At The Dorset, we serve a taste of the British coast. Reinventing the traditional while respecting quintessential details, our dishes feature high-quality ingredients and put authentic British flavours front and centre.
Enter: Taste of the Dorset, our six-course tasting menu that takes diners on an enthralling journey through the southern seaside. The brainchild of District Executive Chef Ryan Lister, Chef de Cuisine Rob Ratcliffe, and Pastry Chef Alessandra Bustamante, this exquisite offering lets you sample our very best dishes.
Join us as we take you on a journey through each captivating course.
How the menu was developed
Our restaurant is an ode to Chef Lister’s small seaside hometown of Weymouth, Dorset in England. With this tasting menu, he wanted to share traditional dishes from his childhood in a way that would redefine what people think they know about British cooking. Each dish proudly reflects his roots with a twist.
“Most people think British food is pie and fish chips, and sure it is… I love those things,” he says. “But if you’ve lived or worked in England, you’ll know there’s so much more. We like to draw influences from other countries, so you’ll often find French, Japanese, or Italian techniques being used to elevate our food to the next level.”
The order and progression of the six dishes are thoughtful and intentional. Guests begin with light appetizers before moving into the richer, meatier plates. A playful palette cleanser then sets the stage for some sweet treats.
Bread and nibbles
To begin, guests are served an authentic British appetizer. “We always start with bread and nibbles as a sort of amuse-bouche,” Chef Ryan shares. An amuse-bouche, which directly translates from French to ‘amuses the mouth’, is a light, tasty bite that fires up the tastebuds for what’s to come.
The bread is a tried-and-true Dorset classic that Chef Ryan and Pastry Chef Alessandra were determined to get just right. “Every meal should start with a piece of bread,” he says. “It’s a black treacle soda bread—a very humble loaf that uses four different grains with treacle, a common British pantry ingredient that’s similar to molasses. The result is a dense, moist, and slightly chewy slice served with a generous smear of whipped butter with Dorset sea salt.”
An accompaniment of nibbles that changes with the seasons reflects our team’s commitment to seasonal ingredients. Currently, it’s croquette and a popped cheddar crisp, which is our take on a UK crisp (or chip) brand called Quavers. “I love it when you go to someone’s house and you have a few nibbles—the idea is that you don’t use cutlery, you’re just enjoying a few bites with your hands before the meal,” says Chef Ryan.
Snow crab
Next up is a dish that features a well-loved ingredient on the British coast: crab. “We use an amazing Fogo Island crab shipped locally from Newfoundland,” he shares. “The dish is very interactive and not exactly ‘knife and fork’ style. It’s quite casual, just like how you snack on the first course.”
Developed by Chef Rob, the snow crab features white meat soaked in a curry vinaigrette with notes of ginger, lemongrass, cumin, and makrut lime. It’s mixed with fresh avocado, baked celery root, confit grapefruit, curry dressing, and fresh lime, topped with lemon balm and cilantro.
The crackers, which can scoop the crab meat or be enjoyed as-is, are as fun to look at as they are to eat. “We create a dense, bread-like dough that has quite a lot of water, so when it dries up, it forms all those cracks,” Chef Rob explains. “Then we blowtorch them to give them a funky shape. It’s almost like a naan cracker.”
Last but not least, the dish is decorated with pieces of crab to further showcase the ingredient in its entirety and reduce food waste.
Rabbit
The third course adds a dash of Italian influence to a common English ingredient. Rabbit appears on many British plates, but most Canadians are likely not so familiar with it. Consider this an introduction.
“My goal was to showcase rabbit in a way that’s approachable,” Chef Ryan explains. “That’s why I served it with cavatelli noodles. They’re one of the best noodles to soak up flavour—a sort of blend between pasta, a British dumpling, and rice.”
He starts by soaking large chunks of rabbit meat in red wine and British ale to stain and tenderize it. Next, it’s braised with prunes, veggies, and chicken stock to develop a more complex flavour. Once the meat is ready, it’s heated in a pan with some brown butter, sautéed mushrooms, and butternut squash that perfectly complements the richness of the sauce.
“The sauce base is a velvety butternut squash purée that adds a lot of creaminess to the dish,” he says. “We cook it so the pasta stays pretty tight, the chunks of rabbit remain tender, and some sweet notes of the prunes still shine through.”
It’s topped with Parmesan cheese for an umami tang, fresh marjoram that pairs beautifully with the pasta, toasted pumpkin seeds, and a tasty brown butter crumble.
Pheasant
Although pheasant is not typically a go-to protein in fine dining restaurants, Chef Ryan turns this bird into something truly spectacular that taps into his childhood nostalgia. His aunt and uncle gave the dish rave reviews when they visited The Dorset, the ultimate compliment considering it’s based on his nan’s game pie.
“Traditionally, I ate pheasant a lot in the south,” he recalls. “One of the photos downstairs in the restaurant is of my great-granddad, who was a game-keeper. He’d hunt pheasant when it was time to eat and we’d have roast pheasant on a Sunday or pheasant pie on Christmas.”
The first component of the dish is what Chef Ryan calls a “flying pig in a blanket”. Back in England, a pig in a blanket is a sausage wrapped in bacon; in Canada, it’s a sausage wrapped in pastry; and here at The Dorset, it’s a pheasant leg wrapped in prosciutto.
“We remove the legs, sear them off, and braise them along with the rest of the bones so the meat has as much flavour as possible,” he explains. “Then, we shred the leg meat down, reduce the liquid we braised it in to create a thick, rich sauce, and fold some of that through the leg.” The final step is rolling the meat in thin, delicate prosciutto. Quality is king here, as only a small amount is required to achieve a perfectly crispy exterior.
A tender cut of pheasant breast is also served, achieved by trimming the bird, drying the breast, brining and steaming it, then broiling it under the grill to get the skin nice and crispy.
These two pheasant delicacies are complemented by three sauces: pheasant jus, bread sauce, and a bit of herb oil. “When you put it all together, it brightens everything up,” Chef Ryan shares. “The dish also has a little piece of crispy potato rosti, and in the spirit of roast bird and stuffing, some bread stuffing with mushrooms and small bites of foie gras to luxe it up a bit.”
Blackcurrant lollipop
After so much of the savoury, it’s time for a quick palette cleanser. Rethinking the sorbets traditionally used as a mid-menu refresh on tasting menus, Pastry Chef Alessandra developed a blackcurrant lollipop.
“It’s a lightly frozen blackcurrant curd encased in cocoa butter so you get a bit of crunch without adding any flavour or texture,” she explains. “Then we dip it in meringue to make it refreshing and a little icy.”
It’s designed to be eaten in one bite, “a delicious, tangy burst of juice that melts very fast.” Finally, the herbs on the outside balance the flavour profile so that it isn’t too sweet.
Pumpkin
With palates primed, a traditional British dessert is served next. There was no reason to overcomplicate this light and fluffy steamed pumpkin sponge cake, says Chef Ryan. “You can be royalty and you’d still be eating this type of dessert.”
Roasted local pumpkins are puréed and combined with Turkish figs to add chewiness. The resulting pudding is then steamed, which creates a soft, pillowy texture. “It’s very British, very soft-on-soft, but it’s delicious,” Chef Ryan explains.
Figs also feature heavily alongside the pumpkin, specifically in the fig leaf custard sauce that’s poured on top. “I steep the leaves, which are also from Ontario, into the cream before I base it the rest of the way. I also use fig leaf oil,” says Pastry Chef Alessandra. “It brings a nice dose of nuttiness that balances out the sweetness of the pumpkin.”
Small sweet treats
We end the meal with bite-size petit fours (meaning ‘small oven’): a smoked whey macaron, salted fudge, and fruit-and-nut bonbons.
From the first bite of bread and nibbles to the final taste of dessert, our Taste of the Dorset tasting menu leaves a lasting impression. If you want to travel to the British coast without leaving Toronto, join us on this culinary journey across the seaside. To enhance your experience, opt for our carefully selected wine pairings with each course. Book your table today!