L'ortolan

The red-brick 17th-century former vicarage with conservatory extension stands in a village near Reading, a mere five minutes from the M4, if you're travelling out from London. It's a lavishly appointed place, with deep carpets, ornamental light fittings and Riedel glassware to elevate the tone, and has been home to some of Britain's culinary movers and shakers over the decades. Alan Murchison's present-day tenure incorporates the place into a network of fine-dining venues that extends from Bedfordshire to Devon, and is concerned to inculcate these skills in the rising generation. It's breathlessly contemporary food in its styling, with jellies, pannacottas and purées popping up all over, and salt in at least one of the puddings. A serving of crab two ways, impressive flakes of white meat alongside a luxurious custard of the brown, are juxtaposed with a variety of passionfruit items - jelly, juice and meringues - for a complex, bold and memorable creation. A main course of Goosnargh duck offers chunks of breast with a crunchy pastilla of the leg meat, and accompaniments of turnip and pear, once again appearing in textural and seasoning variations, from razor-sharp pickles to silky-smooth purées. Fish might be a pavé of skate in a cockle and brown shrimp nage, accompanied by watercress pannacotta. Visual jokes add levity to the occasion, as when a pre-dessert of coconut espuma with mango purée in it is fashioned to look like a fried egg. Variations of sugar at dessert brings together a muscovado sponge, a lump of delicious honeycomb, wibbly-wobbly crème caramel, and a muscovado version of Scottish tablet, all gaining a touch of bite from lemongrass ice cream.