The Coach House

Ross Forder is head chef at the Coach House, a restaurant that has an ‘estate-to-plate’ concept. Working closely with the estate gardening team and head gardener Andrew Webb, Ross helps plan the produce needed for each season to ensure he has the ingredients needed to create his award-winning menus. 

When certain ingredients cannot be grown onsite, Ross researches and meets makers and farmers in the surrounding areas to find artisanal produce which is reared with care and a responsibility to the environment. This way of working has seen Ross create a 25-mile menu for all ingredients.

Ross teaches his teams to use the seasons as a guide to inspire each recipe created at the Coach House. When he’s not cooking, you can find him meeting foragers or local producers or working with the gardening team, trying to grow new and unusual produce. 

Planning plays a large role in his job at the Coach House as he preserves, pickles and ferments a lot of ingredients to add new flavours to the dishes, whilst also reducing waste. He dries berries to create seasonings such as sumac and has even started to plant nut trees with the team so that these can be grown onsite. His passion for sustainability and creating a ‘estate-to-plate’ menu is evident in his menus and new inventions.

There’s a growing and substantial range of vegetarian or plant-based options on the breakfast, lunch and dinner menus, although meat options are still served and mirror the season. 

Read more about the Coach House here.