A Table at Flora Newyard: Food, Place and Community in Cornwall

There is a moment on the drive to Flora Newyard when you begin to wonder whether you have taken a wrong turn. The estate doesn't go in for much signage, so you have to trust the road and see where it leads. Then you arrive.

When the opportunity to take on the restaurant at Newyard came along, Louise Rødkjær and Tim Spedding were actually looking for a guest house. They had a one-week-old baby, knew very little about this corner of Cornwall, and decided to go and have a look. If they liked it, they would give it a go.

They did. Flora Newyard, tucked away on the historic Trelowarren estate on the Lizard Peninsula, has since become the setting for the next chapter of their lives in hospitality.

The estate has been in the Vyvyan family for around 500 years and remains privately owned. But it's the character of the place that appealed to Louise, rather than the grandeur of a country house. Newyard has been a restaurant for some 40 years, while the neighbouring café has had several lives, including as a pottery and weaving workshop.

Louise and Tim met in Copenhagen, where she was working at a progressive Danish restaurant and Tim was building his career as a chef. He had been sous chef at London's Clove Club when it first opened, and his work took him to Denmark. After two years of travelling between the two cities, Louise moved to London, and the pair eventually headed west. They worked elsewhere in Cornwall before deciding it was time to build something of their own.

At Flora Newyard, the food is thoughtful and carefully composed, but the atmosphere is relaxed. Louise, who has worked in hospitality all her life, cares deeply about how people are welcomed. The tablecloths are linen, but they aren't ironed. There's no need to make things feel fancy for the sake of it.

“I wanted people to feel welcomed,” she explains. “We want people to feel relaxed.”

Tim's cooking draws on years of experience, with the ingredients kept firmly in view. Louise describes his gift as knowing how to put flavours together without doing too much. Even a menu that looks generous on paper, she says, leaves you feeling happy rather than weighed down.

The seasons dictate much of what happens in the kitchen. Working closely with their suppliers, Louise and Tim buy according to what's available, rather than expecting the land and sea to follow a fixed plan. Trevelyan Farm, an organic smallholding, is around 15 miles away. Gear Farm lies just across the estate, about a mile away as the crow flies. Fish comes from Kernowsashimi, whose day-boat suppliers bring in the catch, while scallops are sourced through a local fisherman, Tom.

In the early days, Louise and Tim thought they wanted to be self-sufficient. Living here changed their minds. With growers, fishermen and other small producers close by, they realised there was little point in trying to do everything themselves.

“Then you lose all of that community,” Louise says. “Which is what makes your restaurant as well.”

The walled garden is part of that picture. River grows vegetables, herbs and fruit there, while Louise grows flowers. The restaurant relies on a network of people working nearby, each bringing something different to the table.

There's room for different kinds of appetite, too. The café is somewhere to stop for a coffee, a Danish pastry or a hearty bowl of soup; the restaurant gives Tim more space to explore the ingredients that come through the door. Louise brings her own family history to the café counter, with her mother's rye bread recipe and pastries developed from recipes she grew up with. The baking has been refined over time, but its origins remain close at hand.

For us at Rowen & Wren, Flora Newyard was a natural place to visit while developing the story behind our AW26 collection. We were drawn to the restaurant's understated character and the way it sits within its surroundings. The menu follows the seasons and the welcome matters as much as the food.