Before the 1970s, visitors to the Lake District came for the scenery, not the food; ramblers would count themselves lucky to get a pint and a decent pork pie. In 1971, John Tovey, who has died aged 85, took over Miller Howe hotel, on the banks of Windermere, and it became a fashionable destination throughout the 70s and 80s, one of the first gastronomic country house hotels in the region. Tovey, who had taught himself to cook, was not celebrated for any particular dish, but for the slightly camp drama experienced by guests at Miller Howe.
A large man, with attractive hooded eyelids, and something of both the shambling gait and the dramatic mood changes of Basil Fawlty, Tovey believed that dining at his hotel was a theatrical event. The gong summoned you to dinner: extracting yourself from a leather chesterfield sofa in the cluttered drawing room, you ambled into the candle-lit dining room and the lights were dimmed to emphasise the weather-dependent Lake Poets’ views from the big windows, as well as the over-the-top table setting.
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