Leigh and Brown are not resting on their laurels, and are keen to make the most of their new-found space: at Updown, you might meet locals coming for dinner, Londoners staying the night, and soon – if the two owners have their way – you might bump into a few prize pigs as well. updownfarmhouse.com Linden Stores, Audlem, Cheshire When their son Ollie arrived, Laura Christie and partner Chris Boustead’s one-bedroom flat in Highbury suddenly felt even smaller. Boustead was head chef at Opera Tavern, Christie was a partner in Oklava, in Shoreditch, and they launched Linden Stores together in Islington in 2018. But finding childcare, as Christie says, “is pretty impossible if both parents are in hospitality. Mum would come down from the Wirral at weekends, but that wasn’t a permanent solution.” Instead, the couple relocated to Cheshire, and their timing was impeccable. “We moved a week before the first lockdown,” recalls Christie. “Our London flat didn’t even have a balcony.” They eventually found a new home for Linden Stores in Audlem, a village a few miles south of Nantwich, and opened their doors in November 2021. Christie soon realised that the capital’s penchant for menus of small sharing plates had not yet been adopted in rural Cheshire. “One customer asked me ‘Is this how everyone in London eats?’ We really didn’t want to intimidate anyone, but we also wanted to hold our nerve and serve dishes that felt special.” The couple has now built up a clientele that relishes Boustead’s accomplished, creative cooking. His tasting menu might feature torched wild seabass with rhubarb and turnip, or duck breast with chicory and star anise; at a mere £35 for six courses, it is also incredible value. lindenstores.co.uk Where There’s Smoke, Masham, Yorkshire Having earned his spurs cooking for the Michelinstarred London trio of Billy Drabble, Claude Bosi and Anthony Demetre, “I wanted to work for myself,” says Jon Atashroo. “It’s kind of annoying if you work really hard but don’t get the benefits.” He finally found fulfilment in the restaurant that he owns with wife Arlette in the middle of Masham, on the edge of the Yorkshire Dales. To start with, it was very much a “mom and pop” operation: the couple and their two young children lived upstairs – “we had a baby monitor in the kitchen” – and services were sometimes fraught. Now, though, Jon has struck up relationships with the local butcher – “he knows what I’m after: beef with lots of marbling and extra ageing, for instance” – and a great farmer, Ben Daniells at Rocket & Russet: “We write the menu around what he’s grown.” Fish comes from Hartlepool: “I got four massive halibut the other day and broke them down. I haven’t done that in years. I was late to bed that night.” His six-course, £60 menu blends seasonal, local produce with the techniques he learned in London, and he couldn’t be happier, not just in the kitchen, but in Yorkshire. “People are just friendlier up here. It couldn’t be a nicer place.” wts.restaurant More Ex-Londoners Six additional gastro destinations dotting the UK countryside Osip, Bruton, Somerset Merlin Labron-Johnson’s farm-to-table restaurant is in the gourmet-friendly town of Bruton. Formerly in charge of the kitchens at Portland and Clipstone, Labron-Johnson’s new home boasts a Michelin star and a mere 30 covers. osiprestaurant.com The West House, Biddenden, Kent A former rock drummer – his cookbook is entitled Sex & Drugs & Sausage Rolls – Graham Garrett once rattled the pans in London for Richard Corrigan, but for more than 20 years he has run a beautiful little restaurant-with-rooms in the village of Biddenden. thewesthouserestaurant.co.uk Tillingham, Peasmarsh, Sussex The former chef at Covent Garden’s Conduit and East London’s zero-waste Silo, Brendan Eades has moved back to his Sussex roots to run the kitchen at this winery, vineyard, farm and restaurant set among 28 hectares of rolling hills. Fish comes from nearby Rye; fruit, vegetables and meat from the farm. tillingham.com Number Eight, Sevenoaks, Kent Chef and restaurateur Stuart Gillies once ran Gordon Ramsay’s restaurant empire: he and wife Cecilia now own and run Number Eight, where Mediterraneaninspired small plates are served in a relaxed bistro setting. no8sevenoaks.com Coombeshead Farm, Lewannick, Cornwall Modelled on a classic European agriturismo, chefs Tom Adams (ex-Pitt Cue) and April Bloomfield (NYC’s The Spotted Pig) unveiled their project on the Cornish side of the Devon border in 2016, garnering widespread acclaim for their charming guest rooms and farm-to-fork menus. coombesheadfarm.co.uk Catch at the Old Fish Market, Weymouth, Dorset Sustainably caught fish is the order of the day at Catch, ex-Pollen Street Social chef Mike Naidoo’s restaurant on the top floor of a handsome old Victorian fish market. Expect super-fresh seafood: crabs, lobsters and fish literally land at his door. catchattheoldfishmarket.com 82 CENTURION-MAGAZINE.COM
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