Riverford Field Kitchen

On Saturday I finally got around to eating lunch at the Riverford Field Kitchen. I’ve been a Riverford customer for 2 1/2 years, and I’ve been to their events in London, like a couple of their supperclubs and the dinner in a yurt they had last year, but I’d never visited the farm before.

I was with my parents on the way back from Cornwall. On the way there we actually stopped at the farm and did their farm tour, guided by owner Guy Watson via an MP3 player given to us at the restaurant. Staff at the restaurant were really friendly and offered to squeeze us in for lunch even though it was a busy Saturday and we hadn’t booked. Instead, we ended up booking for the following Saturday.

Jane Baxter was in the kitchen and her cooking was as delicious as ever. It was a very new experience for my parents who weren’t used to communal seating or family style service – with the amount of supperclubs I go to this just felt normal to me! Less normal however were the people sitting next to me, the only blot on an excellent experience – the woman at the end of my table jiggled constantly throughout the meal. It was like eating in an earthquake. Her toddler screamed all the way through too, encouraged by the amount of attention from his parents it attracted. When I first arrived I thought it was lovely how well the Field Kitchen accommodates families, with baby seats that hook onto the tables, but by the time I left I wasn’t so sure.

Most of the time I tuned out those irritations thanks to the excellent food:

Dad absolutely loved the duck, and I had an impressive vegetarian option:

Dad in particular was impressed by the way all of the vegetables were presented – he said he didn’t know vegetables could taste so good! I did.

Having read other people’s reviews of the Field Kitchen I was forewarned to leave enough space for pudding, and I was glad I did. I chose the irresistible sticky toffee pud, but Mum’s choice of crumble was also incredible, and the custard so, so good.

Things I haven’t blogged

Sometimes it’s nice not to blog things. To go to a good restaurant and eat an amazing dinner, and not take pictures of every course. To bake something without getting flour all over my camera. And when you blog for work, which is a pleasure, sometimes blogging for pleasure can feel a bit more like… work.

Recently I’ve started collecting things to blog again. I’ll start with something not-so-recent, another Ottolenghi gem, stuffed onions: (link is to the original Guardian recipe which is the same as in the book, Plenty)

My Riverford veg man, Paul, had raved about these to me a couple of times and I finally got around to trying them when I made lunch for a friend.

They were as delicious as they are beautiful. The innards of the onions were cooked with the leftover vegetable stock and wine from the recipe to become a lovely onion soup, too. These are going on the list of Christmas vegetarian alternatives. I always liked the stuffing more than the turkey.