Our team at THE PIG-at Bridge Place lift the lid on how their much-loved pickling wall helps preserve the fresh ingredients they harvest in the Kitchen Garden, to use all year round...
“Our pickling wall, and the fact we have so many pickled ingredients here, has been a core part of our kitchen since day one,” says Andy Feasby, Head Chef at THE PIG-at Bridge Place.
“Kamil (our Group Training and Development Chef across THE PIGs) established all our pickling methods here when we first opened in 2019 – his nickname is Mr Pickle. It took us a bit of time to stop just keeping all the jars in the back and to start actually showcasing them. Now guests are always asking us if they can try things they’ve spotted, which we love.”
Andy is taking a brief break before the lunchtime service begins to give us a tour of the spectrum of colourful ingredients that have been picked on site, all now stored and displayed in satisfyingly hefty glass jars of pickling liquor, labelled by hand in white ink.
Together, the jars on shelves form the pickling wall: an eye-catching signature feature of the restaurant interior that’s a guest favourite. There’s also a second, smaller selection on display outside, on the restaurant’s rustic terrace, where the Nailbourne stream burbles past.
There are pickled onions, naturally, which drinkers snack on in the bar; but also pickled heritage carrots, mushrooms, beetroot and much more. One jar is heaving with artichoke-like tuber vegetables called crosnes, picked in a hot-pink liquor that’s tinted with beetroot; another holds golden beets.
Whatever the contents, the produce has been preserved at its fresh best shortly after being harvested – usually from the grounds right here at Bridge. Andy’s personal favourites include pickled chillies: “We harvest a lot of chillies from the greenhouses during the summer. When you pickle them, it mellows out their heat a little and improves the flavour compared to just biting a piece of chilli.”
He also uses the tomato water left over from preserving tomatoes as a sauce for fresh crab when he has it on the menu. The wall makes a colourful feature, but at its core is a functional purpose. “If we get hot weather in the summer, or even a sudden run of a few hot days, we then need to harvest ripe produce from the Kitchen Garden that we can use up immediately,” explains Andy. “So it’s a very practical move to try to extend the life of that quality produce, to use it later in the year. Fresh seasonal produce is key to what we do at THE PIG.”
“We pickle fruit, too,” he continues. “We’re in one of the cherry capitals of the country here in Kent, so when we have a cherry harvest, we’ll use an alcohol-based pickling method to save cherries for our pastry menus in the winter, when it can be hard to create a 25 mile menu. Our Head Kitchen Gardener, Fran, harvested a lot of currants this summer that we’re now preserving, too. In early autumn, we harvest damsons, which we will use for sauces. I also like a plum sauce for venison.”
“Our picking wall is a reminder that our Kitchen Garden is the heartbeat of our operation, and almost a direct line to it,” says Deputy General Manager Freya Morton. “We are very transparent about what we do here, and we have an open kitchen where you can see the chefs working with ingredients. We share our pickle liquor recipe with guests, too – it’s not a secret.”
She points out that there isn’t a great deal of artwork in the restaurant – though there are some intriguing paintings and objects elsewhere – in part because the food itself is the visual focus here, with the jars arranged by colour and potted tomato plants and herbs on the restaurant tables, rather than flowers.
Freya also has first-hand experience of THE PIGs’ pickling culture, having chosen to be among the team members who lived on site during the pandemic lockdown of 2020 to keep THE PIG-at Bridge Place functioning. “It was summertime, and we had so much produce from the garden that we didn’t know what to do with, but that couldn’t go to waste,” she explains. “So we pickled a lot! It was so satisfying when we were finally able to see the kitchen back up and running and make use of everything. Beetroots that I had pickled were finally getting eaten. Making use of our fresh produce all year is what we are all about.”
See the splendours of our pickling wall for yourself, by swinging by for a bite to eat at THE PIG-at Bridge Place. No matter the season, you can be sure of well-stocked shelves that make the very most of our homegrown produce for our tasty 25 mile menu dishes.
