The Homestead Kitchen, Goathland: Meet the young family who have converted a farmhouse in Heartbeat country into a 'no frills fine dining' restaurant

Peter says that having had The Pheasant and having worked previously alongside renowned chef Andrew Pern at The Star in Harome and then also partner in the business at The Pheasant he was looking for something different, where he and Cecily could create something unique.

“It’s about a lifestyle, as much as it is about the restaurant,” says Peter. “We have our own garden here, where we grow some of the vegetables, herbs and fruits we use in our dishes. We will never be wholly self-sufficient but it is part of our ethos to use really good ingredients, cook them nicely and make them taste really great.

“When we come up with any dish we first think about what’s in season, what we can get that’s really nice and what’s in our garden. Our aim is to make every dish taste delicious, as well as making it look as nice as possible.

“I’d describe it as relaxed fine dining. No frills fine dining. You’re not going to get something that is presented to you on a stone taken from a river from the Moors, there’s a lot of that pretentious nonsense around these days. There are no pots coming out from the kitchen with lids with smoke underneath, no liquid nitrogen.

“Of course, we have nice crockery and a few little extra bits and bobs but there’s nobody coming up to you telling you what you’re eating and how you’re to eat it.

Peter’s commitment to good quality ingredients is by far the deciding factor in all his dishes.

“Sourcing meat locally, for instance, is an ongoing process and it is not all down to the immediate area, although all of our meat is sourced from somewhere in Yorkshire. It can be quite tricky sourcing local meat, just by virtue of the way meat markets work, but we are getting Herdwick lamb from a smallholder just a few doors up from us, which is fantastic.

“We largely use local butchers Radford’s from Sleights for our beef, we get cheese from Botton Village from their organic dairy herd; and fish from Whitby when we can, which is usually lobster, crab, mackerel and sea trout.

Peter points to using butchers who have the best cold storage equipment as being another of his major deciding factors.

“For me it is all about finding the butchers that keep the meat they receive in the best condition through hanging times and never touching a vacuum pack. I’ve used R&J Meats in Kirkby Malzeard for years. I know just how good Ryan’s salt ageing chambers are and it is butchers such as R&J and Radford’s that take the meat to the next level with a real understanding of meat hanging for such as 60 days.

Cecily works front of house with Sam, the lady she regards as her rock, and she gives her take on another unique aspect of Homestead Kitchen.

“If you came six months ago and come again you’ll find you’re likely to be looked after by the same people, the same chefs and, say you come even eight weeks later our a la carte menu will be completely different but just as delicious.

“I think what sets us apart is that we are quite accessible to everyone. We can have foodies come and love it and similarly walkers in their walking boots stumbling on it. And I know that the food coming out of the kitchen is excellent.

“I also really love people and the connections you make that you would never have known otherwise. We all have these winding paths in our lives. One of the reasons we earned the accolade of Best Local Restaurant North East from the Good Food Guide, which we were tremendously excited about, was that in addition to the food we also received the comment that ‘as a customer you feel the most important person in room.’

Peter and Cecily have plans in place to reinvent their garden and for the Homestead Kitchen to include much more. They already have holiday accommodation packages for 2-6 people.

“We are a 28-cover restaurant in the North York Moors,” says Cecily. “We’ve dipped our toe into workshops to bringing the local community into what we do, to encourage others to grow vegetables, and to have a traditional crafts space to celebrate other small businesses.

“The whole plot we have here is only half an acre. We inherited a greenhouse and get a load of tomatoes and cucumbers out of it. We had four raised beds with a few herbs when we got here, but now we have 14 vegetable beds producing a mixture of courgettes, pumpkins, broad beans, peas, garlic, carrots, rhubarb, meadow sweet, lovage and we’ve just planted an orchard of eight trees including pears, plums, quince, which we will add to this winter, to become our food forest with wild hedgerows growing sloes and elderberries.

Peter and Cecily have another Peter working alongside Peter, and Sam working alongside Cecily as well as a further team of dedicated local people. It’s a happy team, along with their two little boys Ralph and Wilfred.

Peter says it’s a dream come true.

“I’d met Cecily and knew I wanted to do something else, find the right place and share that dream. Fortunately, I persuaded Cecily to come along for the ride. I’m loving it.