Building Something Different
There’s something special about gathering around a fire.
For thousands of years, it’s where we’ve shared food, passed on knowledge, built communities and celebrated the ingredients that sustain us.
For more than 25 years, food has taken me on an incredible journey.
From Michelin-starred kitchens and live stages to farms, producers and fire kitchens around the world, every producer, every chef and every experience has shaped the way I think about food.
Over the last three years, 8 Plates has evolved from a series of extraordinary dining experiences into a platform for celebrating exceptional food, remarkable producers and the power of gathering people together.
8 Plates Going Analogue is the next chapter of that journey.
The Vision
The idea is simple.
Bring good people together around good food.
Cook over fire.
Meet the farmers.
Talk to the producers.
Ask questions.
Share stories.
Leave with a better understanding of where your food comes from.
That's what 8 Plates Going Analogue is all about.
That is the vision behind 8 Plates Going Analogue.
Based in Woodborough, Nottinghamshire, this travelling live-fire kitchen will journey to carefully selected farms, schools, festivals and communities across Britain, creating extraordinary gatherings wherever it goes before returning home to begin the next journey.
FORAGE
Foraging has always been part of the way I cook.
Some of the best ingredients you'll ever taste aren't found on a supermarket shelf. They're growing in our hedgerows, woodlands and coastlines, waiting for the right season.
Alongside those ingredients, I make the pickles, ferments and preserves that capture those fleeting moments, allowing every menu to tell the story of a place and a season.
For me, every landscape has something worth discovering.
FARMERS
Every great meal begins long before it reaches the kitchen.
I've spent more than 25 years working with farmers, growers, fishermen and artisan producers who care deeply about what they do.
They're the reason great food exists.
Too often, their work ends where the kitchen begins.
I think they deserve a place at the table too.
FIRE
I've cooked in Michelin-starred kitchens, luxury hotels and on stages around the world.
But I've always believed one thing.
If you have good pans, sharp knives and fire, you can cook.
Fire strips cooking back to what really matters.
Great ingredients.
Good technique.
Patience.
That's why it sits at the heart of everything we do.
FEAST
The food brings people together.
The conversation is what makes them stay.
A feast isn't measured by how many courses are served or how expensive the ingredients are.
It's measured by the stories shared, the friendships made and the memories people take home with them.
Because the best gatherings are remembered for far more than the food.
Built for the Journey
8 Plates Going Analogue has been designed to travel.
With its home in Woodborough, Nottinghamshire, it will visit carefully selected farms, schools, festivals and communities across Britain before returning home to begin the next journey.
Designed to operate off-grid, it will combine live-fire cooking with renewable technology to demonstrate that exceptional hospitality and environmental responsibility can work hand in hand.
Every element has been carefully considered to allow the kitchen to operate almost anywhere.
Powered by renewable energy, supported by its own water supply and designed to capture heat that would otherwise be wasted, it has been built to travel lightly while creating extraordinary gatherings in places they might never otherwise happen.