Five Little Pigs is a neighbourhood restaurant in Wallingford, Oxfordshire. It’s the sort of restaurant you wish you had in your neighbourhood - fresh, self-assured, welcoming. It’s the sort of place people move neighbourhoods to have it in their neighbourhood. Listen, this is how they introduce themselves:
Our ethos is one of locality, seasonality and sustainability and we have direct relationships with all of our suppliers, most of whom are within 15 miles of the restaurant. We spend our spare time foraging the woodlands and hedgerows of Oxfordshire for ingredients.
See. These are people I want to be friends with.
This year, they also set up The Spare Beds Project which works like this:
If you have a spare bed in your garden, a spare planter, or room on the patio for a pot or two, then you’re halfway there. We will then come along and use that space to grow for our restaurant and bar. …We’ll organise the seeds and help out with the watering and pruning too. In return, you’ll…join our Spare Bed club. We’ll give you a card with which to get a free pint or glass of wine at our bar every month… and invite you all to a special Christmas dinner in December too - on us.
This I had to see. So I went to meet head chef, Aimee, as she picked some chard from a Spare Bed just 100 yards from the restaurant. Then we went back to the restaurant to chat and cook.
Huge thank yous to Aimee and her team for allowing me to disrupt their morning prep and for being so welcoming. It’s a really inspiring idea, and makes for delicious food. I hope other restaurants will follow Aimee’s lead.
Here is the recipe for the tempura chard which Aimee has kindly given me. (Which is good, because I have a LOT of chard):
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