Restaurant that's rooted in its garden

'Plot to plate' isn't just a catchy tagline at The Pig at Combe, it's the entire ethos of those labouring side by side in the hotel's kitchen and on the veg patch, finds LEWIS CLARKE

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AT The Pig at Combe, tucked into the bucolic Devon countryside, festive preparations don't start in the kitchen - they begin in the soil.

Just 20 metres from the pass, a thriving kitchen garden quietly grows the backbone of the Christmas menu. Here, food isn’t merely seasonal; it’s as fresh as a morning's harvest and as local as the tree-lined path to the dining room.

In an age where restaurants can shout “farm to fork” without ever setting foot in a field, The Pig at Combe lives the ethos daily - and it shows on the plate.

At the centre of this quietly revolutionary approach are head chef Rob Neil and head kitchen gardener Peter Harris, whose collaboration is less a formal partnership and more a rhythm of daily exchanges, planning, trust, and instinct.

Both seasoned professionals in their respective crafts, they form a duo that blurs the lines between where the garden ends and the kitchen begins. With Christmas around the corner, the pair are deep into one of their busiest transitions of the year - turning the lush abundance of summer into the hearty sustenance of winter.

Rob, who joined The Pig at Combe over six years ago after a career spent largely in London, first encountered the place as a diner.

"This is the first place I came to eat when I moved back," he recalls. "I knew there was something very special about it from the moment I walked in, especially having come from the hustle and bustle of London."

That moment set the tone for everything that followed. It wasn't long before he took a role in the kitchen, and three years ago he became head chef.

Peter, meanwhile, is no stranger to soil. "I've been working in gardens for 25 years now," he says. "Before joining The Pig, I was in private estates, university grounds, and schools. I started with The Pig on the Beach in Dorset and moved down here because I grew up just down the road."