The Gardening Concept Pigs Out

As anyone who's self-employed can tell you, one of the most difficult aspects of running your own business is seeing the wood for the trees. So an entrepreneur who seems to have a full understanding of the big picture is particularly fascinating, especially when at the centre of the Big Picture is veg growing.

Robin Hutson made his name creating the Hotel du Vin group. Beginning in 1994, he chose mainly listed, quirky, often derelict buildings to turn into boutique hotels and quickly grabbed the public's imagination. His concept brought relaxed chic to conservative towns such as Tunbridge Wells and encompassed large, comfortable beds, good but affordable wine, and good service.

Hutson went on to win industry awards such as Hotel of the Year (2000) and Hotelier of the Year (2003). In 2004, ten years after setting up the group, he sold the seven Hotels du Vin for £66.4 million.

Now a new concept is in the making. The Pig, a former hunting lodge in acres of grounds, sits on the edge of Brockenhurst in The New Forest, Hampshire.  The concept? A full recognition of today's hunger for home-grown food. Indeed, it's part of the portfolio of Home Grown Hotels. In June, I was part of a group of bloggers invited to sample its delights.

To offer a completely home-grown menu would be unrealistic, so the emphasis, for most of the ingredients, is locality. The restaurant 25-Mile Menu gets most of its ingredients from local outlets, including farms, butchers, a flour mill and beehives (OK, so local olives is pushing it a bit, but they are marinated down the road). The hotel also employs Garry Eveleigh, who forages for wild food in the Forest. Most local of all, however, is the produce from the walled garden.

Dug out from tons of rubble which had been dumped over the years, it now bursts with constant sowings of saladings, root veg, tomatoes and trained fruit. It doesn't provide every green leaf on the plates but in summer provides up to 50% of the ingredients used by Head Chef James Golding (ex-Le Caprice and J Sheekey) and his team.

A fascinating article in EP Magazine makes it clear how carefully The Pig has been positioned. While clearly a hotel, it's marketed as a restaurant-with-rooms because locals often fight shy of hotel restaurants, seen as too expensive or just not good enough, and local, repeat custom keeps the tables busy (the 70-cover restaurant was almost full even on a Wednesday lunch-time).

Influenced by Petersham Nurseries, Hutson and co-Director David Elton made the kitchen garden concept central, plugging into today's aspirations. If we're not growing it ourselves, then at least we can choose to eat it out.

Hutson is quoted in the article: "Our next Pig project, assuming planning is successful, will feature a new kitchen garden and restaurant in the garden. We are not the first to do this but I think we will be the first to have brought the kitchen garden right to the front of everything and make it the central plank of what we do."

It's timely, too, that the problem of provenance has been so prominent in meat in recent months. Like all good entrepreneurs, Hutson and Elton have put their finger on the current pulse. They certainly know how to please customers. It's won various accolades already, including Independent Hotel of the Year 2013 (The Cateys) and a place in the Michelin Guide and, with one accord, we bloggers left with a sigh of satisfaction, a bad case of garden envy, and singing the praises of delicious food that had had us eyeing each other's plates with a desire to taste it all.

Naturally, the garden is a feature. Visitors are encouraged to wander round and there's nearly always one of the three-strong garden team on hand to answer questions. Tomorrow, in recognition of World Kitchen Garden Day they're even sending diners and hotel guests away with seedlings from the walled garden, to recreate a patch of The Pig at home.

Is it a concept that will last? Well, it's currently growing. Two more hotels are scheduled to open with the help of a £4.8 million finance package : The Pig - on the Beach, Studland Bay, Dorset, and The Pig - near Bath. (Both will open with established kitchen gardens.) But Hutson has already said that he's sure the hotels will be sold eventually and I suspect it'll be about the time that GYO enthusiasm begins to wane, or when he's got half a dozen properties, whichever comes first. Successful entrepreneurs move on at the appropriate moment.

In the meantime, however, The Pig, Brockenhurst makes a thoroughly enoyable destination for a day in The New Forest (you need to book to ensure a table). Go while Hutson and Elton are still in charge; businesses are never the same when the originating force has gone.

And while you're there In the midst of the wood, why not take a drink out on the terrace and enjoy the view of the trees?

NB My own description of the veg garden and gardening methods is scheduled to appear in a forthcoming Kitchen Garden magazine. For more of our bloggers' day out and some great pics, see A Taste of the Good Life from Vegplotting, From Kitchen Garden to Table in Minutes from The Galloping Gardener, Matron in Hog Heaven from Down on the Allotment, The Pig Hotel from Nick Mann at Habitat Aid.

Other restaurant reviews can be found at Steeple Times and Laura Ivill.