Lord Sugar, you’re not fired. Millions of viewers of The Apprentice watched your three finalists being whisked away in your Lear jet for a special lunch in a spoiling location of your devising. You chose well. I know, because I was lucky enough to be given exactly the same treat as Joanna Riley, Jamie Lester and Chris Bates and it was, quite frankly, sensational.
Jersey, for a start, was an inspired choice. It is, after all, an important place for many people in business, aspiring or otherwise, particularly those in the financial sector. But its role as the perfect destination for a short break has, in the last few years, diminished as cheap flights have lured us mainlanders further and further afield.
How wrong we have been. My spell in Jersey, following in the footsteps of the Apprentices, was a revelation. And I did so much better than them: they only went for a day; I stayed the night. I wish it had been longer.
We all went to the Atlantic Hotel and Ocean Restaurant. What the Apprentices consumed for lunch, my husband and I were given for dinner. They were celebrating having made it to the final, and as it happened, we were celebrating a wedding anniversary. Which was lucky, because if ever I have consumed a special meal, fit for a king and certainly as a reward for too many years to mention of marriage, then this was it.
But first the setting. As a hotel critic of many years standing I was bowled over by the Atlantic’s chic and sophisticated interior, just aching for young, switched on people like the Apprentices to discover it. After major refurbishments, owner Patrick Burke has created a visually stunning place to stay out of an unforgiving ‘60s building first opened by his parents 40 years ago. Sixties architecture be gone: the Atlantic, with fine sea views, now speak more of Art Deco and ocean liners, with glamorous, all white reception rooms that are stylish, yet timeless. As for the staff, you would be pleased, Lord Sugar. With their dedicated, beautifully mannered service, they provide the traditional element in a hotel that succeeds in staying fresh, but refuses to follow fashion.
Which can also be said for the superb cooking of the hotel’s Michelin starred chef Mark Jordan. Especially for the Apprentices’ treat, he and top-flight sommelier Sergio dos Santos devised a seven-course tasting menu with matching wines that was not just the biggest treat that they could conjur, but also displays Mark’s honest, fad-free style and his insistence on produce only of the highest quality, and Sergio’s encyclopedic knowledge of the grape. And now you can eat it too: it’s being offered to all at an incredibly reasonable(considering the ingredients) £75 for seven courses or £125 with accompanying wines. It includes the best oysters, lobster and beef (from Mark’s own, specially fed herd) I have ever tasted, plus caviar, truffle and melting foie gras. It was truly memorable. Even now I can still recall the precise taste of the lobster ‘surprise’ and the melting assiette of Jersey beef. And the Gruner Veltliner that went with the poached oyster and the Ramos Pinto Tawny Port that went with the local cheeses. To be honest, I’m itching to go back and eat it all again.
Next morning we too, like the Apprentices, went off to see where our lobster had come from. Just across the bay, as it turned out. Faulker Fisheries, at L’Etacq, has to be one of the most charmingly idiosyncratic places, let alone fish shops, that I can think of. In his converted wartime bunker, we met the delightful Sean and the splendid lobsters and crabs, in their tanks of constantly refreshed seawater, that grace the tables of so many of Jersey’s fine restaurants.
We also discovered the source of the island’s famous oysters, though it was a little more taxing hitching a ride on a big red tractor as it trundled out to Chris Le Masurier’s Jersey Oyster beds far out in their east coast bay at low tide. Grown on poles, they are gathered by Chris (who’s grandfather was the first to grow oysters and mussels in Jersey) and his hardworking helpers when still young to give them a unique, sweet taste. Next time I eat one, I won’t take it for granted and will know, as do the Apprentices, exactly where it came from. I’m sure their visit to the enterprises of Sean and Chris, in the company of the Atlantic’s dedicated owner Patrick Burke and chef Mark Jordan, will have an influence on their own business lives and I’m also sure that, like me, they can’t wait to return and sample all that wonderful, local, natural food again.
Fiona Duncan is a freelance travel writer and columnist for the Sunday Telegraph.