Margot Henderson has ruled London’s dining scene for decades. The New Zealand-born chef first made her name cooking at Soho’s bawdy, bohemian French House, before opening every al fresco diner’s favourite east London spot, the hallowed Rochelle Canteen. Earlier this summer she decided to branch out, taking over the kitchen at the newly revamped The Three Horseshoes. A decidedly cosy 17th century pub in the tiny village of Batcombe, Somerset, you’ll find it just outside of the lush, slightly larger and decidedly chi-chi Bruton. ‘I’ve been going to Bruton since my children were small,’ explains Margot. ‘Max, who owns the pub, suggested I came in with him on the project. It’s an incredible area – I started to discover all these amazing producers and it’s been quite the adventure.’
Eat
‘The Three Horseshoes, of course. We’re trying to be as local as we can. We use Westcombe Dairy for our cheese and they also make incredible charcuterie – they don’t use all of the pig, so we get some heads and tails and things they don’t want. It’s a really good relationship and it’s only ten minutes from the pub. In London everything’s a bit more dispersed; you get your stuff from a guy who’s been driving a truck for hours and you offer them a coffee and they look like they’re going to hug you! At the moment we’re doing fried red mullet with kohlrabi salad. We’ve also got a pork chop on the menu, and ribs of beef with a bone marrow salad.’
Drink
‘The Prickly Pear is a fantastic pub with some really great chefs. They do tacos and an amazing Michelada. It’s in an old boozer, but it’s all brightly coloured and fun – slightly different from anything else in town. It’s got a really great energy and nice prices, too.’
Do
‘An extremely pleasant 45-minute walk from Bruton to Batcombe. My mother and brother did it the other day. It’s quite wild – they ended up in the back of somebody’s dairy farm, and the farmer was just going ‘you’re on the right track, keep going!’ When it’s wild garlic season, I’d collect it there for Rochelle Canteen: I’d get a rubbish bag and fill it up in one minute. But you can still go to Westcombe Dairy and get a tour – it’s like a cathedral of cheese in this room built into the hill, with a special machine from Switzerland which turns these huge cheddars. That’s quite fun.’
See
‘Bruton Dovecote and Hauser & Wirth Gallery. The views looking over the valley are divine, and you can walk all the way up to the [town’s famous] dovecote. At the back of Hauser & Wirth there’s a garden that the famous Piet Oudolf designed.’
Did you see that this Scottish city has been named the UK’s worst for renters?
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