A menu is only as good as the people who supply it. Ours is shaped, season by season, by a small group of growers, farmers and makers within an hour of the kitchen.
Meat and fish
Our lamb is Herdwick, raised on the fells and hung properly. It has a deep, mineral flavour that needs very little help. The trout comes from a small, cold-water farm that supplies a handful of kitchens, and we take what they have that week.
Vegetables and fruit
A market garden a few miles away grows our beetroot, greens and soft herbs. In late summer we take whatever is cropping, and in winter we lean on roots, cabbages and the store cupboard.
We take what they have that week, and write the menu around it.
Bread, dairy and coffee
Sourdough from a bakery in the next village, butter and cheese from a family dairy, and coffee roasted by a small roastery nearby. All the people involved are people we know by name.
None of this is a marketing exercise. Cooking this way is simply easier, tastes better and makes for a more honest kitchen. It also means the menu changes more often than we would like to print.
