The Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) has awarded a major catering contract to Company of Cooks at the RHS Garden Wisley, Surrey, and also announced major development of all restaurants and cafés.
New culinary delights – including a food hall, elegant outdoor dining, a restaurant offering the best of Wisley-grown produce, and cookery workshops – will be created at RHS Garden Wisley, Surrey, as part of a major ten-year partnership between the RHS and Company of Cooks.
Wisley: restaurant destination and events venue
Over the next six years the RHS and Company of Cooks will invest in dining at the RHS flagship garden and work together to make RHS Garden Wisley a restaurant destination and events venue in its own right. New tasting sessions, cookery classes and preserving workshops will also inspire gardeners to grow and cook great food at home. All dining and associated activities will be presented under the ‘Taste of Wisley’ banner.
New cafe
Plans include creating a new café at the garden entrance selling goods baked on site as well as seasonal produce and plants. The existing conservatory café will become an expansive British food hall, enriched with bustling kitchen activity. Cookery courses will be held in the kitchens and there will be regular evening events with great British food suppliers offering tastings, talks and demonstrations.
New restaurant
The conservatory dining room is to be transformed into a new restaurant with décor changing throughout the year to reflect spring, summer, autumn and winter in the garden. Its menu will also celebrate the varied seasons. Meanwhile the glasshouse café will become a family-centred destination with children’s play area and ‘grow and cook’ events for kids.
Outside dining
Canopy, an elegant, covered outside dining space, will be set near the fruit and vegetable gardens, at the heart of the property. A menu pairing high-end grills with Wisley produce is planned to underline the grow-it-eat-it experience. In the evening Canopy will be the setting for weddings, private dinners and parties.
Tasting Room
A brand new purpose-built restaurant, Tasting Room, will be a stylish showcase for produce-led creativity. Its remit is to wow food enthusiasts with unusual ingredients, such as edible flowers and the roots, stems and leaves of other plants in the Wisley garden. Here, too, visitors will be encouraged to experiment at home via inspiring educational workshops and demonstrations.
Plot-to-plate cooking
RHS Director General, Sue Biggs, says:
“Over the next six years, food at Wisley will become a celebration of the gardening seasons and great British produce, with a closer relationship between the kitchen and garden and wonderful eating opportunities.
“With RHS gardening expertise and Company of Cooks’ food expertise, people will be able to discover cultivars of fruit and vegetables they like the taste of, learn how to grow them and get great ideas to cook them.”
Claire Clark MBE, who recently joined Company of Cooks as Culinary Director, is leading a team of cooks to develop menus inspired by the seasons and RHS Garden Wisley’s growing calendar, says Mike.
“She will also be working on our wide range of participative food and drink events to encourage visitors to cook with fresh, seasonal produce grown at Wisley where possible – true plot-to-plate cooking.”
Using menus, recipes and blind tastings to promote rare British heritage apple varieties from Wisley’s extensive orchard will be a priority, while demonstrations in the preserving kitchen will help people make affordable jams and chutneys from their own home-grown produce.
Sue Biggs says: “By bringing some of the less-known, tasty British fruit and vegetable varieties to the fore and then sharing delicious ways to cook or preserve them, we hope to revive interest and enthusiasm for diminishing heritage varieties and enthuse people to grow them at home. We’re looking forward to working with Company of Cooks to ensure visitors have a great taste of Wisley.”