Review - The Moorcock Inn, Norland

We’re not in the pay of any of them so you can ask us safe in the knowledge that there are no backhanders, unlike some “influencers”, who with bare-faced cheek ask for a free meal or they’ll post a negative review. This is a fast-growing and despicable thing and that’s the end of my rant – for now.

In my Favourite Fives is the Moorcock – it switches position from time to time if I’ve been somewhere special that week – but it’s always there and has been since I first found my way up impossibly narrow lanes – some of them cobbled and in dense fog – in April 2018.

If you’ve never been you’ll find it’s a gnarly old boozer hunkered down in the lee of Norland Moor and unless we’re enjoying a summer like this one, the wind is a given and the rain comes sideways on.

Back then I said something to the effect of “ground-breaking/jaw-dropping/bonkers” and I stand by that today. I’d never been anywhere like it until later that year when I went to the Ethicurean in the Mendip Hills in North Somerset and ate lunch in a greenhouse looking out over the produce that was on my plate. Similarly, Alisdair Brooke-Taylor and Aimee Turford have turned a scrubby patch of land next to the pub into a two-acre organic kitchen garden which feeds the menu.

Whilst there’s immaculately sourced meat (from Crowkeld Rare Breeds in Kildwick) and fish (mainly from Wild Harbour in Hayle), a lot of the offer is plant-based and much of it cooked over fire in the yard. Recently I took a keen carnivore and he loved his six-year-old Oxford Sandy and Black pork chop with gooseberries, hazelnuts and lemon verbena but just as much the (absolute killer) smoked beetroots with radicchio, redcurrants and black garlic.

There’s something ineffable about Brooke-Taylor’s style; he has a signature that can only be his, perhaps born from his time as sous chef at the Michelin-starred In De Wulf in Belgium.

He makes it look simple but you just know that there’s a huge amount of creative graft going on. So we’re sitting under a parasol in the garden in the sunshine and plate after plate of masterful, head-spinningly good things keep coming our way.

Six Porthilly oysters perching on a pine nest with mignonette are helped down with a pint of Vocation Heart & Soul and a wedge of sticky black sourdough.

Every time I go I say I’m not having bread. I always have bread. Stir-fried sprouting broccoli and Meloine shallots, fried garlic seeds, homemade saki and miso sauce rocks up with wood roast greens and heritage peas in garlic and anchovy sauce – both with oceans of flavour and tons of texture, both un-Instagrammable, but you don’t come here for pretty food.

Then the star of the show turns up. Billed as “next level prawn toast”, it’s an umami bomb: a slice of sourdough with a layer of wolf fish mousse and bay scallops topped with poppy seed and quinoa crumb, drizzled with Norland honey infused with chilli. Honestly? It’s incredible. The look that passes between us says: “How does he do this?” It’s a defining moment in this eater’s life. Make a booking before it disappears off the ever-changing menu.

Drinks are more than noteworthy: Aimee is an experienced sommelier and the wine list is largely natural and chosen for purity, balance and occasional quirkiness. They’re all handmade by small producers and farmed organically or biodynamically. There’s a good range of local craft ales too and a wide choice of Belgian beers.

When he’s not foraging/baking/fermenting, Alisdair makes pots and plates for the pub; they’re as rustic as the food and just as interesting, and you can buy them in the pub. During lockdown they found new customers by selling groceries, store cupboard staples and take-outs; one Friday night I found myself in a car park in Sowerby Bridge furtively exchanging money for wood-fired pizzas from Amber, the Moorcock’s fabulous FOH.

There are just a couple of puddings; today, ice cream Neapolitan (pineapple weed, milk, blackcurrant. I know) and for us, for the second time in a fortnight, a salted goose egg custard and rhubarb doughnut. No doughnut ever looked or tasted like this.

Somehow it’s pillow-soft and crispy. Shove a fork into it and sunshine yellow custard pools out. We emit a hiss of pleasure.

There’s not much in the way of restraint; what you get is a sort of big-boned generosity from a chef with a deep understanding of the marriage of flavours and textures. His style is inimitable; these aren’t politely-made dishes, they’re joyous, brave and brilliant and totally in your face. Fickle I might be, but I’ve a feeling I’ll stay faithful to the Moorcock.

The Moorcock Inn, Moor Bottom Lane, Norland, Sowerby Bridge HX6 3RP. www.themoorcock.co.uk. Opening hours, Wednesday to Thursday: 5-8pm, Friday: 5-8.30pm, Saturday: 12-2.30pm and 5.30-8.30pm, Sunday: 12-3.30pm.