This was a really interesting experience to me. Staying in a hotel converted from a 16th traditional English barn & stable, managed by an Italian family who wanted to have an adventure on life, and this family's passion on cooking makes this hotel-restaurant definitely one of the best in my life!
When we were wondering which house the registration room is in, a black cat appeared and walked to us. So Margaret talked to it:"hello cat, can you show us the road?" The cat said "meow", and started walking. We followed her. Ocationally she turn back to check if we have catched up. After it lead us to the main gate, the cat ran away into the bush.
That was the first interaction we had with this hotel, a magic starting of the entire interesting experience.
An Italian family's adventure
I always enjoy knowing a bit more stories underneath, although I am not good at chatting with unfamiliar people. But we have Margaret who is talented at communicating, so gladly I got to share the adventure experience of a nice Italian family.
Since ~1 year ago this Italian family (Baliva Family) moved into this hotel: Mariantonietta and Enrico together with their 3 children, bought this place as a new adventure on their life. Mariantonietta's dream is always opening a hotel-restaurant in countryside with the entire family. Now her dream becomes true.
A few years ago, when Enrico retired from the United Nations in Rome, Mariantonietta said "if we don't do it now, we will never do it". Meanwhile, the twin brother and sister Flaminia Flavia and Francesco, who look similarly pretty, are studying in colleges at London. Mariantonietta always loves English countryside, so there they go. Mariantonietta quitted her job on quality checking (if I remembered right), and the entire family moved from the Italian capital to an England countryside.
The family work together making this hotel-restaurant a wonderful relaxing place: Mariantonietta and the eldest son Filippo are wonderful chefs, Enrico took care of the guest, Flaminia Flavia and Francesco come back to help during the weekends when they do not have courses in London.
The wonderful Italian cuisines
Actually before they bought the current "Elvey Farm" hotel-restaurant, they had already managed a B&B somewhere else in England. After 1-2 years, Mariantonietta felt that she needs a real restaurant, not just a B&B, to satisfy her passion on cooking. I have to say it can not be more correct! We are all glad that they manage a restaurant beside the hotel, and put their talent to good use!
During our stay, we almost tried every meal on the menu. Their food are so lovely that we felt ashamed about our not-big-enough stomaches. Until now I still remember the taste when I tried the starter "Formaggio di capra", how the soft goat's cheese reacted with the perfect amount of honey and lavender, the flavor still echoes on my tone after a month.
One special thing of Italian cuisine is that the starch course and meat course are separated, which are different with French food and others. Roughly speaking, there are 4 courses in an Italian meal: Starter, Pasta dishes, Meat and fish dishes, and Desserts. Of course one can do more than 4, but the main difference of Italian courses is the clear separation of starch and meat.
The menu is only two pages long with 6-7 choices in each course. However, the quality of every dish we tried was very impressive, always got perfectly balance of different ingredients, which much be polished by the chefs with lots of effect. Even the free bread-"Focaccia"(Handmade Italian bread) have been carefully flavored by rosemary and sea salt. I am glad I took photos of every dish we have tried, so now I can look at the photos, replayed the taste in my brain and drooled.
⬇️Starters (Formaggio di capra, Antipasto misto all'Italiana, Focaccia)
⬇️Pasta dishes
⬇️Pasta dishes
⬇️Meat dishes
⬇️Desserts
The hotels converted from barn & stable
Another very interesting thing to me was the architecture. The buildings of this hotel have a long history: they were originally built in 1406. They have been used to keep French prisoners during the Napoleonic Wars, and it is said that Lord Dering hided here before he was captured during the Civil War.
From the introduction book of the hotel that Baliva Family put in every room, the current looking of the hotels was from 16th century when they were used as barns and stable blocks. The people who converted them into guest accommodation were actually the previous owners, in 1970s.
I was just be very curious about the medieval timber houses everywhere in England. Staying in this hotel gave me a change to see the timber house from inside and touch the old wooden frames.
Our room was in the second floor which might be used to store crop in 16th, while the first floor was used to store houses. The front door is even too short for people as hobbit as me.
I happily touched the wood. Apparently there are woods from different time periods, some look much older than others. Not surprising as these wooden houses must take renovating from time to time, people might add new wooden frames if the old ones could not last. The condition of the oldest looking ones was not bad, as shown as below photo, although I could not tell how old it is.
In some rooms we can see wooden frames going across the entire room, or frames at a corner forming triangle-shapes, as extra supports. The wooden structure of the room is not uniform, but rather seems to be flexible which might depend on the quality and shape of the wood they can get.
Apart from the old-looking wooden frames and the short doors, the rooms were kept very clean, cozy, and functional. It is really interesting to me to see how people manage to keep the old structure and meanwhile improve the life quality by importing modern electronic stuff.
For instant, there is an old-looking cabinet in the room as shown in below photo. Well it is a real cabinet from the side.
But when you open the front door next to the mirror, you will find a modern bathroom hiding inside it.
Finally, remember the cat who leaded us to the registration room? It came from the previous owner. It did not want to leave the farm, together with another cat which was too shy to be seen, they become a part of the package (for free) when Baliva Family bought the hotel. This black cat is the most friendly cat I have ever met. It liked sitting on the wooden chair in front of the hotel door, enjoyed touching people when they stopped by. Although so touchy with people, this cat prefers staying outside and guard the hotel.
How to make a dream true. I love what Mariantonietta said: "If not now, then never".
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