Josh Wilde to head up the kitchen at new Wokingham restaurant FARE Eatery

13-Jun-2024 - Last updated on 13-Jun-2024 at 13:59 GMT

Nigel Sutcliffe, the former director at Heston Blumenthal’s The Fat Duck, has joined forces with former The Hand & Flowers chef Josh Wilde for a new restaurant project.

FARE Eatery will be a new restaurant located within the Grade II listed Town Hall building in Wokingham later this month. It will comprise a main dining room seating 38 covers with a further 12 covers available in the converted former prison cells situated at the rear of the restaurant.

There will also be outdoor seating for 40 guests.

FARE will serve seasonal contemporary cuisine featuring a range of small to large plates predominantly cooked using a robata grill. Dishes will include merguez kofta with cucumber and mint; roasted octopus with capers, raisins, and chorizo; an onion tarte tatin with onion velouté and chicory; and spiced Lyme Bay plaice with roasted scallop and pak choi.

The menu will be overseen by Wilde, who joined the team at Tom Kerridge’s The Coach in Marlow in 2018 working his way from demi chef de partie aup to senior sous chef. He then went on to work at the two Michelin-starred The Hand & Flowers before leaving in 2022 to take up his first head chef position at The Little Angel in Henley upon Thames before joining FARE.

The restaurant will also offer an extensive wine list, with more than 100 bottles, focusing on sustainable, natural, organic, and biodynamic small producers from all over the world, many of which will available by the bottle, carafe and glass.

“FARE is all about great cooking and great hospitality. People will be able to enjoy everything from a quick bite to a full celebratory dinner. Being situated at the centre of the town means we are perfectly placed to put ourselves at the heart of everything Wokingham is about,” says Sutcliffe.

“I can’t wait to welcome people to our FARE family.”

FARE is the latest opening for Truffle Hunting Consultancy, which is run by Sutcliffe and business partner James McLean and which also operates The Oarsman in Marlow, The Crown in Bray and The Mutton in Hazeley Heath.

The restaurant is due to open on 19 June and will serve food from 12pmto 9pm Monday to Friday and 9am to 9pm on Saturday and 9am to 5pm on Sunday.