Gidleigh Park in Devon has earned the AA’s ultimate five rosettes accolade, exactly a year after chef Michael Wignall took over the kitchen.

Only 12 other restaurants in the UK share the motoring organisation’s highest distinction, and for the first time this award has been announced in January rather than waiting until September.

Wignall’s cuisine at Gidleigh has already won a rave reception from the latest Harden’s Survey, which described it as “utterly amazing — so quirky and gorgeous”.

Lancashire-born Wignall brought many of his own team with him when he moved to Dartmoor from Pennyhill Park in Surrey, where he had headed the kitchen for eight years. He took over from Gidleigh’s long-serving maestro Michael Caines, who opens his new hotel and restaurant, Lympstone Manor near Exmouth, this spring.