SOURCE at Gilpin Hotel is marking 75 years of the Lake District National Park with a special dish supporting Save Windermere.
SOURCE at Gilpin Hotel is marking 75 years of the Lake District National Park with a special one-off dish that puts the surrounding landscape very much on the plate.
The Michelin-starred restaurant, located near Windermere within the five AA Red Star Gilpin Hotel & Lake House, has created the dish to celebrate the national park’s 75th anniversary, with 10% of all funds raised going to Save Windermere – the campaign working to protect England’s largest lake from pollution and chemical contamination.
Created by head chef Kevin Scanlan, the £25 dish is built around striploin of beef, with foraged St George mushroom, mushroom XO, beef and green tomato ponzu sauce, pickled juniper berries, green peppercorn, roasted bone marrow and brown butter.
It’s a dish that feels very much in line with what SOURCE does – polished, British, produce-led cooking with a proper sense of place. The restaurant holds one Michelin star and four AA Rosettes, and has built its reputation around precise cooking that doesn’t lose sight of where it is. In this case, that means the fells, the forests, the game, the produce, and now, quite directly, the lake down the road.
The anniversary dish also comes shortly after SOURCE unveiled a major refurbishment of its dining room, which has been redesigned to feel more closely tied to the Lake District around it. The space has been given a darker, more immersive feel, with charcoal-toned panelling, burnt-orange velvet curtains, statement lighting and specially commissioned artwork throughout.
Rather than going down the obvious rural hotel route – all pale woods and twee nods to the countryside – the new room leans into something moodier and more contemporary. There are shelves dressed with references to the nearby fells, including stag and pheasant figures that nod to the game used on the menu, alongside some of the many awards the restaurant has picked up over the years.
Local materials play a big part too. Bespoke chairs have been made by Foremost Furniture in Whalley, while the upholstery uses Herdwick wool supplied by Kendal-based Cable & Blake. It’s a nice bit of joined-up thinking: a famously hardy Lake District wool, often considered too tough and expensive to weave, turned into something premium and purposeful.
The smaller details follow the same thread. Leather placemats, menu holders and coasters come from Billy Tannery, made using vegetable-tanned British deer leather, while fine bone china from Duchess China 1888 gives the dishes a bright, traditional British canvas.
There’s also new artwork from contemporary artist Ian Miller, known professionally as Autistic Ian, whose stripped-back, bold-lined pieces are described as a kind of “visual amuse-bouche”. British artist Janet Massey has also created a series of large-scale oil paintings after eating the tasting menu, translating the colours, rhythm and textures of the food into abstract works for the room.
Speaking about the anniversary dish, Kevin Scanlan said the Lake District has “inspired generations of chefs, producers and communities”, and that the team wanted to honour the ingredients, flavours and landscapes that make the area so special, while supporting a cause helping to protect it for the future.
The dish is available for a limited time at SOURCE at Gilpin Hotel & Lake House.
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