The British Larder Suffolk will be going forward to the grand Awards Ceremony in Leicester in May, where all finalists are guaranteed to receive either a Gold, Silver, Bronze or Highly Commended Award.

Commenting on the finalists, James Berresford, VisitEngland’s Chief Executive said “I would like to congratulate all those nominated as VisitEngland Awards for Excellence finalists this year. This is no small achievement in a year when we have received a record number of submissions.  The quality of submissions this year has been outstanding and the British Larder Suffolk can justifiably take credit and pride in earning a place at the top of their category in England.”

With emphasis on food provenance and local sustainability, the British Larder Suffolk has built a reputation around its gastronomic creativity, utilising ingredients sourced from in and around Suffolk to create inspiring, mouth-watering dishes, and changing its menu almost daily to reflect what is fresh and in season.

Building on this passion for seasonal food and its well-earned repute as a destination pub restaurant, it is shortly due to release its own cookbook, The British Larder; A Cookbook for All Seasons by Madalene Bonvini-Hamel.

]]> http://www.britishlardersuffolk.co.uk/news/2012/04/british-larder-suffolk-has-been-named-as-a-finalist-in-the-prestigious-visitengland-awards-for-excellence-2012/feed/ 0 http://www.britishlardersuffolk.co.uk/news/2012/02/art-exhibition-at-british-larder-suffolk/ http://www.britishlardersuffolk.co.uk/news/2012/02/art-exhibition-at-british-larder-suffolk/#comments Tue, 21 Feb 2012 19:57:17 +0000 admin http://www.britishlardersuffolk.co.uk/news/?p=102 The British Larder, Suffolk is proud to exhibit 11 drawings of local artist Jason Gathorne-Hardy. The drawings can be viewed when we are open, please see our opening hours page for information. All works on display are for sale, please ask a member of the team for further information and artist notes for each of the drawings.

Exhibition at The British Larder, Pub and Restaurant, Orford Road, Bromeswell, Woodbridge, Suffolk, IP12 2PU, 01394 460 310

Artist Biography

Jason Gathorne-Hardy was born in Malaysia and grew up in Suffolk. He took a degree in Zoology at Oxford University and then moved to the arts and, more recently, to local foods. Between 1995 and 1998 he was a student at Maggi Hambling’s life drawing classes at Morley College in London, showing work at Reed’s Wharf Gallery and The Redfern Gallery. In 2005 he founded The Alde Valley Food Adventures, a rolling programme of events that celebrate food, farming, landscape and the arts in the beautiful Alde Valley of East Suffolk. These developed into The Alde Valley Spring Festival, a four week celebration of food, farming, landscape and the arts held each Easter at his farm in the Upper Alde Valley. This shows work by Suffolk, UK and international artists, with a growing programme of specialist walks, talks and food events. The Alde Valley Spring Festival is twinned with a sister festival, Pesta Nukenen Bario (The Bario & Kelabit Highlands Food & Cultural Festival), in the Kelabit Highlands of Central Borneo, for which he works as patron. The artist works between his farm in Suffolk, London and Borneo.

Artist’s Statement

“I first took up drawing and painting in 1994, working in the borders of mid Wales and on the Alde estuary. I was given a residency by the Delfina Studio trust to paint in Spain, and then worked on the shore of Lake Attersee in Austria. Returning to Britain, I was very fortunate to be allowed to join Maggi Hambling’s life drawing and painting classes at Morley College (1995-1998). As a very gifted teacher, her passionate dedication to observation and mark-making in both the drawn line and in painting has remained a central pillar for my own work, which has revolved around earthpainting, painting in oils and life drawing. After leaving London for Suffolk (after trips to New Zealand, Wales, Ireland and Bulgaria), I focused on life drawings of animals and people on farms, in markets and in the landscape. Soon after this I came across the work of Harry Becker, together with a rich seam of East Suffolk literature: HW Freeman, George Ewart Evans, Adrian Bell and Ronnie Blythe, amongst others. This has led to a fascination with local rural history – spoken, written, drawn and painted. My work has continued to explore drawing, with a series of residencies in Ireland (Cill Rialaig, Kerry, 2009) and Wales (Dyffryn Dairy, Powys, 2009/10/11). I hope to return to painting with oils and the soil. The weaving together of the arts, food and landscape has become the leading joy and inspiration for almost all my work at home in Britain and abroad.”

What is it all about?

Dingley Dell’s Flying Visits are fun evenings where guests experience everything that’s great about pigs and pork.

One pig farmer, two butchers and three chefs will take to the stage to deliver this spectacular evening of swine and dine.

What happens on the night?

Mark Hayward from Dingley Dell will kick the evening off with a warm welcome followed by Bob Waller from Freedom Foods who will give a short talk on animal welfare.
A Butchery master class will follow as Wayne and Jim will slice and dice a Dingley Dell pig.
Three chef’s are challenged to cook a spectacular three course pork tasting menu, followed by a selection of Maddy’s puddings.
The three chefs are:
Our very own Ross Pike; Paul Foster from Tuddenham Mill and Mark Poynton from Alimentum Cambridge.
James Stoddard from Enotria Winecellars will join us pairing pork and wine.

Are you Interested?

The cost is £55 per person, including food and wine.

For further information and to make your reservation please call 01394 460 310

Beating off competition from entrants across the whole of the UK, despite only having opened its doors 18 months ago, the British Larder Suffolk was whittled down to the shortlist and awarded overall Best Newcomer for its innovative food concept, involvement in food events, and its marketing prowess as well as presence within the nation’s food scene.

Renowned for its locally sourced produce and emphasis on fresh, seasonal food, the pub restaurant is well-deserving of such recognition given its food-centric philosophy of provenance and sustainability and its creativity and ingenuity with British ingredients. Utilising unusual ingredients from land, sea and wild places, the British Larder is a foodie haven with creative and inspiring dishes which are rich with colour, flavour, and imagination.

Delighted with the award and the recognition it carries, it isn’t another accolade the British Larder can add to their collection of trophies since opening the doors 18 months ago.

Congratulations to Ross, Maddy and the British Larder team.

Nigel Haworth and Craig Bancroft host each year a spectacular Obsessions food and wine festival.

This year Madalene is honoured to join the line-up of spectacularly talented chefs to join forces with Lisa Allen to cook on the 25th of January 2012.

We promise to prepare a delicious feast from land and sea.

This is the 12th Obsessions event and there are 11 very talented chefs joining the gallery of Obsessions chefs and the British Larder is honoured to be amongst them.

For further information visit http://www.northcote.com/special_events/festival2012.html

Read about the chefs sharing their food obsessions http://food.uk.msn.com/chefs/food-obsessions-10-chefs-share-theirs#image=4

Seasons Greetings to our loyal customers and followers,

From the British Larder Team xx

The British Larder Suffolk is wishing Ross Pike, Luigi Vespero and Craig Dunn the very best of luck.

Britain\’s Best Dish

Representing East Anglia, Ross will be cooking a mouth-watering Pheasant Kiev, Pheasant Scotch Egg dish, paralleling the same ethos as the British Larder by using local, seasonal and under-utilised ingredients. This dish will feature on the menu from Friday the 9th of December 2011.

The national TV appearance is yet another accolade for the British Larder Suffolk, which was recently listed as Inspector’s Favourite in The Michelin Guide 2012, entered as one of only 13 new eateries into The Good Food Guide 2012, won East Anglia’s Gastropub of the Year at the Great British Pub Awards, and won the Taste of England Award at the Suffolk Tourism Awards 2011.

Hand signed copies of the TV show’s recipe book, Britain’s Best Dish – The Chefs are available to purchase at the British Larder Suffolk.

Based in Woodbridge, Suffolk, the pub-restaurant was opened in late Summer 2010 by Chef Proprietors Madalene Bonvini-Hamel and Ross Pike. After achieving a worldwide following on their online recipe blog, www.britishlarder.co.uk, which sees over 40,000 hits per month, the acclaimed chefs decided to leave their professions and create a physical and spiritual home for the website.

Focused around a concept of fresh, seasonal and local food, the British Larder Suffolk is really dedicated to reducing food mileage, and having built up relationships with farmers, producers and suppliers in the area, every effort is made to source ingredients from both land and sea in and around the Suffolk region.

The restaurant concept is every foodie’s dream – creative gastronomy with taste and freshness at its heart, and an obvious emphasis on seasonal British ingredients. Less commonly-used ingredients such as samphire, sea purslane, buckler leaf sorrel, quince and wild rabbit are combined with classic British produce to create an infusion of colour and flavour, in a menu that changes on a daily basis.

Commenting on the accolade, Madalene said: “We are delighted that the British Larder Suffolk has been listed in the Michelin Guide. This is fantastic recognition for us, especially since we only opened a year ago. Our aim is to deliver honest, fresh and seasonal food with a real homely emphasis on great British produce, and we do feel that we offer something different as we work so closely with our suppliers.

“Customers also enjoy coming into the pub with their glut of apples from their garden and enjoying the tasty food we can create from it. It adds such a personal touch to a genuine foodie place.”

Adding further acclaim to its fast-growing prowess, the Michelin listing comes shortly after it was awarded Gastropub of the Year 2011 in the East Anglian region at the Great British Pub Awards. The British Larder Suffolk was also one of only 13 national new entries into the Good Food Guide 2012, and it has also just won the Suffolk Tourism Taste of England Award.

Reinforcing its foodie presence and local reputation, the British Larder actively participates in events, including cookery demonstrations at the annual Aldeburgh Food & Drink Festival, Michelin-starred guest chef evenings, wine tasting dinners, farm tours, cookery workshops and foraging weekends.