another 15, guarantees it. His CV includes 12 years with Albert and Michel Roux as their first English apprentice, sous-chef at the Waterside Inn at Bray and he is a chef de cuisine of the Academie Culinaire de France. Paris House, whose offer is classic French ‘with a touch of the contemporary’, is also a former Restaurant of the Year.
He talks me through the menu du jour, which is kept deliberately simple at £25 for three courses, with a choice of two starters, asparagus soup or Portland crab salad; two mains, braised featherblade steak or fillet of haddock, plus one dessert, mille feuille of mixed berries, or cheese. I choose the crab salad unaided, but Peter steers me expertly toward the steak, explaining the cut of meat, how it is cooked and why he likes to serve it. For dessert, I stray towards the hot raspberry souffle from the a la carte offerings, which wins general approval since it turns out souffles are a speciality of the house...
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Paris House
Woburn Park
Woburn MK17 9QP
01525 290692
www.parishouse.co.uk
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