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Forming connections between people, place and produce, Nancarrow Farm near Truro is a cream‑of‑the‑crop find for farm‑to‑table dining, discovers Selena Young
What’s the draw?
While dining trends come and go, field‑to‑fork feasting in a remote candlelit barn remains an alluring concept – yet few places have the experience nailed like Nancarrow.
Behind each bespoke farm supper, private dining event and Sunday lunch in the beamed barn are a team who create menus around what’s grown and reared on the surrounding organic farmland. Herbs and brassicas from the no‑dig kitchen garden; chillies, lemons and salad from the reclaimed greenhouse; and pasture‑bred meat from the farm are put to delicious use in simple yet flavour‑packed seasonal dishes.
Also on‑site are a micro bakery, butchery, larder, orchards and even an Exeter Retort kiln used to produce charcoal for the wood‑fired kitchen.
Who’s cooking?
Jack Bristow is Nancarrow Farm’s head chef and can be spied at work in the open kitchen.
He climbed the culinary ladder at Fifteen Cornwall and Paul Ainsworth at No6 before moving to this bucolic setting in 2015. His flare for plot‑to‑plate cooking can be traced further back to his time working as a butcher at Philip Warren and his experience growing up on a working farm.
What to order?
Each event has a set menu crafted from whatever’s currently ripe and ready to eat.
First course on our line‑up was crown prince squash agnolotti with brown butter, crisp sage and a generous dusting of parmesan. Each silken parcel glided across the palate and unravelled to reveal tender sweet‑smoky squash, perfectly offset by sharp cheese.
For the main event, we back‑and‑forthed an assortment of plates including dry‑aged beef rump with pickled shallot and parsley; pomme puree, purple sprouting broccoli, salsa verde and bottarga; and braised beef shin with jerusalem artichoke and ale‑roasted onions.
Velvety cuts of steak from the farm’s Red Devon cattle are dry aged for 50 days to deepen their flavour. The bones and trim are then used to dress the beef in a rich luxurious sauce – as if wrapped in a cashmere throw. With ingredients so fresh and flavours so nuanced, we found ourselves chewing each mouthful slowly to savour the experience.
Other highlights included Wildfarmed sourdough smothered in smoked butter, and a dynamite pud of frozen‑stout mousse with caramelised apple and crunchy almonds.
Need to know
Avoid having to traverse the wiggly roads around Nancarrow Farm late at night by bedding down in one of the rustic‑luxe farmhouse rooms or shepherd’s huts. Also, keep an eye on Nancarrow socials for news of a ten‑year anniversary celebration happening this spring.
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