BLOG (Monthly Archives: January 2018)

East Devon’s secret food addressesJanuary 17, 2018

I posted last week about the lovely Pig at Combe, near Honiton, which featured in my piece on the food of East Devon in the current issue of Olive magazine. Two gastropubs that are hidden in the lanes of this beautiful region also merit a visit if you’re down that way: the Five Bells at Clyst Hydon (pictured below) and The Jack in the Green at Rockbeare. Their chefs, Ian Webber and Matt Mason, both trained at Gidleigh Park nearby, and are producing some great dishes drawing on East Devon’s rich larder, including Matt’s Smoked salmon and prawn roulade starter, pictured below, which uses edible flowers from nearby Maddocks Farm Organics.

If you want something more casual, grab a funky cocktail or wood-fired pizza topped with homemade charcuterie at The Rusty Pig in quaint Ottery St Mary whose owner Rob Rea used to work at River Cottage. Try out the local crab (inside a crab-shaped home-made bread roll) at Otterton Mill – and pick up a bag of flour that’s been stoneground in its ancient watermill to take home. Or perch among the deck chairs on the beach at pretty Beer (pictured) and enjoy some locally caught fish with chips. Endearingly old-fashioned Honiton has some good eating spots too, and to capture them, enroll on a Food Photography course at nearby Otter Farm, run by the charismatic Mark Diacono (also ex-River Cottage). If you want to make a weekend of it, you’re in luck: on Coombe farm nearby there’s an adorable shepherd’s hut (pictured) that you can book through AirbnB.

You can read my full Olive feature here.

Five Bells, Clyst St Mary. © Clare Hargreaves

Salmon starter at The Jack in the Green, Rockbeare. © Clare Hargreaves

Shepherds hut Airbnb at Coombe Farm near Honiton. © Clare Hargreaves

The beach at Beer. © Clare Hargreaves

The Country House reinvented: The Pig at CombeJanuary 8, 2018

Majestic yet relaxed and stylish but not stilted, The Pig at Combe, Devon, housed in a gorgeous honey-hued Elizabethan manor, is the latest addition to The Pig Hotel litter. I’ve visited a few Pigs, but this one, hidden in the Otter Valley near Honiton, is definitely my favourite. Dan Gavriilidis is a whizz in the kitchen, drawing on ingredients that are either plucked fresh from The Pig’s kitchen garden or from producers within 25 miles of the hotel. I adore the unstuffy bare-wood-floored dining room (pictured), with its elegantly mismatched mix of antiques, stag antler chandeliers and plants. Dishes – flavoursome yet simple – seem sensibly priced. Do try the local Red Ruby beef, from Piper’s Farm, which I ate both as tartare and as slow-cooked featherblade.  If you want something even more laid back, grab a wood-fired flatbread/pizza in the old garden folly (pictured) – and walk it off with a tour of the red-brick-walled veg patch (pictured).

Incidentally, I photographed The Pig while attending the excellent two-day Food Photography course at nearby Otter Farm, taught by founder Mark Diacono and visiting pro photographer Patricia Niven. Do look up Otter’s courses which I can highly recommend.

Read more about The Pig at Combe in my feature on the food of East Devon in the latest issue of Olive magazine, just out.

© Clare Hargreaves

The Pig. Flatbreads in The Folly. © Clare Hargreaves

The Pig. Dining room. © Clare Hargreaves

The Pig. Kitchen garden. © Clare Hargreaves


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