Chez Candice might just be Bristol’s most idiosyncratic place to eat. This, as anyone familar with the South West city’s food scene will know, is saying something. Accessed via an unpromising, graffiti-strewn alley in the city’s St Werburghs area, the business operates out of a converted horsebox on Watercress Farm, a community market garden that’s also home to a scattering of livestock.
The chef behind the project is the titular Candice Bryant, an alumnus of some of Bristol’s best farm-to-table restaurants, most notably the now-closed Michelin Green Star The Ethicurean. On Thursday, Friday and Saturday daytime, she can be found cooking a short but considered menu that’s largely based on ingredients grown (and occasionally reared) at Watercress Farm. Coffee and baked goods are also available, with Bryant’s hefty cheese scones and pleasingly gooey chocolate brownies held in particularly high regard.
The savoury offer is eclectic, with Bryant’s menu dictated by the seasons and her own whims: one week it might be Burmese-style tofu, the next merguez sausage and padrón peppers piled high onto toasted focaccia. The ever-changing menu, high culinary standards and her commitment to food being served on plates makes Chez Candice feel more elevated and personal than a common or garden street food business.
Bryant says she loves the freedom that comes with cooking on four wheels: no landlords and no investors to answer to, and just one member of staff who comes to take orders and man the coffee machine on busier days. There are, of course, a few downsides, not least frozen pipes in winter and erratic trading patterns.
It’s a rustic dining experience, to say the least. Guests pick up their food from the trailer window and can enjoy it at outdoor seating surrounded by the farm’s greenery and a few bemused ducks, or seek shelter inside a yurt should the weather take a turn, which, this being the West Country, it frequently does.
We spent the morning with Bryant to talk about her film set catering side hustle, the limitations of cooking in a horsebox, and how she used Instagram to build a business entirely on her own terms.
You have worked for some of Bristol’s best-known restaurants. How have you ended up cooking in a trailer?
My friend is the grower on the farm and she invited me to come and cook here a few years ago. For me, being able to use her great produce was a dream come true. I was also a bit done with working in restaurants. I love it here. Part of it is that I like to have a good work-life balance. I never work in the evenings and it’s very hard to find that in restaurants. It’s not a conventional set-up; it’s hard work, but it feels gentler than working in restaurants. It’s completely on my own terms and I need things to be that way. I don’t like working to someone else’s rules.
You’ve been running Chez Candice for the past three years. Do you have any future plans?
I’m happy here for a while. I like being outside in the elements. I know it sounds odd, but I enjoy it. You have a front-row seat to the seasons, although sometimes the pipes get frozen up in the morning and I can’t have my morning coffee, which is annoying. There’s no ambition to transition to bricks and mortar at the moment. Maybe one day I’d like to have a house somewhere nice - maybe Cornwall or Marseille - where people could come and I would cook for them. But I don’t want a restaurant.
How does it work as a business?
My costs to be here are pretty low, but my ingredient costs are high because I use good stuff. It’s largely just me that needs paying, so as a business it does work, but it’s super up and down. I’ve never counted how many covers I do in a day, but it can get busy - I would guess about 80 people on a really good day. It’s all dictated by the weather, but a few regulars will always come by.. I work here three days a week - Thursday, Friday and Saturday - but I also do a big prep day at home on Wednesdays, all year round apart from three weeks off at Christmas.
How do people find you?
I don’t use a PR company. That has meant the business has grown slowly, but in an organic way. The people who come are here because they like the sound of it, not because it’s been hyped up. They know what to expect when they come and they know to wear boots because it’s muddy. I post my menu every day on Instagram Stories.
It looks like you have very limited equipment…
I have a hot plate, a grill, an oven and a food processor and that’s about it. I do make some of the food at a prep space I rent, but all of the baking is done here. The menu changes a lot, especially in the growing season when there’s obviously more available. I use the meat from the farm too, including beef, pork and lamb.
Who did you work for prior to launching Chez Candice?
I’ve worked at some good places in Bristol, including Katy and Kim’s Kitchen on Picton Street. The two chefs behind that started out in a trailer, as it happens. That’s where I learnt a lot about scratch cooking, especially things like sourdough and cheese scones. After that I worked at The Epicurean under Mark McCabe and at Dela in Easton, both of which have now closed.
You also have a sideline in TV and film work?
The role is called a home economist. It’s a stuffy name, but it’s basically all the food you see on screen. I’ve worked on historical dramas and films. I recently worked on a film with Willem Dafoe called A Man in My Basement. It’s not out yet. I made a sausage casserole in a Deep South US style and cooked rice for him to eat in a scene where he’s in a cage. He’s quite method, so he actually ate it.