The hotel: I don’t know when a wood becomes a forest or a pond a lake, and at Percy’s I realised that I don’t know when a restaurant with rooms becomes a hotel that serves great food. This converted 16th-century longhouse, snuggling in a sleepy hollow outside Virginstow, Devon, would like to be thought of as the latter. The owners, Tina and Tony Bricknell-Webb, point to the fact that it was named Chic Hotel of the Year by Which? for 2003; and that Tina is regularly described as “Devon’s top female chef”.

Yet, try as it might, Percy’s is far too unpretentious to be anything but a prelude to a thoroughly delicious meal. The hotel has amazing views over Bodmin and Dartmoor, rows of borrowable green wellies in the hallway, and four frisky black labradors who can’t wait to take you for a bracing walk. It is manured rather than manicured.

Yes, they’ve had a stab at design. A new extension houses two lounges, one of which has a zinc bar. It is perfectly nice, but feels as awkward as old folks jigging along to Britney at a wedding. I admire them for having a go, but I wish they’d adopted the same modest approach as in the restaurant. Its interconnecting dining rooms are in the oldest part of the house, with oak beams, low ceilings, even an original cloam oven. They are simple, cosy and ready to play second fiddle to the fabulous cuisine.

What about the rooms? The eight spacious bedrooms have shiny pine rather than ancestral antiques. They are inoffensively patterned and meticulously maintained, with fluffy robes in the bathroom, DVDs by the TV and home-made biscuits at the bedside. For me, though, their selling point was proximity to the dining room.

Go on then, tell us about the food ... The buzz word in catering is provenance: smart London restaurants now name their suppliers on their menus. Percy’s goes one step further: it is its supplier. Vegetables are picked from its organic gardens; chemical-free sheep and pigs are reared on its 130-acre estate; and game, fungi and fruits are scavenged from its woodlands as the seasons dictate. Tony even struggles out of bed at 4am most days to buy turbot, squid and lobster from Cornish day boats on the harbour. You can taste the difference. The menu is reassuringly limited and everything is cooked to order: do bring a book, because you will wait between courses. But slow food brings lasting rewards: the lamb in rosemary jus and pan-fried monkfish with ginger and saffron sauce are impeccable. Start with Tina’s chicken parfait and finish with her tingling lemon tart (both won gold medals at the Organic Food Awards), and you will retire to bed happy.

Will she give us the recipe? Better still, Tina imparts her secrets at cookery courses on Mondays (the melt-in-the-mouth pastry is made using one part cornflour). I picked apples from her bramley orchard for a wicked sticky pudding and learnt how to make a béarnaise sauce. Percy’s even has a mail-order service, so you can order everything from chutneys to lamb to take back to barracks.

Sounds like we’ll need to work off some pounds ... Fine: the Bricknell-Webbs used to be bookies, and they still love horses. They plan to launch a syndicate, so guests can buy a share in a racehorse and book in to witness everything from the birth to key training moments. In the meantime, borrow one of their nags for the challenging on-site cross-country course; or head for Dartmoor, which is particularly wonderful just now, its brackeny hills the colour of copper.

Who should go: Frankie Dettori — he could do with putting on some weight.

Who shouldn’t: clothes horses. This is not a place for labels.

• A two-night winter break for two, with breakfast and dinner, costs £360. One-day cookery courses, including lunch, cost £90pp. Call 01409 211236 or visit www.percys.co.uk

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