MEET THE CHEF: STAR MAN

This year, Simon Rogan’s L’Enclume celebrated its 20th anniversary and became one of only eight restaurants in the UK and 135 restaurants worldwide to receive three Michelin stars. Here, the world-renowned pioneer of field-to-fork dining tells Chantal Haines about the toil, the soil and the ambition it took to get there.

In February 2022, Simon Rogan’s flagship restaurant L’Enclume was awarded its third Michelin star – an incredible feat for any restaurant, but for this Lake District enclave, which has blazed its own trail in field-to-fork dining, sustainable growing and hyperlocal produce, it is all the more extraordinary.

Set in the picturesque Lake District village of Cartmel, L’Enclume is the first restaurant in the north of England to lay claim to three stars, and the prestigious award has come at a pivotal time for Rogan. “It’s L’Enclume’s 20th anniversary this year. It’s every chef’s ambition to get three stars so to succeed on the 20th anniversary is pretty special. We're all over the moon about it,” he says.

“I would have hoped it could have been a bit quicker,” Rogan quips. “But no, in all honesty, I don't really care when we got it – we have achieved what I set out to do 20 years ago and that’s a fantastic feeling.”

As a young chef he undertook an apprenticeship for around four and half years at Rhinefield House in the New Forest getting a first-rate classical grounding in cookery, and spent eight years on and off working with Jean-Christophe Novelli – a chef he still notes as his biggest inspiration. Rogan also undertook stints working at The Maltster’s Arms in Devon (then owned by Keith Floyd) and stage placements under other era-defining chefs, including Marco Pierre White and John Burton- Race, before going out on his own and opening his debut restaurant, L’Enclume.

A Lake District love affair

L’Enclume, and Rogan’s multiple offshoot outposts, are riding high now, but when he first set up in Cartmel two decades ago, organic produce and kitchen gardens were all but scoffed at, and fine dining was centered resolutely in London or the south, at least.

“In the early years, it was a bit of a struggle. We didn't really have many customers during the week, maybe getting to the teens around the weekends. And it was even more of a risk with the product we wanted to provide – I had developed an interest very early on in my cookery journey with foraging. While working at Rhinefield House we would always go out foraging to pick mushrooms and wild herbs and I had always wanted to revisit that.

“I was also heavily influenced by the work of a chef called Marc Veyrat in the Alps who uses a lot of herbs, flowers and roots in his cookery. I wanted to really look at our surroundings and what the larder was around the restaurant and really connect our cooking to the area and create a destination restaurant.”

“I wanted to work for myself and be in control of my own destiny. The honest reason I chose this particular area and this particular restaurant was basically you got more for your money. It would have cost me a lot of money in either borrowings or taking on an investor to get something as good in the south and we were always very clear – we didn’t want to have to answer to anyone.”

Thankfully, word did spread and the restaurant, situated in a former 13th-century blacksmith’s workshop in Cartmel, began to attract customers from all around the UK.

“We started attracting people from London, the south east, and the major cities around the UK. I had learnt from Novelli that PR is part of the game and we began to get into the papers and the nationals. And the rest is history, really."

Farm to fork

Rogan uses hyperlocal and seasonal ingredients in his tasting menu at L’Enclume and is recognised as one of the pioneers of the farm-to-fork movement.

“When we first opened, organic produce was extortionate, so we couldn't afford to buy all organic ingredients, but we bought a few items and I asked a local farmer to grow some herbs and produce. To cut a long story short, the farm went to rack and ruin and we offered to take it over.

“The first thing we started growing was radishes – because I was so frustrated I couldn’t get the perfect radish when it's one of the simplest things you can grow. In those days the standard of produce we would buy in could be pretty poor, so that pushed us into growing a lot more. We got pretty good at it and radishes turned to carrots and turnips, which turned to leeks and lettuces and cabbages and kale, and before we knew it we were growing everything. Then as the restaurants got busier and busier, we needed to grow our farming operation to cope with that level of trade.

In 2009, Rogan set up Our Farm, his 12-acre growing site in the Cartmel Valley. It is here where Simon and his team work throughout the year to grow vegetables, herbs, fruits and flowers, and trial innovative farming and growing methods.

“It was originally an open field site that had no growing on it before, and we've created everything from scratch. It was all very pretty in the beginning, with lovely ornamental paths and nice, neat rows of perfectly manicured beans and squash, but now there's none of that! Every centimetre of ground is taken up for growing. I always envisioned that we would have a growing operation of some sorts but I didn't really forsee how extensive that would become. It’s become a bit of a monster but we are very proud of it.”

The son of a market greengrocer, Rogan says that though a fussy eater when a youngster, his exposure to ingredients from an early age – when his father would come home every evening with a box of the day's best freshest produce – first sparked an interest in seasonal fare and foraging.

The ingredients used in his restaurants come from Our Farm as well as trusted, long-standing suppliers, enabling Rogan to deliver on his intense commitment to fresh, local and seasonal produce and a truly traceable dining experience.

“Most importantly it's the right thing to do. If you've got the opportunity to grow your own and limit your carbon footprint and look after your environment and the people around you then it's a no brainer, right?

“And the quality and the creativity that comes with that is really special – we don't like to waste anything, we like to use every part of an ingredient so that really drives your ingenuity."

Organic produce growing at cartmel farm

Organic produce growing at cartmel farm

Most importantly it's the right thing to do. If you've got the opportunity to grow your own and limit your carbon footprint and look after your environment and the people around you then it's a no brainer, right?

Organic produce growing at cartmel farm

Organic produce growing at cartmel farm

Star ingredients

At Our Farm, Rogan and his team grow a mind-boggling array of unusual and exciting ingredients – all produced organically, to their exacting specifications – such as Japanese wineberries, elkhorn fern and buck’s-horn plantain. And with harvest to plate often taking place in less than an hour, the quality and freshness sets his dishes apart from the competition.

“Using every part of that plant – the root, the stem, the leaf, the flower, the fruit – gives us that connection to our surroundings that's so important these days. Customers really appreciate that connection to the surroundings now.”

Together with a handful of other chefs, Rogan has turned zero-waste dining into a high-calibre offering.

“Dishes like our brined cabbage have become synonymous with L'Enclume's style and ethos,” Rogan says. “It’s cookery that really that makes the vegetables sing and lets them be at the forefront of the dish rather than animal proteins. For our simple cabbage dish we treat it like a piece of meat and give the cabbage the same care and attention as we would a prime cut. We brine it in dill, then roast it over Chinese charcoal and serve it with a fermented mushroom sauce, truffle puree, and a horseradish mousse over the top and lots of grated truffle – so very tasty and lots of layers of flavour. And you know, if you eat something like that you'll wonder why you would ever want to eat meat again.”

Michelin and more

As one would expect, L’Enclume’s meteoric success has created opportunities for expansion. In 2008, Rogan opened his neighbourhood restaurant, Rogan & Co, which is situated in an 14th-century building beside the River Eea in Cartmel and received a Michelin star in 2019.

L’Enclume restaurant in the Lake District.

Carrot crab tart with buttermilk roses.

Raw milk ice cream peach sweet cicely

It was always my ambition that when I hang up my apron people might turn around and say, ‘well, that guy really made a difference’.

Cartmel Farm

Rogan also runs Aulis Cartmel, a development kitchen and chef's table, and operates 16 bespoke bedrooms and suites around the village. In 2019 Rogan branched out further, opening Roganic Hong Kong, which received its first Michelin star within ten months of opening.

In 2021, Simon's efforts towards sustainability were recognised with the newly introduced Michelin Green Star, awarded to both L'Enclume and Roganic Hong Kong.

Aulis London, his eight-seat chef’s table in Soho, offers a dynamic, interactive dining experience with a 13-course tasting experience cooked in front of the guests. “People absolutely love it,” Rogan explains. "And it's probably been the inspiration for a lot of other chef’s tables around the UK, to be honest. If you're a foodie it's the greatest table you can get because you're face to face with the guys that know everything about the dish, its story, its execution and the reason for its existence.”

Winning the coveted third Michelin star and passing the 20th anniversary milestone has given the chef–owner cause for reflection.

“When we set out, I was always clear on the accolades I wanted to achieve but I also wanted to be someone that sort of made a difference. During the '80s and the '90s you had the Roux brothers, then Marco [Pierre White], John Burton-Race and so on, and if I could achieve half of what they did I’d be happy.

“It was always my ambition that when I hang up my apron people might turn around and say, ‘well, that guy really made a difference’. And I'm very humbled to see a lot of guys that worked for me go out now and have their own success – that's what I wanted to do – I wanted to spawn a whole new generation of people that were going to go off and do even greater things.

“That drives me as well, to get better and push forward. Because when I see our guys have their own success and I see things sprung from the L’Enclume philosophy it motivates me to stay at the forefront. I kind of think, ‘Ok, catch me again if you can’.”

And what of the next 20 years? “We carry on! I always thought, come the third star I'd feel like I had had my innings, but if anything, I feel invigorated. So, I guess there’s still life in the old dog yet.”

Text by Chantal Haines