Seven Vyvyans, one top chef and a dedicated restaurant team are re-launching the 1000 year old Trelowarren estate's low-carbon, new-look New Yard Restaurant as a feast of all the best that sumptuous Cornwall has to offer.

Months of major works, meticulously planned by Sir Ferrers Vyvyan, have seen the fabric of the Grade II* listed buildings on the old stable yard restored, insulated rewired and linked into the estate's huge biomass boiler system to bring them up to top eco-spec – allowing Victoria (Lady Vyvyan) and sons Josh, Freddie and Rowan to put their design flair to creating a stylishly warm, cooly informal atmosphere.

Creating luscious but un-fussy new menus sees Ferrers and Freddie working closely with new chef Max Wilson who, with eighteen years of experience behind him and fresh from two years at the St Martin's Hotel, Isles of Scilly, is re-discovering the joys of foraging in Trelowarren's 1000 acres of woodland, fields and gardens running down to the Helford River.

“I was thrilled to see just how much wild food was available right on my doorstep,” says Max. “There's wild garlic everywhere, wood sorrel with its delicate white and pink veined flowers - along with the alarmingly named but really pleasant addition to any chef's larder, the hairy bittercress!”  

From mouth-watering carpaccio of beef provided by Galloway or Longhorn cattle which graze the grass of Bodmin Moor, to bouillabaisse of local fish and shellfish and home or locally grown fruit and veg – the team has hunted high and low to create menus of the best seasonal, authentic flavours.

A new wine list, 75% under £25.00 a bottle, researched thoroughly by the family's contacts in the wine trade, compliments the menu. There is an outstanding Galician Godello for fish and for the quality red meat there is a fantastic Pinot Noir from Auvergne – Puy de Dome. The Rose MiP is a very well loved classic.

“We've been working on so many and varied restoration projects since we came back to Trelowarren 30 years ago that we hadn't done much physical work on the New Yard buildings since the 80's,” says Ferrers. “We're confident our estate cottages – ancient and modern - and the pool, spa and gym areas in the Walled Garden are as immaculate as our visitors wish them to be. And while our Restaurant already had handfuls of awards for excellence there was plenty of work we wanted to do.”

“We listen very carefully to our guests,” adds Freddie, “about what they like and how tastes have changed. They come back to stay at Trelowarren year after year so they really are our best source of advice.

“People now prefer food and surroundings to be less formal, more family-friendly and flexible - and we're really proud that the result of the hard work over the last few months keeps the New Yard true to its history but cool and forward-looking too.”

Even the art on the walls reflects the past, present and future of the estate with Vyvyan ancestors in oil sharing space with sepia photographs, etchings and modern work by artistic talents of today.

And the gazes of those ancestors are now firmly focussed on the current generation of Vyvyans including waiters Inigo and Gabriel and manager Freddie, along with chef Max and the team of friends and family who bring youth and energy – along with fabulous food - into ancient Trelowarren's new New Yard.

ENDS

Notes to Editors:

TRELOWARREN

• The re-launch of Trelowarren's New Yard Restaurant puts it back among the estate's “green” and luxurious leisure facilities which include its famous eco-holiday homes, a twenty-metre pebble-lined ozone pool, the Walled Garden Organic Spa and state-of-the-art gym – heating and warm water for which are all provided by a 350 kWh biomass Binda boiler which itself burns coppiced and waste wood from the surrounding land.
• The history of Trelowarren and the Vyvyan family goes back to 1427,  but the story from 1945 - when the widowed Lady Vyvyan writing to Daphne du Maurier described everything at Trelowarren after war time requisition as 'death-duties, dust and ruin' - to the present day has been one of re-birth, renewal and restoration.
• Daphne du Maurier's imagination was caught by the romance of Trelowarren when she first visited in 1930 and she described it in her diary as, 'The most beautiful place imaginable.' Throughout her visit 'a sense of freedom and delight prevailed' and the beauty and peace of the house made such an impression that she used it as the inspiration for Navron house in “Frenchman's Creek”.
• For more information visit www.trelowarren.com. 

For further information please contact:

Louise Midgley

Tel: 01326 319884

Email: louise@midgleycomms.co.uk