Farm to fish to fork to frying pan … there is a lot of f-ing about in restaurants claiming an intimate relationship with the earth. Quite what this direct line to Mother Nature involves is sometimes less than clear. Direct from Chile via air, direct from the cash-and-carry with a dollop of home ferment on top? But the folk behind Wild, a relatively new opening in the leafy commutersville of Berkhamsted just north of London, have a regeneratively run farm in nearby Radlett, suggesting that their version of f-to-f really does involve pulling up whatever looks good that day and sticking it on the end of your fork. All of which is great news for the locals and those making the pilgrimage from the big smoke (this corner of Hertfordshire being just a 35-min train journey from London’s Euston Station).
The architecture is as welcoming as the staff when you arrive, whether by train, plane or on foot like me (full disclosure, I’m one of the happy locals). There’s a large central bar with diners to one side, glimpses of a chic private dining room to the rear and a comfy area tucked away to the right for pre- or post-supper warm-ups/cool-downs. The whole is an airily modernist space that contrasts nicely with the earnest, harvest-your-sand-carrots-by-moonlight ethos of the food. A place where attention to sourcing is never at the expense of good sauce, where sustainability and à point cooking go hand in hand.
Presiding over the lounging area is an attractively lit glass wine cellar that offers a clue as to how seriously they take their wine. Not overly surprising when you read that the sommelier, Rémi Cousin, was head somm at Le Gavroche and before that could be found popping the corks at The Fat Duck in Bray. Not only has M. Cousin assembled an exciting list for Wild, he also organises monthly tastings and wine-focused suppers with visiting winemakers and importers here. Altogether very wine-focused. Exactly as we like it.
The wine list itself is a treat: roomy but not too War and Peace, interesting but not too ‘Korean Chasselas anyone?’ Given the regenerative credentials of the place you might expect the list to lean heavily into wild-ferment, pet-nat territory. Instead, it takes a more expansive view seeking good drinking wherever it is to be found. By the glass, there’s notable Champagne (Deutz) and a clever selection of still wines: Rosso di Montalcino (a 2023 from Ciacci Piccolomini d’Aragona); Quinta do Noval’s Cedro do Noval 2022, Heaphy’s Riesling 2023 from Nelson in New Zealand and an Austrian Grüner Veltliner Federspiel (Domäne Wachau’s Liebenberg 2023). All at rather reasonable prices. If you’re after a bottle, the under £50 mark offers the likes of Boutinot Les Coteaux Côtes du Rhône-Villages, Chilean Pinot Noir or bush-vine Pinotage from Waterkloof; at the other end of the scale, there’s Haut-Brion and Grand-Puy-Lacoste for the bordeaux brigade. But to my palate, and pocket, the £50–75 bracket is where the list really excels, with Dom Filliatreau’s Vieilles Vignes Saumur-Champigny or Ata Rangi’s Crimson Pinot Noir: both great food wines.
It’s all very well having an impressive list but you also need to know how to wield it. So we set our young somm (Cousin seems to be training the youth, too. Bravo!) a challenge: ‘We normally drink southern Rhône but would like something new. Budget modestly modest. And we’re having the pork.’ A short list of requirements but enough for a good wine waiter to go on. There was a reassuring long pause before she directed me to the last page of the reds. ‘We‘re all raving about this amazing Georgian’, she said, her eyes widening theatrically. ‘It would be wonderful with the pork.’ I had already mentally folded over the corner of the page containing Teliani Valley’s Glekhuri Kisiskhevi Qvevri Saperavi – a wine with so much more charm than its long, spiky consonant-heavy title suggests (and one I’d happily have with almost anything). But full marks to the future of sommelierhood: it was a perfect foil for the char and caramelised fat of our main course.
In many ways, the kitchen’s job is to let the impeccable ingredients and goodly wine take centre stage. And while lesser cooks might feel the pressure to compete and add frills, foams and fripperies, not Matt Larcombe (ex The Crown at Bray and The Victoria in Oxshott) and Charlie Hitchcock (Hedone and Roux at Parliament Square). With credentials like that, they have little to prove. Which leaves ample space for simple but not simplistic cookery. Things like crispy pig’s head croquette with passion-fruit piccalilli, crusty-wobbly pork belly with ribbons of fresh apple and delightful star-anise ketchup (pictured below), and impeccably cooked tomahawks of pork (pictured above) and beef. There’s usually a whole fish to be had; crabby bells and ceviche whistles, too. And when the menu states simply ‘farm greens’ or ‘smoked mash’, know that it is going to be superb.
If you’re still going by pud time, their tarte Tatin is as good as I’ve had this side of the Channel. Their cake-baking, meringue-making and ice-cream churning skills are all worth saving a little room for.
The restaurant’s name might conjure up visions of palaeolithic porridge, savage raw-food salads or limpet-and-kelp fricassee. But, thankfully, Wild offers a more cultivated wildness, perfectly at home in the Capability Brown landscape of the Chilterns. Indeed, you wouldn’t be ashamed to host Elizabeth Bennet here or Colin Firth (or is it Mr Darcy, I never remember …). And if you see me in there, do say hello. I’ll be the one drinking qvevri red and waving a pork tomahawk joyously.
Dinner for two, including wine – £218.
Wild 247–249 High St, Berkhamsted, HP4 1AB; tel: +44 (0)1442 874 491
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