Tag Archives: brunch

brunch at the desmond.

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We went to brunch at the Desmond Hotel in Malvern. We used to go there years ago. They had a fabulous brunch back then and the hotel has been for sale for a year, and it’s clean and it’s still wonderful staff (they have always had really nice staff.)

But although the place was clean and fresh, it was kind of a pedestrian brunch and I expected better.

Now, maybe that’s my fault for going with the brunch on display instead of ordering right off of the menu, but the eggs were cold, the French toast was barely lukewarm, the bacon and sausage were cold, the salad dressings were too processed and pedestrian, the pork loin they served at their meat station should’ve been wonderful, but my husband had it and it was dry and I didn’t even go near the turkey because you could see that that was dry.

They had these shrimp that had been roasted in some kind of a chili sauce and they were actually delicious.

The salad bar had some nice fresh options, but again the salad dressings were over processed and just blah — for example the balsamic vinaigrette was so over emulsified it kind of gelatinous and it was a mixture of being really sweet and too salty so in other words, it’s a super processed dressing. I suggested they add plain old oil and vinegar for people as an option. The fruit salad wasn’t anything to write home about as it was very institutional.

I ended up having a salad because when I had first gotten my plate, I wanted breakfast food and because it was cold, it kind of lost its luster so I got something else.

The pastries looked good, but I suspect again more institutional quality versus a pastry chef in the kitchen.

Now the prefixe buffet was like $29 a person which is I guess modest, but for charging close to 30 bucks per person they should’ve had more attention to detail to the food. And again, it’s really a shame because they really have nice staff.

The hotel is for sale and has been for a while so I don’t see them realistically putting more into it except they really should because it might be a better return on investment.

We used to go there for years for brunch and it was fabulous and it’s just a shame that it’s not the way it was.

And again, they are taking the time for presentation, etc. but the taste and things like basic food temperature and taste just aren’t there.

They had a young kid running the omelette station, and he kind of knew what he was doing. I was watching him, but he was very chintzy about what he was putting in the omelettes. I mean, nobody wants an omelette that’s so over-stuffed that it falls all over a person when you’re eating it, but still you need enough cheese, for example, to make it do that little gooey thing when you cut into it.

But if this is their food these days, I wonder how many weddings they are actually booking because they talk a lot about their wedding business and brunch something that should kind of be a no-brainer.

https://vista.today/2025/09/desmond-hotel-malvern-for-sale/

Desmond Hotel is now a Hilton property

goat cheese, ham, and scallion frittata

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I love a good frittata. True story is one of my frittatas is actually published in an Epicurious cookbook. It’s called The Kitchen Sink Frittata, and it was published in Epicurious Cookbook in 2012. Amusingly enough Nancy Fuller (Food Network personality) has an identically named recipe on Food Network’s website. My recipe I think is better.

But this? This is a new recipe and I thought of it this morning based upon what I was looking at in my refrigerator this morning.

So here it is and I hope you enjoy it!

Preheat oven to 400°

Take 4 tablespoons of butter and put in a baking dish. I use my vintage 12” French copper gratin pan.

Take eight eggs out of the refrigerator, one bunch of thin fresh scallions, about 6 to 7 ounces of deli ham, 1 4oz log of fresh goat cheese. The goat cheese I’m using today had bits of fig in it – it was what I had on hand.

Thinly slice the scallions and include some of the green tops. Maybe about 3 inches if they are in good shape. Chop up the ham. Also if you have it thinly slice one Roma tomato, also known as a plum tomato. But only use a fresh one.

If you’re using a pan like my gratin pan you can heat it up on the stove as well. I wouldn’t recommend using a glass baking dish, so please don’t . But you can also make a frittata in a cast-iron pan, for example. I also use a cast iron pan to make frittatas, and I have an oven safe fry pan from Great Jones cookware I also use.

When the butter is melted quickly sauté the scallions and the ham. Add to that the thinly sliced tomato. Don’t swish it around in the pan too much you don’t want things to break up. Next add a little freshly cracked pepper, and some dill weed. You can either chop up some fresh dill or use dried dill. Turn off the stove, and let that sit while you move onto whisking the eggs.

Briskly whisk eight eggs with a couple dashes of hot sauce, a little bit of salt not a lot, and about three or 4 tablespoons of buttermilk. Please remember not to use more than a little pinch of salt because you are cooking with ham which is already salty.

When the eggs are whisked up and frothy pour them slowly over the ham and vegetables in the pan evenly. Next crumble up your log of goat cheese and spread evenly over the top and add a couple of more dashes of fresh cracked pepper.

Place in your 400° oven and bake for about 35 minutes. Depending on your oven —-you need to keep an eye on it, so nothing burns. Take it out let it sit for a few minutes slice up and serve. It makes a wonderful weekend breakfast or brunch.