Great Chef Escape: From City Chef to Country Life

Emulating the move of ex-Pitt Cue's Tom Adams at Coombeshead Farm - a number of high-profile chefs have upped sticks, leaving the brights lights of the city to pastures new.

The Three Horseshoes, Somerset

The renowned chef Margot Henderson (of Rochelle Canteen and formerly the French House) has opened her first restaurant outside London, a pub with rooms called The Three Horseshoes in Somerset. The dog-friendly opening, in the rural village of Batcombe, will serve “heartfelt and wholesome” food in “cosy surroundings”. Diners can expect beamed ceilings, open fires, and Margot’s robust British cooking. Expect dishes such as: Wetscoombe ricotta nudi with sage & butter, chicken & tarragon pie and grilled brill with fennel, chard & green sauce. In summer months, the pub throws open its doors onto their beautiful walled gardens, created by local Batcombe resident and designer, Libby Russell. Wooden tables will sit amongst the fruit trees, beds of cutting flowers and vegetables, for sunshine-filled lunches and long summer evenings. 

Crocadon Farm, Cornwall 

Dan Cox's farm to fork restaurant Crocadon in St Mellion, Cornwall has been framed from years spent in Michelin-starred kitchens including Simon Rogan's now-closed Fera at Claridges and L'Enclume. Crocadon has been painstakingly restored into a twenty-five-cover dining room and open kitchen, which is framed by the rolling hills of the Tamar Valley. There's an on-site pottery creating bespoke ceramics and a farm shop and bakery - all nestled within the barns at the heart of the farm. Dan's classical training combined with his technically complex and aesthetically pared-back cooking style includes dishes such as Nuka golden turnips, Gigantis beans and cured saddleback pork loin, brown crab and lemongrass and whey caramel, yoghurt and caramelised apple. 

Boath House, Scotland

The team behind the much-admired Sessions Arts Club in London are set to open “a sanctuary for creatives” on Scotland’s remote northern coast. Boath House, near the rural town of Nairn, east of Inverness, features two restaurants, rooms, a walled garden, and cabins set within “extensive grounds”. It's the second project from one of the most lauded trios in modern hospitality – chef Florence Knight (ex Polpetto), the artist and restaurateur and artist Jonny Gent, and architect Russell Potter – and one which has been “built on the pillars of art, food, music and supplies”. Dubbed a “sanctuary for creatives” there's an artist in residence programme - alongside a sauna as well as a cocoon-like cinema room complete with big screen and vinyl records.

Coombeshead Farm, Cornwall

A working farm and dining room from Tom Adams of London based Pitt Cue and April Bloomfield of The Spotted Pig fame in New York. Set amongst 66 acres of meadows, woodland and oak lined streams near Launceston in Cornwall, Coombeshead Farm houses six-bedrooms in their rustic style farmhouse, an open-fire communal living room, whisky room & library, as well as a wine cellar, dining room and open kitchen. Dinners are served in the 12-cover farmhouse dining room, on a large communal table, with menus ever-changing and evolving according to what is in season, and based entirely on what is being produced at the time. There is also a curriculum of workshops all based on the techniques and skills used daily in the farmhouse kitchen. Expect lessons in methods such as butchery, sausage making, curing, pickling, preserving, and bread making. 

Fitzroy, Cornwall

The team behind on trend London restaurants Westerns Laundry, Primeur and Jolene have opened this cutting-edge eatery on the banks of the Fowey estuary, Cornwall. The restaurant - housed in a Victorian former bank - is set across two floors with interiors inspired from the function-first Shaker movement. A stone’s throw away from the seafront, Fitzroy’s menu takes advantage of the county’s rich natural larder and daily-landed seafood, with a cooking style in keeping with their ethos, led by produce and provenance. Dine from a daily changing menu, which utilises local produce and (unsurprisingly) daily-landed seafood: mussels escabeche and crab soup; cod with clams, cucumber and seabeets and spiced gurnard with shellfish sauce are all highlights on menu. 

Osip in Bruton, Somerset 

Merlin Labron-Johnson, former head chef at the Michelin-starred Portland restaurant in Fitzrovia has opened a “tiny farm-to-table” in rural Somerset. Osip in Bruton opened alongside boutique hotel Number One Bruton. Osip offers a sophisticated take on farm-to-table dining - with set and a la carte menus paying homage to the produce of Somerset, with a focus on organic and biodynamic vegetables over red meat. Expect dishes such as: leeks served with a duck egg vinaigrette, chervil and tarragon, classic roasted bird served with apple, cabbage and bread sauce and a traditional roast on Sundays. Much of the fruit and vegetables are grown on eight acres of land near Bruton and on an allotment five-minutes-walk from the restaurant. 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 - at Portland Restaurant. 

Ideal For

Farm to table dining, country life


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