Into the Wild
A day spent foraging on England’s Jurassic Coast.
By Jack Stanley
Photography by David Loftus
Ask most people to think of Lyme Regis and, chances are, there are a couple of things that come to mind. First is the tourism, the flocks of people drawn to the town for the long beaches that stretch along the south coast. The second thing people think of are the fossils. Lyme Regis sits on the Jurassic Coast, an area of England that can showcase millions of years of history in one fell swoop.
Away from the beachfront shops selling sticks of rock and washed up fossils, there’s another side to Lyme Regis. The hills and cliffs around the town are home to a bounty of wild and natural ingredients, many of which are tramped over or ignored by walkers along the coastal path. Earlier this year, a group of chefs set out to discover what this coastal landscape had to offer.
Led by forager Jack Ball, the group included Masaki Sugisaki, the founder and executive chef of Dinings SW3, an innovative izakaya that mixes Japanese and European influences, and his head chef Sean Kimpson. There was also Duncan Robertson, co-founder of Bristol restaurants Bokman and Dongnae, who was joining Masaki to seek inspiration for a collaborative Gill to Tail evening at Dinings. These events are an opportunity to use and showcase every part of the fish, from overlooked species to under used cuts. To go with this inventive fish butchery, Masaki wanted to search for natural, hand picked ingredients that could shape their joint dinner. Alongside them were local chefs Gill Meller and Valentine Warner, both experts in using wild produce and techniques in their cooking.
