Fans who have missed Michael Caines’s much-decorated cooking since he left Gidleigh Park at the end of last year (much-decorated not least by the Harden’s Survey: Gidleigh being a multiple winner of the Harden’s Top 100 Restaurants for The Sunday Times) and who just can’t wait for him to open Lympstone Manor (his new hotel-with-rooms near Exeter next year), now have a couple of chances to sample his cuisine at the new Palé Hall in north Wales this autumn.

The maestro will present a signature five-course dinner on two evenings (Sept 15 and Nov 3, £165 a head) at the country house hotel, which opens for business on Thursday (Sept 1) and promises to be a major force on the Welsh restaurant scene.

Caines is aboard as consultant for the kitchen, which will be run by head chef Gareth Stevenson, who worked under him previously at Abode.

Palé Hall, a late-Victorian pile built for an industrialist near picturesque Bala in Gwynedd, is a first venture in the hospitality industry for telecoms entrepreneur Alan Harper and his wife, Angela.