The Daily Telegraph - Saturday - The Telegraph Magazine
The country convert
Embracing very local produce in rural Worcestershire
HE’S A CHEF who has spent the past four years producing ‘bloody marvellous’ food (according to one critic) for a ‘triumph’ of a menu (as raved another) in London – the city he calls home, and the location of his formative cheffing years at restaurants from the Savoy Grill and Claridge’s to Tom Aikens. So one might have expected Lee Westcott’s next stint at the stove to be in the capital. At Typing Room in Bethnal Green, with the backing of Jason Atherton, Westcott designed and executed dishes that impressed vegetable- and meat-lovers alike, deftly applying smoke and scorch to his ingredients and delivering brilliant flavours both raw and cooked. Oh, and he turned out loaves that brought sourdough-lovers to their knees, too.
So, with his east London tenure ending in 2018 and Westcott on the hunt for new digs, it had to be quite a proposition that lured him to the quiet countryside on the border of Herefordshire and Worcestershire. Sites he had eyed up in the capital ‘didn’t sit well with me’, he
says, ‘but this felt like it had more soul’.
‘This’ is the 1,200-acre Netherwood estate run by Peta Darnley, and its restaurant, Pensons, which opened two days ago with Westcott at the helm. He has already settled right in, leading a six-strong cheffing team from the white-tiled open kitchen of what was, 18 months ago, a derelict barn. ‘The walls were held up by Acrow props and scaffolding was keeping the beams in place,’ recalls Darnley, who faced losing the building if a rescue plan wasn’t scrambled. A restaurant made sense not only to create more jobs on the estate, but to tempt visitors to a very rural part of England that she is keen to showcase.
Netherwood dates back to medieval times, when it was owned by the Mortimer family; it later became the home of the Earls of Essex. ‘It would have been at the centre of the community in centuries past,’ says Darnley, who is doing her darndest to restore its local connections. Since taking over the running of it from her father-in-law, the late 11th Earl of Darnley, eight years ago, she has pieced together portions of land once sold off, and introduced holiday lets, textile milling (with wool from the Ryeland sheep, which look ‘like teddy bears’), game shoots, and courses in flower arranging, gardening and cookery. ‘I’m a farmer’s daughter and never intended to be a farmer’s wife,’ she says with a laugh. A background in strategy and marketing (first in advertising, then at the BBC) was invaluable, and, she admits, ‘I have a bit of a thing for doing up buildings. I can’t help myself !’
Pensons (named after the farm that once surrounded it) is the latest adventure for this 21st-century estate. Its walls (sandstone and red brick borne of and fired in the fields outside) are hung with hundreds of treasures discovered on the land by a former ploughman: ‘Ivan, who has been here for 68 years.’ There are Neolithic flint arrowheads, bits of Roman pottery, medieval tiles and Elizabethan clay pipes – even a battered fork and spoon – collated in museum display cases (Ivan’s finds total
Sites Westcott had eyed up in the capital ‘didn’t sit well with me, but this felt like it had more soul’
23,500 pieces, not all destined for deco- ration). ‘They tell the story of how life was here,’ says Darnley. ‘We won’t force it down people’s throats, but if guests are interested it’s a unique snapshot of the social history of this tiny bit of England.’
Above the tables where Westcott’s menu of roast mallard, cured trout, and lamb (‘It’s phenomenal around here’) with turnip and onion is served, the old cattle manger serves as a lighting rig; encasing other lights are fantastical onion-shaped willow shades created by local basketmaker Jenny Crisp. Most things in the restaurant, in fact, have been made by crafty neighbours or on the estate itself, from the walnut-han- dled steak knives to the natural-dye napkins and chair upholstery.
‘It’s one thing to say you cook seasonally and locally,’ says Darnley, ‘and quite another to actually do it.’ Westcott, who had ditched olive oil for British rapeseed oil at Typing Room, agrees. ‘How local can it be when you’re cooking in London?’ Discovering that Netherwood already pressed its own oilseed rape was a boon, coupled with the prospect of getting his hands directly on the Wye Valley asparagus, raspberries and cherries for which the capital’s restaurants clamour. The kitchen garden outside Pensons (currently ‘more like a Second World War battle site’, says Darnley) will produce veg for the chefs, who can pop out to the courtyard for herbs. In the car park, apples, mulberries and ornamental cherries are growing; Westcott will use the cherries’ flowers for his dishes. And while three of his chefs live on site, Westcott has based himself in Worcester, closer to urban life. ‘I’m a city boy, so moving out here is a big deal for me,’ he admits, ‘but it has all fallen into place. I might even get to the point where I want to pick my own asparagus!’ pensons.co.uk
‘I’m a city boy, so moving out here is a big deal for me, but it has fallen into place’