The one-time Gordon Ramsay lieutenant has not cooked in a restaurant since the closure of Restaurant MS in Folkestone early last year, although he subsequently launched a small-scale Sunday roast delivery service in Kent.
Sargeant will take full creative control of the food between 23 and 26 September, offering a menu that celebrates seasonal British produce and draws on the coastal influences of his native Kent.
A five-course menu will be available in the evenings, priced at £125 per person and including a glass of sparkling wine on arrival. At lunch, a shorter version will offer two courses for £55 and three for £70, including a carafe of wine for two to share.
Dishes will include chilled white almond gazpacho with cucumber and courgette salad, frozen grapes and basil oil; fillet of marinated Cornish cod with sautéed iceberg lettuce and warm seaweed tartare sauce; and roast rump of salt marsh lamb Niçoise with aubergine caviar, tapenade, confit fennel, black garlic purée and olive and rosemary jus.
Desserts will include pineapple upside-down sticky toffee pudding with clotted cream ice cream and butterscotch sauce, followed by Sargeant’s petits fours.
Following the initial takeover, The Victoria will revert to its usual menu, supplemented by several dishes created by Sargeant.
These will include Kentucky fried salt marsh lamb sweetbreads with cauliflower purée, sherry caramel and curry oil; ox cheek braised in spices with Jerusalem artichoke and horseradish purée, Lyonnaise onions and port sauce; and bouillabaisse of Cornish seafood with scallops, mussels, king prawns, clams, grilled oyster and saffron aioli.
Sargeant will return to the pub for a two-night game dinner in October and a two-night British winter seafood supper in November, with dates, menus and booking details to be announced.
The collaboration grew out of a friendship between Sargeant and The Victoria head chef Daniel Lee.
The pair met in 2014 when Lee was a finalist in National Young Chef of the Year, a competition for which Sargeant served as ambassador and head judge for six years.
“I’ve known about The Victoria and its reputation for some time, so the opportunity to become part of the kitchen for four months is incredibly exciting,” Sargeant says. “Dan and the team have created something quite rare – a proper village pub with a genuinely ambitious kitchen.”
“We’ve built a kitchen here that is capable of delivering food at a very high level, and welcoming a chef of Mark’s calibre gives us an opportunity to build on that,” Lee says. “The September takeover is Mark’s menu, and the team and I are looking forward to supporting him in bringing his food to our guests.”