Article printed in "Woman & Home" December 1989

The D'Agostino brothers, Marco and Ernesto both highly trained chefs, run Hamilton's in Weymouth, Dorset. By day, Hamilton's is a welcoming coffee shop; in the evening it becomes an excellent place for dinner. Although it's not a wholefood or health food restaurant, Hamilton's won the Evian/Caterer and Housekeeper Healthy Menu Award for it's general approach to food.

The short menu, which is changed each week, if full of fish and game and other good produce (the meat and game are farmed by natural methods, and all suppliers are carefully chosen.) The emphasis is really on "fresh" and "local". While there is something to appeal to everyone (with some lovely, not-so-healthy puddings and ice-creams) most dishes are very low in saturated fat, yet imaginative and full of flavour. Their colourful Christmas menu tastes absolutely wonderful.

The creamed beetroot soup, has a rich and creamy taste, the texture due to the fine puree of ingrediants, rather than added fat. The wild mushrooms, which are available dried at delicatessens and health food stores, add a specially rich flavour. Hamilton's very popular home-made onion bread, made with white flour and baked in flowerpots, complements the soup wonderfully well.

The D'Agostinos like to cook their fish simply, so the taste speaks for itself. In the Roast fillet of Turbot recipe the fish fillets are quickly dry-fried, then briefly "roasted" at a fairly high heat so that the flesh doesn't have time to dry out or toughen. The fillets are then put onto a bed of diced cabbage, scallops and small pieces of bacon. The combination is delicious, moist, succulent fish, slightly crunchy cabbage, tasty scallops and rich ( but not too creamy) sauce. The flavour of the sauce will largely depend on the quality of fish stock used.

The parfait which accompanies the fruit compote dessert sounds an unlikley mixture of ingrediants - poppy seeds, cinnamon and ricotta or mascarphone (a very soft, thick and creamy pasteurised mild cheese from Italy). But the result is quite superb! It's more-ish and tastes wonderfully creamy. Needless to say, it's one of the most popular desserts served at Hamilton's!