Dan Herbert

Personally for me Nurtured in Norfolk offer up a great product, that’s constantly consistent. I think there’s a lot of chefs out there that cover a dish in micro herbs to enhance the aesthetics of a dish, rather than using the herb as an element.

The flavour that comes out of the “nurtured” ingredient is amazing. I have an obsession with nasturtium leaves and the pepperness they can add to a dish savoury or sweet. At the dial house we try and refine bistonomy cooking and using a lot of techniques, that doesn’t necessarily show in the finished product, but it does in flavour. Each element of a dish HAS to add something and not be “decoration”.

Our wild rabbit dish, new to the menu, has an earthiness about it and saltiness from the smoked bacon, the sweetness from the carrots. And the nasturtium helps balance it with a bitterness and pepper notes. On the other side, we have our raspberry chocolate ganache, with frozen raspberries and nasturtiums.

The pepper notes takes away some of the sweetness and balance well with the slightly sour ice cold raspberry.

Obviously of a punnet we try and maintain the leaves as best we can, but any that aren’t up for presentation don’t get wasted and we will turn into an oil, which adds another element to the dish.

Connect with Dan and discover more of his work at @chef_danherbert