Since then, Kingsolver says: ‘Sustainable agriculture has come of age, offering resilience and food security in unpredictable climates, and valuable potential for carbon sequestration. Slow food has gone viral in its own gentle way.’
The UK’s thriving farm-to-table restaurant scene bears this out as well as any other. Here are five of the finest examples in our land.
Wilsons, Bristol
@wilsonsbristol
At this charming Bristol eaterie, which launched in 2016, they grow the majority of the vegetables and herbs they serve in their two-acre market garden (and the rest of their ingredients come from small scale, regenerative farmers and producers in the local area). Book it.
Osip, Somerset
@osiprestaurant
There is no menu at this Somerset favourite. Instead, they say, it is ‘a place where guests can come and put their faith in the kitchen, knowing that we will cook for them using ingredients that we have cultivated ourselves on the two plots of land that we manage nearby’. Osip has been such a success since it opened, just before the pandemic, in 2019 that it has grand plans for expansion. Book it.
Heckfield Place, Hampshire
@heckfield_place
Lead by culinary director Skye Gyngell, Marle at Heckfield Place has a Green Michelin Star. Working closely with their bio-dynamically certified market garden in Hampshire, they gradually increase the amount of produce they grow for their kitchen and get closer to their aim of full self-sufficiency. The menu is mouth-watering. Book it.
The Pig, Hampshire (And Various Locations)
@the_pig_hotels
When The Pig opened in the New Forest in 2011, it set a new standard for British hotels and paved the way for farm-to-table eating. In the pretty greenhouse restaurant, any produce that does not come from the walled kitchen garden comes from within a 25-mile radius. They have, they say, ‘an obsessive commitment to home-grown and local produce: simple food done well’. Luckily for us, there are now eight Pigs, with two more opening over the next two years. Book it.
The Shed, London
@theshed_resto
This farm-to-fork restaurant in the heart of Notting Hill brings a slice of West Sussex to London. In a celebration of the English countryside, it incorporates wild, foraged and locally grown seasonal produce into a menu that keeps zero-waste at the forefront. It is one of the five restaurants in the Gladwin Brothers stable, which was launched in 2012 by Richard (a restaurateur), Oliver (a chef) and Gregory Gladwin (a farmer). Book it.
By Becky Ladenburg
November 2023
