10 minute read
Heckfield Place – Meet the Chef Interview with Skye Gyngell
One of Britain’s most respected chefs, Skye Gyngell talks seasonality, simplicity and reconnecting with the land at luxury hotel, Heckfield Place.
Tucked away in leafy Hampshire lies Heckfield Place, a grand Georgian home and sprawling estate that redefines the idea of a luxury hotel for the modern age. Here, nature is king, and every effort is made to enable guests to slow down and feel a sense of connection to their surroundings. From the handcrafted natural materials used throughout the hotel’s soothing interiors, to the ever-changing seasonal menus created with produce from the hotel’s own farm, dairy and orchards, Heckfield exudes a uniquely serene sense of place.
“It could be the 18th century, or it could be 2025 – time seems to stop at Heckfield,” muses Skye Gyngell, the hotel’s culinary director and one of Britain’s most acclaimed chefs.
“Even though it’s close to London, it really feels a world away...”
A similar distance, perhaps, between the eminent chef that we know today and 17-yearold Syke, who had no interest in cooking and was instead reading law at Sydney University.
“When I was studying, I got a job washing up in a little charcuterie, and the woman who owned it was incredibly encouraging of me. She would teach me how to make things, like mayonnaise from scratch, and I completely fell in love with it,” Skye recalls affectionately.
“I wasn't particularly confident as a teenager and I realised that as soon as I was in the kitchen, I felt comfortable and grounded. It became my happy place.”
Box of produce from Heckfield Home Farm
Having discovered her raison d'être, Skye quit university and trained as a chef in Sydney and then Paris. Next, a move to London and the role of head chef at the now renowned Petersham Nurseries Café, where Skye quickly became well known for her distinctively seasonal, elegant cooking. In 2011, it earned her a Michelin star. Today, she divides her time between chic London restaurant
Spring and Heckfield Place, where she has overseen all things edible since its conception and subsequent opening in 2018. The 17th-century Georgian mansion took seven years to meticulously restore from its classical origins, lovingly reimagined by American owner Gerald Chan and UK-based interior designer Ben Thompson.
“It was a real passion project for Gerald, so in many ways it feels like a home. He has been over every detail – he literally knows every cushion. The walls are covered in his beautiful art collection, it's full of flowers picked from the gardens and the air just runs through it. It’s a very comfortable, contemplative place.”
Dream Escape's Travel Design team organise restorative stays in the hotel’s 39 beautiful bedrooms and five sumptuous ‘signature rooms’, many of which offer sweeping views across the 400-acre estate and the countryside beyond.
Marle Restaurant
On a clear day, Windsor Castle can be spotted in the distance. Also on the estate is a pretty, timber-framed twobedroom cottage, Church Lodge, ideal for families looking for stylish seclusion. The epitome of Georgian elegance, the hotel’s interiors are graceful and contemporary while also effortlessly welcoming and warm. Skye’s approach to the hotel’s food offering is similarly thoughtful and flawlessly executed, with her signature style of simplicity, seasonality and sustainability evident throughout.
“From day one, we wanted to make everything at Heckfield. Every jam, every cordial, the breads and pastries, the liquors in the bar, the ice cream – everything. We also produce our own eggs and honey, and we have our own dairy, so we make things like yoghurt and milk. We even have a Heckfield cheese,” she explains.
“It’s a huge undertaking, but we’ve really tried to capture that sense of place. In the rooms you’ll find freshly baked biscuits and fresh fruit from the garden, and guests love that the cream in their coffee or the milk in their porridge has also come from the estate. That’s what we’re trying to do – it's about making that connection to your surroundings and enjoying the immediacy of it,” she adds.
“It definitely tastes better too. Blueberries from Peru are probably about two weeks old by the time they get to the supermarket – it's just not the same as a ripe plum that has been picked in the orchard that morning.”
Ice cream made using fresh Heckfield cream
If the House is the heart of Heckfield, then the biodynamic garden and certifiedorganic farm is its soul. All manner of fresh ingredients are harvested every day ready to be served in one of the hotel’s two beautiful restaurants; there is the light-filled Marle, which in 2022 was awarded a Michelin Green Star; a prestigious accolade that recognises an outstanding commitment to sustainability as well as culinary excellence. Here, guests can enjoy the likes of Heckfield lamb with broad beans, peas, turnips and horseradish cream, farm leaves with shallot vinaigrette, and hazelnut meringue cake with home-made rhubarb ice cream. Elsewhere there is Hearth, once the estate stable, where a curated selection of dishes is cooked over an open fire; the fivecourse tasting menu, exclusively for hotel guests, is not to be missed.
For an exquisite dining experience, Dream Escape’s travel designers organise the elegant Dining Room, a private space with a long wooden table, antique furniture and soft lighting.
“At Hearth, the food is very soulful, and the fire gives a very particular flavour which is incredibly beautiful. It’s also a very cosy space, filled with sheepskins and blankets. Gerald refused to put any lighting outside, so at night it's really dark, like proper countryside. Everything about it is very intimate,” explains Skye.
“My style of food is quite ‘magpie’, I take bits and pieces from everywhere, but the one thread that goes through it all is purity of ingredients. All the menus at
The Glass House, where afternoon tea is served
Open-fire kitchen in Hearth
Heckfield are incredibly produce-driven, with every ingredient speaking for itself. It’s very stripped-back cooking,” she adds.
“Without wanting to sound like a cliché, and I think it does with chefs a lot now, but provenance of ingredients is really important to me. I believe that food grown in good, clean soil is really important; we talk about the ocean's health, but we need to think about soil health as well.”
Softly spoken Skye talks warmly and almost poetically about the symbiotic relationship between her cooking and the abundant produce that the estate provides, but while the kitchen and farm work hand in hand, what is available when is entirely down to the earth’s natural rhythms.
“When you work really seasonally, you get so excited about ingredients,” she enthuses.
“One of my favourites is mulberries, I used to pick them with my grandfather so they're very nostalgic for me. Mulberry ice cream is my dream!”
Heckfield’s further gastronomic delights include celestial-inspired cocktails made with ingredients from the gardens, served under a giant disco ball in the small but perfectly formed Moon Bar. In the warmer months, a sumptuous, seasonal afternoon tea is served in the light-flooded Glasshouse tucked away in the garden and, whatever the weather, a freshly baked cake appears in the House each afternoon.
“We always leave one lovely cake out for people to help themselves to, like it was their own house. We make all our own jams for the cakes too,” says Skye.
After a slice (or two…), there is plenty of opportunity to enjoy the great British countryside that surrounds the luxurious, rural escape. Guests can go wild swimming and boating on the estate’s beautiful lakes, explore ancient woodlands, take part in outdoor meditation and exercise classes or enjoy a spot of badminton, croquet or pétanque.
Seasonal dessert in Marle
Seasonal dishes in Hearth
Sourdough bread
Cycling and hiking are also available, along with guided walks of the estate and gardens, and regular tours of the farm. Dream Escape coordinates further country pursuits, such as fishing, birdwatching, falconry and archery, and local activities including clay pigeon shooting, golf, horse riding and more. A trip to the nearby pretty village of Chawton, once home to English novelist Jane Austen, is another wonderful way to spend an afternoon.
Back at the House, there is an incredibly glamorous and deeply comfortable state-of-the- art screening room and event space, which hosts a busy programme of new film releases, in-person workshops and regular talks by guest speakers. There’s also an extensive library, vast wine cellar and an elegant Drawing Room, where board games and squishy sofas await. If pampering appeals, then Dream Escape’s travel designers arrange luxurious treatments at the hotel’s charming Little Bothy spa, which uses ethically sourced, all-natural products from the hotel’s own Wildsmith Skin range. A larger spa, with an indoor swimming pool, is due to open in 2022.
Drawing Room
View to the House over the Upper Lake
“There’s plenty to do, but it’s a slow pace. We’re so busy and overstimulated in life, at Heckfield you can just curl up with the newspaper and listen to the crackle of the fire. It’s an incredibly restorative place,” says Skye.
While guests soak up Heckfield’s soothing ambience, it is of course a different story in the kitchen for Skye and her team, but as the old adage goes; ‘if you do what you love, you'll never work a day in your life’…
“I'm definitely not as quick as everybody else in the kitchen, it's very much a young person's game. It's long hours, you need a lot of physical and mental energy, but I love it. I love it today as much as I did when I first started 40 years ago,” Skye smiles.
“I would have been a terrible lawyer anyway...”
The Pavillion in summer down by the Lower Lake
Find out more
Sally Strange, Blue Badge Guide
“I visited Heckfield Place on a perfect winter’s day when all thoughts of spring seemed distant. But despite the dormant season, there were signs of nature everywhere in abundant displays of autumn foliage, bowls brimming with seasonal fruits, and glasses filled with herbs just waiting for the mixicologist to shake up a cocktail. Heckfield Place truly encapsulates a ‘home from home’ sense of welcome and, whatever the season, this unique hotel truly promises the perfect place to retreat, rest, and recharge whilst being cocooned in a sophisticated ambience eating the freshest and finest of foods. And that’s before even beginning to explore what lies within the estate : roll on summer!”
⬥ sally@dreamescape.co.uk
WORDS | SOPHIE FARRAH
