Chapter’s recently hosted journalist Tom Hawker whilst he undertook a tour of our local beauty spots. Mr Hawker completed the very popular Roseberry Topping Walk, which is less than 10 minutes away in the car, an area made famous by Captain Cook. Mr Hawker stayed at Chapters on the first leg of his tour and enjoyed the delightful culinary skills of Victoria Vassallo, the Head Chef, then set off in the morning to continue his walk – read the full article by viewing the Great British Escape PDF

Chapters Hotel and Restaurant, during September this year, has seen the return of one of their most popular couples. Victor and Victoria Vassallo originally worked at Chapters from March 2005 for four and -a-half years, before deciding to have a change and move to Harrogate.

The couple were originally persuaded to move from Malta by Steven Bell,the current owner of Chapters. After sampling the food and ambience of Victor’s Malta establishment, which had been voted one of the best restaurants in Malta by British Airways Flight magazine, Steven realised this Maltese restaurateur and his talented wife (who trained in Malta under two Michelin-star chefs) were the ideal team to revitalise Chapters.

It turned out to be an inspired choice because during the transformation Victor’s expertise and influence shone through. Why return? “We feel that Stokesley is our home, we have always liked the place since we first arrived,” said Victor. “We kept in touch with Chapters and Steven Bell and whenever we visited Stokesley we were constantly given a warm welcome by the people we knew, many asking us to return. Well, we have now.”

After dining in Harrogate, Steven met the couple and they all decided they would like to work together again. Said Steven: “We are really excited at the return of Victor and Victoria, as are our clients, who the couple always had a good affinity with.”

Victor, aged 50, becomes General Manager and Victoria, 46, Head Chef. They have been married for over 26 years and will be joining their daughter, Catya, who has worked at Chapters for over five years as the chef de partie along with her sous chef fiance, Ian – a real family affair.

“We are enjoying meeting many of our original clients, says Victoria, “but we also look forward to meeting and befriending many more new ones and introducing new and exciting menus.”

The final word goes to Victor: “We want the word out that they we are back – and with our return, returns the passion.”

Steven himself even gained a qualification in wine to help him better understand the challenges faced by his team and how best to over deliver versus customer expectations.

In January last year, Zak Talkington, Function Manager at Chapters Hotel became one of the first people in the world to pass the new Certificate in Spirits and on July 5th along with three other colleagues, Chris Lill, Ben Cotts and Adam Busuttil attended the first ever WSET Introduction to Wine Service Sommelier course to be run outside of the WSET headquarters in London at Chapters Hotel. Having run the courses with their own educators the WSET have entrusted Chapters, under the guidance of their wine consultant Karen Hardwick, of The Wine Academy to host the first course which is open to the public and wine trade professionals.

The Chapters team all attended the course along with Gary Riley from Babich Wines- all of which passed with flying colours.

In October the hotel will run an 8 week wine evening class leading to a qualification in wine which it will open to members of the public as well as some new members of the Chapters team. The course will start on October 11th with a food and wine matching supper and will continue for 8 consecutive Tuesdays with the exam on the final evening. The course will be taught by Karen Hardwick who was recently voted one of the best Wine Educators in the world.

The course fee of £290 includes supper on the first evening, all books, wine, exam fee and tuition. If you fancy gaining a wine qualification then please call the hotel for more details.

Chapters Hotel is fast gaining a reputation for as a destination for wine lovers from all over the area. Many events are sold out well in advance including winemaker dinners, Champagne tastings and exclusive small parcels of wine. To join our mailing list either call in at the Hotel or call 01642 711888

For Albert Bichot, Wine is a singular product: a symbol of culture, pleasure and humanity. The producers’ most recent accolades include;

• 2004 winemaker of the year, a major award for the house graded by the International Wine Challenge
• 2008 top 100 wineries of the world, US Wine & Spirit Magazine

Our wine expert Karen Hardwick has managed to secure a small allocation of mature  Bichot wines which includes a rare selection of 5 vintages of Meursault 1^er Cru wines from a single vineyard. To celebrate the skill of the winemaker and our passion for fine wines we will host an evening dedicated to the wines of Albert Bichot on Friday 27^th May. Space is very limited for this event and unsurprisingly places sold out within a few days of being released.

The evening will begin with a glass of Crèmant de Bourgogne on arrival, an elegant traditional method  sparkling wine from Burgundy.  Before dinner a vertical tasting of Meursault  will allow guests to fully explore the difference between vintages, starting with the 2002, and working through the 2004, 2005, 2007 & 2008 vintages of Albert Bichot Meursault  1^er Cru.  Our guests will also be served Beaune 1^er Cru Clos des Mouches, a gem from Burgundy in the same league of a Grand Cru, alongside Saint-Romain La Perriere, a structured wine, oak aged for up to 16 months.

Our award winning chef, Sean Wilkinson, has devised a delicious, seasonal menu to perfectly complement the wines. As usual Karen Hardwick director of the Wine academy will be hosting the evening.

The team at Chapters Hotel are committed to providing their guests with exciting wine experiences throughout the year. We are constantly looking for ways to enhance your dining and drinking pleasure. We do hope that you will join us for dinner and a few well chosen glasses very soon.

Fortunately the rain held off and the sun managed to make an appearance. Below are our favorite pictures from the day;

On the 25th January we celebrated Burns Night with a twist. Serving a Scottish inspired menu with wine and whisky .

On Friday 4th February we held our first food & wine evening of the year. During February we took a look at Portugal, the sleeping giant of the wine world in partnership with ViniPortugal.

2010 for Chapters Hotel was all about wine with employees visiting major wine producing areas to select some special wines for our customers.

More information on up and coming events and our 2011 wine highlights download the PDF of our Whats On

This is the letter of thanks we received this morning from Graham Moore at the Helping Hands charity.

Chris,

I felt compelled to write a personal letter of gratitude to thank you on behalf of “Helping Hands North East”. Both the team & I would like to express our heart felt thanks for all your support in launching our charity, without you & the other sponsors the evening would not have been the resounding success that it was. Together we raised the grand total of £2600 & money is still coming in. These funds will certainly help us on our journey to develop a charity that supports patients who struggle to get the appropriate treatment through the NHS, those with little time left & the cares of those with difficulties. Together working in partnership with all of our supporters we can make a positive difference to peoples lives.

Please let me say again my sincere thanks for your support & a plea that you keep supporting us on our journey

Kind Regards
Graham

We will look to work with helping hands in the future, there is talk of holding a wine tasting @ Chapters so watch this space. We wish the people at helping hands the best of luck in their charitable journey.

The track got national radio play when Chris Evans, a self-confessed F1 nut, played it on his breakfast show the following morning. It also impressed TV presenter Philip Schofield who,  learnt whose tune it was through Twitter.

Alistair performing Take That’s Rule The World

For more videos form this event and and others, visit us at our You Tube Channel