Earlier in the year, my dear friend won a Spa break in a product related promotion. I was delighted when she invited me to join her. But this was all BF (before Fodmap) so about a week before we were due to leave I sent my list of OK foods to the team at the Spa. When we checked in I made sure that this list had got to the kitchen and it had......but I still had no idea what to expect as with the amount of exclusions, people often think you are joking ("what do you mean, no onion?!")
We stayed at Champneys, Henlow. Described by one of our fellow guests as "Shangri-La", it was indeed luxurious and lovely. I've never been to anywhere quite like it, and I found the experience very curious on many levels. But this blog is my FODMAP journey, so I shall talk about the food.
The Champneys dietary philosophy is generally low fat and high fibre...now, high fibre isn't such a good thing for me, but there was a lot of choice of all kinds of foods. Breakfast and Lunch are buffet style, gluten-free items are clearly marked and gf toast was brought to me separately from the kitchen (clearly coeliac aware) I was able to pick between things to find stuff I couldn't eat and when I couldn't, the staff were helpful and polite. I have never been in a place so solicitous of my welfare, especially relating to food. They were clearly very used to dealing with people who have a variety of intolerances and special diets, and did it in a very dignified manner. On a lunchtime where there was a FODMAP in almost everything, the chef cooked me a separate piece of tuna with no dressing. I was able to try a whole bunch of things I haven't ventured into (coconut rice pudding with fruit on...yummo) and there was simply no problem. I think it's the most peaceful I've felt relating to food since this whole thing started. The epitome of the stay was this: On the Friday evening my friend and I had had our beauty treatments and were feeling fresh, so we dressed (the only time you are required to wear clothes rather than a robe, might I add!!) for dinner. I ordered pan fried haddock with it's accompaniments. When it was brought to me, the server said "I noticed you can't have onions. The tartare sauce has onions in it, so I made sure your plate didn't have that"..... Because this diet is pretty complex, it's sometimes hard to understand for others. To have someone think about it for me felt like a massive privilege after nearly 6 months of feeling like it's ALL I ever think about. The friend I was with is using the Slimming World weightloss programme and found a great deal there to suit her too and was really happy with the food for a whole bunch of different reasons.
So to the kitchen staff and Chef at Champneys Henlow, I give a big, fat, Fodmap Friendly 5 stars. For excellent, high quality food served beautifully whatever your exclusions are, friendly staff for whom nothing was ever too much trouble, and generally making us feel like royalty. I didn't feel weird, I felt pampered and well fed and healthy. Thankyou.
