Sustained by its own organic farm, kitchen gardens and orchards, Marle restaurant at Heckfield Place has been awarded a Michelin Green Star for its sustainable dining credentials. Jenny Southan reports
Under culinary director Skye Gyngell and executive chef Michael Chapman, the Michelin Green Star acknowledges the ethical and environmental standards behind Marle, which is one of the on-site restaurants at country house hotel Heckfield Place in Hampshire, UK.
Not just any country house hotel, Heckfield has its own organic farm that follows biodynamic principles, five-acre Market Garden, orchards and livestock including two flocks of 400 free-range Hyline chickens, 53 breeding Suffolk, Hampshire and Southdown sheep, ten British saddleback pigs and almost 60 dairy cows.
Right from the start, Gyngell and the teams across the Heckfield estates were determined to return the farm to a certified biodynamic and organic offering.
In 2020, Heckfield opened its own dairy, generating organic milk, cream and butter for Marle and its sister restaurant, Hearth. The milk from their 57 Guernsey cows is also used by Village Maid, a local cheesemaker, to create award-winning cheeses including the Heckfield Cheese.
They also support the hotel’s house plant program along with the arborist teams who are growing the next generation for the Arboretum. Edible blossoms are surrounded by a living hedge of hawthorns, mulberries and blackberries.
The menu at Marle is dictated by the ethos that “the very best tasting food is locally and responsibly grown”, with produce being delivered daily from Heckfield Home Farm on the estate, and partners at Fern Verrow farm in Herefordshire.
Current highlights include tortellini of farm potato and porcini mushrooms with sage butter to start; followed by Home Farm lamb with cime di rapa and anchovy cream; and rhubarb tart with Heckfield cream.
Even the cocktails served are seasonal. One example is the “Winter Garden Bellini”, made with rhubarb from the garden and apples from the orchard – roasted, blitzed and topped with Heckfield Classic Cuvee.
Marle says: “Everything grown on the farm forms the basis of the root-to-plate feasts served at the table.”
Michelin Green Star
Michelin has awarded green star for sustainable gastronomy to nine new restaurants in the Great Britain and Ireland Guide 2022. The other eight are:
- Chapters, Hay-on-Wye, Powys
- Moor Hall, Aughton, Lancashire
- Oak, Bath, Somerset
- Pensons, Tenbury Wells, Worcestershire
- Pine, East Wallhouses, Northumberland
- Terroir Tapas, Bournemouth, Dorset
- Tillingham, Peasmarsh, East Sussex
- Wilsons, Bristol