Second helpings: Other Michelin-starred country hotels

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The Vineyard

Chewton Glen Christchurch Road, New Milton, Hampshire, tel: 01425 275 341 Favourite pastimes at Chewton Glen include working out in the gym, swimming, playing tennis or golf, fishing, shooting, riding, sailing, eating Emmenthal soufflés, beef tournedos, roasted monkfish and summer pudding and drinking fine wine, then doing all the other things all over again in order to work off the damage. Head chef Pierre Chevillard seems to have been here forever (oh all right, 25 years).

Hambleton Hall Hambleton, Rutland, tel: 01572 756 991 It may sound like a boarding school, but with its plush, antique-laden rooms, ever-attentive staff and views of sweeping lawns and Rutland Water, Hambleton Hall is the model of country-house indulgence. So indulge, in chef Aaron Patterson's minestrone of fresh langoustine, tartlet of wood pigeon with wild mushrooms and assiette of rabbit with grain mustard and red wine sauce, and put the horrors of boarding-school gastronomy behind you forever.

Gidleigh Park Chagford, Devon, tel: 01647 432 367 Local boy made good, Michael Caines is one of Britain's finest chefs, earning no less than two Michelin stars for the kitchen of this handsome, beautifully run country-house hotel. The food can be sublime, as in tender, crusted best end of lamb served with meltingly soft sweetbreads, mossy furls of spinach and double-shelled broad beans, and the 500-bottle wine list is genuinely interesting and eclectic without being exotic.