Emily Scott
To put it simply, Emily is passionate about food and it is in her kitchen where she feels most at home. Emily loves nothing more than delighting others through food, bringing friends and family together around the table.
Emily’s passion for the connection between food, a sense of place and storytelling is infectious, intriguing and comforting all at the same time. Her story is one which interweaves the sentimental tales of a childhood in Provence with her grandfather ‘Papa’ collecting strawberries from the fields to the hum of crickets in the warm sunshine, to the beautiful shores of Cornwall and golden sandy beaches.
Experience and memories are translated into ingredients which collectively are heightening into simplistic, rustic dishes which are easily recreated at home.
Emily trained in London and France and her classical training forms the backbone of her cooking style. When Emily was 23 she moved to Cornwall where she successfully ran the Harbour Restaurant in Port Isaac.
She was named best chef in the South West by Food magazine and was listed in the top 100 most influential women in the hospitality industry for two years running.
Emily moved to the beautiful village of St Tudy and transformed the St Tudy Inn to a beautiful restaurant with rooms. She sold the Inn to concentrate on other projects in May 2021.
Emily has been recognised by Michelin since 2016 and appeared on Great British Menu representing the South West on BBC 2 in 2019, during the competition Emily made sure that her ethos of pared down, seasonal cooking came across in her menu.
Emily’s new restaurant opened on the sea wall in the beautiful location of Watergate Bay on May 18th 2021, an opportunity to continue her partnership with Watergate Bay Hotel, although independent from the hotel Emily works in collaborative way to bring the best to the bay.
In May 2021, Emily was also commissioned by the Cabinet Office to create, cook and style a dinner for Royalty and the World Leaders for the G7 summit at the Eden Project. This dinner took place at the Eden Project. This was an extraordinary event seeing Emily being the first woman to cook for the leaders of the western worlds.
Meeting President Biden and the rest of the world leaders was a highlight for Emily. An opportunity that Emily and her team will never forget.
Emily’s debut cookbook Sea & Shore Recipes and Stories from a Kitchen in Cornwall was published on June 10th with Hardie Grant. Emily has appeared on Saturday Kitchen, filmed with Rick Stein and is currently writing her second book.
The Ethicurean
Matthew and Iain Pennington are the owners and chefs at award-winning restaurant, The Ethicurean (Michelin Green Star).
The restaurant, tucked away in a Victorian walled garden, offers views of the Mendip Hills and artisan food reflecting the brothers’ philosophy of eating seasonal, local and sustainable. For Iain and Matthew, taking produce from farm to fork in a matter of hours, is a serious business. The radius for the majority of their food is within 20 miles.
The brothers have learnt a lot about preservation; pickling, curing and fermenting ensure that the restaurant is functional all year around and so that food waste is kept to a minimum.
The Penningtons’ philosophy and cooking skills have earned them many accolades over the years, including winning The Observer’s Best Ethical Restaurant in 2011 and more recently being named in The UK’s Top 100 Restaurants 2017 in The Sunday Times.
Their book, The Ethicurean Cookbook, was published in 2013.
Joe Woodhouse
Joe Woodhouse grew up on farms in Cambridge and Scarborough. In his twenties he trained as a chef and worked in restaurants before embarking on a career as a food stylist and food and travel photographer.
He has been a vegetarian since he was ten years old and has since developed a deep understanding of flavoursome vegetarian cooking that draws its inspiration from seasonality and good ingredients.
He lives in London with his wife and two children, and has just published his first cookbook, Your Daily Veg.
Damian Clisby
Damian's passion for cooking was ignited by his grandfather, a butcher at Smithfield’s, who taught him how to smoke freshly caught salmon on his farm in Co Cork. Damian went on to work in some of the best kitchens in London including a stint as head chef and chef director at Petersham Nurseries (Michelin Green Star), and later opening the wonderful pop-up restaurant, Emile.
If you’ve been to The Good Life Experience in the past, it’s Damian and his team who you’ll probably have seen digging the holes for the pit-cooked lambs whilst others are still shaking off the effects of the night before.
Today, Damian works alongside our teams at Hawarden Estate Farm Shop and The Glynne Arms to create knock-out menus and deliver plates that are among the best in the country.
Xanthe Gladstone
Xanthe is a chef and food sustainability advocate. She is partially self taught but has attended the world renowned Ballymaloe Cookery School, to take their six week sustainable food course. Xanthe’s mission is to educate people of the positive effects that the right food choices can have on ourselves and our environment.
Xanthe is the Director of Food and Food Sustainability for The Good Life Society, Glen Dye Cabins & Cottages, Hawarden Estate Farm Shop, and The Glynne Arms. She curates and develops menus, oversees food and product sourcing, and strives to help these businesses run as sustainably as possible.
Xanthe also runs private catering events in London and North Wales, where she also grows vegetables in a beautiful walled garden and greenhouse.
She co-founded knuckle in 2019 — a sustainable food initiative.
Tom Hunt
Tom Hunt is an award-winning chef, columnist and climate change campaigner who’s approach to cooking is rooted in food’s connection to climate change, championing a way of eating that prioritises the environment without sacrificing pleasure, taste and nutrition.
He is the author of the new award-winning cookbook Eating for Pleasure, People & Planet (2020), And The Natural Cook (2014). Hunt also writes about food sustainability in magazines and newspapers including a weekly column for the Guardian called Waste Not.
Hunt has 20 years of experience in food and agriculture plus 10 years in food sustainability working with chefs, farmers, academics, charities and nutritionists. His Bristol restaurant, Poco Tapas Bar, opened in 2004 winning many awards including Best Ethical Restaurant at the Observer Food Monthly Awards.
Hunt works closely with various charities including Slow Food, Fairtrade, The Soil Association and is a signatory and podcast host for the Chef’s Manifesto – a United Nations initiative linked to the Global Goals, that calls on chefs around the world to champion climate-friendly cuisine in their kitchens for a more diverse, sustainable and delicious future.
Following his BA (Hons) Fine Art degree, Hunt began working in food under Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall as a course leader, cook and food stylist at River Cottage and on the TV series. More recently, Mr Hunt has worked alongside many of his heroes at events including chefs Dan Barber, Francis Mallmann and René Redzepi – where he did a short internship at Noma, Copenhagen.
Mr Hunt’s vocation has made him an expert in his field with a deep understanding about how food can benefit culture, support biodiversity and reverse climate change, culminating in a sustainability manifesto called Root to Fruit.
Root to Fruit is a cost neutral, closed loop philosophy and practical approach to food based on pleasure, health, environment and social values. It works as a template for his presentations, consultancy and writing, to help facilitate individuals, restaurants and businesses in their transformation towards a regenerative and sustainable food system.
The Root to Fruit manifesto is published in his second book, Eating for Pleasure, People & Planet.
Mark Diacono
Mark is lucky enough to spend most of his time eating, growing, writing and talking about food.
His A Year at Otter Farm and A Taste of the Unexpected both won Food Book of the Year; The New Kitchen Garden won Garden Book of the Year.
His book, Sour, was published in September 2019.
Mark was involved with River Cottage, appearing in the TV series, running courses and events at River Cottage HQ, and he has written four River Cottage books.
Mark also writes for a range of publications, including the Observer, the Telegraph and Country Life. His refreshing approach to growing and eating has done much to inspire a new generation to grow some of what they eat.
James Golding
The Savoy Hotel first employed James while still just a student on the Specialised Chef course. This course is still run by The Royal Academy of Culinary Arts founded by Albert Roux and Richard Shepherd among others. He won his place at the Savoy on the back of his enthusiasm and excitement for cooking, as well as for this determination.
Within 3 years he had completed all sections at the Savoy and hand a firm grasp of Classical French cooking. It was at this time Chris Corbin and Jeremy King were beginning to attain legendary status for the sophisticated elegance of Caprice Holdings; Le Caprice, The Ivy and J Sheekeys. In 1998 James was offered the position of Chef de Partie at Le Caprice working under Mark Hix and later Elliot Ketley.
It was during the next 7 years James’s love for British seasonal produce began to present. Truffles, foie gras and caviar were happily exchanged with elvers, lamb’s kidneys, Dorset cockles and snipe. James stayed at Le Caprice until 2001 when head chef Tim Hughes offered him a new position at the seafood restaurant J Sheekeys. James left J Sheekeys in 2005 on a high note. He had risen to Sous Chef, been a part of restoring the restaurant to its former glory and had learned how to motivate and train the junior members of staff.
Leaving London James accepted the position of Head Chef of the 6th floor restaurant at Soho House New York. In this “city that never sleeps” James still managed to find the time to take 2 weeks to be involved with the exclusive members’ only Oscar party that Soho House Hollywood hosts annually in Los Angeles, California. It was his experiences in America that finely tempered his modern British style of cuisine.
In 2006 James returned to his home on the south coast as both a seasoned chef and new father. James’s work began to take on inspiration from the region and its unique produce from both forest and sea. James feels the responsibility to promote and protect the traditional foods of the United Kingdom. To James this means seeking out small producers and local butchers in the habit of working sustainably and with passion for their products. Provenance and seasonality are the key ingredients when Chef James Golding builds his menus.
Through his work as Group Chef Director at THE PIG Hotels & Fellow of the Royal Academy of Culinary Arts Sustainability committee, he has worked to raise interest in where his food comes from and how it is raised & how it tastes with respect to the environment. He has done this through various TV appearances, but most importantly by working closely with his head kitchen gardeners, Head Chefs, and through his commitment as Food Ambassador for the New Forest Marque & Dorset food & drink to help support local producers and the community.
James Has made it his mission to train the next generation of chefs through THE PIG apprenticeship programme to his philosophy and ethos, this has won them multiple awards since its launch with over 25 students chefs working & learning across the group.
Flora Shedden
Flora Shedden has been in the kitchen all her life.
When she was ten she began making her own birthday cakes (and everyone else's for that matter) and at twelve she took full creative control over Christmas.
She has worked as a freelance recipe writer and cookbook author for the past seven years. She also established both ARAN Bakery and LON Store in Highland Perthshire.
Flora has presented a variety of food programmes on BBC Radio, contributed to various newspapers and until recently wrote a weekly baking column for Sunday Telegraph.
Olia Hercules
Olia Hercules is a Leith’s-trained chef, recipe writer and food stylist.
Having honed her cooking skills in the fiery kitchens of Ottolenghi, she was picked as Observer Rising Star of 2015.
A regular contributor to the Guardian’s Cook supplement, Olia has written four books: Mamushka: Recipes from Ukraine & Beyond, Kaukasis, Summer Kitchen and Home Food: Recipes to Comfort and Connect.
Gill Meller
Gill Meller is a chef, food writer, author, food stylist and cookery teacher. He lives near the small fishing town of Lyme Regis, in Dorset.
His cooking is a reflection of his surroundings. He takes inspiration from the landscape, his locality, and the amazing farmers, growers and fisherman that produce the ingredients he uses. His food is humble and un-showy, yet inspiring, spell-bindingly beautiful, and truly delicious.
Gill has been part of the River Cottage team for 11 years. Working closely with Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, Gill has been a major part of all of the activities and development at River Cottage, including sourcing the ethically-produced and sustainable food as well as defining the principles, ethic and style of the food.
He appears regularly on the popular Channel 4 series, cooking alongside Hugh, produces recipe videos for The River Cottage food tube channel and contributes to the acclaimed River Cottage cookbooks.
Gill’s own growing collection of cookbooks now includes: Gather (2016), Time (2018), Root, Stem, Leaf, Flower (2020) and the soon to be published Outside.
Marie Mitchell
Photo: Chiron ColeMarie is driving British Caribbean culinary culture forward.
She pushes her dishes into the contemporary by forcing us to look at how ingredients should be used culturally and environmentally, here and in the Caribbean.
Together with Joseph Pilgrim, Marie founded Island Social Club in 2016, a collaborative enterprise that explores British Caribbean culture through food, drink and people.
Island Social Club connected people to British Caribbean culture. By investigating the diaspora experience and creating spaces to interact with the culture they build bridges inside and outside the community.
Rob Howell
Rob started his career in the industry at the age of 15 where he grew up in Somerset, gaining experience from kitchens in London, France and Edinburgh before moving closer to home and becoming head chef at the Michelin-star-awarded Pony and Trap at just 21.
He opened Root alongside Josh Eggleton in 2017 and runs it with his wife Megan. The restaurant is housed in shipping containers, harbour-side in Bristol’s Wapping Wharf.
Rob’s vegetable-led menu has been gaining attention since the opening and was awarded a Bib-Gourmand 6 months after opening and has held it ever since. In 2021, he wrote and published his cookbook Root with Bloomsbury.
Rob works with fantastic local ingredients to create simple, honest and produce-driven food. He considers his location in Bristol to be a real advantage, affording him access to exciting produce from the surrounding countryside.
Working with a hard-working and passionate team, he ensures that Root’s food offering stays unwaveringly fresh, sustainable and, ultimately, delicious.
Ixta Belfrage
Ixta Belfrage taught herself to cook by absorbing food traditions and flavours in different corners of the globe - from Italy (where she spent her formative childhood years) to Brazil (where her mother is from) to Mexico (where some of her family lived). After running her own catering operation and market stall in London, she cut her teeth at Ottolenghi's NOPI restaurant.
Soon after she moved to the Test Kitchen, where she has worked for Yotam Ottolenghi for four years, contributing to his columns in The Guardian and The New York Times. Ottolenghi Flavour, co-written with Yotam Ottolenghi, is her first book.
In 2021 Code Hospitality named her one of the most influential women in food.
We recently invited Ixta to take part in our Winter Chefs’ Residencies at Glen Dye. Watch the video, and read more, here.