The Frontline philosophy
Over the last two years, all of us here have been intensely thinking about our very own farm development at Ellingham Hall. During this time we have witnessed the gradual birth of what began as an alcohol fueled dream between myself and Vaughan – in which I believe passionately by the way – as we stared at a pile of earth making up the 600 hundred acre farm in Norfolk.
It quickly became clear that we could do something unique with the land and turn the farm into a blueprint for sustainable farming and restauranteering of the future, bringing together the ‘paddock to plate’ way of thinking.
Our first idea was to set up lamb grazing on our Norfolk pastures, where sheep are properly looked after until they’re ready for slaughter. After the necessary deed we hang the carcass for around 12 days and bring them directly to the kitchen in London where we do all our own butchery, and turn raw produce into what you see on the plate before you. Thanks to that, we are able to control all aspects of the process and use all the cuts of the meat. No wasting! This total eating philosophy is called provenance.
From what I can see now, traceability is now becoming very popular and many celeb chefs are jumping on the bandwagon – where we have been on quietly all this for the last two years. As such, we feel morally responsible to get the message of traceablility across to you all, in a well informed yet straightforward way.
In addition to the meat end of things, we have created, sown and grown our own organic veg garden that is looked after by Alan. We breed rare Gloucester old spot pigs which we introduced into the woods and which we are now bringing in for slaughter too. We also have our own chicken egg production up and running.
We aim to increase our links with the farm and the local community of Norfolk until we are 85% producing, sourcing and delivering a product about which we can all lift our heads up high and proud as one big team.
As for the style of food that we do here, we’re trying to bring together some old classics in a more contemporary style while remaining honest and unpretentious. That means it’s not just fantastic ingredients, well sourced and executed, but it all comes to the plate with a Frontline philosophy as outlined above, which will continue to grow and develop alongside all the other things that Frontline stands for.
