Artichoke

“Over the past seven years, Laurie has sourced a wonderful array of passionate suppliers. It has always been our mission to seek out the best produce that the British Isles have to offer and Laurie has been delighted to discover a collection of artisan producers right on our doorstep, many within the Chilterns. With the support of these producers and others who are slightly further afield, Laurie and his team are able to create the inspired cuisine served at the Artichoke. We work with various charities and some of our lovely gardening guests often contribute their surplus harvest to the restaurant menu.”

Wye Valley asparagus with Lancashire bomb sauce, black truffle, black pepper, and cheese wafer; Lyme Bay crab with Isle of Wight tomatoes, avocado cream, and passionfruit dressing; and rump of Jurassic Coast rose veal with broad beans, violet artichoke, orzo, almonds, and Berkswell cheese.

A long-standing and much-beloved fine dining restaurant set in a gorgeous medieval Old Town. There is a relaxed atmosphere for a restaurant of this sort and a real vim to the cooking, thanks, one suspects, to the spell Laurie did working at Noma when he was forced to close the restaurant for eighteen months in 2008 as the result of a fire. To emerge from the ashes of disaster so triumphantly is a lesson to us all.