Community Conversations Environment Food & Drink

From Farm to Fork: Chef Skye Gyngell on Heckfield Place

4 minute read min read

by Alex Moshakis

Heckfield Place

The Australian chef Skye Gyngell was born in Sydney, trained in France, and later moved to England where, in 2011, she won a Michelin star for her work at the Petersham Nurseries Cafe. She is known for simple, pared-back cooking that makes use of seasonal produce, a philosophy that she brings to her work at Heckfield Place, a hotel in Hampshire surrounded by 400 acres of land that includes a farm and a garden, looked after by head gardener David Rowley, which supplies Gyngell's kitchen with fresh produce. We spoke to Gyngell over email.

Firstly, can you explain your role at Heckfield Place? What drew you to it, and what philosophy do you have in place there?

My role at Heckfield is culinary director, which means I oversee the two restaurants, Marle and Hearth, as well as being involved with the farm and the growing programme. I work closely with the teams in both restaurants – we write the menus together, and hopefully I act as a mentor and guide.

Flowers grown at Heckfield in one of the hotel rooms

Can you describe the cooking you do at Heckfield? You have an "Earth Menu" for example…

We take inspiration for all our menus from what is growing on the farm. The cooking is very simple – I don't like fussy or highly curated plates of food. I think we're thoughtful and respectful in the way we cook; we tend to use very classic techniques, and we make everything in house. All the breads, butter, yoghurt, jams, cordials and liqueurs used in the bar, and room amenities, are made in the hotel's kitchen. Other than that, our objective is to allow the ingredients to shine.

"We take inspiration for our menus from what is growing on the farm. Our objective is to allow the ingredients to shine."

The Earth Menu is a menu written daily by the chefs, focusing on using the gluts from the farm and any surplus we have in the kitchen that day, to combat food waste. It echoes the Scratch menu at Spring (Gyngell's other restaurant, in London), where the aim is to provide a delicious, nutritious meal using ingredients that often go overlooked, for a fair and reasonable price.

Fresh seasonal food from the farm

Can you tell me about Home Farm, and how it fits into the work you do?

Home Farm comprises both agricultural land as well as a market garden. We have a herd of around 34 Guernsey cows that produce beautiful organic cream, milk and butter. We have an orchard with over 400 trees comprising varieties of English heirloom apples, plums, medlars and quince. We have five acres of market garden that was certified biodynamic in 2020 (the Farm itself was certified organic in 2019). We grow a huge variety of vegetables and fruits throughout the year. The farm also provides lamb, pork, eggs and, very occasionally, a dairy cow for the restaurants.

As you can imagine, this is incredibly inspiring for the chefs. It gives us so much beauty to work with. We look to the farm to inspire what goes on the plate.

Hearth Restaurant

"We look to the farm to inspire what goes on the plate."

How does your farm-to-fork approach work within a contemporary hotel environment?

I think it's incredibly important to explain the story to our guests, though sometimes it can be challenging because we've tried to do things differently. Heckfield as a hotel is very intimate – it feels to me an incredibly special place, more like a home than a hotel. I think the guests really enjoy the experience of seeing the food growing so close – it's very connecting for them.

You work very closely with Heckfield's head gardener, David Rowley. Can you describe that relationship?

It's essential that the chefs have a true partnership with the growers. It starts at the end of each year with a big meeting to review the year just passed and to plan the year ahead. We discuss what we loved, what we would like to see more of, as well as what we struggled to use and what didn't work for us. We plan quantities, and then we sit with beautiful organic seed catalogues and go shopping. We communicate almost daily through visits to the farm, photographic imagery and farm updates on what's coming up and the quantities available. We write all our menus around farm availability.

One of the hotel rooms

What future are you planning at Heckfield?

We have lots of plans for the next ten years. We're always working towards becoming more and more self-sufficient. As part of that, education is a huge focus for us – both for the team and within the local community. And central to our goals is always working on improving our soil health and viability.