Watch: Our Winter Chefs’ Residency with Ixta Belfrage at Glen Dye.

FILMED BY DEPARTMENT TWO

To prove winter's wonder, we invited a number of exceptional, city-based chefs to join us at Glen Dye for a few weeks of great food and drink.

We challenged them to cook over fire, forage for seasonal ingredients and find new perspectives on their food as they cooked in new surroundings at the heart of the beautiful 15,000 acre private estate.

We hosted supper clubs and food demos in The Byre and Garden Camp.

There was be hiking, campfires, wild swimming, dog walking, stargazing, laughter, friendship and endless fresh air.

Our guests learnt in the company of true experts.

Introducing: Ixta Belfrage

Photo: Department Two

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.

Ixta’s Supper Club Prep

Introducing: Glen Dye

Glen Dye is a private estate of around 15,000 acres and our cabins and cottages sit slap bang at its centre, surrounded by wilderness forest and moorland on the banks of the River Dye.

The location is fabled; watched over by the massive granite tor of Clachnaben and at the northern end of the Cairn o Mount mountain pass. This is where the Howe of the Mearns finally gives in to the Highland boundary fault; wild, beautiful and very, very quiet.

We have a handful of perfect holiday cottages, many with outdoor, wood-fired hot tubs and one with its own private cabin. We have also converted the old estate sawmill into a private outdoors paradise; here you’ll find a 1955 Airstream with a giant bed, a fully restored foresters’ kitchen and sitting room, a spectacular outdoor shower and a wood-fired hot tub.

These cabins and cottages combine jaw dropping wild locations with perfect comfort and style.

Later that day: Ixta’s Supper Club

And then came Storm Arwen…

Photo by Department Two

Eight days with Arwen and some reflections on how to treat small businesses when things go wrong.

📆 FRIDAY 25TH NOVEMBER, 8AM
📍 HAWARDEN, NORTH WALES

“It was my idea to promote the joys of being outdoors at Hawarden and Glen Dye in winter.

So I put on a brave face when the night’s wind scatters our twenty something market stalls across the park outside our Farm Shop. Many are twisted beyond repair, their covers smeared in the molasses of clayey mud.

A few hours later, soaking wet and mud smudged, the Team have cleared the mess and the Winter Market and launch of the Winter Art Garden is postponed until next Saturday.

The Market and Winter Art Garden are part of our project to get people outdoors when they don’t feel like it; winter is good, it’s as good as summer. Or so our argument goes.

We have commissioned twelve outdoor installations on the themes of light, change, optimism and love to get people into the fresh air when Netflix and a sofa seem more inviting.

That seems to be that but, as it transpires, this is just the beginning…”

Read Charlie’s diary from that week by clicking the button below.