What do you get when you combine great food with a magical rural setting? Grate supper club at Wylds Farm, a dining experience like no other! We went along to the second in the series of supper clubs at Wylds Farm We enjoyed a magical four-course supper cooked by Norm and Iris from Grate Catering and Events around a large table shared with others. Here’s what we thought…
Wylds Farm
For those of you who have yet to visit Wylds Farm, it’s situated at the end of a long farm track just outside of Liss. It’s a Christmas tree farm which makes it super magical and I get that excited yet cosy feeling as I do in the lead-up to Christmas. The venue has a large courtyard for people to mingle and on this occasion, stand around the outside fire pit.
There are benches and blankets as well as standing tables to place your drink. Fairy lights twinkle up above and on this evening, we witnessed a beautifully clear starry night. We lingered outside with our welcome drink – a refreshing cocktail with locally-sourced fresh herbs – before taking our seats inside the barn.
Grate Catering
We’ve been eating Norm and Iris’s food for a while now and we continue to be huge advocates of their cooking. They specialise in fire cooking, which is essentially what it says on the tin – cooking with fire. This gives every dish a unique but subtle firey taste, whether that be smoked, charcoal or bbq. Most of their creations contain high-quality, high-welfare meat.
As a ‘flexitarian’, dining with Grate is one of the few occasions I do eat meat because I know it’s going to be good. Grate carefully source their ingredients from local, independent suppliers and everything is seasonal and made in-house. Grate Larder – Grate’s other business – produces all the sauces, rubs and marinades. It’s quality food at its finest.
The starter
Now let’s get back to the feast. First up was purple sprouting broccoli, fire griddled with homemade Caesar dressing, shavings of old Winchester cheese and chicken crackling. Oh my! I absolutely love veggies cooked on the fire and these were grilled to perfection. There was absolutely no skimping on that sauce!
Seconds
The smoked port terrine came second which was nicely presented on a bamboo (I think) dish which added to its farm-to-plate appeal. Although Grate are famous for their meat, I wanted to try the veggie version of their menu so Carlos and I could experience it all. So, for me I had roasted vegetable terrine which, like the pork, came with a griddled kohrabi and radish salad. I’ve never heard of kohrabi before but I now know it’s a blub vegetable which is like a cross between a turnip and a cabbage.
Main event
The grilled flank steak was the star of the show and Carlos was thoroughly impressed. Norm explained that this cut of beef is not usually used for steak but the way he cooked it over fire, gives it a delicious flavour. We couldn’t agree more. I had the marinated fennel steak which was fire-roasted and ever so tasty. Both were served with burnt orange puree, carrots in honey dressing, watercress and chappa roasted garlic and thyme potatoes. We loved it!
Dessert
Last but not least is the dessert and I absolutely loved the presentation of this one. It was served inside half an oval coconut bowl and there was a whole lot of flavour packed in. To end our feast, we enjoyed fire-baked apples topped with candied seeds and Portsmouth Distillery rum-soaked raisins and cream.
I must admit, on paper this didn’t excite me (because I’m one of those people who think fruit shouldn’t belong in a dessert – give me all the chocolate!) but the combination of these ingredients went so well together and it certainly got the conversation going – all positive of course. A winner in our eyes.
The verdict
We had a lovely evening at Grate’s supper club at Wylds Farm and we’ve been telling all our friends about it. As I previously mentioned, we sat at a large long table with the other guests in true supper club style. We sat next to a couple from Petersfield and had a wonderful time chatting with them. There were some couples there, like us, and groups of friends too. Whether there’s one, two or a few of you, you are likely to go away having enjoyed the experience with new friends as well as old.
We highly recommend getting tickets to one of the upcoming feasts by Grate Catering at Wylds Farm. It’s a truly enjoyable experience of fine food in a relaxed countryside setting. Find out more and secure your seats at the next one here.
H x
Service 10
Quality 10
Value 9
Ambience 10
Return? Yes
Overall 9.5/10
Images by myself and the Southsea Snapper.