Hyper-local, super seasonal restaurant to launch in Falmouth

The chef Hylton Espey will open Culture in Falmouth, Cornwall, in June, a restaurant that will ‘celebrate local produce and hyper-seasonal cooking with a menu of nature-inspired cuisine’. Hylton, formerly of Rastella at the Merchants Manor hotel, said ‘ethically conscious local suppliers and their produce’ will ‘sit at the heart of Culture’, from pasture raised Footes Farm chickens and sustainably farmed Cape & Cove pork to regeneratively farmed Trenow Fields vegetables and Cornish Golden Grain’s pulses and crops. Hylton also said he will collect fish himself from his favourite fishermen. ‘By building and maintaining fantastic relationships with my suppliers, I aim to source the freshest produce available’, said the chef. ‘I work directly with farmers to produce sustainable and where possible organically grown food for my kitchen. I’m constantly experimenting with new flavours and techniques trying to utilise indigenous plants, so that I can include them in my repertoire.’ At Culture, guests will have the option of the ‘Journey Menu’, described as ‘a story told over multiple courses, driven by produce and inspired by the team’s experiences, from a trip to the farm or a surf on the Lizard’. An example dish might be the ‘Story of Lamb’, inspired by a coastal walk from Porthleven to Trewithick Farm. Hylton said the dish was born from his experience seeing lambs ‘grazing on the fields looking out over the Atlantic, their hedgerow herb diet and proximity to the sea’.