Our Food Journey in 2023
At the end of last year, we welcomed our new Head Chef Gemma Dallyn to the Taybank kitchen team. With over 20 years experience in the culinary industry – working in the likes of Quay in Australia and Bar Brett in Glasgow, Gemma is extremely passionate about using local produce to create innovative, seasonal menus. Her farm-to-table philosophy and connection to the land and sea stems from childhood and growing up on a farm on the Exmoor coast. Her love for cooking over fire and nose-to-tail eating will no doubt feature prominently within The Taybank’s food offering in the months to come.
We’re delighted to have her onboard and have been very much enjoying sampling her new menus! Below, she tells us about her first few months in the Taybank kitchen and what she and the rest of the team have in store for us this year.
After a refreshing winter holiday, the excitement to get back to The Taybank and see the progress of the renovation was real. Fraser and his reno crew had been at it for 2 weeks, I was keen to get back in, not at least to check on my coppa, guanciale and venison salami that had been hanging since November. We made some adjustments to improve the functionality of the kitchen, little tweaks but they make a big difference in streamlining service. The kitchen team put in a big effort to get us ready for opening again and gosh it was so lovely to be back and back with some great food.
Burns night soon approached and what a night it was. I made the haggis using venison offal from the local estate and got piped up the stairs for it to be theatrically addressed as it should.
Whilst we have had the chance, we have been doing lots of training with the team making fresh bread, pastas, gnocchi, butchery and curing meats for charcuterie. Skills they will not only use every day at The Taybank but that they can take with them for the rest of their careers. We are currently recruiting chefs in preparation for the opening of our garden and busy spring and summer seasons. It’s always exciting to get some new energy into the team but also it makes me very proud to see the current team take new staff members under their wing and teach them all that they have been learning through the winter months.
The game season is over now as we creep into warmer times, pheasant has been swapped for pork, spring lamb soon to be taking venisons place, and there will be more beautiful seafood on the menu.
Spring and summer are my main focus of planning at the moment, what’s going to be coming in from the garden, the menus for all our food offerings and how can we be more self-sufficient. It’s hard to put into words the excitement knowing that the “hungry gap” is nearly over and Gabriella our grower is hard at work planting seeds and preparing the garden for our first spring harvest.
This year there are big plans up at the walled garden and we are so excited to start receiving the beautiful produce, there’s just no comparison in quality and taste. When produce is grown with love, especially for you, just a stone’s throw away, by people who understand your food, It is a truly beautiful thing.
My hopes for this year are to introduce cooking over fire to the kitchen team, refine our offering in the dining room, create a delicious & fun garden kitchen, hold long lunch events down at the river and open fire cooking feasts up at the walled garden.
I’m excited for what the new seasons will bring and I hope you will come along and follow our journey.
Follow our food journey @thetaybank