Josh Whitehead

Josh Whitehead, of Harewood Estate talks to Elaine Lemm

The 4,500-acre Harewood Estate between Leeds and Harrogate is an iconic Yorkshire estate and stately home. Its history of food production goes back for hundreds of years. It continues to this day, and now with the Harewood Food and Drink Project founded in 2016, it champions the fruits, vegetables, meat, game and wild foraged foods at Harewood and those across Yorkshire.

The driving force behind the project is managing director Eddy Lascelles and working alongside him is the talented executive chef Josh Whitehead who shares the same passion. Together they are growing the offer on the estate in a vast range of exciting and dynamic events on and around the estate in the beautifully refurbished Hovels, a Grade II listed converted stable block, the Muddy Boots Cafe in Harewood Village and now, the Courtyard Cafe & Terrace Tearoom on behalf of Harewood House Trust. Watch this space.

What was the first dish you cooked? I seem to remember a cake of some sort many moons ago with my mum. Although I vividly remember a horrifically bad “risotto” in food technology at school when I was about 12, thinking I was the next Escoffier.

Where or who do you get your culinary inspiration from? It tends to change week on week, but the Harewood estate remains a constant. There is not one thing here that I could get bored of, and the food philosophy and ethos here is constantly growing and developing, and I feel myself growing and developing along with it.

What was your first cookery