6 minute read
CLODAGH MCKENNA
SHOP TALKING
Irish chef, farmer, author, presenter and homemaker Clodagh McKenna on opening her first lifestyle store in Newbury
By REBECCA PITCAIRN
As a resident chef on This Morning, Clodagh McKenna is regularly seen cooking up her favourite quick and simple dishes with infectious enthusiasm. But Clodagh, who trained at Ireland’s famous Ballymaloe Cookery School, is far more than a great cook – she’s a homemaker.
Viewers of ITV’s flagship weekday show are occasionally given an insight into the Irish chef’s life at Broadspear, a 300-year-old cottage in the grounds of Highclere Park (of Downton Abbey fame) where she lives with husband Harry Herbert, dogs Alfie and Nolly, and their brood of 12 hens and six ducks.
For the past four years the couple, who married at a church within Highclere’s grounds in 2021, have been bringing the property and surrounding 100 acres of land back to life – even building their own sustainable country pub, The Cork Arms, using wood from trees in their woodland.
“It’s a private pub just for family and friends that used to be a fallen down shed,” the 47-year-old tells me with a giggle. “Everybody was giving us ideas of what we should do with it, but I knew I wanted to create this magical, cosy and warm cabin. I wanted the shelves to be slightly imperfect and I wanted it to feel like it had been there forever.”
Documenting their journey, as well as tips on everything from table and platescaping to home composting and seasonal home styling on her website and via videos on her Instagram page, Clodagh would regularly get questions from her followers about products she was using and where to find them. It was the catalyst to launch her own online store during lockdown.
“It happened really organically and very quickly,” she explains. “I had a Microplane grater I was using and people kept asking me where they could get one. Places kept selling out and it all started to get a little complicated trying to find where to recommend and so, because we already had a shop function set up on my website to sell my cookery books, I decided to sell them myself. I ordered 40 thinking it would be great if I sold 10, that was on the Friday, and by the Monday I’d sold over 100 because I didn’t know how to put a stock limit on it!”
Initially the online store sold cookery and household items, but as Clodagh and Harry expanded their smallholding at Broadspear, it became the ideal portal to sell their own produce, such as grass-fed Aberdeen Angus beef; wild meadow honey; juice, chutneys and jams made from fruit grown in the orchards; and eggs from their happy free-running chickens and ducks – who have become celebrities in their own right. “I mean, the hens have their own followers,” Clodagh laughs.
Fast forward to 2022 and with the world starting to feel a little more normal again, Clodagh was able to start thinking about finding a physical shop where she could sell her homeware, alongside produce from the rapidly growing farm.
The perfect opportunity arose just 15 minutes from her front door when a small retail space became available within the grounds of the The Retreat at Elcot Park, a recently revamped 18th-century country house hotel situated between Hungerford and Newbury.
A treasure trove of pretty hand-made table linens, British bees-wax candles, hand-blown glassware, essential cookware items, and seasonal flowers and wreaths, the store o cially opened at the end of November last year.
“I fell in love with the space as soon as I saw it but, because they had a Christmas market at the end of November, I had just 10 days to turn it all around – to get it painted, install till systems, the branding, lighting, the whole thing,” Clodagh explains. “It was pretty stressful, but so worth it, it’s such a beautiful shop.”
From the crockery and sustainable table linens to Clodagh’s favourite pantry items, the bestselling cookbook author curates all the items in the shop herself, sourcing many from as close to home as possible. “These are some of my favourite products, and things that I use every single day,” she says.
“If I buy something that I really love for the home, I will then try to source it for the shop, whether it’s bud vases or flower vases, our marble round serving boards, True Grace dipped candles made in Hampshire or the table linens that I got handmade for my wedding – there’s been a waiting list for those. I want to provide my customers with everything they need to create the heart of their homes.”
Customers can also sample Clodagh’s delicious signature bakes, which are available to takeaway or eat in the courtyard at the front of the shop, freshly-baked artisan bread and produce from Broadspear Farm, as well as a few seasonal specials, such as Clodagh’s home-made chicken liver pate, which has quickly become a bestseller.
But for Clodagh the space is much more than just a store. With eight cookbooks under her belt, including last year’s number one bestseller In Minutes, the chef hosts
regular book signings in the shop and says she loves being able to o er advice to her customers in person or just have a general chit chat. “That’s always been the dream,” she beams. “People come in from all over and then they say their name and I realise that I recognise them from Instagram. It’s just lovely to meet them in person and chat properly.”
Having recently moved to a new property myself, I take the opportunity to ask what Clodagh’s top tips are for making a house feel like home. “My biggest piece of advice when doing up a home, if you have the time, is to shop around on places like eBay or go to antiques markets or the little shops in Hungerford and Newbury,” she o ers. “You don’t have to spend a fortune and you’ll likely find something really unique. And then does your home feel warm and comfortable? Textures are so important and warming colours on the wall.”
So, will Clodagh be putting pen to paper to write an interiors book I wonder? “I’ve always loved setting the table for my food and my love of interiors has come from that,” she says. “It’s become, quite organically, just part of what I do – food is all about colour and textures and that is what interiors is all about. But I’m not sure I’m qualified enough to write a whole book about it. But perhaps a book about the home, I think I’d quite like to do that.”
In the meantime, Clodagh does have a new baking range coming out in the spring, which we’re sure, if her previous track record is anything to go by, will be a huge hit.
