insideKENT Magazine Issue 24 - March 2014 | Page 64

FOOD+DRINK

FOOD FOR

Life

The Ambrette’s new tasting menu promotes health and wellbeing
with medicinal herbs and spices
A special Food for Life menu, introduced by the
award-winning Ambrette restaurants in Margate
and Rye, designed to promote good health and
boost the immune system, is proving a big hit,
especially with the towns’ senior citizens.
The 6-course tasting menu available at lunchtimes
features: chicken supreme flavoured with fresh
coriander and Himalayan salts; kedgeree of
smoked mackerel with mung lentil and fresh
turmeric; soup of mustard, yoghurt, ginger and
basil; Ambrette-style game pie with black pepper
and garlic; gingko leaf and ginger ice-cream with
carrot and wild blueberry pudding; and cinnamon
chai tea with homemade cardamom chocolates.
The £32 menu is discounted to £16 for holders
of Ambrette’s Seniors Privilege Card, which is
available to the over 60s. The restaurants have
over 4,000 registered cardholders.

“Being located at coastal locations, with a high
proportion of retired customers, most of our
lunchtime trade is drawn from senior citizens,
who appreciate the finer things in life and want
to stay fit and healthy,” said Dev Biswal, chef
patron of The Ambrette, who designed the special
menu which contains ingredients with medically
proven health-giving benefits.
“At the end of a long, wet, gloomy winter our
immune systems can become suppressed, which
is why more people suffer colds and infection in
spring than other times in the year,” he said.
Mineral-rich Himalayan salts are a wonderful pickme-up during cold winter months. Horseradish,
high in vitamin C, is a well-known antiseptic and
a strong decongestant; mackerel is rich in Omega
3; fresh leafy greens, such as spinach and pak
choi, have been shown to reduce the risk of
Alzheimer's disease and are believed to help
slow progression of the disease; curcumin – the
active ingredient in turmeric – has been shown

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to deliver powerful benefits to the brain and
nervous system; and ginger is one of the most
powerful natural anti-inflammatory substances
known.
Garlic helps fight infection, improves circulation
and lowers blood pressure; ginkgo increases
circulation, is full of antioxidants and is advocated
by leading complimentary medicine practitioners
to inhibit the early stages of Alzheimer’s; wild
blueberries, which have high anthocyanin and
antioxidant content, are known to guard against
neurological diseases; cardamom is an
expectorant, helping to open the respiratory
passages; and cinnamon reduces levels of
cholesterol and triglycerides in people with type
2 diabetes.

For more information or to experience the Food
for Life menu, visit www.theambrette.co.uk