After a long wait, The Trip, starring Rob Brydon and Steve Coogan is finally on our screens.

Ever since people have found out that Hipping Hall was to be one of the restaurants featured in ‘The Trip’ with Rob Brydon and Steve Coogan, we’ve been asked loads of questions about what our experience with them was like. So, we thought we’d compile a list of the questions most frequently asked, but if you have any you’d like answering then please do get in touch.

We are absolutely thrilled to have been involved with the project and I hope that people are enjoying the series as much as we are.

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We're in the top 100!!

We are absolutely thrilled to have been included in the Restaurant magazines Top 100 Restaurants of the 2010. Our final position was number 63 (behind Le Gavroche at no. 62!) but it was just a great achievement for us to have been nominated.

Thank you so much to everyone that put us forward for nomination, your kind support means so much to all of us. The results were announced at the magnificent Grand Connaught Rooms in London. For a full list results please click here

The Champagne Jacquart Rising Stars Award 2010 goes to........

The Harrow at Little Bedwyn. But hang on a moment in second place it's......Andrew and Brent from Hipping Hall!

We had a fantastic time down in London and a big thank you for everyone who had a hand in the organisation of the competition. For the full article that appeared in the Drinks Business click here

We were thrilled to learn that Hipping Hall had been named alongside The Star at Harome as one of the two most romantic restaurants in the North of England.

Delicious magazine ran the feature in the run up to Valentine’s Day - as if you needed an excuse to be romantic…… Our fires are lit every night when it’s dark and cold outside.

http://www.deliciousmagazine.co.uk/articles/the-uks-most-romantic-restaurants

We’ve all been dreaming of a White Christmas and this year that was exactly what we got. Christmas Day 2009 will be a day that no one will ever forget.

Wall-to-wall blue skies and almost Arctic conditions - the temperature didn’t rise above -8 oC all day and beautiful ice crystals hung in the air like heavenly glitter.

The snow that fell in the week before Christmas stayed with us, with the benefit of a few top ups along the way, until the first week of January. The beauty of being on the A65 meant that no-one got snowed in, (except those that wanted to be – you know who you are...) and we could all get in to the Dales to enjoy the Alpine landscapes.

I don’t think I’ll ever see so many people ski touring to the top of Ingleborough again but the memory of gliding downhill past people clambering up the snowy slopes will stay with me for the rest of my life. The idea of the Yorkshire Dales as winter sports destination may not yet be a reality, but personally, I can’t wait to see what next winter brings! 

New Zealander Brent Hulena has taken over the stoves at Hipping Hall, near Kirkby Lonsdale, and his ‘rustic but sophisticated’ cuisine takes the food at Hipping Hall to another level.

The 26 year-old, who was trained by some of the Antipodes’ finest, has been at the 15th Century country house hotel for three years and was promoted following the departure of Michael Wilson.

He may have only been in the position five minutes but the ambitious chef has already worked out what he wants from his five-strong kitchen team – the best ingredients, sourced locally and cooked to perfection.

“I look at what’s in season, whether it’s meat, fish or vegetables, and once I’ve got the focus of the dish I concentrate on adding flavour and texture,” says Brent, who worked at New Zealand’s world famous Huka Lodge in Taupo.

“I want our guests to sit down to a plate of food and to be able to identify what the components are. Then I want them to experience flavours and textures they thought they could only dream of. Cooking at Hipping Hall, in a building that was built even before my country was even discovered is amazing. I can’t wait to put my stamp on the menu.”