Chris Trundle's late summer menu at Wild Flor

A full table at Wild Flor, Hove (picture Roarke Pearce)

New head chef Chris Trundle has joined the original Wild Flor team. Chris boasts an incredible CV, having held head chef positions at the Michelin-starred Manfred’s in Copenhagen and Lyle’s in London. His style of food favours honest and uncomplicated dishes using hyper-seasonal ingredients that makes people happy, using classic cookery techniques.

Late August dishes on Chris’ new menu include sweetcorn soup and nduja focaccia; Rebel Jambon Noix, pink peppercorn and peach; salt cod brandade, marjoram and tomato; hake, braised courgette, aioli and chorizo; roast chicken, braised runner beans and salad cream; pommes anna with lemon and black pepper aioli and for pudding, gooseberry and rose fool; Bakewell tart and crème fraiche; apricot jellies; chocolate and sherry truffles or a plate of fine British cheeses.

The wine list is short with intelligent and interesting choices with lesser known varieties sitting alongside the finest examples of grapes and blends from around the world. Where the list stands out is providing elegance and diversity and aged wines at good value such as Pinot Noir 'Dundee Hills’ from the Willamette Valley; Savagnin ‘Sous Voile’ by Daniel Dugois in the Arbois; Olga Raffault ‘Les Picasses’ 2009 or Bereche & Fils Brut Reserve.

On Sunday there is rare roast beef, horseradish and Yorkshire puddings; pistachio and brioche stuffed chicken; courgette and green tomato stuffed lamb saddle with a variety of sides to share including carrot purée, NamaYasai leaves, tomato salad, braised courgettes, greens and roast potatoes.

Wild Flor is a neighbourhood restaurant on Hove’s Church Road, serving classic British and European cooking alongside world-class wines. The menu has a strong focus on locally sourced and hyper-seasonal ingredients while a fantastic wine list mirrors the menu in balancing quality and value. With a beautifully pared back interior evoking the ambience of rustic French elegance, diners are as welcome to stop by for a plate of Ortiz anchovies, olives and almonds and a glass of Fino on the way home, as they are for three courses with paired wines and to stay past midnight.

For more information please contact Hannah at The Dining Room on 07730 039361 or hannah@thediningroompr.co.uk

Wild Flor, Hove

Wild Flor on Church Street, Hove (credit Roarke Pearce)

“Well priced, excellent modern European cooking with the most generous of hearts. Lucky, lucky Hove.” Tom Parker Bowles, Mail on Sunday

Wild Flor is a neighbourhood restaurant on Hove’s Church Road, serving classic British and European cooking alongside world-class wines. The menu has a strong focus on locally sourced and hyper-seasonal ingredients while a fantastic wine list mirrors the menu in balancing quality and value. With a beautifully pared back interior evoking the ambience of rustic French elegance, diners are as welcome to stop by for a plate of Ortiz anchovies, olives and almonds and a glass of Fino on the way home, as they are for three courses with paired wines and to stay past midnight.

A bustling and residential area, Church Road is lined with artisan shops, wine bars and restaurants, where Regency houses back on to the seafront, only a few minutes from Wild Flor and fifteen minutes from the centre of Brighton.

The restaurant offers an à la carte menu from which guests can order familiar plates of comfort food alongside more luxury items. Dishes might include roast courgette, romesco and goat cheese; Iberico ham; veal sweetbreads, almonds, peas and sherry sauce; lamb rump with chard and salsa verde and for pudding, pistachio éclair, black cherry and marjoram; apple and thyme jellies and a plate of fine British cheeses.

Inside, teal leather banquettes and bistro wooden tables are laid simply with glassware, exposed red brick walls are lined with bottles and hung with wine prints. A large blackboard is chalked with that day’s lunch and dinner menus. The wine list is short with intelligent and interesting choices with lesser known varieties sitting alongside the finest examples of grapes and blends from around the world. Where the list stands out is providing elegance and diversity and aged wines at good value such as Pinot Noir 'Dundee Hills’ from the Willamette Valley or Savagnin ‘Sous Voile’ by Daniel Dugois in the Arbois.

Robert Maynard, Faye Hudson and James Thomson run front of house operations as co-owners with many years’ experience at some of Brighton’s best restaurants. All three have known each other for years and share an immense enthusiasm and commitment to delivering a first-class dining experience and bringing all that they love about food and wine to Hove. In Wild Flor they have created a relaxed comfortable setting for diners to enjoy some of the best food and drink the city has to offer.

New head chef Chris Trundle joins the original team at a really exciting time, as Wild Flor continues to evolve and adapt. Chris boasts an incredible CV, having held head chef positions at the Michelin-starred Manfred’s in Copenhagen and Lyle’s in Shoreditch, London which was ranked 33 in The World's Best Restaurants in 2019. His style of food favours honest and uncomplicated dishes using hyper-seasonal ingredients that makes people happy, using classic cookery techniques.

Chris heads up the kitchen team with sous chef Laurence Kinghorn-East who began his career at acclaimed Gingerman Group in Brighton, before taking positions at the Michelin-starred kitchens of Matt Gillan at The Pass and with Merlin Labron-Johnson at Portland in London and latterly at Osip in Bruton, Somerset.

The Team

Faye Hudson, Director
Faye spent 8 years at The Gingerman in Brighton, the majority of which as assistant manager, before opening Wild Flor. She specifically looks after front of house and all aspects of customer service at Wild Flor and loves nothing more than working the floor. She and James met while working for the Gingerman group and are now husband and wife.

Robert Maynard, Director

Rob has seen all sides of the wine and restaurant trade with his two most prominent positions being his time as Gingerman Group Bar Manager and a year working with Butler’s Wine Cellar in Brighton. After spells working in various bars across Brighton, James and Rob started working together again at Hove’s Ginger Pig in 2014.

James Thomson, Director

James has worked in hospitality since he was 15, starting in pubs and bars before working in a fine dining restaurant in New Zealand, aged 19. On returning home, James had management roles before taking on the role of General Manager at the Ginger Pig in Hove. It was working for the Gingerman group that James met his now wife and business partner, Faye, as well as developing a great working relationship with Robert before joining forces to open Wild Flor together.

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

New hotel and spa at The Beacon, Kent

The Beacon, Tunbridge Wells

Development and proposed restoration of Tunbridge Wells Cold Bath
at The Beacon

• Wellness centre, with hot and cold baths and yoga studio

• Six ensuite hotel rooms and three two-bedroom timber lodges

A planning application for the development and restoration of the Tunbridge Wells Cold Bath is in progress. Pete Cornwell, owner and director of The Beacon, part of the I’ll be Mother hospitality and events group in Tunbridge Wells, Kent is working with local environmental consultants Studio Engleback and Tate Harmer, one of the UK’s leading architects for sustainability and natural environments.

The current planning application is for a low-impact development while respecting the environmental sensitivity of the site. The design works within the existing constraints and topography of the site to create a picturesque garden route, with new function spaces and accommodation carefully integrated into the landscape. The proposal consists of restoration of historic use of the site as a pleasure garden and cold bath by introducing The Cold Bath, which is a wellness centre incorporating a cold bath and a hot bath, The Hide which is half-buried into the landscape housing six accommodation units, and three timber lodges, designed by Wadhurst treehouse design studio, Blue Forest.

The restoration and new development will generate 20 new jobs, while additional training and new hours will be given to many of the current 60 members of staff at The Beacon.

Pete Cornwell from I’ll be Mother comments, “As an early 18th century pleasure garden, including three ponds, one of The Beacon’s surviving features into the 19th century was a spring fed cold bath. This proposed development is an opportunity to re-establish the enchanting and historic character of the site while introducing new hotel accommodation and economic benefit to Tunbridge Wells and Kent.”

The Cold Bath will house a health and wellness centre and spa together with a cold bath and a hot bath to continue the historic tradition of bathing on the site. This is accompanied by a studio which will be used for yoga and classes.

The Hide has six ensuite hotel rooms. Tucked within the sloping landscape and with a green sedum roof, there is minimal visual impact, while keeping the historical vista from Rusthall Common through the site.

The Lodges are located at the lower side of the slope east of the site. Clad in natural timber, shingle roof tiles, timber decking and slightly raised above the ground on silts, the individual lodges, each with two bedrooms, will minimise environmental impact and blend seamlessly into the woodland area.

Despite being set on a steep sided ghyll, typical of the High Weald, most pathways in the site are step-free and accessible for buggies and wheelchairs. The step-free pathway network provides an accessible route to the Cold Bath, The Hide, The Lodges, and the landscape generally. A series of steps through the steep central path provides a short-cut for some guests, but a longer route gives a more compliant approach and buggy access will give an alternative for those guests less able to walk distances. One hotel room in The Hide is also made accessible by its entrance route and its bathroom compliant to accessibility requirements and the correct space specifications in the main bedroom.

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For more information please contact Hannah Blake at The Dining Room on Hannah@thediningroompr.co.uk or 07730 039361

History of The Beacon

The Chalybeate springs were discovered in the area in 1609 and in its heyday, in the Georgian era, Tunbridge Wells was one of the top ten spas in the country. The proposed cold bath at The Beacon will be close to the historic site where the first cold bath in Tunbridge Wells was built in 1708.

Walter Harris, a Lord Mayor of London acquired the land in the 1890s and built The Beacon as a private house designed by the Arts and Crafts architect Robert Edis in 1894. Built on a sandstone outcrop, the house was originally known as Rusthall Towers, set in 17 acres of wooded grounds with three lakes, fringed by rhododendrons. In more recent history, Colonel Sladen, a prominent figure in Tunbridge Wells, who owned The Beacon as a private residence, laid 23 acres of pleasure gardens on top of the original 1708 grounds. Sladen’s ornamental gardens were legendary and hosted many civic events. He stocked the lakes with Loch Leven trout and built an aviary. Close to the Beacon itself, Sladen installed the huge Burmese Bell that his father had brought back from his time in the Diplomatic Service. The bell itself was suspended by cross-beams of Burmese teak and was believed to have come from a Buddhist temple. When he died of pneumonia in 1921, it was bequeathed to the Council and then went to the Calverley Grounds.

Following Sladen’s death, his gardens fell into a period of neglect that was to last many years. Paths became overgrown and impassable; the rhododendrons rambled away unchecked. Sladen’s legacy was fading away, but these wilderness years helped create a haven for wildlife like dragonflies, frogs, badgers and, more recently, populations of bee fly and hoverfly, which are still there today.

After World War Two the house was rented by a Refugee Committee and was home to Jewish refugee children. For some years in the 1960s the house was a small hotel and by the late sixties even had a time as a disco.

The house and garden had been neglected for many years until brought under new ownership in 1990 and was run successfully as a pub and hotel for years until retirement. In 2015, Pete and Viv bought the property and began the hard work of transforming The Beacon into what it is today.

New sense of ‘focus and purpose’ at The Small Holding as the award-winning restaurant re-opens on 17 July

The Small Holding (Image Food Story Media)

New sense of ‘focus and purpose’ at The Small Holding as the award-winning restaurant re-opens on 17 July

www.thesmallholding.restaurant
@the_small_holding_
The Small Holding | Ranters Lane | Kilndown | Kent | TN17 2SG

After three months of lock down, The Small Holding in Kilndown, Kent will reopen its doors, large terrace and garden on 17 July with reservations open for July, August and September.

Named ‘Chef to Watch’ in the Good Food Guide 2020, chef owner Will Devlin says, “As with all restaurants, especially independents with no financial backing, the last three months have been tough. However, it’s given me the opportunity to focus on our purpose and reason and to remember what The Small Holding is about, which is the deep connection between the farm and kitchen and a sense of place. We nearly lost it all and we need to remember what we’re fighting for. Lockdown has been a massive opportunity to realise that.”

From 17 July, the new menu will be defined by hyper-seasonal ingredients with a focus on the farm’s own produce, but undefined by the number of courses or choice. There will be no formal menu at The Small Holding. Instead, guests will be 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, foraged ingredients, homemade charcuterie and zero waste animal cookery from the farm’s own livestock will be the main focus.

The restaurant will be open Thursday to Saturday for dinner costing £75 per head and for lunch, with a shorter menu, on Saturday and Sunday, costing £55 per head. A drinks flight including juices, shrubs, wines, beers and kombucha will also be available.

On Wednesday’s the whole team will work on the farm and on research and development.

The Small Holding will continue to sell BBQ and breakfast hampers, vegetable and cheese boxes and the new Wine Club offering which were all launched online during lockdown.

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. There are two poly tunnels, 15 raised beds, pigs, chickens, ducks, beehives and wild flower beds. On site is also the farm’s own alcohol sill, mushroom shed and shipping container with ageing chamber and butchery block.

Will’s second site, The Curlew, a former 17th century coaching inn in Bodiam, East Sussex launched in February 2020 and will reopen on 10 July. 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, fuelled by its own small holding, hen coop and piggery is prodigious.” Will Devlin was named ‘Chef to Watch’ in The Good Food Guide 2020

BBQ boxes, hampers and home-grown vegetable boxes from The Small Holding

BBQ Box at The Small Holding, Kent (credit Key & Quill)

BBQ boxes, hampers and home-grown vegetable boxes from The Small Holding

www.thesmallholding.restaurant/shop/

The Small Holding in Kilndown, Kent has launched a new BBQ box for local delivery, in addition to its home-grown and organic vegetable boxes and stay at home picnic hampers.

Just in time for the May bank holiday, The Small Holding BBQ box is suitable for 2-4 people sharing and includes two of each beef burgers, chicken kebabs, pork sausages and pulled pork plus buns, flat breads and burger garnish. Also included are tubs of coleslaw, BBQ beans, wild garlic pasta salad and pickled red cabbage. This fantastic feast of a box costs £55 while also for sale on the online shop are beers and wines from local Kent and Sussex producers including Squerryes, Greensand Ridge, Chapel Down and Long Man Brewery.

The new BBQ box is the newest offering from The Small Holding team who are also selling weekly vegetable boxes (£35) with produce grown on site at The Small Holding and from local farms. Celebrating the best of the season with local asparagus, strawberries, beetroot, new potatoes, rainbow chard, carrots, herbs, garlic and more.

The BBQ boxes, vegetable boxes and hampers should be ordered by 5pm each Wednesday for delivery on Friday or Saturday depending on delivery postcode.

For more information, images or to speak with chef owner Will Devlin please contact Hannah Blake at The Dining Room on 07730 039361 or hannah@thediningroompr.co.uk

Notes to editors:

- Orders can be made online at www.thesmallholding.restaurant/shop/

- Image credited to Key & Quill

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 opened in February 2020 www.thecurlew.restaurant.

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

Delamere is now supporting a fully sustainable cycle from food to leather

Jack and Rory from Billy Tannery

Delamere Dairy Invests in ‘Pioneering’ Billy Tannery

Delamere is now supporting a fully sustainable cycle from food to leather.

Delamere Dairy, the UK supplier of speciality, award-winning fresh and long-life goats’ products (milk, butter, cheeses and yogurts) has acquired a share in Billy Tannery, which produces a range of leather goods from goat hides in its pioneering microtannery.

Billy Tannery was founded by Jack Millington who set up the company, based in the Midlands, after discovering that not one goat hide left over from the food industry was being tanned in the UK. 

The tannery was set up by Jack after helping his dad, a dairy farmer, to try and find a market for his goat meat. Tapping into local leather knowledge it built a pioneering microtannery - the first tannery to be built in the UK in over 50 years. 

After enlisting the help of experts at the University of Northampton, they developed a bespoke tanning recipe to produce a sustainable, bark-tanned goat leather which celebrates the natural markings in the hide. The business then uses purposeful design to produce accessories including bags, sneakers and aprons in small workshops in the UK.

Cheshire-based Delamere Dairy, which is responsible for a third of the UK’s goats’ milk, now has shares in both Billy Tannery and also goat meat supplier Cabrito. Cabrito Goat Meat was founded in 2012 by British chef James Whetlor and sources its farm assured goat’ meat from Delamere Dairy farms across the UK, to supply restaurants, butchers and catering companies, as well as delivering directly to families across the UK. 

The interest and appetite for goats’ meat is growing in the UK. Previously billy goats were a bi-product to the 30,000 female nanny goats producing milk for the UK market. Supplying goat meat to restaurants and caterers and sending hides to the tannery, completes the sustainable cycle from milk to meat to leather in this small but dynamic sector of the UK dairy industry. 

Ed Salt, MD at Delamere comments: “We have developed a unique model for how dairy businesses should look in the future - honest, transparent, ethical and continually pushing for sustainability.  I genuinely feel we can create a model partnership with each aspect of these three businesses enhancing the other and reducing unnecessary wastage.” 

Jack Millington at Billy Tannery comments, "Our new partnership with Delamere cements the natural links with Billy Tannery and also Cabrito. The increased transparency between the three businesses is exactly what consumers are looking for these days and this is only going to increase in the future. I'm really looking forward to working more closely with the wider Delamere team."

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For more information about Cabrito Goat Meat please contact Hannah Blake on hannah@thediningroompr.co.uk or 07730 039361

For more information about Billy Tannery please contact Jack Millington on jack@billytannery.co.uk or 07958 001987

Notes to editor:

Delamere Dairy

Delamere Dairy was founded in 1985 in Cheshire’s beautiful Delamere Forest, when Liz & Roger Sutton bought their first three goats. They began by selling the fresh goats’ milk and soft cheese they made in their kitchen to local health food stores. Such was the interest in their products, that only a couple of years later they were supplying milk to major UK retailers. 

Today, Delamere Dairy sells an award-winning range of fresh and long life goats’ products (cheeses, yogurts, butters, milks and powder), plain and flavoured cows’ milks, a range of sheep cheese and yogurt, and a growing portfolio of milks for the pet industry.

More recent developments build on the company’s experience of supplying dairy alternative ‘milks’ as own label brands. In 2018 the company launched its branded range of Planted drinks, a planted based range of oat, almond and coconut drinks.

Celebrating more than 35 years in business, the company has an annual turnover in excess of £29M, with products sold throughout the UK and in over 20 markets around the world.

Delamere Dairy has collected several accolades over the years including Farm Business of the Year at the Farm Business Food & Farming Industry, the Sunday Times SME Export Track 100, as the UK’s fastest growing food & drink exporter, and UK’s most prestigious business award – The Queen’s Award for Enterprise, for its International Trade achievements.

Cabrito Goat Meat was founded by James Whetlor in 2012. Cabrito won an Observer Food Monthly Award (2014) for Best Ethical Producer, Good Housekeeping’s Champion Meat Producer (2016) and the Young British Foodies Meat Award (2016) and is a finalist in the Radio 4 Food Programme Food and Farming Awards 2017. www.cabrito.co.uk

Billy Tannery was founded by childhood friends Jack Millington and Rory Harker, both from the Midlands. Billy Tannery is a goat leather micro tannery that has tapped into local leather knowledge and built a pioneering micro-tannery with its sustainable, bark-tanned goat leather using the hides left over from the UK food industry to produce a range of premium leather goods and accessories. www.billytannery.co.uk

Your Local Delivered

Your Local Delivered

 - A free-to-use online community, set up with one goal – to connect local, independent businesses with those at home during Covid-19

- Set up by Charlotte Spencer in Tonbridge, Kent

Stay Home – Protect Local Businesses – Save Lives

On 23 March 2020, Boris Johnson issued a nationwide lockdown due to COVID-19 and ordered all non-essential businesses to shut.

One of the key messages from this was to use delivery services to reduce footfall in supermarkets – and just as importantly – support those businesses that had to close their doors.

From this pivotal moment, Your Local Delivered was born. Pioneered by Charlotte Spencer, aged 28 from Tonbridge, Kent, Charlotte works full time as a Social Media Strategist at London based agency, Bridge & Tunnel. Developed with the help of friends, Chris Rogers and James Rutter, they all share a passion for championing local businesses and wanted to do something to help - so they rallied together to create the website in just shy of a week.

Your Local Delivered is a free-to-use online community, set up with one goal – to connect local, independent businesses with those at home during this global crisis. Why? Because we all have a responsibility. We are responsible for staying at home and keeping those around us safe. We also have a responsibility to support each other on a global scale, and this starts with helping local communities not only to continue to operate, but to thrive under these circumstances.

Forget queueing, forget stockpiling, but don’t forget about the businesses that define your local area. They connect you with your favourite locals, who are set up and able to deliver to your door.

Businesses and consumers can help spread the word by:

- Adding listings - pubs, restaurants, grocers and more can be added to site by anyone free of charge

- Sharing the website - through social channels, Facebook groups and by word of mouth

Founder Charlotte Spencer comments, “My brother’s lovely country pub (The Hopbine, Matfield, Kent) was included in the list of businesses that were forced to close last week. So needless to say, it felt pretty close to home. Like him and many local independents businesses, they've now turned to deliveries as a means of surviving this crisis that we’re all facing.  Having worked in the hospitality industry for some years, I wanted to do my bit to help and I hope Your Local Delivered will do just that. But we now need the help of the Great British public to spread the word and get local businesses of all shapes and sizes from across the UK, listed on the site. COVID-19 might have taken us all by surprise, but we will get through this, together. Keep calm and get Your Local Delivered.”

www.yourlocaldelivered.co.uk | @YourLocalDelivered

Farm shop and hampers launch at The Small Holding, Kent

Fresh vegetable boxes from the farm at The Small Holding, Kent (image Key & Quill)

Farm shop and hampers launch at The Small Holding, Kent

#HelpKentBuyLocal

www.thesmallholding.restaurant
@the_small_holding_

Ranters Lane | Kilndown | Kent | TN17 2SG

The Small Holding at Home and farm pop up shop has launched for business today, Monday 23 March.

Guests can experience a taste of The Small Holding from their own home after collecting a ready-made hamper of local Kent and Sussex cheese, chutney and crackers, house made charcuterie, freshly made bread and local wines and beers. Or take away a restaurant standard three-course meal, including fish pie and ginger cake with rhubarb and cream cheese. Collection of hampers and meals are from 12-9pm.

The Farm shop will be open Monday-Sunday from 8am-8pm and selling a wide variety of home-grown vegetables from the small holding plot including chard, purple sprouting, radishes and leeks and dairy such as cream, milk, eggs and cheese. Fresh meat and fish such as pork shops, sausages, whole chickens, mackerel and cod are also for sale.

All produce and hampers will be sold with zero contact.

Named ‘Chef to Watch’ in the Good Food Guide 2020, Will Devlin says, “We’ve had to reinvent ourselves in this last week and are working exceptionally hard during this unprecedented situation to keep tasty food and drink on the table of our valued guests. There are going to be more challenges and uncertainty over the next few months but we’re lucky that the weather is warming up and the farm will soon be in full production. It’s been brilliant so see everyone in our teams and local producers and suppliers such as Hinxden Dairy and The Pure Meat Company really rallying together through this tough time.”

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 opened in February. www.thecurlew.restaurant.

For more information, images, interview or recipes from 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

Food and Fire at Bristol Fire School

Genevieve Taylor at Bristol Fire School

James Whetlor, founder of Cabrito Goat Meat is joining Genevieve Taylor at Bristol Fire School on 11 May to co-host a Kamado ceramic oven masterclass. 

James is a huge fan of cooking food over fire and is currently writing a book on how to cook with kamado-ceramic ovens. To cook great food over fire you need to know how to light, control and work with the fire. Fire management is fundamental to success and the foundation of getting everything right and dinner on the table. Master these skills and it just becomes cooking.

The popularity of this elemental kind of cooking has risen exponentially and for very good reason, food cooked over fire quite simply tastes better. “Once you master the fire, it just becomes cooking”, says Genevieve. “The barrier to great fire-cooked food is feeling confident with the fire itself.”

On 11 May, students will go back to basics to learn the fundamentals of how kamado ovens work, how to manage and control the temperature before moving on to learn how to make the most of these amazingly versatile pieces of kit. From low and slow meat and classic direct-heat grilling to breads and lots of glorious vegetable dishes, guests won’t leave hungry.

The day can be booked direct through Genevieve Taylor and costs £144 per person which includes hot drinks, soft drinks and lots to eat. The day will start at 9.30 with coffee, before getting straight into lighting the fires. Together, guests will cook, talk and tend the fires until around 2pm when everyone will sit down for a late lunch of fire cooked food and there will be lots of time for more burning questions. 

About Bristol Fire School

Fire School has one overriding aim - to help people Do Fire Better.

After the successes of her bestselling vegetable barbecue book Charred and the meaty The Ultimate Wood-Fired Oven Cookbook, top fire cook Genevieve Taylor has launched the Bristol Fire School in her home town of Bristol.

Genevieve shares the skills and knowledge that have made her one of the country’s best-known flame-focused cooks. Courses will cover everything from perfecting barbecuing skills to getting a handle on that pizza oven, slow-roasting, smoking and open-fire cooking.

About Cabrito Goat Meat

James Whetlor was a chef for 10 years, working at The Eagle and Great Queen Street in London, before returning to his native Devon to work at River Cottage. Always interested in food production, ethics and sustainability, James set up Cabrito Goat Meat in 2012 with a one-sentence mission statement: to put all billy goats born into the dairy industry into the meat industry.

James is the International Director of Goatober, working closely with partners in New York and North America, Europe and Australia. In 2019, there were Goatober events across the UK, USA, Trinidad, Spain, France and Australia. GOAT: Cooking and Eating, James’ first cookbook, was published in April 2018 by Quadrille. It has been widely acclaimed as genre-defining and won the James Beard Foundation Award for best single subject book and the Guild of Food Writers award for best single subject.

For more information, images or interviews please contact Hannah Blake at The Dining Room
on hannah@thediningroompr.co.uk or 07730 039361

Gluts & Gluttony supper clubs for 2020

Kathy Slack from Gluts & Gluttony

Award-winning food writer and cook Kathy Slack, founder of Gluts & Gluttony and formerly of Daylesford Cookery School, has announced the 2020 dates for her seasonal pop-up feasts. Taking place every last Friday of the month in Chipping Norton, in the Cotswolds, Kathy’s four-course organic feast showcases the harvests from her own kitchen garden.

Dates for Gluts & Gluttony supper clubs throughout 2020

Friday 28 February | Friday 27 March | Friday 24 April | Friday 29 May | Friday 26 June
Friday 31 July | Friday 25 September | Friday 30 October | Friday 27 November

Every month the menu puts home-grown vegetables, picked fresh and at their most abundant and tastiest, at the centre. It’s not vegetarian, but vegetables are the stars of the show, supported by the seasonal ingredients from local producers. In the Spring months guests can expect seasonal dishes such as Rhubarb and Rose Cured Trout or Wild Garlic Tortellini and Herby Broad Beans while in the colder months there might be Venison, Cabbage and Apple Remoulade and Pickled Berries or Winter Vegetable Pithivier and for pudding, Quince & Panettone Trifle.

On the supper club night, guests will be welcomed with a seasonal cocktail and nibbles at 7:30pm. At 8pm, everyone will sit down at the communal table to a meal piled high on sharing platters full of vibrant colours and flavours. Throughout the evening Kathy will talk about the food - how it’s grown and cooked - and guests will leave around 10:30pm.

Kathy says: “What I like about the supper club format is that it’s just the right balance between catching up with friends and meeting new people. If you’ve booked as a group, you’ll be sat together but on the communal table, so you’ll have a chance to chat to new people if you want. Plus, everyone’s there to enjoy the same thing so it’s an ideal way to meet like-minded folk.”

Venue: The Tea Set Café, 24 High Street, Chipping Norton, OX7
Time:  7:30pm - 10:30pm
Price:  £50 per person including welcome cocktail and four courses. BYO
Booking:  Essential. Online ticket sales via www.glutsandgluttony.eventbrite.co.uk

For more information, images or interview opportunities please contact Hannah Blake at The Dining Room on Hannah@thediningroompr.co.uk or 07730 039361

About Kathy Slack and Gluts & Gluttony

After 12 years as a brand strategist for London advertising agencies, the fun had been had and the rat race was taking its toll. Kathy quit, with no idea what to do next. Rural life beckoned and, as well as starting her blog, Gluts & Gluttony, she took a job growing vegetables at Daylesford organic farm in Kingham, Gloucestershire and later worked in the cookery school. Three years, several placements and lots of training later, G&G has grown into a full-time venture with Kathy teaching private cookery classes, hosting supperclubs and cooking at festivals and events such as River Cottage, Borough Market, Wilderness Festival and Big Feastival. She also writes for publications such as delicious magazine, Waitrose Food, The Simple Things, The Independent and develops recipes for brands including Sharpham Park and Organic UK. Kathy is 41 and lives with her husband, Paul, and their springer spaniel in the Cotswolds. 

Dinner, conversation and sustainability at Coombe Farm Organic

Cabrito Goat Meat at Coombe Farm Organic

An evening of food and discussion with sustainability champions Cabrito Goat Meat and Billy Tannery at Coombe Farm Organic, Crewkerne, Somerset

Price: £60 per person for four courses and welcome drink
Booking via: www.coombefarmorganic.co.uk

On 3 April, James Whetlor from Cabrito Goat Meat and Jack Millington from Billy Tannery will host a dinner of British goat meat alongside Ben White, General Manager at Coombe Farm Organic, a beautiful farming estate in the Somerset countryside. All three partners are united in their passion for sustainability, the welfare of animals and reducing the waste in this part of the dairy system.

Very often the connection between meat and leather is forgotten. Independent producers, Cabrito Goat Meat and Billy Tannery, the UK’s first goat leather micro tannery, are working together, and with restaurants and farmers, to change this.

Certified organic by the Soil Association in 1998, Coombe Farm started out as a dairy farm and has a long and trusted reputation for exceptional diary produce. Now, they also rear organic grass-fed beef, lamb and pork and work with local farmers for organic free-range venison and poultry. Since February 2020, Coombe Farm has also been supplying goat meat (kid and nanny) from Cabrito, which comes from farms less than seven miles away on the Somerset/Dorset borders.

Ben White from Coombe Farm Organic comments; “Working with James from Cabrito Goat Meat complements our philosophy of sustainable farming really well. It yields truly remarkable meat that would otherwise get wasted. Whilst nanny/female goats are reared for replacements in a goat dairy herd, billy/male goats are surplus to requirements. We feel strongly that letting meat go to waste is unacceptable in an age when so much is already wasted and so many go without eating balanced, nutritious produce. Working with Cabrito, who in turn works with the brilliant Billy Tannery to use the goat hides, we have the platform to see that the billy and older nanny goats raised in out from our local area is used responsibly. The goats we butcher and sell come from a farm seven miles away from us on the Somerset/Dorset border and is a truly delicious and versatile ingredient to cook with.”

Billy Tannery is the first leather brand of its kind in Britain, with a vertically integrated supply chain from hide to final product. Co-founded by friends Jack Millington and Rory Harker, Billy Tannery’s goal is to put an end to the thousands of British goat hides wasted every year.

Jack Millington says, “Despite the clear link between meat and leather, the topic is often uncomfortable and rarely discussed. For us at Billy Tannery, leather and leathercraft play a vital role in the reduction of food waste - it takes the dairy and meat by-products and creates unique and sustainably tanned goat leather. It’s great to be on the farm with Ben and the Coombe Farm Organic team to showcase our British goat leather.”

Guests going to Coombe Farm Organic for this special evening will be welcomed with an organic apple martini and nibbles before sitting at 7pm for a short talk from James Whetlor and Jack Millington and hosted by Ben White.

The menu:

• Coombe Farm ex-dairy cow bresola

• Cabrito kid goat kibbeh nayeh with herbs and lemon

• Cabrito goat kebabs with romesco

• Marinated Cabrito kid leg and shoulder with preserved lemon and bay

• Tomato and cabbage pilaf

• Lemon posset and shortbread

Throughout the evening samples from Billy Tannery’s range of goat leather products will be available to view and purchase as will copies of James Whetlor’s award-winning book ‘Goat: Cooking and Eating’ which includes recipes from Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, Gill Mellor and Gizzi Erskine.

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For more information, interviews or images please contact Hannah Blake at The Dining Room PR on 07730 039361 or email hannah@thediningroompr.co.uk

About Cabrito Goat Meat
www.cabrito.co.uk

Cabrito has a one-sentence mission statement: to put all billy goats born into the dairy industry into the meat industry. Devon based James Whetlor worked as a chef in London for ten years and at River Cottage in Devon. He founded Cabrito Goat Meat in 2012 and was soon supplying top restaurants and butchers around the country.

Cabrito Goat Meat won an Observer Food Monthly Award (2014) for Best Ethical Producer, Good Housekeeping’s Champion Meat Producer (2016), Young British Foodies Meat Award (2016) and was a finalist in the BBC Radio 4’s Food and Farming Awards 2017.

James is the International Director of Goatober, working closely with partners in New York and North America, Europe and Australia. In October 2016, James brought the month-long goat meat celebration, Goatober, to the UK. Originating in New York in 2012, James has been instrumental in turning Goatober into an international campaign bringing together dairies, farmers, NGOs and individuals who are passionate about ending food waste in the goat dairy system. In 2017, James hosted Goatober events in London, Bristol, Manchester, Somerset, Northern Ireland and Amsterdam. In 2019, there were Goatober events across the UK, USA, Trinidad, Spain, France and Australia.

GOAT: Cooking and Eating, James’ first cookbook, was published in April 2018 by Quadrille. It has been widely acclaimed as genre-defining and won the James Beard Foundation Award for best single subject book and the Guild of Food Writers award for best single subject.

About Billy Tannery
www.billytannery.co.uk

Billy Tannery is the first leather brand of its kind in Britain, with a vertically integrated supply chain from hide to final product. It was founded by childhood friends Jack Millington and Rory Harker, both from the Midlands. Jack and Rory’s goal is to put an end to the waste thousands of British goat hides by tapping into the rich leather heritage of the Midlands area.  In 2017, Billy Tannery launched a range of luxury goat leather bags and accessories that are designed and handmade in Britain using entirely British goat leather in their small batch tannery in the Midlands.

February at The Small Holding

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

The Curlew launches in East Sussex from the team behind The Small Holding

Sharing and small plates at The Curlew (Food Story Media)

The Curlew, opening on 19 February

www.thecurlew.restaurant

The Curlew, a new restaurant by chef owner Will Devlin, will launch on 19 February. Housed in a former coaching inn, the 46-cover restaurant is in the heart of rural East Sussex. Named by The Good Food Guide 2020 as ‘Chef to Watch’, this is Will’s second restaurant, alongside The Small Holding.

Inspired by The Curlew’s countryside location, while only 10 miles to the South Coast, the menu offers simple and seasonal small and sharing plates from land and sea. Ingredients are sourced hyper-locally from the best producers and fishermen, or are grown or foraged at The Small Holding, just 8 miles away.

Set in picture-postcard Sussex countryside, The Curlew is a Grade II listed former coaching inn with white clapboard façade and views across the fields. The menu will change every few weeks as ingredients and produce from the farm and suppliers, become available. Everything is made in house and the team butcher, bake, pickle, preserve and cure on site.

The kitchen is headed up by chef Will Devlin who will be onsite for the first 6 months. He will split his time between The Curlew and The Small Holding, which opened in April 2018, and where Head chef Harry Fields is in place. Dishes at The Curlew include salt baked carrots with dill seed mayonnaise; cured trout and kimchi; home-made fennel seed salami and chorizo from our Berkshire pigs at The Small Holding; whole brined and smoked roast chicken; whole roast turbot with sea purslane butter and roast rib of Sussex beef.

The drinks menu reflects the rich history of Sussex with beers from local breweries using heritage hops and water filtered through the South Downs and English wines from some of the country’s leading wineries which are on The Curlew’s doorstep.

“This is an exciting time to be relaunching The Curlew. It’s had a great history before us, and we plan to grow and build on its reputation as one of the best restaurants in the South East.” Will Devlin

For more information, press reviews and images please contact Hannah Blake at The Dining Room PR on hannah@thediningroompr.co.uk or 07730 039361

Address
The Curlew
Junction Road
Bodiam
East Sussex
TN32 5UY
www.thecurlew.restaurant

Enquiries: info@thecurlew.restaurant

Opening times
Wednesday to Saturday: 12-2.30pm (Lunch) and 6-9.30pm (Dinner)
Sunday: 12-3pm
Closed Mondays and Tuesdays

Farm & Forage at The Small Holding

Will Devlin at The Small Holding, Kent

Farm and Forage at The Small Holding, Kilndown, Kent
Spring-Summer dates 2020

Go foraging this year with Will Devlin, chef owner of The Small Holding. Starting in May, when everything is green and fresh, guests will discover the rich bounty of nature’s wild larder. From dandelions and wild garlic in Spring to elderflower and wild strawberries in early Summer through to damsons, sloe berries, chanterelles and cobnuts in Autumn, the countryside is full of edible delights; you just need to know when and where to look.

The Small Holding ‘Farm and Forage’ days start at the restaurant at 9.30am with coffee and warm, homemade pastries before pulling on wellies and heading through the gate into the farm. After feeding the pigs and chickens, guests will walk amongst the poly tunnels and raised beds learning about the 200 varieties of fruit and vegetables being grown on site. Then guests will venture down the lane with Will to the woods and fields to go foraging and learn about what’s in season and what is best to eat. By May, Spring will be in full throttle and fully green and guests can expect to find carpets of wild garlic, wild fennel, wood sorrel, yarrow, nettles, sweet cicely, dandelion, chickweed, garlic mustard and maybe even morel mushrooms if they’re lucky.

Returning to The Small Holding, guests will be greeted with a glass of awarding-winning Squerryes’ English sparkling wine before being seated for either a Full or Half Acre tasting menu. Sample dishes might include Asparagus, Lovage and Mustard; Hogget, Fennel and Chilli; Lettuce, Mushroom and Dill; Strawberry, Basil and Elderflower.

The Farm and Forage days are available on the third Wednesday of the month between May and September and is priced at £145 for Farm and Forage and a 5 course Half Acre menu or £195 for Farm and Forage and a 10 course Full Acre menu. Both experiences include a welcome glass of Squerryes’ Vintage Brut, a local and award-winning English sparkling wine.

Bookings can be made direct via www.thesmallholding.restaurant or by calling the restaurant on 01892 890 105.

May Farm, a beautifully appointed self-catered three-bedroom barn, catered and run by The Small Holding and only a short walk from the restaurant, is also available to book alongside Farm and Forage days.

Farm and Forage 2020 dates: 20 May | 17 June | 22 July | 19 August | 16 September

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Notes to editors

The Small Holding is a kitchen and farm on a country lane in the pretty village of Kilndown on the Kent and East Sussex borders.

The 26-cover restaurant has been named as 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. Rare breed Berkshire pigs, chickens and ducks roam the farm while The Small Holding’s own bees pollinate and feast on the wildflower beds.

May Farm at The Small Holding
Guests travelling to eat at The Small Holding are now be able to stay at May Farm, a rural country retreat run and catered for by restaurant team. In the heart of the High Weald of Kent and only a short walk or drive from The Small Holding, May Farm is in the blissful solitude of 40 acres of farm and woodland.  Once an ancient farm building, May Farm has been converted into a homely and well-designed space sleeping up to six guests. Dogs and muddy boots are welcome too. Combining country comforts with contemporary flair, May Farm retains the charm of the original threshing barn with wooden timbers and exposed brick walls.

“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 Magazine

“A group of folk growing 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

For images, more information or for press review stays please contact Hannah Blake at The Dining Room PR on 07730 039361 or hannah@thediningroompr.co.uk

The Small Holding
Ranters Lane | Kilndown | Kent, TN17 2SG
www.thesmallholding.restaurant
bookings@thesmallholding.restaurant

Telephone: 01892 890105
Instagram: @the_small_holding_

Open Hours

Wednesday to Friday 12pm-2pm; 6pm-11pm
Saturday 12pm-11pm
Food served 12-2pm; 6-9.30pm
Sunday 12-4pm
Food served 12-2pm

May Farm at The Small Holding, Kilndown, Kent

May Farm, new accommodation at The Small Holding

Escape the everyday at this rural retreat in the heart of the High Weald of Kent. Only a short walk or drive from The Small Holding, May Farm offers a beautifully appointed self-catered three-bedroom barn in the blissful solitude of 40 acres of farm and woodland.

Once an ancient farm building, May Farm is both private and spacious and has been lovingly converted into a homely space sleeping up to six guests. Dogs are welcome too. Combining sumptuous country comforts with contemporary flair, May Farm retains the charm of the original threshing barn with wooden timbers and exposed brick walls.

May Farm caters for the comfort of modern living, from a welcoming log burner, Egyptian Cotton bedsheets, underfloor heating, gun and boot room and a large, high-spec kitchen and dining table with a smeg fridge full of Kentish wines, beers and The Small Holding’s own charcuterie and local cheeses.

May Farm lends itself to couples or families with its top floor master bedroom and ensuite and two further rooms, one also upstairs and one downstairs, offering a king and twin beds with a walk-in shower room. Hunker down in winter with the cosy log burner, blankets, dvds and board games; while in the summer enjoy sitting out on the sunny garden terrace or in the hot tub, with a bottle of English sparkling wine, listening to the nightingales and gazing at the view.

Set on the edge of a working arable and livestock farm, May Farm is home to The Small Holding’s pigs and chickens and additional raised beds for brassicas and berry cages. Guests can be left alone as much as they wish or come help collect that morning’s eggs.

Explore the Weald of Kent

Discover pretty Kent villages, rolling countryside, fine dining and family fun within a stone’s throw of May Farm, all set within an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. National Trust properties Sissinghurst and Scotney Castle are nearby, while Bewl Water with its woodland trails for walking and biking, pedalo and boat hire is a few minutes away. For those looking for the sea, Hastings is just another 45 minutes from The Small Holding.

Rates

May Farm is available for whole house hire for up to six guests, while also dining at The Small Holding.

Weekday rate £140 (Wednesday and Thursday)
Two-night weekday rate £260

Weekend rate £600 (Friday and Saturday)
Saturday night £300

Breakfast and arrival hampers are available on request to be pre-ordered.

Breakfast hamper at May Farm with homemade and local products from The Small Holding and Kent

The Small Holding x Elmley

Kingshill Farmhouse, Elmley Nature Reserve where The Small Holding weekend on 3-5 April will take place

Will Devlin from The Small Holding, Kilndown, is collaborating with Elmley Nature Reserve on the Isle of Sheppey, to cook a special dinner at Kingshill Farmhouse.

Taking place over the weekend of 3-5 April, it is a chance for guests to be immersed in nature, but in utter comfort, soaking up wilderness views and soaring skyscapes, whilst enjoying food cooked and served by one of Kent’s best chefs and his awarding-winning team from The Small Holding.

Named in The Good Food Guide 2020 as ‘Chef to Watch’, Will Devlin will cook a bespoke tasting menu in the beautiful kitchen diner of the newly, and lovingly, restored and renovated 18th century, grade II listed Kingshill Farmhouse. Sitting in the heart of the 3,300-acre reserve, the huge glass sliding doors have vast views out across the marshes where it is easy to spot a hare hopping past, wading birds and a barn owl hunting over the reeds. Just an hour from London and 70 minutes from The Small Holding, Elmley feels a world away from the city.

When booking this special weekend, guests will be able to choose one of the five beautiful, individually designed bedrooms by interior designer Francesca Rowan Plowden, each with sweeping views of the reserve. Special touches including roll top cast iron baths, each with views, the gorgeous reception rooms, and the huge kitchen diner make Elmley an incredible place to stay.

Arriving on Friday night, if they wish, guests will have use of the well-stocked honesty bar and charcuterie and cheese boards prepared by The Small Holding using their own house-cured meats and local Kent and Sussex cheeses. Saturday breakfast will be a simple affair prepared by the Elmley team, before cocktails, snacks and tasting menu by The Small Holding in the evening. Saturday dinner and Sunday brunch will be served communally around the farmhouse kitchen table.

During the weekend guests can pre-book in-house holistic therapies, while wildlife tours, hosted by Estate manager Gareth Fulton, who runs Elmley with his wife Georgina, can also be arranged. The charming towns of Whitstable and Faversham are nearby, while some guests may just prefer to curl up with a book in one of the many cosy reception areas and gaze out across the breathtaking views.

This special weekend costs from £400 per person, for two nights, based on two people sharing a room, and includes a tasting menu and paired wine flight on the Saturday evening by Will Devlin and The Small Holding team, and Sunday brunch including a Full English, homemade breads, pastries and jams and of course, lots of fresh coffee and tea. Friday night charcuterie boards, additional drinks, tours and / or treatments are additional extras to be booked through Elmley.

To book please visit https://www.elmleynaturereserve.co.uk/huts/kingshill-farmhouse.

About Elmley

Elmley is an independently owned and managed National Nature Reserve and is a conservation site of international importance, where farming and conservation go hand in hand. As well as being one of the most important UK sites for breeding waders, it is also renowned for raptors, owls, and hares, along with rare bees, dragonflies and flora. Elmley is the only National Nature Reserve in the UK where guests can stay overnight. The property is ideal for staycations and celebrations and can be hired as a private whole house rental, and on select dates from 2020, individual bedrooms will be available on a B&B basis. www.elmleynaturereserve.co.uk Instagram @elmleynature

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. www.thesmallholding.restaurant Instagram @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

For more information please contact Hannah Blake or Charlotte Allen
Hannah@thediningroompr.co.uk (07730 039361)
 charlotte@elmleynaturereserve.co.uk (07595 881931)

December at The Small Holding

Partridge baked whole in hay and served with squash and sprouts from The Small Holding farm

December at The Small Holding, Kent

During winter, work on the farm at The Small Holding slows down. Roots such as turnips, celeriac and beetroot are getting a good frost in the ground, which helps turn the starch to sugars, while the leafy brassicas and cabbages are ready for harvest and a welcome hit of green. While it’s cold outside, the kitchen is a hot bed of activity making use of the summer and autumn gluts with the team constantly inventing and experimenting with a diminishing natural larder.

Named ‘Chef to Watch’ in The Good Food Guide 2020, Will Devlin says, “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.” 

The December Full Acre sample menu is £60 per head and includes truffle, turbot, venison, partridge and sprouts. An optional four or six glass wine pairing is £40/60. The Half Acre menu is £30 per person.

December’s Full Acre menu
Artichoke, Mushroom, Truffle
Razor Clam, Eel, Lard
Oyster, Coriander, Ants
Chicken, Egg, Waffle
Turbot, Seaweed, Anchovies
Venison, Celery, Horseradish
Partridge, Squash, Sprouts
Bay Leaf, Pumpkin
Almond, Damson, Goat Milk
Today’s cheese

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 took ownership of The Small Holding in January 2018 and opened in April 2018. A former pub, which was run down and neglected, the site has been transformed into an open kitchen and bar with a large decked terrace looking out over the farm and views of the Weald of Kent. 

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, fuelled by its own small holding, hen coop and piggery is prodigious.” Will Devlin was named ‘Chef to Watch’ in The Good Food Guide 2020

Osip by Merlin Labron-Johnson

Osip by Merlin Labron-Johnson at Number One Bruton, Somerset (credit: Maureen M Evans)

Merlin Labron-Johnson’s new farm-to-table restaurant Osip in Bruton, Somerset has launched, alongside boutique hotel Number One Bruton.

Having grown up in Devon, Merlin has spent the last years travelling around the world and living in London and has returned to the West Country to open his own self-funded restaurant. The name Osip is taken from his own middle name inspired by the Russian poet, Osip Mandelstam.

Osip offers set and a la carte menus that pay homage to the fantastic produce of Somerset, with a focus on organic and biodynamic vegetables over red meat. Simplicity, lack of pretension and imagination define the menu, as well as total dedication to extremely low food mileage. Fruit and vegetables are grown on eight acres of land near Bruton and on an allotment five-minutes-walk from the restaurant. Inspired by nature’s seasons, Merlin’s style is informal and abundant, committed to minimising waste and reintegrating fruit and herb trimmings, animal fats, offal and bones. He grew up in Devon and Osip is the result of a long-held wish to open a rustic restaurant closely tied to his West Country roots.

Other collaborators  include the charity and farm The Husbandry School in Devon, the traditional Somerset cheesemakers Westcombe Dairy and local organic growers such as Charles Dowding and Bengrove Market Garden along with local fine ciders from the likes of Fine & Foster and Pilton. West country cider plays a starring role in Osip’s drinks offering and the initial wine selection will be co-sculpted by talented sommeliers Honey Spencer (formerly of Noma Mexico) and Ania Smelskaya (of Silo).  Merlin has also chosen to work with New Ground Coffee who are a social enterprise roasting high quality coffee who use the business as a vehicle to train and create employment for ex-offenders.

A number of collaborations are visible throughout the restaurant including fashion designer  Studio Nicholson creating bespoke uniforms for the front of house and Bill Amberg Studio on upholstery of the tables along with the work from craftspeople such as Kana Ceramics and Owen Wall .

Joining Osip from The Conduit in London, Merlin Labron-Johnson has an impressive list of accolades to his name and earned a Michelin-star at the age of 24, nine months after he opened the kitchen at Portland Restaurant. Young and philanthropic, Merlin is inspired by cooking at Refettorio Felix homeless shelter and providing quality cooking for refugee camps in Europe through Help Refugees.

November at The Small Holding

Mushroom foraging at The Small Holding (credit Food Story Media)

Oysters, celeriac and preserves

November at The Small Holding

“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, fuelled by its own small holding, hen coop and piggery is prodigious.” Will Devlin was named ‘Chef to Watch’ in The Good Food Guide 2020

“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

Everything is home-made at The Small Holding, including sourdough bread and butter, yoghurt and ricotta or sourced hyper-locally such as Hinxden Cream which has a herd of pedigree Guernsey and Holstein Friesian cows in nearby Benenden. Ingredients are picked less than 10ft from the kitchen and when there’s a glut, the kitchen preserves, pickles and jars.

The November Full Acre sample menu, with full vegetarian and vegan menus available, costs £60 per person with an optional 4 glass wine pairing at £40 and 6 glass wine pairing at £60. The Half Acre menu is £30 per person.

Cauliflower, Nettle, Truffle
Celeriac, Scallop, Asparagus
Oyster, Kale, Lovage
Beetroot, Cheese, Blueberry
Hake, Bacon, Clams
Hogget, Cabbage, Parsley
Pork, Potato, Egg
Miso, Pear, Pine
Apple, Goat Milk, Brandy

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.

“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

Will took ownership of The Small Holding in January 2018 and opened in April 2018. A former pub, which was run down and neglected, the site has been transformed into an open kitchen and bar with a large decked terrace looking out over the farm and views of the Weald of Kent.

For more information, interview or to visit The Small Holding, please contact Hannah Blake on hannah@thediningroompr.co.uk or 07730 039361

Fire + Wild Wilderness Retreat in Scotland

Eilean Shona off the west coast of Scotland

Wilderness Retreat
On the island of Eilean Shona on the West Coast of Scotland
12-19 September 2020

www.fireandwild.co.uk

“Heaven on Earth. This is the kind of magic one longs for, looks for and seldom finds.” Kate Winslet

The private island of Eilean Shona, in a remote loch off the west coast of Scotland, is the location for Fire + Wild’s first Wilderness Retreat, taking place on 12-19 September, 2020. Described by Condé Nast as ‘Britain’s most romantic island hideaway’, Eilean Shona is the location which inspired Peter Pan’s Neverland after J M Barrie rented the island in the 1920s, offering 1,300 acres of untouched, raw wilderness.

During this truly unique week of wild adventure, up to 16 guests will experience island life with Fire + Wild’s team of chefs, hunters and foragers, reconnecting to nature with workshops, fire and feasts. The island is a car-free haven and is blessed with an array of magical wildlife where deer roam freely, otters drift through surrounding lochs and eagles circle overhead. Dolphins, minke whales and basking sharks can all be seen in the surrounding waters. Days will be filled with mushroom foraging, hiking, fishing, deer butchery, whisky tasting and wild swimming with lunch on the beach or in the forest. In the evening, multi-course tasting menus will be cooked on an open wood fire, with wine pairing and wild cocktails. Every dish will celebrate the surrounding landscape and capture the flavour of the island with ingredients including red deer, wild mushrooms, coastal herbs and vegetables, freshly caught fish and seafood.

Guests will be met by the ferryman at Dorlin Pier to boat across Loch Moidart to Eilean Shona and will stay in one of a collection of private cottages each set in its own plot of wild paradise on the island, overlooking the loch. Each of the cottages have their own unique style and charm with a high level of comfort and luxury, with Egyptian cotton linen, wood fired heating inside and a fire pit outside. Breakfast with freshly baked bread and pastries will be delivered each morning.

This all-inclusive wild adventure costs from £1625 per person, including luxury accommodation, all food and drink and workshops. The price excludes the cost of travel to island. To book, visit www.fireandwild.co.uk/retreats  | Instagram @fireandwild

About Fire + Wild

“[Fire + Wild is part of] a small but growing culinary movement; call it wild dining. It embraces the best of being in nature - fresh air, stunning landscapes and potent solitude - and enhances it with world-class cuisine.” Financial Times, October 2019

Fire + Wild is a nomadic food and foraging experience hosting outdoor dining events, guided foraging walks and wild camping. Events take place all over the country from Sussex to Scotland, serving hyper-seasonal, restaurant-style dishes cooked over fire.

Fire + Wild was established in 2017 by chef, hunter and forager Mark Andrews. After several chaotic years working in London, he decided it was time for a simpler way of life and returned to his rural roots. The next few years were spent exploring the wild parts of Scotland, Sweden and France during remote camping and canoe trips while foraging wild food, hunting and cooking over fire. Fire + Wild takes a hands-on, hunter gatherer approach to sourcing ingredients. The small team includes expert foragers, trained hunters and a sommelier who work together to gather edible wild plants, berries, fungi, fish and game. Fire + Wild donates 5% of its profits to The Woodland Trust each year and has a low impact, zero waste policy.

For images and more information please contact Hannah Blake on hannah@thediningroompr.co.uk or 07730 039361.