Choose Not to Choose – Why Our Chefs Love the Tasting Menu

Have you attended a tasting menu evening at the Black Horse? If you have yet to have this experience, you may be interested to learn more about the tasting menu and why it excites our chefs so much.

As an à la carte restaurant in the historic market town of Market Bosworth, we are dedicated to delivering a great choice of carefully selected dishes, making use of only the highest quality of local ingredients and produce to please all taste buds. 

À la carte literally translates to ‘by the card’ or ‘according to the menu’, allowing for a choice of separate dishes to be ordered separately, providing the opportunity for diners to carefully select the elements that make up their meal, however, sometimes, to truly dazzle the taste buds, it may be best not to choose, or rather, let our chefs choose for you. In steps the tasting menu.

The roots of the tasting menu

The tasting menu, much like many of the distinguishing features of modern high-end dining, has its roots in French cuisine. In the 1970s, the menu dégustation emerged in France as a means for the influential chefs of the nouvelle cuisine movement to curate their diners’ culinary experience. Rather than offering a set menu of three courses, this approach involved serving diners with an extensive selection of smaller courses. In doing this, chefs were able to assert greater control over the dining experience as a whole, showcasing their skills and innovative culinary creations.

A multi-course dining experience

Our chefs love our tasting menu evenings as they allow for the breadth of their culinary talents and creativity to shine through to diners, and provide the perfect opportunity to be experiential with flavours, textures, pairings and presentation. 

Whilst 8 or more courses may sound like a huge amount of food, we like to deliver a series of small dishes that provide tastes to remember in just a few bites, leaving you ready to enjoy the next plate. Whilst large plates can be extremely tempting, after just a few bites, our taste buds can start to get bored, suffering from palate fatigue. With taster plates, you can enjoy just enough of each dish to ensure it remains in your memory and leaves you excited to try those flavours again.

In spreading out a meal over several small courses, this provides us with the freedom to take diners on a journey – to tell them a story through the medium of carefully selected ingredients and cooking techniques.

We also love the communal aspect of tasting menus. When all diners are served with the same dishes, this provides a perfect opportunity for conversation. The plates may be identical, but we all have different palates and preferences, so we love to hear from our patrons as to which courses they enjoyed the most, and the emotions that each course generated.

The Black Horse Tasting Menu

At the Black Horse Restaurant, we are here not just to provide somewhere to eat great food, but a place you can go for a new culinary experience and to educate your taste buds. We hold tasting menu events on a regular basis, allowing our talented kitchen team full control to deliver a culinary experience to savour and remember.

Whilst the tasting menu puts the power in the hands of our chefs, by experiencing so many different flavours and trying dishes that you may not have been bold enough to choose for yourself, you’ll have much more to choose from in the grand scheme of things, as your palate develops!

Remember to follow our social media channels to hear about our next tasting event.