Sussex produces 98% local menu

It is no mean task to create a decent menu from 100 per cent local produce in this country.

Sussex is leading the way with its Celebration of Sussex menu - the brainchild of Martin Hadden, head chef at Historic Sussex Hotels, who claims to use 98 per cent fodder from the county.

Hadden’s dinner starts with Selsey lobster canapés and a brown crab egg custard tart with white crab meat Hollandaise and spring salad leaves, followed by roast best end of lamb with a spinach mousse, and half a dozen Sussex cheeses.

Drinks include a pinot gris 2008 and pinot noir 2006 from Bookers Vineyard, in Bolney, and a mead from Lurgashall Winery.

The honeyed mead is a sweet match for the tangy Sussex Pond pudding, which is traditionally slow cooked for eight hours, allowing enough time for the entire lemon inside to collapse and infuse the syrup which spills out – like a pond – when the casing is broken with a diner’s spoon.

Although there are growers of pak choi and edamame (soya beans) and makers of halloumi in Sussex there are no locally-produced lemons – the menu’s alien 2 per cent.

Photo via Flickr.