Rhubarb sour at The Small Holding (Food Story Media)
Rhubarb, snowdrops and storms
Seedlings, snowdrops and buds are emerging at The Small Holding. Springs feels around the corner, despite Storm Ciara howling through the farm at the weekend pulling down one of the poly tunnels and destroying many of early strawberry plants inside.
February is the ‘hungry gap’ as the cold store produce stocks run low, the game season is over and while we wait for the first Spring greens to appear. It’s a difficult month waiting for the sunshine while dodging the wind the rain; it seems only the Berkshire pigs are having fun in the mud. While it’s cold outside though, the kitchen is a hot bed of activity, making use of the previous summer and autumn gluts with the team constantly inventing and experimenting with an almost empty natural larder.
Named ‘Chef to Watch’ in the Good Food Guide 2020, Will Devlin says, “This is a tough time of year in the kitchen but growing and preserving what we can throughout the year keeps us concentrated on the natural cycle of the land and helps us to create full flavoured and imaginative dishes.”
The February Full Acre sample menu is £60 per head with an optional four or six glass wine flight for £40/60. The Half Acre menu is £30 per person.
February’s Full Acre menu
Fennel, pumpkin, sage
Camembert, seaweed, truffle
Crab, apple, pork
Pigeon, prawn, mooli
Beef, mushroom, potato
Gurnard, leaves, lard
Lamb, carrot, leek
Quince, vodka, meadowsweet
Rhubarb, ginger, egg
About The Small Holding
Will Devlin, 31, is the chef owner of The Small Holding, a kitchen and farm on a country lane in the village of Kilndown on the Kent and East Sussex borders. The 26-cover restaurant was voted the best restaurant in Kent at the Taste of Kent Awards and is set in one acre of land, permitting a unique connection between farm and table. Growing, foraging and cooking the best ingredients is at the core of The Small Holding, with daily changing menus, using home-reared and home-grown ingredients from the farm, which is less than 10ft from the kitchen.
Will’s second site, The Curlew, a former 17th century coaching inn in Bodiam, East Sussex will open on 19 February. www.thecurlew.restaurant.
For more information, images, interview or to visit The Small Holding, please contact Hannah Blake hannah@thediningroompr.co.uk | 07730 039361
Praise for The Small Holding
A group of folk growing amazing things, then pulling them out of the ground, sometimes knobbly and lumpy, then cooking and serving them. It’s perfectly imperfect and I wouldn’t change a thing.” Grace Dent, The Guardian
“The menu reads like a list of all that is good in a British Larder. Self-sufficiency, careful sourcing, purity of intent and an absolute focus on flavour. It’s easy to fall in love with The Small Holding for the warmth of the staff, its good intent and deft execution.” Tony Turnbull, The Times
“Striding confidently into its second year, Will Devlin’s restaurant shows no sign of slowing down, ‘a truly sensational experience’ is one fan’s heartfelt comment. The level of ingenuity generated by a kitchen on turbo drive, fueled by its own small holding, hen coop and piggery is prodigious.” Will Devlin was named ‘Chef to Watch’ in The Good Food Guide 2020