I’ve long been a fan of chef Marcus Wareing, for his precise, clean classical cooking, but it’s 4 years since we ate at his main restaurant, Marcus, in the Berkeley Hotel in Knightsbridge.  But when I was looking at Lakedistrict Farmers’ website for make-away boxes I noticed that Marcus Wareing was doing boxes through them, so I ordered the Easter Beef menu, even though it was some £175 for two people.

First off I heated a smallish sourdough loaf in the oven for 16 minutes.  It was a soft white loaf, but I think it was made using wholegrains. The Abernethy butter sounded Welsh to me, but in fact it’s from Northern Ireland. And although I said the loaf was “smallish” it was a good size for our needs, and actually I also used it with my Moor Hall make-away, because that one’s bread was pathetically small! 7/10

Our first course, probably better called a ‘snack’, was “Braised beef brioche buns, HP mayonnaise” and I just had to pop the pre-made buns into an oven for 8 minutes and then slather HP (sauce) mayonnaise over them. I thought these soft moist buns were delicious and a very novel type of appetiser. The mayo was good, but it could have had a stronger HP sauce kick to it. 8.5/10

The ‘real’ starter course was “Orkney scallops, confit bacon, maple glaze, beetroot chutney, pickled white asparagus”.  I pan fried the scallops and then a thickish slab of confit bacon, coating with maple glaze. On the plate we had a great bonito gel, some pickled white asparagus, nasturtium leaves and a beetroot chutney.  This ended up as a very sophisticated, ‘high end’ restaurant quality starter, packed with well-balanced flavours. I found the bacon a bit fatty, but the beetroot chutney was a great foil to this. The asparagus and nasturtium brought a bitternesss to balance the sweet maple glaze. An excellent dish! 10/10

For the main course I seared a handsome cote de boeuf and finished it in the oven for 11 minutes. Baby horseradish potatoes were heated in a pan and just before serving I added small tropea onions and white truffle shavings.  Sliced winter greens were blanched and added in with some trompette mushrooms, and everything was completed by a red wine jus.

My plating up (above) isn’t a patch on what Marcus would serve to table, but the flavours were unbeatable! This was a superbly satisfying Easter Sunday lunch for me and Mr A. 10/10

For the dessert course I simply had to place a 61% chocolate mousse (encases in very fine chocolate) atop some hazelnut butter on the plate, and sprinkle honeycomb pieces on top.  It was a tasty dessert, but it could have been lightened up and made a little more interesting with the addition of some cream. 8/10

To finish things off we each had a single chocolate truffle, with added spices typically found in hot cross buns. 7/10

Overall I thought this was an excellent make-away box from Marcus Wareing which highlighted the innovative high quality produce one would expect from a Michelin-starred chef and a top London restaurant. 9.5/10