Grow the Seasons at The Small Holding

Grow the Seasons at The Small Holding, Kilndown, Kent

Grow the Seasons

Learn to ‘Grow the Seasons’ in 2025 with new dates announced for chef and farmer Will Devlin’s horticultural courses at his Michelin green-starred restaurant and farm in Kilndown, Kent, The Small Holding.

Led by Head Gardener Alex Cairns, Grow the Seasons is for people of all skills and ages who are interested in gardening, growing and how our food goes from plot to plate, as well as giving a behind-the-scenes experience of the day-to-day running of a Michelin green-starred restaurant.

Each full-day course starts with coffee and pastries on The Small Holding’s one-acre farm, and is a balanced mix of hands-on practical and theory learning, as guests discover and share in the team’s knowledge on seasonal vegetable and fruit growing, ‘No Dig’ principles, soil health and composting, and how to take sustainable practices home to their own gardens, plots and allotments.

Each quarterly course is in tune with the growing season, including ‘Fresh Start’ on 12th and 26th February looking at no-dig beds and planning for the growing year ahead; ‘Planting Out’ on 14th and 28th May looking at sowing, planting, support structures, companion and succession planting; ‘Summer Abundance’ on 9th and 23rd July is about to successionally sow and plant to ensure continual harvest and also how best to manage pest control, while ‘Harvest Time’ on 10th and 24th September is about reaping the rewards of a successful growing season and looking at the best and easiest ways to harvest crops and what to sow in the Autumn for for Winter and Spring harvests. Each full-day course costs £195 per person and includes coffee and pastries, lunch at The Small Holding, learning sheets and a practical gift bag to take home.

Shorter courses include ‘Farm Mornings’ which are a focussed two-hour deep dive into a specific seasonal aspect of gardening, such as ‘no dig’ or ‘orchard pruning’.

Find out more and book for February, May, August and November 2025

www.growtheseasons.com

December at The Counter by Robin Read

December at The Counter

December is a time for celebration and reflection and what a first six months of operation at The Counter by Robin Read in Tunbridge Wells it’s been. This is the first festive season and Christmas at The Counter, and the restaurant is looking beautiful with twinkling decorations, candles, good food and wine and of course, time with friends and family.

December is a month for great produce from the land and sea of the British Isles to the warmer climate of Italy for citrus, radicchio and other bitter leaves. On the menu this month is stunning trout from the crystal-clear chalk streams in Hampshire which is lightly cured and served with finely sliced red moon radish, bitter leaves and Scots pine oil; Dover Sole from Cornwall is simply poached with a white wine and tarragon velouté, while local venison from the Eridge Park Estate and aged Sussex rump cap take the menu to a whole new level of richness and umami. A new offering each month is a palate cleanser made this month with fragrant and aromatic Sicilian pink grapefruit and Buddhas Hand Lemon in a refreshing thyme tea, before heading back to the comfort of an oozing chocolate fondant and Chiddingstone Dairy cream.

Diners have a choice of three-, five-, eight-course menus, costing £40, £60, £96 respectively, which are shorter versions of the ten-course menu. Three or six-glass wine pairing is £36 or £70, while the eight-glass pairing is £96 per guest and a three-glass non-alcoholic pairing is £32. The ten-course tasting menu is reserved exclusively for guests sitting at the pass overlooking the kitchen and gives diners an interactive experience watching Robin and his team of chefs cook and plate up at the pass; the menu is more experimental, taste-testing dishes that are in development for the next month’s menu.

Open days and hours:

Wednesday, Thursday & Friday: Lunch 12:00 – 14:30, Dinner 18:00 – 23:00
Saturday: 12:00 - 23:00 

Anthony Raffo joins The Small Holding as Sous Chef

Anthony Raffo in the kitchen at The Small Holding (credit Ashleigh Britten)

Anthony Raffo has joined The Small Holding in Kilndown, Kent, as Sous Chef. Having worked in the hospitality industry for over 20 years, after spending time in France and the Channel Islands and working in some of the best Michelin starred restaurants in London, including Pied a Terre and Texture, Anthony is perhaps best known as the creative force behind Anglo in Farringdon. Under Anthony, Anglo achieved 3 AA rosettes, ranked 21 in the Harden’s Guide, had a Michelin plate and was one of the first in the country to be awarded Two Green Circles in the 360 Guide.

Anthony joins a strong team at The Small Holding, which has a Michelin green star and Three Green Circles in the 360 Guide, working with Head Chef James Chatfield and Chef and Founder of The Small Holding and Acre, Will Devlin.

Will Devlin comments, “Anthony has a real passion for British seasonal produce ​and to create interesting and unique dishes using ancient and modern techniques, which reinforces the work we do on the farm at the restaurant​, and introducing new and varied fermentation and preserving techniques to the team and our guests.”

About The Small Holding

The Small Holding is a Michelin green-starred kitchen and farm on a country lane in the village of Kilndown on the Kent and East Sussex borders. Run by brothers Will and Matt Devlin, as Chef and Head of Operations, respectively, The Small Holding is part of Acre, which also includes Birchwood in Flimwell, East Sussex. 

The 36-cover restaurant and farm is set in one acre of land, permitting a unique connection between the land and table. Growing, foraging and cooking the best ingredients is at the core of The Small Holding, with monthly changing tasting menus, using home-reared and home-grown ingredients from the farm, which is less than 10 feet from the kitchen.

The menu is defined by the farm’s own produce. Vegetables and fruits are harvested within hours of guests arriving; while charcuterie, sourdough and cultured butter and zero waste animal cookery from the farm’s own livestock, are made on site. The kitchen team works directly with growers, farmers and fishermen who share the same core values, and the team forage in the nearby hedgerows and woodland.

The Small Holding is open Wednesday to Sunday with an eight-course Full Acre menu costing £95 per person and a five-course Half Acre menu costing £75 per person, with the option of a wine flight. A three-course set menu (from the full acre menu) is available on Thursday and Friday lunch time, priced £55 per person. The drinks list also includes housemade soft drinks, kombucha and non-nlcoholic wine, beer and spirits.

October at The Counter by Robin Read

The Counter by Robin Read, Tunbridge Wells, Kent

October at The Counter by Robin Read

“The Counter is delicious and charming… treating the inner Veruca Salt in all of us with pure imagination.” Grace Dent reviewing The Counter for The Guardian

“This new venture… is the best news for Tunbridge Wells. It has the makings of a destination – a relaxing neighbourhood restaurant with a big-city attitude” Good Food Guide

The fires are lit, the heavier and more complex red wines are poured, the curtain is pulled to and the menu at The Counter by Robin Read reaches for luxe comfort this month. Robin and the team have been foraging locally in the nearby woods for mushrooms allowing for a snack of Tunbridge Wells Cep Tart with Smoked Eel, before diving into a tasting menu of Autumnal treats including Cornish Monkfish, Pumpkin & Sage; Aged Sussex Rump Cap with swede & black pepper purée, girolles and beer braised shallot, before a new addition to the menu, a palette cleanser of Sorrel, Morghew Honey & Amaro Tea and for dessert, Mascarpone mousse, fig and linseed, served with an optional glass of Muscat de Beames de Venise ‘Solera’ Domaine de Coyeux.

Diners have a choice of three-, five-, eight-course menus, costing £40, £60, £96 respectively, which are shorter versions of the ten-course menu. Three or six-glass wine pairing is £36 or £70, while the eight-glass pairing is £96 per guest and a three-glass non-alcoholic pairing is £32. The ten-course tasting menu is reserved exclusively for guests sitting at the pass overlooking the kitchen and gives diners an interactive experience watching Robin and his team of chefs cook and plate up at the pass; the menu is more experimental, taste-testing dishes that are in development for the next month’s menu.

Vision and suppliers

Robin’s vision of a modern-day restaurant is that of a responsible and sustainable one with seasonal cooking, few food miles and using every part of an ingredient. He seeks out and nurtures a strong network of small, independent farmers, growers, and producers from farm to sea and takes great care and pride to meet all his suppliers, visiting their farm, forest, river, warehouse, or barn across the country. This ensures he has first-hand knowledge of the produce, and relationships with the people whose hands create, grow, or farm them.

Suppliers at The Counter include Kentish fruit and vegetables from T H Brown & Son, fish from Chapmans in Sevenoaks, meat from Fullers Butchers in Eridge and charcuterie from Beal’s. The wine programme is headed up by Greta Boccia and is a curated edit of English and European wines alongside several English spirits, such as Hepple gin and vodka and Vault vermouth and botanical spirits, on the list.

The restaurant features original artwork on display, and for sale, by Venezuelan artist RAA, a close friend of Robin and his former sous chef. The multi-media works combine acrylics, oil pastels, colour pencils and spray paint in bold and graphic shapes.

Open days and hours:

Wednesday, Thursday & Friday: Lunch 12:00 – 14:30, Dinner 18:00 – 23:00
Saturday: 12:00 - 23:00 

January at The Small Holding

THE SMALL HOLDING

Green Michelin Star 2021/22/23
Number 69, Harden’s Top 100 Restaurants
Number 10, Square Meal’s Top 100 Restaurants
Good Food Guide 2023

January

Despite the bitterly cold weather, there is something deeply cleansing and restorative about January; the thin, cold blue light, frozen ground and the beauty of skeleton trees huddled on the horizon. And of course, the food. While the farm is cold and quiet, it’s a hotbed of activity in The Small Holding kitchen. New Head Chef James Chatfield and the team make full use of the summer and autumn gluts and are constantly inventing and experimenting when there’s such a diminished natural larder. There’s fermented wild garlic stored to add deep umami funk to dishes, and pickled summer currants to add some welcome acidity.

The Full Acre menu at The Small Holding:

Snacks, Bread & Butter

Kale, Sea Beet, Cheese
Potato, Girolle, Leek

Scallop, Gooseberry, XO
Trout, Celeriac, Butter

Game Sausage, Quince, Chilli
Partridge, Parsnip, Plum

Rhubarb, Yoghurt, Sweet Cicely
Chocolate, Cherry, Meadowsweet

The Small Holding is open Wednesday to Sunday with an eight-course Full Acre menu costing £85 per person and a five-course Half Acre menu costing £65 per person, with the option of a wine flight. The drinks list also includes housemade soft drinks, kombucha and non-alcoholic wine, beer and spirits.

Grow the Seasons at The Small Holding

Now is a great time to get out into the garden and learn some of the fundamentals about soil health, the principles of ‘No Dig’ and planning for the growing year ahead. Learn to ‘Grow the Seasons’, a series of horticultural courses held on The Small Holding’s farm. The day-long courses are for people of all skills and ages who are interested in gardening, growing and understanding more about how food goes from plot to plate, as well as giving a behind-the-scenes experience of the day-to-day running of a Michelin green-starred restaurant.

Find out more and book for February, May, August, and November 2024 www.growtheseasons.com

About The Small Holding

The Small Holding is a Michelin green-starred kitchen and farm on a country lane in the village of Kilndown on the Kent and East Sussex borders. Run by brothers Will and Matt Devlin, as Chef and Head of Operations, respectively, The Small Holding is part of Acre, which also includes Birchwood in Flimwell, East Sussex.

The 36-cover restaurant and farm is set in one acre of land, permitting a unique connection between the land and table. Growing, foraging and cooking the best ingredients is at the core of The Small Holding, with monthly changing tasting menus, using home-reared and home-grown ingredients from the farm, which is less than 10 feet from the kitchen.

The menu is defined by the farm’s own produce. Vegetables and fruits are harvested within hours of guests arriving; while charcuterie, sourdough and cultured butter and zero waste animal cookery from the farm’s own livestock, are made on site. The kitchen team works directly with growers, farmers and fishermen who share the same core values, and the team forage in the nearby hedgerows and woodland.

The Michelin Green Star for sustainable gastronomy recognises restaurants with a focus on environmental practices; it encompasses everything about The Small Holding and the teams’ drive for sustainability.

July at The Small Holding, Kent

Will Devlin ont the farm at The Small Holding (credit, Key & Quill)

JULY AT THE SMALL HOLDING

Green Michelin Star 2021/22/23
Number 25, Harden’s Top 100 Restaurants
Number 10, Square Meal’s Top 100 Restaurants
Good Food Guide 2023

July is upon us, and with the new month comes a new menu at the Michelin green starred The Small Holding, in Kilndown, Kent. Right now, the farm is at its most productive and the menu celebrates the farm in full bloom. The four parts of the menu covers vegetables, fish, meat and dessert, as the kitchen and gardening teams harvest, forage and preserve through the height of summer. 

The restaurant is open Wednesday to Sunday with an eight-course Full Acre menu costing £85 per person and a five-course Half Acre menu costing £65 per person, with the option of a wine flight and non-alcoholic pairings. 

July menu at The Small Holding

Snacks, Bread & Butter
-
Courgette, Yogurt, Herbs
Pea, Girolle, Elderflower
-
Red Mullet, Tomato, Coriander
Hake, Artichoke, Garlic
-
Goat Kebab, Sumac, Chilli
Goat Saddle, Lettuce, Turnip
-
Blackberry, Buttermilk, Marigold
Cherry, Chocolate, Sweet Cicely

“Will Devlin’s restaurant shows no sign of slowing down, ‘a truly sensational experience’ is one fan’s heartfelt comment. The level of ingenuity generated by a kitchen on turbo drive, fuelled by its own small holding, hen coop and piggery is prodigious.” The Good Food Guide

Green Michelin Star for Will Devlin at The Small Holding

Will Devlin at The Small Holdinh

The Small Holding, Kent has been awarded a Michelin Green Star in the Michelin Guide 2021.

The new star was given to chef Will Devlin via a digital awards ceremony on Monday 25 January, presented by Kent based TV presenter Davina McCall.

This is the first year Michelin has awarded its green star for sustainable gastronomy to 23 restaurants in the Great Britain and Ireland guide 2021, after debuting in the French 2020 guide.

The award recognises restaurants with a focus on environmental practices and is only awarded to those which hold a Plate, Bib or Star distinction. Many, like Will Devlin at The Small Holding work directly with growers, farmers and fishermen, forage in hedgerows and woodlands and grow their vegetables and rear animals. Other recipients of this year’s Green Star include Black Swan, York; Coombeshead Farm, Launceston; L’Enclume, Cumbria; Restaurant Sat Bains, Nottingham and Silo, London.

Will Devlin, chef owner of The Small Holding, commented, “What an incredible feeling! This Green Star encompasses everything about The Small Holding and our drive for sustainability. This award is for everyone on the team, in the kitchen, on the floor and on the farm who all work so hard and really deserve this, I’m so proud.”

Gwendal Poullennec, international director of the Michelin guides commented, ‘These restaurants are not only an inspiration for the industry but also for all the readers and users of the Michelin Guide.”

www.thesmallholding.restaurant
@the_small_holding_

Ranters Lane | Kilndown | Kent | TN17 2SG

About The Small Holding

Will Devlin, 32, is the chef owner of The Small Holding, a kitchen and farm on a country lane in the village of Kilndown on the Kent and East Sussex borders. The 26-cover restaurant was voted the best restaurant in Kent at the Taste of Kent Awards and is set in one acre of land, permitting a unique connection between farm and table. Growing, foraging and cooking the best ingredients is at the core of The Small Holding, with daily changing menus, using home-reared and home-grown ingredients from the farm, which is less than 10ft from the kitchen.

Will’s second site, The Curlew, a former 17th century coaching inn in Bodiam, East Sussex opened in February 2020 and is 8 miles from The Small Holding. www.thecurlew.restaurant

For more information, images, interview or to visit The Small Holding, please contact Hannah Blake hannah@thediningroompr.co.uk | 07730 039361

Praise for The Small Holding
A group of folk growing amazing things, then pulling them out of the ground, sometimes knobbly and lumpy, then cooking and serving them. It’s perfectly imperfect and I wouldn’t change a thing.” Grace Dent, The Guardian

“The menu reads like a list of all that is good in a British Larder. Self-sufficiency, careful sourcing, purity of intent and an absolute focus on flavour. It’s easy to fall in love with The Small Holding for the warmth of the staff, its good intent and deft execution.” Tony Turnbull, The Times

“Striding confidently into its second year, Will Devlin’s restaurant shows no sign of slowing down, ‘a truly sensational experience’ is one fan’s heartfelt comment. The level of ingenuity generated by a kitchen on turbo drive, fuelled by its own small holding, hen coop and piggery is prodigious.” Will Devlin was named ‘Chef to Watch’ in The Good Food Guide 2020

August at The Small Holding

Trout, cucumber and horseradish on the August menu at The Small Holding

The Small Holding​ is​​ a kitchen and farm on a country lane in the village of Kilndown on the Kent and East Sussex borders. The 26-cover restaurant was voted the best restaurant in Kent at the Taste of Kent Awards and is set in one acre of land​ with raised beds, poly tunnels, pigs, ducks and chickens less than 10ft away from the kitchen. The restaurant’s own sheep, for hogget and mutton, graze less than half a mile away. The beds are heaving with lettuces, chard, beans and ​peas​, tomatoes, courgettes, raspberries​ and​ blackcurrants​.

Everything is home-made at The Small Holding​ for the Full Acre and Half Acre tasting menus​, including bread and butter, yoghurt and ricotta or sourced hyper-locally such as Hinxden Cream which has a herd of pedigree Guernsey and Holstein Friesian cows in nearby Benenden. Ingredients are picked fresh before service and when there’s a glut, the kitchen preserves, pickles and jars. 

The August Full Acre sample menu is below, with full vegetarian and vegan menus available and costs £60 per person with an optional 4 glass wine pairing at £40 and 6 glass wine pairing at £60. The Half Acre menu is £30 per person.

[Images by Clare Winfield]

Cuttlefish, cauliflower, wild garlic
Courgette, yoghurt, chilli
Liver, onion, bacon
Trout, cucumber, horseradish
Oyster, kale, purslane
Tomato, ricotta, yarrow
Mutton, lettuce, potato
Buttermilk, bay, blackcurrant
Meadowsweet, raspberry, apricot
Cherry, fennel, woodruff

Cherry, fennel and woodruff; Liver, onion and bacon; tomato, ricotta and yarrow on the August menu at The Small Holding