The culinary innovators
Much has been said and written about local, seasonal and sustainable dining so to begin your meal with a course called ‘Wastage’, might appear to be taking the principle too far.
Fear not, the creative skills on show at Pignut ensure that a collection of small snacks using off-cuts from other dishes are a delight. It might be a mini cup of apple, pear and cucumber juice, a chilled soup garnished with herbs and flowers or crab mousse on toasted soda bread.
Tom Heywood, and his partner Laurissa Cook, settled here after a period at York’s much-acclaimed The Rattle Owl, to open Pignut, a neat, contemporary space on Helmsley’s Bridge Street.
Laurissa, sommelier and front-of-house, guides customers through each dish while Tom dispenses his magic at the pass with a four or eight course tasting menu, served at both lunch and dinner.
Ingredients are invariably sourced within a few miles of Helmsley, like the veg in the bright, fresh gazpacho, supplied by the lovely Helmsley Walled Garden and Newfield Organic Farm at Fadmoor. A smooth, rich chicken liver pate is sourced from locally reared ‘Herb Fed’ poultry in Easingwold while their Aberdeen Angus beef has been slow braised in Helmsley ale and sourced from the Castle Howard estate, and pork comes from Mangalitza pigs reared just two miles away at Carlton.
It’s not just about season and location, but also creativity. Tom has created a surprising and fabulous mille-feuille sandwiched with an elusive mushroom ice cream (the mushrooms grown at nearby Fadmoor). Ditto a superb fig leaf ice cream. ‘Honey’ is made with foraged dandelions. Leaves, buds and stems of wild garlic sit pickling on a shelf. Wines are predominantly natural and biodynamic with some unique cocktails. It’s easy to see why Tom and Laurissa describe Pignut as ‘a love letter to land, sea and seasons’.
And pignut, in case you were wondering, is the root of the shrub conopodium majus, a cross between a chestnut and a radish, which even dedicated foragers like Tom and Laurissa have found annoyingly elusive and tricky to prepare. But it embodies the ethos of their restaurant: local, seasonal and sustainable. You get the picture.
