Over the course of a few hours, chef Josh Barnes creates culinary magic in full view of a hungry gathering of diners scrutinising his every move.
His ‘tools’ range from a piping bag and blowtorch to the tiniest tweezers and naturally the finest of knives, and his dishes form a visual and flavour journey that truly reflect the surroundings.
The location is Swinton Estate, Masham. The dining room that serves as Josh’s palacious kitchen for Chef’s Table by Josh Barnes is within the estate’s Cookery School.
During the day the place is busy with cooking masterclasses as would-be chefs of all abilities learn the art of everything from stocks and sauces to tapas to Yorkshire game or show-stopping canapés.
But in the evening, and some lunch dates, Chef’s Table ramps it up with a theatre of dining. This unique estate-to-plate experience offers just 12 seats, where guests gather to enjoy a seasonal tasting menu prepared, cooked and plated in front of them by Michelin-trained Josh Barnes.
Rooted in a deep respect for provenance and sustainability, the menu celebrates ingredients reared, grown and foraged across the estate and wider Yorkshire landscape.
As we’re introduced to Josh, we sip on a sparkling Thornborough wild ferment cider. This is crafted just a few miles away in
Bedale from local orchards, made with nothing but pure apple juice.
It tastes good of course, but sets the scene nicely for the dishes to follow. They will all have been reared, nurtured, sown or plucked from the fields a few steps away from the Cookery School.
Swinton Estate has a huge working kitchen garden that produces vast quantities of fruit, herbs and vegetables (over 60 varieties), along with a cutting garden that grows flowers for the Hotel and Estate Shop in the summer months. It is a hive of activity, and a place Josh and fellow chefs from the estate wander daily, looking for and collecting ingredients for the day’s menus.
Which brings me to Jack of the Hedge. Heard of it? Me neither. It finds its way to one of the first dishes on Josh’s eight-course tasting menu. It accompanies sea bream and is a bold pop of leafy green – a leaf you’d pass by without a second thought on a woodland walk – but here adding a pep of garlic mustard flavour. It’s a common spring herb found in hedges and woods and great to cook with.
It is followed by some of Josh’s own-cured Hill Top Ham, which he reveals with a flourish, raising aloft the lovingly cultivated huge ham. From local pigs reared at a farm on the estate, it is air-dried and flavoured with peppercorns. It is full of flavour with luscious creamy fat.
We’ve already dived into sourdough, which is served with an amazing beef fat butter, before we are presented with a dish of ‘Whitby Scampi & Offal’ – ‘a take on surf and turf’. Then the first of two creations based on venison. The deer is from the estate and in his playful version, Josh has a twist on the Chinese takeaway favourite, crispy beef.
Crispy curls of venison are combined with beetroot and fermented chilli amongst other secret ingredients for a mouth-watering sweet/spicy dish that really contrasts with venison version two.
This is a more traditional but nevertheless exacting dish. Loin of venison is finished on a barbecue at the table and accompanied by wild garlic from the garden and wild mushroom purée, carrot and parsley oil. In the dining room you can see shelves bursting with jars of fascinating ingredients that are foraged as the year goes on and pickled, preserved and dried to be added to dishes that will adorn another season’s menus. Makes perfect sense really to be in tune with the land, seasons and harvest.
A dessert dish comes next – tarte tatin we all know – but would you add blue cheese? The combination of Lilibet Blue is a bold but beautiful one. This is followed by a light dessert of milk ice cream, forced rhubarb and dulse.
From your unique vantage point it is captivating to see the skill of Josh and his chef de partie Anya Mironova at close quarters – they are a calm and choreographed team making magic happen on the plate.
Anya trained at Bradford College and worked at Samuel’s restaurant at Swinton Park before joining Josh. They take centre stage with style; finishing elements of dishes as we watch and plating up with regimented efficiency..
Chef’s Table by Josh Barnes is open for an eight-course dinner Wednesday to Saturday from 7pm, and for a lighter five-course lunch on Saturday, from 12.30pm.
Eight courses £110 | Wine pairing £85 per person | Five courses £70 | Wine pairing £65 per person
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