Nathan Cornwell’s most recent restaurant project didn’t go quite as planned. Having secured a Michelin star for Mark Birchall’s The Barn at Moor Hall in Lancashire, he was widely expected to do the same for The Silver Birch in Chiswick. But the accolade the restaurant desperately needed to pull people in from further afield never materialised, and it closed earlier this year.
Cornwell has now swapped the Big Smoke for The Good Life, joining The Woodcote, a restaurant with rooms in the West Sussex countryside, as chef director. His remit encompasses both the kitchen and standards across the wider business as it undergoes a major culinary revamp.
His immediate focus is developing The Woodcote’s farm-to-table restaurant into a smart but unstuffy proposition centred on produce from its kitchen garden and surrounding area. The aim is to offer ambitious cooking without discouraging affluent locals from becoming regulars. The £40 three-course set lunch, in particular, is a bargain given Cornwell’s CV, which also includes Le Champignon Sauvage in Cheltenham.
Longer term, The Woodcote has planning permission for 16 additional bedrooms and a new 40-cover fine dining restaurant that Cornwell hopes will allow him to fully showcase what he can do.
What attracted you to The Woodcote?
It’s a really beautiful place to be. The views to the back of the restaurant onto the South Downs are unbelievable. I was brought up in the Cambridgeshire countryside and have always loved that connection with nature and ingredients. The Woodcote also has a lot of potential. I’ve always wanted a genuine field-to-fork project, and the idea of having two restaurants on one site is really interesting. The existing restaurant is more casual and has a neighbourhood feel. It isn’t overly polished or pretentious; it’s warm and welcoming, and based around amazing produce. The second restaurant will be more refined and probably more closely aligned with what I ultimately want to do. It will really showcase Sussex and the produce available here.
You’ve joined as chef director. How broad is your role?
Pretty much everything runs through me, whether that’s the decoration, how we set the tables or anything food and beverage related. I’m also involved in discussions about the rooms. That approach partly comes from working with Mark Birchall at Moor Hall. He had an eye on everything and was able to establish the same mentality across every department. The standards were incredibly high. The Woodcote is in a different position because the business already exists and we’re trying to develop it, which can be trickier. But we’ve made good progress. The food is consistent, the restaurant is busy and people appear to be enjoying what we’re doing.
How have you changed the existing restaurant?
It was previously trying to be too fine dining without quite pulling it off. It needs to be smart but not too the point it puts people off from becoming regulars. We’re serving high-quality produce, but we don’t want it to feel stuffy. We’re also developing what we have around us. The kitchen garden isn’t huge, but we’re making better use of it. We grow green beans, courgettes, pumpkins and most of our herbs. I asked for Hildora beans when I arrived and, within a relatively short period, we were picking enough to use in the restaurant. We’re also doing a lot of foraging - the other week we picked and processed 20kg of damsons.
What are the plans for the second restaurant?
The idea is to create a fine dining restaurant that will probably have a different name. It is likely to serve a shorter tasting menu at lunch and a longer one in the evening. Guests will be able to eat casually in one restaurant one night and have a much more elevated experience in the other. That means we can offer both a relatively short lunch and a longer, more immersive dinner. It will look out over the countryside and additional bedrooms are also planned as part of the project.
Which chefs have had the greatest influence on you?
I started at Lucknam Park when I was 16 while studying with the Royal Academy of Culinary Arts. Hywel Jones taught me an enormous amount about cooking and running a service. He was first in and last out, and would be there prepping fish, breaking down meat and ensuring everything ran perfectly. I then went to Le Champignon Sauvage. David Everitt-Matthias was preserving everything in-house, foraging and finding ways to use waste. There were only four or five of us in the kitchen doing around 30 covers at lunch and dinner, with five different breads, petits fours, a tasting menu and a lunch menu. I had many sleepless nights wondering how we were going to get everything done, but I loved it. I later spent time in Scandinavia. The talent pool there was incredible, with chefs coming from all over the world.
What did you learn from your time at Moor Hall?
Moor Hall was incredible for learning how to get the best from ingredients. There aren’t many chefs who can cook proteins, source produce or put together flavour combinations better than Mark. His persistence and drive also rubbed off on me. Mark initially offered me a sous chef role at the main restaurant, but we couldn’t quite make it work. About a month later he called and asked if I would take over The Barn. It was always presented as my own restaurant: something I needed to nurture and develop. The team next door was pushing every day to be the best in the country, and that made us want to push just as hard at The Barn. Winning a Michelin star there felt like a dream come true.
How do you look back on The Silver Birch?
It was frustrating because a huge amount of work went into it and I gave it everything. We received a five-star review from The Times, three AA rosettes and were named the AA’s London Restaurant of the Year, but it never really took off. The location didn’t help. On Fridays and Saturdays, we would fill the restaurant and there would be a real buzz, but there wasn’t enough footfall during the rest of the week. Maybe it would have stood a better chance in central London. It became draining towards the end. We were pushing so hard to create something excellent, but there simply weren’t enough people coming through the door.
Is winning a Michelin star part of the plan at The Woodcote?
Yes. I think both restaurants could reach that standard, and there’s no reason why the rooms shouldn’t win accolades too. It’s all there for the taking. I and a few other people joined to get the place moving and it seems to be working. Room occupancy has risen significantly, and restaurant covers have pretty much doubled. Everything is pointing in the right direction.