Lush lunches: the chef behind Elodie, at Birch Selsdon, will not abandon the restaurant’s ambitions. Just maybe not in Croydon
Try again: chef Lee Westcott
Lee Westcott, the Michelin star-winning chef who headed up the restaurants at the failed Birch hotel in Selsdon, has expressed his determination to reopenat a new location.
Administrators pulled the plug on Birch Selsdon hotel and members’ club last week, making 100 people redundant less than nine months after the hotel and “lifestyle” resort had opened following extensive refurbishment of the Victorian-era hotel and its surrounding 200 acres of downland parkland.
Westcott restaurant Elodie could cater for up to 100 diners, where the chef would serve a five-course tasting menu that was to showcase foraged ingredients taken from the estate and fresh produce straight from the vegetable garden.
Westcott has written on Instagram that Elodie would “live on in a new site in the near future”. But he hasn’t yet said where that might be.
Well-liked: Westcott’s food was praised. Hotel decor, not so much…
Westcott had also been in charge of the Vervain brasserie at the hotel, where he had won glowing praise from Observer food critic Jay Rayner (whose builder was less impressed with the interior decoration).
On Insta, Westcott wrote, “It’s been a wild ride since joining and opening the two restaurants within such a short space of time. I want to take this opportunity to thank each and every staff member that worked alongside me and helped us achieve so many amazing things together.
“Thank you to all the amazing guests that dined, stayed and drank with us. I’m sure I’ll see many of you around.
“To all the suppliers, firstly thank you for everything and secondly, I am deeply sorry for how this has panned out. I look forward to working with you all again in the near future.
“Elodie will live on in a new site in the near future, so keep your eyes and ears open for that.”
Birch Selsdon closed little more than a week after the sister venue, Birch Cheshunt in Hertfordshire, which had been trading since 2020, also went out of business. closed and appointed administrators.
Read more: Administrators move in to run Selsdon’s ‘shabby chic’ hotel
Read more: Lots of reservations after Selsdon hotel and golf course close
Read more: Get orf moy laaand! Posh hotel declares parkland a no-go zone
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