When is a Waldorf salad not a Waldorf salad? When it’s almost a pudding – and there’s not a lettuce leaf in sight. This simple side salad of celery, walnuts and apples was invented in 1893 at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in New York. While it’s been subject to many reinterpretations over the years, the Forest Side’s head chef Paul Leonard garnered a Michelin star for his take on this classic dish. Arriving in a delicate and crisp stewed-apple tart case that takes no less than 72 hours to create, it’s filled with a creme fraiche cake, walnut brittle, dehydrated grapes and confit celery. Walnut, celery and apple gels are also added, along with a Granny Smith apple skin sorbet, all topped with a walnut tuile. The different flavours and texture compliment each other perfectly, creating an unforgettable sweet and sour flavour bomb that continues to linger long in the memory. This petite morsel of food forms part of Leonard’s eight-course Michelin-starred menu at the Cumbrian hotel and restaurant, which was named the Best Country House Hotel of the Year in the 2023 Good Hotel Awards. In addition to the star, it’s also been awarded four rosettes, ranked number nine on Square Meal’s annual list of the UK’s 100 best restaurants and reached the top 30 of Harden’s Top 100 of the Best UK Restaurants. Which is a long way of saying that there’s plenty of justifiable interest in this superb family-run operation and that it’s been a good 2023 for the team. And it’s far from Leonard’s first culinary rodeo. Having cooked under Marcus Wareing and Andrew Fairlie, the Hull-native retained a Michelin star at The Isle of Eriska on the west coast of Scotland, before heading up the luxury Devonshire Arms in Bolton Abbey, Yorkshire, where he won four rosettes for his cookery. In 2019, he joined the team at the Forest Side. Here, the emphasis is very much on making the most of this sensational landscape, in both aesthetics and taste, with Leonard aiming to source 90 per cent of produce from within a 10-mile radius of the establishment. Handily, an extensive and original red brick Victorian walled garden is home to many of the ingredients rustled up by the team, including saffron, courgettes, tomatoes and an “unofficial” apple orchard that boasts 300 different types of apple. And what a successful collaboration it is. Guests arrive in the light and airy dining room, which looks out to the red-squirrel-occupied garden and dramatic fells. Reclaimed timber and steel tables sit aside a central sommelier’s table crafted from a windblown tree in the grounds. But instead of the buttoned-up atmosphere that often permeates restaurants of this calibre, the familiar sound of classic anthems – think Fleetwood Mac, The Kinks and Pulp – floods through the space, extinguishing any sense of forced propriety. It’s an intentional move initiated by Leonard and a welcome one more restaurants could learn from: a relaxed room of toe-tapping patrons is significantly happier than one with a reverential silence. Snippy waiters with clipped accents have no place here. At the Forest Side, staff seem genuinely delighted to be there, arriving with smiles and warm inflections. Under Leonard’s leadership, junior chefs present each course and it’s a genuine pleasure to see their passion for and pride in the food they’ve created. Proceedings kick off with a trio of “snacks”: a rhubarb and whipped chicken liver tart, a Hafod cheddar gougère, and a croustade of brown buttered shrimp. The gougère is scrumptious – buttery and nutty and blanketed with a slice of bresaola – while the whipped chicken liver is smooth and rich. Kohlrabi with cured and lightly smoked trout is served with a salsa verde made from garden herbs and cured trout roe, while a unctuous broth is made from pork fat, seaweed and mushrooms. “Beetroots cooked in their own juice all day” might not seem like the kind of dish to set hearts aflutter, but this isn’t any old root veg. The humble vegetable is cooked all day in its own juice before being dehydrated to create a fudgy texture, and served with a chamomile-infused yoghurt. It’s delicious. We gobble down a supple scallop, followed shortly by the most tender and rich hogget, splashed with a sauce made from confit lamb tongue, pickled mustard seeds and wild garlic buds. And the bread! Baked before each service, this milk loaf is glazed in Marmite and simply served with a butter made at the nearby Winter Tarn Dairy. This early course is luxury comfort food at its best and we’re forced to restrain ourselves for fear of spoiling our appetite. We finish off with “first rhubarb of the year”, ginger and custard, which is as delicious as it sounds: a perfect balance of sweet vanilla, sorbet and herbs. Satiated, we make the easy trip upstairs to our room, one of 20 at the hotel, all of which have garden views and make the perfect end to our decadent dining experience. Is there still a place for fine dining restaurants during a cost-of-living crisis? As employers and buyers, producers and supporters of local food, they’re invaluable to the economy, while for gastronomes who wish to splash some cash treating themselves or someone else, they’re a luxury much like a pair of tickets to see Beyoncé or a championship football match. Overheard snippets of conversation among fellow guests reveal birthday treats or anniversaries, of a weekend away from the grind to relax in this glorious gothic mansion house amidst the fells. Whatever the reason, a trip to the Forest Side is quite simply sublime. A four-course dinner menu costs £85pp, while an eight-course dinner menu costs £130pp. A four-course lunch menu costs £55pp, while an eight-course lunch menu costs £85. Wine pairings come in flights of four, six or eight and start from £75 per person. B&B and dining packages are also available - visit theforestside.com for more information. Read More Showstopping BBQ main dishes for a hot grill summer 7 TikTok food hacks that actually work Saltie Girl in Mayfair will make you happy as a clam – as long as you can afford it Chef Ravinder Bhogal: Vegetables are the secret to saving money How to make tomato confit with whipped feta Kataifi: A comforting Greek pie full of veggie goodness

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It’s a case of 12 down, 10 to go for Formula 1 in 2023. Max Verstappen is cruising to a third-straight world championship for a Red Bull team who look invincible – and could yet go the whole season invincible. Yet there have been other notable performances too, with Aston Martin and more recently McLaren impressing, while behemoths like Ferrari and Mercedes are left wondering how they’ve been left so far behind Red Bull yet again. It’s now time for the usual four-week August break, but not before The Independent takes a look at the highlights and lowlights from the first five months of the 2023 season. Best driver – Max Verstappen Unsurprisingly, the easiest choice of the lot. Eight wins in a row, 10 from 12 in total, Verstappen is has a mammoth 125-point lead to team-mate Sergio Perez with 10 races left. The title is already virtually sewn up. The only question left is – how many records he can set this season? Next in line is Sebastian Vettel’s 2013 record of nine wins in a row, which he can match at his home race in Zandvoort. Thank you, next. Best team – Red Bull To the second easiest choice of the lot. It seemed highly unlikely that Red Bull could improve on their double success last year; surely the chasing pack would reel them in? In fact, it’s gone the other way. Red Bull’s rocketship RB19 is Adrian Newey’s greatest design yet. It has won all 15 races including sprints – 12 from Verstappen, three from Perez – and they’ve had five one-two finishes. Including last season, Christian Horner’s team have won 22 of the last 23 grands prix. George Russell was somewhat ridiculed for suggesting after the first race in Bahrain that Red Bull “could win every race this season.” He doesn’t look so silly now. An unprecedented perfect season could well be the story of the season. Biggest disappointment – Nyck de Vries Already out the door after 10 races, with Daniel Ricciardo replacing him at AlphaTauri, Nyck de Vries’ Formula 1 career is in tatters. With zero points, a best-finish of 12th and Red Bull overlord Helmut Marko criticising him as early as April, the writing was on the wall for De Vries from the outset. Did he deserve quite such an early exit? Probably not. But it was coming. This was not supposed to be the order of play after the Dutchman’s mightily impressive debut at Monza last year for Williams, where he finished ninth filling in for Alex Albon. A return to Formula E appears most likely for the 28-year-old now. Most improved driver/team – Aston Martin Eyebrows were raised last summer when Fernando Alonso switched from Alpine to the struggling Aston Martin, who finished seventh in the Constructors’ Standings. But how that decision has bore fruit. Alonso started the 2023 season with five podiums in six races, with the racing green Aston modelled closely on leader of the pack Red Bull, leapfrogging the likes of Mercedes and Ferrari early on. They’ve had something of a dip recently, but Alonso remains the best of the rest behind Red Bull in the world championship. Their emergence as a frontrunner will be undoubtedly confirmed if they can achieve a race victory in the second-half of the season. Biggest surprise – McLaren’s recent revival Aside from the extent of Red Bull’s dominance, the July renaissance from the McLaren papaya has come completely out the blue. It looked set to be a long season when, in the season-opener in Bahrain, Lando Norris pitted six times amid issues with the MCL60. But, having made personnel changes and altered their floor of the car, Norris secured two second-place finishes in a row in Silverstone and Hungary. Australian rookie Oscar Piastri has also impressed after a cagey start – the highlight a sterling drive to finish second in the Belgian GP sprint race on Saturday. Biggest underachiever – Ferrari This will not be the biggest surprise. After looking so fierce and domineering at the start of 2022, how the Scuderia’s fortunes have reversed in the 18 months since. Ferrari have not won a race since Charles Leclerc in Austria last year – over 12 months now – and despite changing their team principal in the off-season from Mattia Binotto to Fred Vassuer, they continue to be impacted by the same disorderly confusion which characterised last season. Charles Leclerc appears close to breaking point on occasions, with Carlos Sainz not far behind. Ferrari themselves will do well not to be left bereft in the midfield in the remainder of 2023. Biggest shock – Toto Wolff revealing Mercedes will ditch car concept Max Verstappen insisting he could quit F1 if more sprint races are added to the calendar was a shock. But just beating it, it didn’t take long for Mercedes to finally ditch their unique no-sidepod design. Toto Wolff didn’t even wait until the season-opening Bahrain Grand Prix; testing, practice and qualifying had told him enough. “I don’t think this package is going to be competitive eventually,” he said. “We got it wrong last year. We thought we could fix it by sticking to the concept of car but it didn’t work out so we just need to switch our focus on to what we believe is the right direction.” Improvement for Lewis Hamilton and George Russell has been slow but steady since. Biggest farce – Esteban Ocon pit-lane incident in Baku Everyone knew it was happening. The pit wall, the broadcasters – but not the FIA seemingly. Esteban Ocon had to pit before the last lap of the Azerbaijan Grand Prix having pursued a bold – albeit ineffective in the end – strategy to drive the whole race on one set of tyres. F1 rules dictate every driver must pit at least once. So the shocking scenes which followed of Ocon almost running over photographers and officials walking in the pit lane was shambolic and extremely unsafe. Best race – Australian Grand Prix In a season lacking classic races thus far, the street track of Albert Park in Melbourne did at least provide drama from start to finish. Three red flags were thrown due to crashes throughout the race, with a late shunt forcing a captivating two-lap shootout to finish, which subsequently resulted in the Alpines crashing into each other and Carlos Sainz penalised for spinning Fernando Alonso. The sort of chaotic carnage which has not been replicated since. Worst race – Hungarian Grand Prix Expectations were high in Budapest after Hamilton claimed his first pole position since December 2021. Could he defend from Max Verstappen from lights out? Could there be a battle between the pair not seen since Abu Dhabi 2021? No, no there couldn’t. Verstappen dived down the inside at turn one and was not seen again. The race descended into nothing short of a bore-fest and had just 16 overtakes – the lowest amount in any grand prix in 2023. For comparison, last year’s race at the Hungaroring had 61 overtakes. 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A mother who was diagnosed with cystic fibrosis (CF) just days before her 30th birthday and later told she has myeloma – an incurable type of blood cancer – said she has “taught (herself) a whole new script for death” and, rather than feeling afraid, she feels “empowered” by what she has overcome. Ellie Allman, 42, who lives in Hadleigh, Suffolk, with her husband Steve, 44, a charity consultant, and son Harvey, 13, used to work as a specialist adviser for vulnerable young people but she had to retire, aged 35, after being diagnosed with CF aged 29. CF is an inherited condition that causes sticky mucus to build up in the lungs and digestive system, and while Ellie did not “feel anything initially” when she received her diagnosis, she “struggled mentally” later on and ended up developing anorexia, as she felt she had “no control over anything”. “I was off work, I was frustrated, I was angry, my body didn’t feel right CF-wise – I had no energy, I couldn’t do what I wanted,” Ellie told PA Real Life. “I was spending my days weighing everything I ate and just constantly doing the maths. “It seems ridiculous now, but it made so much sense at the time to that very determined person who was just clinging on to any form of normal life.” After becoming eligible to take Kaftrio in June 2021, a medication which significantly improves lung function, she noticed a vast improvement in her health. However, in less than a year, Ellie “randomly” became very unwell, and this led to the devastating news she has incurable cancer. After this, she underwent four months of chemotherapy alongside immunotherapy, followed by a stem cell transplant to replace the damaged blood cells with healthy ones in March 2023, and then a further two months of consolidation chemotherapy which included immunotherapy. She lost her hair, felt “exhausted” and anxious, and experienced pain “worse than labour contractions” from the “harvest of (her) stem cells” before the transplant, but she knew the pain would not last forever – and she said the support she has received from her husband, son, doctors, consultants and the charity, Ending Life’s Taboo, has been invaluable. She is now in remission and undergoing maintenance chemotherapy, and while she has experienced feelings of anger and resentment, she knows she can handle anything that her health throws at her. “I’ve taught myself a whole new script for death; I find it difficult to live with failing health, but I don’t feel afraid of dying any more,” she said. “We don’t get a choice, that’s just how it goes, but I think having the right people around you is so important. “I think it’s really natural when you’re young, or when you’re scared, to unintentionally isolate yourself or become withdrawn, and that has never ever worked for me. “I have to work hard not to lose myself within these diagnoses, and I have to remind myself that I’m still the person I was before my diagnosis.” During her childhood, Ellie developed whooping cough “in succession” – a bacterial infection of the lungs and breathing tubes – along with other chest infections and bouts of flu, but she was otherwise fit and healthy and used to run, swim, and was even a sports captain at school. She remembers certain periods of her life where she felt extremely fatigued and achy, but since her mother preferred alternative and natural medicines, Ellie rarely visited the doctor – and given she had “coughed (her) entire life”, she was “dismissive” of her symptoms. Later on, during her pregnancy, Ellie developed repeated chest infections, experienced difficulties with her speech, and could not clear her throat, but it was not until after she gave birth to her son Harvey, now 13, in 2010 that she underwent further testing. In February 2011, just days before her 30th birthday, it was confirmed she has cystic fibrosis – and, at first, she said she was “not willing to make room for CF in (her) life”. “You’ve lived your whole life not ill and then suddenly there’s this label,” Ellie said. “I didn’t feel anything initially, but I struggled with it later on, mentally.” According to the charity Cystic Fibrosis Trust, CF can be diagnosed during a new-born screening, which is carried out as part of the heel-prick test that all babies in the UK receive, but since this was only introduced nationally in 2007, this was not available for Ellie. Moreover, Ellie’s rare genotype made her CF even more difficult to diagnose. She underwent treatment in the form of intravenous (IV) antibiotics and physiotherapy sessions and noticed an improvement in her health, but when she started experiencing difficulties with her digestion – caused by a build-up of thick mucus – she started to feel “really frustrated with the world”. The side effects of the prescribed drugs also meant she could not conceive again – and while she is extremely grateful for her family, this had a “massive” impact on Ellie at the time. Ellie was then told she needed to take the medication Creon with food, which aids digestion, except for with fruits and vegetables, and this led to her developing anorexia in 2016. She said her head would “scream at her” but she could not “free (herself)” from negative thoughts that would body-shame her. “I had no control over anything, it was the perfect storm in a way; the perfect circumstances for me to use that as a control mechanism,” she said. Ellie became very weak after her “dramatic weight loss” of more than four-and-a-half stone, but after realising she needed to prioritise her health and time with her family, she underwent treatment and therapy to “reframe” her negative thoughts, so they were no longer a “dominant” force in her life. In June 2021, Ellie started taking Kaftrio, and she described it as “a miracle drug”, but approximately 11 months later, she began experiencing a “burning pain in (her) chest”. This led to the heart-breaking news in July 2022 that she has myeloma – a type of blood cancer, which is incurable – and the pain caused by treatments was unimaginable at times. She said: “Since Kaftrio thins the mucus, the high-dose chemo just ripped through the mucus in my throat, so I couldn’t swallow; the pain was insane. “My throat was blistered and ulcerated, so I couldn’t eat and I was put on to a feeding tube. “But I knew I had to get through it because if I stay in remission for two years, I could have a second transplant in future.” Ellie is now in remission and is undergoing maintenance chemotherapy, which she said “feels like a breeze in comparison”, and she is continuing to take Kaftrio, meaning the symptoms of her CF have “massively reduced” and she can enjoy the “simple things in life again”. She likes going on dog walks, meeting friends for a drink, and spending time with her “favourite people”, as that “makes everything else feel better” – and looking back now, she feels “empowered” that she has handled her CF, anorexia, cancer diagnosis, and treatments. While myeloma is incurable and Ellie has had some “existential thoughts”, she said processing what may happen in life has been “freeing” and she has always held on to hope. She has applied to become a magistrate and hopes another “miracle drug” like Kaftrio may become available during her lifetime to treat the cancer. She added: “Even in the most testing of times, every time I have found something positive to focus on or something to hope for and that has kept me going.” Ellie’s cancer is not linked to CF. To find out more information, visit: www.cysticfibrosis.org.uk/what-is-cystic-fibrosis/how-does-cystic-fibrosis-affect-the-body/cystic-fibrosis-complications/cancer Read More Dancer who has Tourette’s tics says Lewis Capaldi’s Glastonbury performance left her ‘speechless’ ‘Long Covid has taken away my ability to eat food or urinate - I don’t recognise myself anymore’ How to lower your blood sugar levels, as new research reveals heart disease link Groundbreaking cystic fibrosis drug made seven-year-old girl feel better ‘within hours’