Rosettes and Stars at The Bell in Ticehurst

Service at the table in The Stables by Mark Charker (picture Saltwick Media)

The Bell in Ticehurst has been upgraded with AA Hospitality Rosettes and Stars

The Bell in Ticehurst and its fine-dining restaurant, The Stables by Mark Charker is delighted to announce it has been awarded 5 Stars and 2 AA Rosettes, respectively, from AA Hospitality.

Being awarded 5 stars is the best possible rating from the AA and given only to establishments offering the highest standard of accommodation and hospitality, with luxurious rooms, excellent service, and high-quality dining. The Stables by Mark Charker has been awarded 2 Rosettes for gastronomy, attention to detail and high-quality ingredients. Everyone at The Bell is delighted to be recognised with this prestigious hospitality badge.

Daniel Courtney, General Manager at The Bell, comments, “We’re over the moon with this recognition from AA Hospitality. It is a fabulous team effort, and I couldn’t be prouder of the whole team, from housekeeping to front of house, reception, operations, the garden, and the kitchen teams. Everything we do at The Bell is inspired by people and passion and these two pillars stand strong today within our business, with these two new accolades.”

Jonathan Boyer, Assistant General Manager, comments, “Being able to showcase local produce from passionate suppliers and being supported by the team to deliver the "art de la table" is most rewarding. 2 AA Rosettes will mark a new chapter at The Bell and will give the strong base we need to push even further.”

Head Chef Mark Charker, comments, “I’m very happy and proud of our team, it’s a great achievement to get 2 AA rosettes within a year of The Stables launching. This is just the beginning, and we will keep working to get 3 in 6 months’ time.”

“The flavours were amazing, the presentation of the food was beautiful, incredibly warm welcome from the team and service impeccable. Wonderful evening and experience.” Guest

Dine in The Stables and stay over in one of The Bell’s 5-star rooms for the ultimate star-rated luxury experience.

Reservations to: 01580 200 300 | reservations@thebellinticehurst.com

About The Bell

For centuries, The Bell has been at the very heart of Ticehurst village, geographically and emotionally. The Bell’s design is eclectic in the truest sense of the word - the building looks as if an eccentric nobleman has travelled the world and filled his house full of curiosities from his travels. The eleven guest rooms offer a highly individual design, with features including silver birch branches (a nod to the derivation of Ticehurst’s name, which is “the wooded hill where goats graze”), huge copper bathtubs, vintage chairs, and record players. Eschewing room numbers, each of The Bell’s guest rooms has its own distinctive name, from “The Benefit of the Doubt” to “Smiles of Memories.”

About The Stables

This special occasion menu takes guests on a journey from the sea to the best lands in Sussex and the garden of England, including locally sourced meat, fantastic day boat fish, seasonal fruits and vegetables, and cheeses. It’s a surprise menu on the night but to whet the appetite, sample dishes might include Lamb with Jerusalem Artichoke and Hen of the Woods and Caramelised Milk Chocolate, Toffee and Fig Leaf Milk Sorbet. Suppliers include local crab, scallops and halibut from Chapmans, Wagyu Sussex beef from Trenchmore Farm, goat meat from Cabrito, free-range eggs from Spurs Farm and a bespoke chocolate made from scratch, using fresh cocoa beans, from J.Cocoa in West Sussex.

The Stables tasting menu costs £65 for five courses and £35 for the wine flight pairing, per person.

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Notes to editors

Room rates from £165 - £325, including breakfast

01580 200300 or www.thebellinticehurst.com @thebellinticehurst

The Bell in Ticehurst, High Street, Ticehurst, Wadhurst, East Sussex, TN5 7AS

March at The Small Holding

March at The Small Holding

Green Michelin star restaurant in Kent
Chef owner Will Devlin

Ranters Lane, Kilndown, Kent
www.thesmallholding.restaurant
@the_small_holding_

Green Michelin Star 2021/22 | Number 25 in Harden’s Top 100 UK Restaurants, 2022 | Number 10 in Square Meal’s UK’s Top 100, 2022 | Good Food Guide 2023 | Kent Chef of the Year 2022 | Best Restaurant in Taste of Kent Awards 2022

”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, fuelled by its own small holding, hen coop and piggery is prodigious.” The Good Food Guide

The March menu

Snacks
Parsnip, Cured Egg Yolk, Nasturtium
Cheese & Onion Tart
Rosti, 100-day-old aged Beef Tartare

Bread & Broth
Sourdough bread and butter
Potato, asparagus, wild garlic

Farm
Beetroot, kohlrabi, sumac

Fish
Squid, seaweed, lemongrass
Monkfish, rhubarb, spring onion

Meat
Hogget, tomato, sea radish

Sweet
Barley, plum, milk
Chocolate, Mushroom, Caramel

Cheese
Cornish Yarg, Eccles Cake, Chutney

Sweet Treat
Apple and Cobnut Cake

Named ‘Chef to Watch’ in The Good Food Guide 2020 and awarded a Green Michelin Star in 2021 and 2022, Will Devlin, is 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 Small Holding is part of the Acre Group including Birchwood in Flimwell. The Small Holding opened in April 2018. As a former pub, the site had been run down and neglected, before being transformed into an open kitchen and bar with a large-decked terrace looking out over the farm and views of the Weald of Kent.

The 36-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.

Over 180 varieties of vegetables and fruits are grown including Broccoli ‘Red Blaze’, Cauliflower ‘Graffiti’, Cucumber ‘Passandra’, Radish ‘Viola’, Runner Beans ‘Scarlet Emperor’ and Courgette ‘Midnight’.  Native breed Large Black pigs, chickens and ducks roam the farm and sheep for hogget and mutton graze less than half a mile away.

The menu is defined by hyper-seasonal ingredients with a focus on the farm’s own produce, but undefined by the number of courses or choice. There is no formal menu at The Small Holding. Instead, guests are offered a multi-taste dining experience featuring the best ingredients on that day from the farm and local suppliers. Vegetables and fruits from the farm, harvested within hours of guests arriving, homemade charcuterie and zero waste animal cookery from the farm’s own livestock is the focus. The Small Holding works directly with growers, farmers and fishermen and the kitchen team forage in the nearby hedgerows and woodland.

The Michelin Green Star for sustainable gastronomy recognises restaurants with a focus on environmental practices. The Green Star encompasses everything about The Small Holding and the teams’ drive for sustainability.

The restaurant is open Wednesday to Saturday for dinner costing £85 per head and for lunch, with a shorter menu, on Saturday and Sunday, costing £65 per head. 

Eating at The Small Holding

Everything is home-made at The Small Holding, or sourced hyper-locally, except fish and seafood which comes from the South Coast or Scotland. Ingredients are picked less than 10ft from the kitchen and when there’s a glut, the kitchen preserves, pickles and jars.

The menu starts with home-made kombucha or broth and breads and sourdough and fresh butter, made on site with the rich yellow cream from a local herd of pedigree Guernsey and Holstein Friesian cows in nearby Benenden.

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Samphire, a Kentish bistro in Whitstable

Valhalla raw prawn crudo, grilled heads and trout roe by Mark O’Brien at Samphire, Whitstable

Samphire
A Kentish bistro in Whitstable

Samphire is an unfussy, rustic bistro in the heart of Whitstable, with a chalkboard menu dedicated to local fish, meat and seasonal vegetables, served in a relaxed dining room. Being just metres from the sea, there is a strong emphasis on oysters, crustaceans and seafood, plus nose to tail whole animal butchery and creative vegetarian options. Focaccia, chutneys and preserves are made in house and all prepared with produce sourced from well-respected local farms, fishermen, gamekeeper and foragers in Kent and the South-East.

Head chef Mark O’Brien, originally from Dublin, is particularly passionate about live fire cookery and whole fish and animal butchery. Previously at The Dairy and Zebra Riding Club in London, with restaurateur Robin Gill, Mark regularly cooks live fire demonstrations at barbecue festivals Meatopia and The Big Grill. These influences make their mark on the Samphire menu with rubs, smoking and low and slow barbecuing techniques, where Mark fires up the Portico Grill with lumpwood from Kent Charcoal, made with wood only from local sustainable woodlands.

Samphire’s owner, George Begg, trained as a chef in Australia in the 90s. Following a stint in London as an Executive Chef, George moved to Whitstable in 2004 and took on the lease of an empty shop just a short walk from the beach. Samphire was born and became Whitstable’s first bistro to be open all day, every day using the best Kentish produce. Suppliers include The Wonky Parsnip in Chatham for unusual organic vegetables, Sevenscore Asparagus near Sandwich, slow-grown, free-range chickens from Laughtons in Faversham; British cold-water farmed prawns from Valhalla, Stour Valley game, lamb, pork and goat meat from Oink and Udder and vegetables from Mallards Farm.

An early-spring lunch might include smoked cod croquettes with crab mayonnaise; raw prawn crudo, trout roe and grilled heads, followed by Creole mussels with Holy Trinity sauce and smoked prawn butter followed by aged beef porterhouse for two, with beef fat salsa verde.

The British cheese selection is well worth exploring, as are traditional desserts such as Bramley apple and frangipane tart and warm honey cream or rhubarb baked Alaska.

SAMPLE MENU

Rosemary & Roast Garlic Focaccia | 1/2 Dozen Maldon Oysters Juniper mignonette | Aged Beef Tartare Jerusalem artichoke | Grilled Radish radish top pesto, pickled golden beets | Smoked Cod Croquettes crab mayo | Grilled Kohlrabi green harissa, apple | Valhalla Prawn Crudo trout roe, grilled heads | Samphire's Fish Pie Mallard's farm greens | Butter Bean & Tomato Cassoulet polenta, roast shallot | Creole Mussels Holy Trinity sauce, smoked prawn butter | Butternut Squash, Spinach & Pine Nut Pithivier cauliflower purée, pickled wild mushrooms | Aged Beef Porterhouse beef fat salsa verde | House Sausages grilled January King, pickled salad | Dayboat market price

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Notes to editor
Samphire, 4 High St,
Whitstable, Kent, CT5 1BQ

T: 01227 770075
E: info@samphirewhitstable.co.uk

Mon-Fri: 12pm - 21:30pm
Sat & Sun: 9am - 10pm

For more information, images or to arrange a press visit please contact Hannah@thediningroompr.co.uk | 07730 039361
 

The Exmoor Forest Inn

The dining room at the Exmoor Forest Inn

The Exmoor Forest Inn, Simonsbath on Exmoor sits in an idyllic valley surrounded by wild and beautiful moorland. Built in the 1850s, the recently refurbished pub with eleven ensuite rooms and three cottages, is part of the Exmoor Forest Estate, an organic traditional hill farm, producing native breed, grass-fed beef and lamb, and home to several hundred red deer.

In May 2021, the Inn was acquired by three brothers, Edward, Freddie & Alexander Greenall, who have since embarked on a full refurbishment to provide guests with accommodation and dining fitting for the 21st century traveller.

Welcoming and cosy, guests will find tucked away snugs with comfortable sofas to sink into, a bar full of friendly locals and farmers, and a beautiful dining room with soft armchairs next to wood burning stoves. Head Chef Ben Ogden cares deeply about quality sourcing and seasonality, the menu conveys a real sense of place - it is representative of Exmoor, its climate, its seasons, its altitude, its farming, its animals and its coast.

Food

The pub is an integral part of the Exmoor Forest Estate. The menu offers organic beef and lamb that has been farmed, finished and aged on the Exmoor Forest farm, fish from the Bideford day boats off the North Devon coast, just 8 miles from the pub, venison and other game from the surrounding 6000 acres of moorland, British cheeses and locally foraged mushrooms, plants, herbs and berries.

The kitchen garden on the farm supplies soft fruit and vegetables to the pub restaurant while Ben and his team regularly forage for seasonal treats such as wild garlic, sea purslane, sweet woodruff and pineapple weed, while local wild mushrooms are something of a house speciality.

Start with a generous serving of house sourdough with roasted yeast butter to start and a creamy hummus of yellow split peas from British growers Hodmedod’s served with crisp local grown crudites and meltingly tender slow cooked beef nuggets with homemade pickles or grilled Withycombe asparagus, Whitelake goats curd and wild garlic. There are pub classics, done well, like Middle white sausages and mash and expertly cooked local game; tender slices of Venison haunch are paired with salt baked beetroot, a paean to local ingredients, or braised North Devon cuttle fish, Cornish Earlies and rock samphire. For pudding, try English black fig and Somerset cider cake with clotted cream and a superb sticky hogweed pudding with milk ice cream, both of which confirm Ben’s commitment to finding the best ingredients and his capabilities at preparing them. Late Spring will see the addition of a new meat ageing chamber, charcuterie fridge, wood fired oven and asado grill.

Food is served every evening and is open for lunch Wednesday to Sunday. A full seven days a week offer will launch from 1st May.

Sleep

The Exmoor Forest Inn has recently undergone a total refurbishment and offers a choice of eleven newly renovated en-suite rooms, three holiday cottages adjacent to the pub, sleeping up to four guests and Limecombe cottage, sleeping up to 10 guests, which is in a remote, wild and unspoilt moorland location on the Exmoor Forest organic hill farm, on the edge of Simonsbath, and it is perfect for those wanting to immerse themselves in nature.

All rooms are individually and beautifully decorated, with pocket-sprung beds, deep baths and big showers with excellent water pressure. Each room has hanging space, storage and somewhere comfortable to sit.

Well behaved dogs are welcome in most of the guest rooms for a small charge.

The Farm

The pub is part of the Exmoor Forest Estate, a 6000-acre farm producing organic, grass-fed, traditional and native breed cattle and sheep, and red deer. The cattle and sheep are born, raised and eaten on one farm.

The farm runs two beef herds - one of purebred pedigree Galloway cattle and the other of crossbreeds produced from Aberdeen Angus or Shorthorn dominant cows. About 100 cattle a year are finished on the farm, including the surplus heifers (females) and steers (males) from the Galloway herd. At around 28-34 months of age, those cattle go to a tiny, local cottage abattoir in Combe Martin, which has the highest welfare standards, about 12 miles away, before returning to the pub for dry-aging and eating.

The farm runs a flock of 1200 Scottish Blackface ewes, a traditional breed that have thrived on the estate for generations. Half of the flock are put to Scottish Blackface rams to produce purebred lambs and half of which are put to Blueface Leicester rams to produce a Scotch Mule.

The wild red deer living on the estate are considerably larger than Scottish red deer. In the spring, the stags shed their antlers (known as horns on Exmoor) and then re-grow new ones, which start off with a furry surface (known as velvet) when the horns are growing. The ‘rut’ is the mating season in October, when the stags fight over the hinds and can be heard roaring loudly as they establish their territory.

The whole Exmoor Forest Estate is run with biodiversity, flora and fauna as the guiding lights. Three hundred acres of species-rich grassland and traditional hay meadows are managed traditionally, with no cutting until after 1 July, and grazed by native breeds. The estate has two farms, one at Simonsbath Barton, behind the pub on the edge of the village, and the other at Cornham Farm, a little further west on the Barnstaple Road.

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Water Lane Menu Series Two - Simon Hopkinson

Marmalade sponge pudding and blood orange custard by Jed Wrobel

Water Lane Menu Series Two – Simon Hopkinson

www.waterlane.net

During the early months of 2023, Water Lane’s head chef Jed Wrobel is writing the Carnation House menus by drawing inspiration from some of his favourite cookery writers. The series launched with sunny warmth of Claudia Roden; for the second menu in this series, he looks to the honest, nostalgic and anecdotal words of Simon Hopkinson. ‘A classically trained chef with the heart of a home cook’, his writings transport the reader to the comforting and enlivening experience of food and flavours. Often hailed as the ‘food writer’s writer’, his critically acclaimed books include Roast Chicken and Other Stories and The Prawn Cocktail Years, which demonstrate his natural understanding of ingredients, his practical approach to cooking, and his love of good food. Seasonality is at the core of his recipes, and the Water Lane menu celebrates his influence alongside what the garden has to offer in March. Simple cooking with the best possible ingredients.

2 Courses £27 (starter & main or main & pudding)
3 courses £32 (starter, main & pudding)

To start
Beetroot soup with a horseradish dumpling
Eggs mayonnaise with anchovy and chive
Chicken livers, parsley salad with garlic dressing

Followed by
Risotto Milanese, grilled leeks and almonds
Smoked haddock fishcakes with sauce messine
Mutton shoulder with fennel dressed in plum and Pernod
Plat du jour – Whole plaice, winter greens and three-cornered leek butter (£6 supplement)

With
Carrot, raisin and parsley salad £4.50
Potatoes and Winnie’s Wheel £5.50
Garden leaves with garden herb dressing £4

To finish
Coffee granita with cream
Marmalade sponge with blood orange custard
Stilton, pickled pear and hazelnut crumble

About Water Lane
Water Lane is a walled garden with a vinery and Victorian glasshouses on the Kent and Sussex borders. A long-term project, the site is being sympathetically transformed into a working kitchen garden with vegetable beds, cut flowers, restored vinery, outside spaces and a pavilion for dining and events.

During the Winter months the restaurant is in the heated Carnation glasshouse. In the summer, it moves to the outside terrace, overlooking the vegetable and flower beds. The menu at Water Lane reflects its sense of place in the English countryside with a short and often-changing seasonal menu by head chef Jed Wrobel. Much of the restaurant produce is grown in Water Lane’s vegetable beds or sourced from organic and biodynamic farms. Meat is from pasture raised herds and day boat fish is from nearby Hastings and Rye. 

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Spring Fair at Water Lane

Spring Fair at Water Lane on 1st and 2nd April, Hawkhurst, Kent

Spring Fair at Water Lane

Saturday 1st April and Sunday 2nd April
10am - 4.30pm
Water Lane Walled Garden, Water Lane, Hawkhurst, Kent, TN18 5DH
Free entry on foot or bike, or £5 per car

Water Lane is hosting its first fair of 2023 on Saturday 1st April and Sunday 2nd April.  There will be great shopping from independent makers and producers, spring plants, ceramics and gardening accessories and takeaway food from the sea container or a light lunch in the Carnation House.

The fair will be spread across the whole Water Lane site. Underneath the open awning on the terrace of the walled garden, creatives and makers will set up stalls selling their original, handmade, and vintage items for the house and garden, that are both functional and beautiful. Elsewhere on site is the Water Lane shop in the Vinery, the Pelargonium House will be full of crafts, art and ceramics while Craft in the Field will be painting Easter eggs with children.

The fair has been co-curated with Sussex based Gina Portman, a former costume designer, who now runs workshops, produces homeware collections, and puts on art sales. Stall holders include Two Sticks Forge who make Japanese inspired knives from their studio in Ashdown Forest; organic natural skincare from Wilder Botanics, natural dyed fabrics and homewares by The Natural Dyeworks, everyday workwear clothing from Pajotten, traditional and contemporary willow baskets and designs from Sussex Willow and curated finds by Norse Vintage from visits to French Brocantes. Regular stallholders at the Water Lane food markets, Blackwood Cheese, Tillingham Wines and LAM, selling pasture raised meat and free- range eggs will also be at the Fair. There will be bunches of spring flowers from the Water Lane cutting garden, potted plants, garden accessories from Japanese brand Niwaki, and seasonal jams and preserves from the Water Lane Pantry.

Notes to editors

Water Lane is a productive garden, restaurant, shop and pantry within a Victorian walled garden in Hawkhurst on the Kent and East Sussex border.

It is an ongoing restoration project in the hands of custodians Nick Selby and Ian James who bring with them a wealth of food and horticultural passion. A long-term project over many years to come, Water Lane is being sympathetically transformed into a working kitchen garden with vegetable beds, cut flowers, restored vinery, outside spaces and a pavilion for dining and events.

Opening Hours: Wednesday - Saturdays 8am - 5pm | Sunday 10am – 4.30pm | Closed on Mondays and Tuesdays

February at The Small Holding, Kent

Chef owner Will Devlin in the polytunnel at The Small Holding farm (credit Key & Quill)

February at The Small Holding

Green Michelin Star 2021/22 | Number 25 in Harden’s Top 100 UK Restaurants, 2022 | Number 10 in Square Meal’s UK’s Top 100, 2022 | Good Food Guide 2023 | Kent Chef of the Year 2022 | Best Restaurant in Taste of Kent Awards 2022

“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, fuelled by its own small holding, hen coop and piggery is prodigious.” The Good Food Guide

Named ‘Chef to Watch’ in The Good Food Guide 2020 and awarded a Michelin Green Star in 2021 and 2022, Will Devlin, is 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 Small Holding is part of the Acre Group including Birchwood in Flimwell. The Small Holding opened in April 2018. As a former pub, the site had been run down and neglected, before being transformed into an open kitchen and bar with a large-decked terrace looking out over the farm and views of the Weald of Kent.

The 36-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.

Over 180 varieties of vegetables and fruits are grown including Broccoli ‘Red Blaze’, Cauliflower ‘Graffiti’, Cucumber ‘Passandra’, Radish ‘Viola’, Runner Beans ‘Scarlet Emperor’ and Courgette ‘Midnight’.  Native breed Large Black pigs, chickens and ducks roam the farm and sheep for hogget and mutton graze less than half a mile away.

The menu is defined by hyper-seasonal ingredients with a focus on the farm’s own produce, but undefined by the number of courses or choice. There is no formal menu at The Small Holding. Instead, guests are offered a multi-taste dining experience featuring the best ingredients on that day from the farm and local suppliers. Vegetables and fruits from the farm, harvested within hours of guests arriving, homemade charcuterie and zero waste animal cookery from the farm’s own livestock is the focus. The Small Holding works directly with growers, farmers and fishermen and the kitchen team forage in the nearby hedgerows and woodland.

The Michelin Green Star for sustainable gastronomy recognises restaurants with a focus on environmental practices. The Green Star encompasses everything about The Small Holding and the teams’ drive for sustainability.

The restaurant is open Wednesday to Saturday for dinner costing £85 per head and for lunch, with a shorter menu, on Saturday and Sunday, costing £65 per head. 

Other restaurant in the Acre Group is Birchwood, part of the Flimwell Park woodland development in Flimwell, East Sussex.

“Growing our own produce on the farm brings an understanding and honesty back to the kitchen, and vital freshness. Making the most of our harvests when the ingredients are at their prime – whilst also preserving and conserving them to use throughout the year, keeps us concentrated on the natural cycle of the land and helps us to create full flavoured and imaginative dishes.” Will Devlin

Eating at The Small Holding

Everything is home-made at The Small Holding, or sourced hyper-locally, except fish and seafood which comes from the South Coast or Scotland. Ingredients are picked less than 10ft from the kitchen and when there’s a glut, the kitchen preserves, pickles and jars.

The menu starts with home-made kombucha or broth and breads and sourdough and fresh butter, made on site with the rich yellow cream from a local herd of pedigree Guernsey and Holstein Friesian cows in nearby Benenden.

The February menu

Snacks
Parsnip, Cured Egg Yolk, Nasturtium
Cheese & Onion Tart
Rosti, 100-day-old aged Beef Tartare

Bread & Broth
Sourdough Focaccia & Smoked Mayfield Swiss
Beef Broth, Emmer Grain, Oxtail

Farm
Artichoke, Egg, Yeast
Swede, Apple, Rosemary

Fish
Mackerel, Watercress, Potato
Halibut, Asparagus, Gherkin

Meat
Pork, Brassicas, Beans

Sweet
Rhubarb, Beetroot, Yogurt
Chocolate, Mushroom, Caramel

Cheese
Cornish Yarg, Eccles Cake, Chutney

Sweet Treat
Apple and Cobnut Cake

“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

Cookery writer Winter menu series at Water Lane, Kent

Clam, haricot and green garlic at Water Lane, inspired by Claudia Roden

New Winter Series with menus inspired by the writings and recipes of some of Water Lane’s favourite food writers and cooks

Water Lane walled garden, Water Lane Hawkhurst, Kent, TN18 5DH
www.waterlane.net | @water.lane

Water Lane has launched a series of set lunch menus inspired by the writings and recipes of some of Head Chef Jed Wrobel’s favourite food writers and cooks. The series has launched with recipes from Egyptian-born British food writer, Claudia Roden. Best known for her Middle Eastern cookbooks including A Book of Middle Eastern Food and Arabesque - Sumptuous Food from Morocco, Turkey and Lebanon, Claudia’s food is full of warmth, sunshine and flavour. In the heated Carnation House at Water Lane, try Burnt leeks and cobnut tarator and Taramasalata, farinata and radishes before Clams, haricot and green garlic or mutton meatballs, kalettes and orzo. For pudding, blood orange flan and poached rhubarb or spiced rice pudding and butter baked bramley apple.

Next in the series is British food writer and chef Simon Hopkinson. Hailed as the ‘food writer’s food food writer’, Simon led the kitchen of Terence Conran’s Bibendum in the late 1980s, before leaving the restaurant trade to concentrate on cookery writing, notably Roast Chicken and Other Stories, which was declared ‘the most useful cookbook of all time’ by Waitrose magazine. Jed’s take on Hopkinson’s classic Southern French cooking includes dishes such as Beetroot dumplings with horseradish cream, Grilled pork belly and chicory gratin, Seabass and fennel a la Grecque and Junket pudding with rhubarb and vanilla. 

Two courses for £27
Three courses for £32
Lunch is served Wednesday to Sunday, 12-3pm.

About Water Lane
Water Lane is a walled garden with a vinery and Victorian glasshouses on the Kent and Sussex borders. A long-term project, the site is being sympathetically transformed into a working kitchen garden with vegetable beds, cut flowers, restored vinery, outside spaces and a pavilion for dining and events.

During the Winter months the restaurant is in the heated Carnation glasshouse. In the summer, it moves to the outside terrace, overlooking the vegetable and flower beds. The menu at Water Lane reflects its sense of place in the English countryside with a short and often-changing seasonal menu by head chef Jed Wrobel. Much of the restaurant produce is grown in Water Lane’s vegetable beds or sourced from organic and biodynamic farms. Meat is from pasture raised herds and day boat fish is from nearby Hastings and Rye. 

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Introducing The Square Peg, Kent

Mallard, Shallot Ketchup, Roast Onion and Consommé at The Square Peg, Tunbridge Wells, Kent

The Square Peg

The Square Peg is a 14-seat restaurant on Camden Road in Tunbridge Wells, Kent. Owned by Head Chef Rob Marshall, who cooks solo in the kitchen, the site blurs the line between a fine-dining restaurant and supper club, serving an eight-course tasting menu, with one dinner sitting.

Originally from Zimbabwe, Rob came to the UK at the age of 22 having had previous careers including a brief stint in the British Army, with The Royal Engineers and attending Sandhurst. He came to cooking later in life but has been fascinated with food and the experience of eating out from a young age. Rob is a self-taught cook by way of a well-worn collection of cookbooks, and he jokes, ‘youtube’. He says, “I wanted to pursue something I loved doing and hadn’t found my niche elsewhere. A bit of a square peg, if you like. I cook the kinds of things I like to eat - dishes of what I hope are robust flavours with contrasting and complementary textures, temperatures, and tastes.”

Rob has been finalist and a semi- finalist in both the British Culinary Federation Chef of the Year and the Craft Guild of Chefs National Chef of the Year competitions.

British culinary traditions and food culture weave their influence through the Square Peg menu, which stretches to include anywhere British food culture may have influenced or been influenced. This might translate to something as simple as a syllabub with Yorkshire rhubarb, or a hotpot alongside best end of Pevensey Salt Marsh lamb. Indian and Cantonese spices and flavours may be drawn on when the mood takes. The menu changes every 6-8 weeks and might include Oyster, Apple, Fennel and Caviar; Mallard, Shallot Ketchup, Roast Onion and Consommé; Ex-Dairy Cow, Beef fat sauce and Carrot; Pear, Honey, Hazelnut and Yoghurt, and Banana, Toffee and Milk sorbet. The set course menu is £79 and full flight of five paired wines is £45.

As a small, independent business, Rob actively seeks opportunities to support similar businesses, and the people behind them. Consequently, locality and seasonality feature strongly. The drinks list is almost exclusively British, featuring small, independent suppliers and producers. The list isn’t expansive but there is something for all tastes from still and sparkling English wine, cider, perry, beer, mead, and spirits.

The Square Peg | 46 Camden Road | Tunbridge Wells | Kent | TN1 2QD
info@thesquarepegtw.co.uk | 01892 514819 | @thesquarepegtw

Opening hours
Thursday: 19.30-23.00 
Friday: 19.30-23.00
Saturday: 19.30-23.00
Doors open at 19.30 for all guests to be seated by 19.45

“Fairy lights entwine with hop bines at this sweet little neighbourhood restaurant which seats just 14. Self-taught chef Rob cooks the type of food he himself would like to eat; classic British dishes with a modern feel, accompanied by a British wine list. The team are charming and the atmosphere, convivial.” Michelin Guide

The Stables by Mark Charker launches at The Bell in Ticehurst

Head Chef Mark Charker at The Bell in Ticehurst at the launch of The Stables

The Stables by Mark Charker launches at The Bell in Ticehurst

“The Stables tasting menu deserves a Michelin star or two - superb.” Guest, Autumn 2022

“The flavours were amazing, the presentation of the food was beautiful, an incredibly warm welcome from the team and service impeccable. Wonderful evening and experience, thank you.” Guest, Autumn 2022

The Stables by Mark Charker at The Bell in Ticehurst has been transformed into a fine-dining experience. Having launched for the first time in Autumn 2022, the menu has been created by Head Chef Mark Charker. Launching on Wednesday 8th February, and available on Wednesday - Saturday, the five-course tasting menu is offered alongside paired wines and bespoke cocktails.

This special occasion menu will take guests on a journey from the sea to the best lands in Sussex and the garden of England, including locally sourced meat, fantastic day boat fish, seasonal fruits and vegetables, and cheeses. It’s a surprise menu on the night but to whet the appetite, sample dishes might include Lamb with Jerusalem Artichoke and Hen of the Woods and Caramelised Milk Chocolate, Toffee and Fig Leaf Milk Sorbet. 

Suppliers include local crab, scallops and halibut from Chapmans, Wagyu Sussex beef from Trenchmore Farm, goat meat from Cabrito, free-range eggs from Spurs Farm and a bespoke chocolate made from scratch, using fresh cocoa beans, from J.Cocoa in West Sussex.

Hanging alongside The Stables is a limited edition signed print by Francis Bacon. A triptych in a riot of reds and oranges, the magnificent work is a guaranteed conversation starter.

The Stables tasting menu costs £65 for five courses and £35 for the wine flight pairing, per person. Reservations can be made via thebellinticehurst.com or by calling 01580 200300.

About The Bell
For centuries, The Bell has been at the very heart of Ticehurst village, geographically and emotionally. After closing in 2008, The Bell underwent painstaking renovation, opening in November 2011 welcoming locals and visitors from further afield.

The Bell’s design is eclectic in the truest sense of the word - the building looks as if an eccentric nobleman has travelled the world and filled his house full of curiosities from his travels. The result is quirky and utterly charming. The eleven guest rooms offer a highly individual design, with features including silver birch branches (a nod to the derivation of Ticehurst’s name, which is “the wooded hill where goats graze”), huge copper bathtubs, upside-down tiles and randomly placed light features. Eschewing room numbers, each of The Bell’s guest rooms has its own distinctive name, from “The Benefit of the Doubt” to “Smiles of Memories.”

Quirky touches continue in the public areas, from bowler hat lights and a floor-to-ceiling book pile in the main pub area, to mismatched vintage-style wallpaper and Wagner Tubas for urinals in the gents. Each room offers the curious visitor a feast of visual surprises, not least a fine collection of art by Tracey Emin, Henry Moore, Banksy, Graham Sutherland, and Picasso. The neon sign in the aptly named Stable with a Table, a dining room with a unique sunken oak table for groups of up to 18 feasting friends or family, fondly observes “I will always love you my friend”, summing up the sense of constancy yet originality awaiting visitors to The Bell.

Food
Head Chef, Mark Charker, cut his culinary teeth at Ockenden Manor Hotel, working under their Michelin Star chef. At just 23, he was the youngest successful candidate for the Roux Scholarship. Mark believes in cooking for the guest, not the chef, and promises a creative menu of essentially British cuisine with French influences at The Bell.

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Notes to editors

Room rates from £165 - £325, including breakfast

01580 200300 or www.thebellinticehurst.com @thebellinticehurst

The Bell in Ticehurst, High Street, Ticehurst, Wadhurst, East Sussex, TN5 7AS
Instagram: @thebellinticehurst

The Union Rye

Sharing feast at The Union, Rye

The Union, Rye

The Union is a restaurant and bar set in a beautiful 15th century building at the heart of Rye, with a menu made from seasonal produce that is primarily British and local to Rye and the East Sussex region. The small menu changes daily depending on what ingredients are best and what is available each day.

Taking pride in hand making as much as possible in house, such as ricotta, black pudding, crackers and ice creams, the team always source the very best ingredients they can. 

Head Chef Ben Dafforn’s career has taken him from London institutions J Sheekey and Simpsons on the Stand before honing his cooking style at The Union of unpretentious, simple and restrained food, believing the ingredients should speak for themselves.

Start with Colchester oysters and jalapeño relish and a glass of Westwell Pelegrim and scoop up house-made ricotta and Jerusalem artichoke, rosemary and Kentish honey with caraway crackers. Dishes that are ideal for sharing might include roast celeriac with oyster and shiitake mushrooms, tarragon and hazelnuts or crispy duck egg with smoked bacon and brussels sprouts. Main courses are still perfect to share, or just keep to yourself, such as whole partridge and house black pudding; wild venison, lardo and myrtle berry and for a real treat, a tranche of stunningly fresh wild halibut with brown crab bisque. For pudding try the apple & pear tart tatin and whiskey cream for two to share.

The Union’s sister restaurant, The Plough, is less than five miles away on the Udimore Road with views over the fields down to the sea. The Plough is a countryside destination pub with a menu of small and large plates and a selection of pub classics.

Sample menu
Colchester rock oysters, jalapeño relish each 3 half doz. 15
Roast celeriac, oyster & shiitake mushrooms, tarragon, hazelnuts (ve) 13
Butterbean hummus, pumpkin seeds (ve) 6
Charred hispi, caraway, chilli, lemon, almonds (ve) 8.5
House ricotta, Jerusalem artichoke, rosemary, Kentish honey (v) 8.5
Cured chalk stream trout, horseradish cream, capers 15
Crispy duck egg, smoked bacon, shallots, brussels sprouts 8.5
Mackerel, grain mustard & honey 14
Whole partridge, house black pudding 16 Wild venison, lardo, myrtle berry 23
Castle Farm bavette steak, smoked garlic & bone marrow butter 24
Wild halibut tranche, brown crab bisque for two to share 39.5

Sourdough, caramelised onion butter (v) 4
Sautéed potatoes, garlic, rosemary, thyme (ve) 6
Ratte potatoes, sorrel, walnut oil (ve) 5
Rainbow chard, roasted cobnuts (v) 7
Dressed autumnal leaves (ve) 6
Heritage beetroot, sweet wine reduction (ve) 6

Chocolate parfait, hazelnut, blackcurrant sorbet (ve) 8
Apple & pear tart tatin, whiskey cream for two to share (v) 14
Spiced parsnip cake, white chocolate ice cream, pistachio (v) 7.5
Buttermilk pudding, Medjool date, cinnamon crumb 7
Olde Sussex cheese, Eccles cake (v)

Kitchen opening times (bar open 12pm – 10pm daily)
Monday - Wednesday 12pm - 3pm / 530pm - 9pm
Thursday closed for lunch / 530pm - 9pm
Friday - Sunday 12pm - 3pm / 530pm - 9pm

8 East Street, Rye, East Sussex, TN31 7JY
Tel: 01797 2229289 | www.theunionrye.co.uk | Instagram @theunionrye

Birchwood Studio Launches

Isobel Spence natural dye workshop at Birchwood Studio

Introducing Birchwood Studio

Feeding the mind, body, and spirit.

www.birchwoodrestaurant.com

Birchwood Studio is a new space at Flimwell Park in rural East Sussex. With offerings focusing on crafts, mindfulness, exercise, education, food and drink, Birchwood Studio hosts like-minded local brands and businesses for courses, events and workshops, with the primary aim of improving and nurturing our sense of self and well-being.

Birchwood Studio overlooks 46-acres of birch and chestnut woods with far reaching views over the High Weald and is part of the Acre group including Birchwood, a restaurant and private dining space, and The Small Holding, which has a Michelin Green Star for sustainability and gastronomy. The Acre group is led by brothers Matt and Will Devlin.

Saturday 4th and Saturday 25th February: ‘Functional Breathwork’ and ‘Conscious Connective Breathwork’ with Nina Carter
Bodywork therapist and energy practitioner, Nina Carter, works with clients who have reached a transitional time in their lives, whether that is feeling lost, restricted or maybe something much deeper. Within her embodied practice she uses science backed techniques combined with the art of breathwork to release and integrate, which can help bring people back to their most authentic and optimum self.

Saturday 11th and Saturday 18th February:
Yoga with Flock Yoga, 8.30-9.9.30am, £12 per session
Flock Yoga has been a certified and practicing yoga studio since 2018 blending lyengar, restorative, yin and vinyasa styles. These one-hour sessions in the Birchwood Studio are orientated towards alignment and flow yoga, breath work and mediation, in addition to stamina, strength and balance. There is limited availability for these classes.

Sunday 26th February: ‘Introduction to Plant Dyeing’ with Curious House
Working with forager Isobel Spence, this workshop will introduce how to dye fabric using colours extracted from local flora and fauna. The day will explore the joys of this slow, sustainable craft that results in a slightly different natural hue every time. Students will learn which plants and trees create what colours and how to prepare the cloth to absorb the dye and how to ensure it stays. At the end of the day, participants will go home with a beautiful naturally dyed silk scarf and the enthusiasm to carry on experimenting. The day is £135 per person, which includes refreshments, a light lunch and all materials.

Every Thursday: ‘Allergy Testing’ with In the Clear
Clinic with Adele Rogers for all well-being needs for allergies, anxieties and trauma for ultimate physical and mental health.

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Grow the Seasons - new courses at The Small Holding

Head Gardener Jenny Huddart and chef Will Devlin at The Small Holding at the launch of Grow the Seasons

Chef Will Devlin launches ‘Grow the Seasons’ courses at The Small Holding

Learn to ‘Grow the Seasons’ on a series of new horticultural courses at Will Devlin’s Michelin Green Starred farm and restaurant, The Small Holding, in Kilndown, Kent. 

The hands-on courses are led by Head Gardener Jenny Huddart and her team, for a behind-the-scenes experience. Each full-day course will include a mix of practical and theory learning, as guests discover and share in the team’s knowledge on seasonal vegetable growing, ‘No Dig’ principles and how to be sustainable in their own gardens. 

Each course will be relevant to the season, such as making the most of Harvest in August, reaping the rewards of your hard work and making organic compost and feeds. In November’s Winter Planning course learn how to make the most of the end of the season by mulching, lifting and dividing the perennial plants and the last chance to sow overwintering crops.

The full-day courses cost £125 per person and will run throughout the year, in tune with the four growing seasons and include a relaxed lunch, using ingredients from the farm.

Find out more and book now for February, May, August, and November 2023 www.growtheseasons.com.

About The Small Holding

Will Devlin, 34, 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 34-cover restaurant has a Michelin Green Star and was voted the best restaurant in Kent at the Taste of Kent Awards. 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.

www.thesmallholding.restaurant
@the_small_holding_

Ranters Lane | Kilndown | Kent | TN17 2SG

“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

Chef’s Table launches at Tallow, Kent

Chef Rob Taylor at the new Chef’s Table at Tallow in Southborough, Kent

Chef’s Table launches at Tallow, Kent

Rob and Donna Taylor, chef owners of Tallow in Southborough, Kent, have launched a new Chef’s Table in the upstairs dining space of the restaurant. The bespoke chef’s station seats eight guests for a seven-course tasting menu cooked by Rob Taylor, in addition to snacks and a bread course, with the further option of a tailored wine flight. Prices for the full tasting menu start at £100 per person.

The intimate dining experience will appeal to those who love the theatre of cooking and enjoy watching and talking about food as it’s cooked in front of them. Currently the Chef’s Table experience is only available on Friday and Saturday evenings, with one sitting at 7.30pm.

The December launch menu is full of wintery and festive ingredients such as Jerusalem artichokes, confit duck, gingerbread, chocolate and clementine mousse, spiced fruit, and blue cheese.

‘This is my kind of fine dining’ Grace Dent, The Guardiantheguardian.com/food/2022/may/06/tallow-tunbridge-wells-kent-grace-dent-restaurant-review

About Tallow

Tallow launched in November 2021 and is open for lunch and dinner from Tuesday to Saturday. Sitting on a village green in Southborough, in the leafy surrounds of Tunbridge Wells, there are 26 covers downstairs in the main restaurant with space for a further eight upstairs at the Chef’s Table.

The menu showcases chef owner Rob’s unpretentious style where good ingredients are elevated with a sharp attention to detail, using modern techniques and bold flavours. The monthly changing menu has three starters, three main courses and three desserts. The menu is available as a la carte or as a tasting menu.

Notes to Editors

Prior to Tallow, Rob and Donna ran the award-winning Compasses Inn in Crundale, Kent, which had a Bib Gourmand and was in the top 10 ranking of the Top 50 Gastropubs for 8 years. After only a year of trading, Tallow has already achieved acclaim from national restaurant critics, visits from the Michelin Guide and was awarded 91st place in the National Restaurant Awards of the top 100 restaurants in the UK.

Website for reservationswww.tallowrestaurant.co.uk
Email info@tallowrestaurant.co.uk
Address 15a Church Road, Southborough, Tunbridge Wells, Kent, TN4 0RX
Opening times Lunch and dinner Tuesday – Saturday

Christmas at Water Lane

Christmas Wreath at Water Lane designed by Bloom & Burn (photo credit Bloom & Burn)

Christmas at Water Lane

‘Tis soon the season and there’s much to sparkle at Water Lane in the coming months.

Christmas Market
Make a date for Water Lane’s Christmas Market on Saturday 3rd and Sunday 4th December, from 10am-4.30pm. All around the site and in the glasshouses will be stalls from craftspeople, makers, and artisan food producers. There will be festive food and hot mulled drinks, to keep the chill off, available throughout the day. Entry is free to people arriving on foot or bike or £5 per car to park.

Water Lane shop
Festive gifts and products in the shop have been curated by Water Lane custodians Nick Selby and Ian James, and shop manager, Pia Carpenter. Their combined intent is to champion the local, the artisan and the small-scale.

Festive gifts and products in the shop have been curated by Water Lane custodians Nick Selby and Ian James, and shop manager, Pia Carpenter. Their combined intent is to champion the local, the artisan and the small-scale.

Stoneware ceramics hand made by Eleanor Torbati, Intricate botanical porcelain tea light holders and lamps by Chrissy Silver; Bold hand painted tableware and wool throws from Casa Cubista; Cosy knitwear made by Rove Knitwear; Candles and home fragrance from The Botanical Candle Co; Wax Atelier; Ethical and natural skincare by Dr Jacksons; Pelegrims; Norfolk Natural Living; Trusted Japanese gardening tools and accessories by Niwaki; Unique illustrated stationery from Hadley Paper Press; Harriet Watson; Studio Wald; Hand bound books by Seagull Bindery; Garden-inspired Italian silk scarves by Rory Hutton; A hand-picked selection of books and magazines on the garden, food, flowers and stories for children; Fine chocolates and treats made by The Chocolatier Aneesh Popat; Melrose and Morgan; Warming drinks from Prana Chai; Cold Blow Coffee; Postcard Teas.

There will also be Water Lane Kitchen mince pies, puddings, jams and chutneys for sale; Christmas cards, concertina garlands, recycled paper decorations, woollen stars, decorations, Christmas trees, festive foliage and wreaths made in association with floral styling studio, Bloom and Burn.

Water Lane is a proud member of 1% for the Planet | @1percentftp and the new Water Lane online shop, with nationwide shipping, is now receiving orders.

Winter dining and festive menus
The colder weather means that dining at Water Lane has moved from the outdoor terrace and into the heated Carnation House. Summer salads make way for heartier dishes such as bavette with celeriac gratin, chestnut soup or harissa roasted squash, cracked wheat, apricot and dukka. From 1st-24th December, private events, and parties of over eight guests will be offered our new festive menus, to be shared by the table. Plates might include duck rillettes and pickled prunes; radicchio, cranberries, winter chanterelles and stilton or venison braised in port and chocolate. And for dessert, the Water Lane Christmas Pudding, which will also be on sale in the shop, as individual puddings to take home.

Winter Wreath making courses
Bloom and Burn x Water Lane
1st, 9th, 10th & 11th December

Enjoy this morning session creating your own Christmas wreath in time for the festive season. Using dried flowers, seedheads and other fresh and foraged materials harvested from around the Water Lane garden, you'll create a stunning, naturalistic wreath under the careful guidance of Graeme Corbett, floral stylist at Bloom and Burn, perfectly complemented with a luxury velvet ribbon. Graeme will guide you through the process and help you create your own unique design from the cornucopia of materials made available to you. Tickets include a festive drink and mince pie.

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About Water Lane

Water Lane is a walled garden on what was once the Tongswood Estate in Hawkhurst, in the High Weald of Kent. A long-term restoration project, led by custodians Nick Selby and Ian James, there is a restaurant, a large and productive garden growing vegetables, fruits, herbs and cut flowers, a small shop of useful and beautiful pieces for the home and garden, select garden plants for sale and event spaces.

The Counter ~ pop up by chef Robin Read at Daily Bread, Rusthall

The Counter at Daily Bread (credit Key & Quill)

THE COUNTER

The Counter is a new pop-up residency by chef Robin Read at Daily Bread in Rusthall, Tunbridge Wells.

Launching on 20 October through to 24 December
From £60 per person
www.thecounterhomeedition.com | @the_counter_tw

The Counter is a pop-up residency by chef Robin Read to be hosted at the award-winning Daily Bread in Rusthall, near Tunbridge Wells. Each dinner service from 20 October to 24 December will offer guests a seasonal six-course tasting menu, using the best local, wild and foraged produce. 

Robin is a passionate supporter of artisan farmers, growers and producers and a strong advocate of naturally sourced produce, especially from the British Isles. He takes great pride in having met all his suppliers and ensures he visits the farm, river, warehouse, barn wherever across the country to make sure he has the best knowledge of the produce and its maker. The Counter menu is full of the best local products such as venison from Eridge Park and wild porcini mushrooms from the woods around Rusthall and Langton Green. Home-made sourdough bread, blackberries, scallops, Sussex cream and dairy all feature on the menu, and fish is caught off Rye harbour.

There will be one sitting for dinner on Thursday, Friday and Saturdays from 20 October 2022 to 24 December 2022. Some tables are communal, and others are twos and fours. Drinks from 7.30/7.45pm to sit for 8pm.

Price 
6 courses £60 per person 
6 glass wine flight £60 per person
3 glass wine flight £30 per person 
A small wine list is available

Opening Hours
Dinner only, Thursday – Saturday
20 October to 24 December 2022
Daily Bread, 27-29 High Street, Rusthall, Tunbridge Wells, Kent

About Robin Read
Langton Green based Read has been a chef for over 25 years. He trained and worked with some of the greats in the hospitality industry, including Albert and Michel Roux, Nico Ladenis and Marco Pierre White. For the last 16 years he was Group Executive Chef of the Firmdale Hotel Group in London, overseeing the Soho Hotel, Charlotte Street Hotel and Ham Yard Hotel, amongst others, and launched six new openings, a bakery and a chef’s academy. Robin hopes that one day The Counter will have a permanent bricks and mortar site in the Tunbridge Wells area. 

Sample menu
Porridge and Porter Sourdough, cultured butter
Rusthall foraged cep broth, Beal’s Farm pancetta, parsley oil  
Eridge Park venison tartare tart, egg yolk, pickled beet, Berkswell  
Cured line caught mackerel, autumn squash, white wine, yuzu and wild garlic capers
Champagne and seaweed poached brill, mussel, caviar, lemon butter  
45-day aged Sussex sirloin of beef, celeriac purée, roast onion, red wine sauce   
White Chocolate Parfait, mascarpone ice cream, pickled elderberries, fig leaf oil, honeycomb crumb
Sweet Treats

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@the_counter_tw
www.thecounterhomeedition.com

For more information about The Counter or Robin Read, please contact Hannah Blake at
The Dining Room on 07730 039361 or hannah@thediningroompr.co.uk

Autumn Equinox at Water Lane with SSAW Collective

Autumn Equinox at Water Lane with SSAW Collective

Water Lane x SSAW Collective
Autumn Equinox on 24th September

Autumn Equinox at Water Lane | SSAW COLLECTIVE

Saturday 24th September
10.30-4.30pm
£175 per person

On Saturday 24th September, SSAW Collective, a community of florists, growers and chefs who create experiences that celebrate seasonality, is hosting an event to celebrate the Autumn Equinox at Water Lane, Hawkhurst, in the High Weald of Kent.

The Autumn Equinox was traditionally marked to reflect on the past season and to pay thanks for a good harvest. It was a time when fruits, vegetables and meats were preserved to provide food for the cold months ahead. This event at Water Lane harks back to that spirit and looks at how the British flower growing season can be preserved by producing lasting creations. 

The day will be spent in the beautiful walled garden at Water Lane, learning and creating with Autumn's warm colour palette and celebrating the change in the air, as the nights start to get longer, and days grow shorter.

Guests will participate in a natural dye-making, bundle-drying and eco-printing workshop led by Ros Humphries from The Natural Dyeworks, and a floral workshop with SSAW Collective, learning to combine dried and fresh flowers straight from garden to make an Autumnal table centre piece to take home and preserve into winter. There will be light refreshments in the morning, followed by a delicious feasting lunch created by Water Lane’s head chef Jed Wrobel.

Lunch will be served to share with a menu of seasonal and provenance led dishes with most of the ingredients home grown in the Water Lane kitchen garden. The menu includes Sweetcorn, butterbean and black basil flatbreads, Beetroot, soft boiled eggs and crispy sage, Squash, radicchio, Pevensey Blue and walnuts, Gardener’s Pie with green bean chutney, Leek, broccoli and wild mushroom gratin and for pudding, Roast plums and muscovado meringues, and Hinxden Dairy whipped cream.

Timings:
10.30-45 arrival 
Workshops, followed by an autumnal sharing feast 
Approximate finish time: 16.30
Event Address: Water Lane, Hawkhurst, Kent TN18 5DH

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Wyatt & Jones, Broadstairs

Mediterranean inspired small plates cooked over coal (credit Saltwick Media)

Wyatt & Jones

Recommended in The Good Food Guide and Michelin Guide

Wyatt & Jones is a family-owned, independent restaurant on Viking Bay in Broadstairs, north Kent. Painted in a deep olive green with marble tabletops, counter seating and open kitchen, the 30-cover restaurant is situated under the historic York Gate, with views over the sea. The menu offers dishes of Mediterranean-influenced small plates, with a seafood bias, using meticulously sourced produce, cooked over fire in a state-of-the-art Harrison oven, made locally in Ramsgate.

Soon to be celebrating its tenth anniversary of trading, Wyatt & Jones is run by husband-and-wife team, Jan and Kat Wyatt, with head chef Ryan Whitlock in the kitchen. The trio work well together with a mutual philosophy of good ingredients cooked well. Citing restaurants such as Etxebarri in the foothills of Spanish Basque Country, Lennox Hastie at Sydney’s Firedoor and Australian chef and author of The Whole Fish Cookbook, Josh Niland, as inspirations, the kitchen works instinctively with fire in all its forms and seasonal ingredients. Fish and seafood is sourced from Wild Harbour, a Cornish based family run company of day boats specialising in wild, sustainable and ethically caught species on the South coast. The phenomenal, stop-you-in-your-tracks Galician ex-dairy beef and Mangalitza pork comes from Txuleta. Vegetables and fruit come from local North Kent farms. The team’s passion for wine is shown in the interesting and ever-changing list with a balance of New and Old World wines. Everything on the list is available by the glass.

Start lunch or dinner with a barrel aged negroni and grapefruit, or a glass of sparkling Pelegrim, from the nearby Westwell vineyard in the North Downs, alongside a plate of Maldon rock oysters, either natural or dressed with homemade strawberry siracha and Viking sourdough and smoked cultured butter. Sharing from the small plates’ menu try the monkfish crudo with shiso salsa; octopus tentacle with mojo rioja; squid, ink rice, sobrasada and tarragon; butterflied mackerel, xo sauce and burnt lime; Mangalitza pork chop with blackberries and tarragon; 42-day aged sirloin, ancho chilli and aged beef fat butter; stuffed romano pepper, garbanzo beans, romanesco, and feta; layered crispy potatoes, bravas and aioli. For pudding, try pineapple bake, coconut and lime sorbet and grilled pineapple or brioche doughnuts and miso dulce de leche.

Part of what was once three old fisherman’s cottages overlooking the sea, the building houses Wyatt and Jones and the newest addition to the family, Flotsam & Jetsam. What started as a pop up during successive lockdowns serving takeaway seafood, frites and cocktails from a hatch from the closed restaurant, is now a permanent site. An instant hit, bestsellers on the menu include cones of fritto misto, crab dumplings, fish tacos and monkfish scampi in squid ink batter, with 14 home made sauces to choose from such as lobster mayo, squid ink hot sauce and Korean chilli. The team’s hard work didn’t go unnoticed, and they were placed on The Good Food Guide’s Platinum List as one of the 18 restaurants chosen for their remarkable resilience and for thriving in the face of the shifting realities of hospitality during the pandemic.

23-27 Harbour Street, Broadstairs, Kent, CT10 1EU

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Water Lane x Jo Thompson Garden Design

Jo Thompson (credit Rachel Warne)

Water Lane is partnering with Jo Thompson Landscape & Garden Design for the next phase of the historic walled garden

Water Lane, a Victorian two-acre walled garden near Hawkhurst in the High Weald of Kent, is partnering with RHS award-winning Jo Thompson Landscape & Garden Design, to further develop the historic site into a garden for the 21st century, combining recreation, dining, experiences, and education. Jo Thompson has established a worldwide reputation for creating beautiful and sustainable landscapes. Listed by House and Garden and Country Life as one of the country’s top ten garden designers and plantswomen, Jo has won four Gold and five Silver Gilt medals at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show, and in 2017 she won the People’s Choice award at the first RHS Chatsworth Flower Show.

Water Lane is a walled garden with a vinery and Victorian glasshouses. A long-term restoration project over many years to come, the site is being managed by custodians Nick Selby and Ian James, who previously created and ran Melrose and Morgan, a grocery store and kitchen in North-West London. The site of Water Lane is a historical horticultural masterpiece with 13 Grade II Victorian glasshouses dating back to the 1800s on what was once the Tongswood Estate. Working alongside Jo Thompson Garden Design and RX Architects, the whole site is being sympathetically transformed into a productive garden with 72 no-dig vegetable and cut flower beds for the restaurant and wholesale to local florists, stock and trial beds, restored vinery, outside spaces and a pavilion for dining and events.

Ian James from Water Lane says, “We are thrilled to be working with Jo Thompson and her team. She brings a sympathetic and holistic vision that marries with our plans for Water Lane, slowly bringing back the garden to its original purpose of growing fruit and vegetables. Water Lane is not a pastiche of a Victorian walled garden. We are respecting its roots, but we want the garden to be accessible to all and have many different functions. Our aim is to create a democratic place where people can come and learn things and where skilled teachers can share their knowledge around horticulture, floral design, any kind of artisan craft and food.”

The plans for Water Lane will progress in phases and will include a rose ‘orchard’ with bulb meadow; a quince tree avenue through the green gates of the pedestrian entrance; perennial and stock beds in the south quadrant; follies and wall borders, a fruit cage pergola; children’s natural play; a forest garden and sculpture trail, nuttery and educational spaces. This summer’s planting palette includes soft purples, pinks, raspberry and apricot tones from plants such Cosmos bipinnatus ‘Apricot Lemonade’; Dahlia ‘Penhill Watermelon’; Phlox drummondii ‘Crème Brulee’; Gladiolus papilo ‘Ruby’; Althea cannabina; Erigeron karvinskianus and Ammi visnaga.

Jo Thompson says, “The extensive and long-term restoration vision for Water Lane, led by Nick Selby and Ian James, is a garden designer’s absolute dream. I am excited to peel back the layers of this historic site and truly understand its history as a horticultural masterpiece.  This is not just any restored walled garden project but a chance to re-imagine Water Lane the ‘place’, respecting its past glory as well as making it an inspirational and welcoming garden for the 21st century and beyond.”

Tongswoods Gardens
Water Lane was previously known as ‘Tongswood Gardens’. It belonged to the Tongswood estate, its name deriving from the Old English ‘Twang’ or ‘Tang’ meaning ‘fork of water’ in reference to the two streams of the river Rother which ran through the estate. Having passed through many families, the estate was bought by Mr Charles Gunther in 1903. In its heyday the two-acre walled garden employed nine gardeners who tended the 13 Victorian greenhouses, including a vinery, peach house, melon house, fern house, fruit house and carnation house. The garden produced beautiful flowers, fruit and vegetables providing ample for the main house, the house in London and even a van of surplus for the local hospital.

Jo Thompson
Jo’s designs are wide ranging - from residential family gardens, historic landscapes, public spaces and country estates to restaurant roof gardens, rooftop terraces and urban boltholes. Other current projects include working with Iford Manor in Wiltshire and the restoration of Highgate Cemetery in London with Gustafson Porter + Bowman. Jo Thompson is a member of the RHS Gardens Committee and Garden Advisor for RHS Rosemoor, an RHS judge, as well as being a member of the RHS Show Gardens Selection Panel. She lectures both nationally and internationally and is a visiting tutor at the London College of Garden Design.

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Birchwood Supper Club series

Will Devlin on the Birchwood terrace at Flimwell Park (photography credit Key & Quill)

New supper club series launches at Birchwood, Flimwell Park, East Sussex

A new series of Birchwood Super Clubs is starting on 21 July. Seated on communal dining tables, the evening will be a glorious way to celebrate summer, starting with drinks on the terrace, overlooking the woods of Flimwell Park, before sitting down to dinner, made from the finest Kent and Sussex produce.

Join chef patron Will Devlin and head chef Nick Ryan for a five-course seasonal dinner of sourdough and miso butter, kimchi cured trout, rib of beef from Paley Farm and for pudding, Lower Ladysden Farm strawberries and white chocolate mousse. It wouldn’t be a feast without a cheese course, with Kingcott Dairy’s Kingcott Blue with truffle honey.

The next Birchwood Supper Club dates are on 16 September and 17 November, starting at 7pm.

Reservations are now live and strictly limited, £45 per person.

Birchwood Supper Club on 21 July, 7pm
Table Snacks
Sourdough Bread, Miso butter
Kimchi Cured Trout, Pickled Sea Herbs, Ponzu Sauce
Paley Farm Beef Rib Eye, Tomatoes, Pink Fir Potato
Ladysden Strawberries & White Chocolate Mousse
Kingcott Blue Cheese with Truffle Honey

About Birchwood

Sitting on the edge of 46-acres of birch and chestnut trees in rural East Sussex, Birchwood is set in an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. Part of Flimwell Park, a pioneering mixed-use centre of coppiced woodland, Birchwood offers an all-day menu for breakfast and lunch, and is open seven days a week, from 8am-4pm.

Much like Devlin’s first two restaurants The Small Holding and The Curlew, Birchwood is guided by the landscape and self-sufficiency and focused on flavour found in the natural world. Ingredients are local, seasonal, home-grown, and wild. Championing the artisan suppliers of Kent and Sussex, the menu plays host to local cheeses, dairy, wines, spirits, and beer, while many ingredients, such as mushrooms, brambles, elderberries, wood sorrel and birch sap come from the woods, on the steps of the restaurant.

Many of the vegetables, fruit and herbs used at Birchwood comes from the one-acre farm at The Small Holding, less than five miles away in Kilndown, along with eggs, pork, lamb, hogget and mutton from free-range chickens, Berkshire pigs and Romney sheep, who live on site and at a nearby farm.

Environmental, social, and economic sustainability has been at the heart of the construction of Birchwood, with all timber sustainably sourced and weathering steel used for the window bay cladding. Onsite solar power is generated from 300 photo-voltaic cells located on building roofs, cladding, and canopies, with a grid of solar thermal units heating water directly from the sun. The car park SUDS system is made from local stone, geo-textile filtering layers and recycled plastic open-grid surfacing making up the Truck Pav system. Six Tesla charging points have been installed, with two more charging points available for other electric car brands. 

Inside Birchwood, guests have the feeling of the outdoors with a large silver birch tree installation, natural wood beams, smooth concrete floors and large black crittall windows looking out onto the woods, while the warm earth-coloured walls are painted in ‘Red Squirrel’ from Fenwick & Tilbrook. The day’s menu is projected onto the wall to avoid printing paper waste.

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Notes to editors

Birchwood | Flimwell Park | Hawkhurst Road | Filmwell | East Sussex | TN5 7FJ

About Filmwell Park

Flimwell Park, a £6 million pioneering mixed use woodland development, is nearing completion after a decade of consultation, planning and construction. A collaboration between property developer Regalmain and architect Steve Johnson of The Architecture Ensemble and a core team of foresters, ecologists and permaculturists to re-purpose the land, the site has been transformed into an inspiring new model for a sustainable woodland community that blends living, working, recreation and learning. www.flimwellpark.com