Simon Rogan
At Our Core
When I first opened L’Enclume in 2002, twenty years ago, I pursued flavour as my first priority and motive when creating new dishes. I wanted to build a restaurant that was intrinsically connected to the ingredients used in its dishes. However, with where we are located in England there was and to a degree is even now, a lack of quality ingredients available. Naturally, I changed my thinking and decided I needed to source the best that I could find locally. I always knew that I wanted to create something that was tethered to the surroundings and the natural resources of our home, The Lake District.
So when I was given the opportunity to build my own farm, I seized it. I knew I could grow far superior ingredients that would yield amazing flavour for the kind of innovative dishes that I wanted to create. A lot has changed since I started running Our Farm. The food we cook has evolved to respect the ingredients and our growing operation. Now, our ongoing aim is to strengthen the link between our food, its development and the environment. By growing everything ourselves, we can better understand and place more control over the ingredients we use whilst being led by the rigid seasons of the Cartmel Valley, where their rhythm is at their most apparent.
Over time, my vision has become intertwined with the environmental issues that our society faces. I began to see that farming and how we approach it, with no pesticides or fertilisers and focusing on small-scale local production, is the future of agriculture and sustainable dining. We hope the future will only bring us closer to operating fully zero-waste restaurants, healthier soil and more ways to compost than before. We hope to establish an educational platform for future generations and to further develop the relationship between cooking and growing.
Cartmel
Cartmel is where it all started over 20 years ago.
Intertwined and deeply connected to Our Farm in the Cartmel Valley, L’Enclume is situated in a former 13th-century blacksmith workshop where our talented team share my long-standing passion for homegrown, seasonal produce and treat all guests to an ever-evolving dining experience.
It is also in Cartmel where we own and operate our neighbourhood restaurant Rogan & Co, Aulis Cartmel - our development kitchen and chef's table, 16 bespoke bedrooms and suites for those wishing to stay the night, and Our Shop.
In 2020, in response to the global pandemic, we launched Home by Simon Rogan, our very own delivery offering, providing regularly changing three-course 'at home' alongside other edibles and foodie gifts.
All our restaurants
Aulis London, our eight seat chef’s table in the heart of Soho, opened in October 2017 and offers a dynamic and interactive dining experience in which a series of dishes are cooked and explained in front of our guests.
Aulis Hong Kong and Roganic Hong Kong launched in 2019. I fell in love with the city when I went over there for a collaboration and it seemed like a perfect place to open a restaurant.
In 2020 Roganic Hong Kong was awarded a Michelin star, less than ten months after opening and received by a Michelin Green Star in 2021, highlighting Roganic as a leader in the field of restaurant sustainability in the city. There are lots of organic farms in the new territories, so I've been pleasantly surprised about the amount and quality of organic produce that you can find in the Hong Kong area.
We opened Henrock in October 2019, an informally elegant restaurant set within Linthwaite House, a contemporary country house hotel in the heart of the Lake District.
The Baker & The Bottleman is our latest venture in Hong Kong. By day, the bakery serves bread and pastries with a strong British heritage, using seasonal ingredients. In the evening, the upstairs space transforms into a casual bar serving natural wines alongside small plates and dishes.
In March 2023, we opened ION Harbour at Iniala Harbour House in Valletta, Malta. Here, we apply our signature farm-to-fork style to each dish, showcasing a wealth of produce from the Maltese fields and waters.
We recently announced that we will launch Aulis Phuket, a new chef's table at Iniala Beach House in Thailand. The intimate restaurant will seat 15 guests and serve a menu exploring local produce from like-minded suppliers.
Our Dishes
My cooking philosophy is first and foremost to respect the natural environment, which is evident in the way we grow our crops and how these ingredients are prepared and served.
It’s progressive and deeply rooted in the Cartmel landscape. We want the ingredients to shine and for our guests to be able to taste every single element of each dish. That doesn't mean that our dishes or cooking methods are simple, it's quite the opposite. The amount of thought and detail of each dish is very complex so that our tasting menu has a rhythm, it flows almost like a poem. It’s a culmination of tastes, textures, temperatures, taking our guests on an ever-evolving journey.
I think it’s very important to have your own cooking style and is what makes our restaurants unique. It can’t be replicated because it’s the sum of so many individual elements; our team, the landscape, the produce. This irreplaceable formula is why people travel from miles around to experience our restaurants.
BEST MOMENTS
L'Enclume received it's third Michelin Star in 2022, the year we also celebrated our 20th anniversary.
In 2021, our efforts towards sustainability were recognised with the newly introduced Michelin Green Star, awarded to both L'Enclume and Roganic Hong Kong.
Writing my first book ‘Rogan: The Cookbook’ also has to be up there as one of my biggest achievements.
In 2018 I was appointed Bocuse d’Or UK president.
Daily Inspirations
The relationship between farm and kitchen is crucial when it comes to our menu development - and our chefs know which fruit and veg are approaching harvest and can plan menus accordingly. A team at our development kitchen Aulis works all year round to preserve surplus produce, so we avoid any food waste from the farm.
For me and my team, the farm is also the place for inspiration when it comes to finding new textures or flavours, and our growers help us find new plants and varieties to try.
With this, it is very clear that our menus are heavily influenced by season and ever-evolving, with homegrown produce taking centre stage.
Sustainable Gastronomy
Sustainability for me is not just about nature and our use of resources. It’s also about how we look after and treat each other in the workplace. I like to think we set a good example in our kitchens and offices, we’ve created spaces where all opinions are respected. Hospitality jobs have a bad reputation and we are trying to change that from within.
In the more obvious form of sustainability, we have reduced the number of hours worked by closing our restaurants in The Lakes two days a week. This gives our team the chance to relax and recharge on their days off and to come back to work refreshed. It’s imperative that we look after them, otherwise, where would we be in the future?
In terms of environmental sustainability, I consider my team just as much a mentor to me as I am to them. We are all constantly learning and as I said before, we respect each other’s opinions, so if a junior member of the team wants to propose a new method or process that will help reduce our waste, then I’m all ears. It’s important to push boundaries, and having somewhere like Aulis, our development kitchen and chef’s table in Cartmel, really helps our chefs to challenge themselves. There is so much more information out there now, so I rely on the team to share their knowledge as it might just be game-changing for our operation.
For our diners, our role is more complex. We don’t want to be seen as preaching but we want them to leave understanding the incredibly complex relationship between food and nature. With globalisation, it’s often hard to know where something is originally from, or how it is grown. We want to show people the amazing ingredients that can be grown in the UK and just down the road on Our Farm.
What's next
We’ve got lots of projects in the works, so watch this space!