THE LOST ART OF LOSING YOURSELF:
NORTH NORFOLK 02: GREG ANDERSON
We drive back to Holt to meet Greg Anderson, the area’s exciting young Michelin-starred chef. He was head chef at nearby Morston Hall in 2014 at just 24 years old. In 2020 he and his partner Rebecca, Morston’s ex-general manager, went their own way and opened their restaurant, Meadowsweet in Holt. It’s light years away from the grandeur of Morston Hall – a small cottage with low doorways, ten tables, and a neat, modern ascetic air to it. Greg, at 6’4” is permanently ducking down.
Retaining Morston Hall’s Michelin star for six years must have been a huge deal for a 24-year-old? “Yeah, the first couple of Guides were a big thing for me. Being so young and insecure, there was a lot of pressure which I naively never anticipated. I was working harder than many experienced head chefs – I was so petrified of losing the Michelin star that I wanted to make sure that everything was absolutely the best it could be.”
“Recently I was looking at our initial business plan for Meadowsweet – it was eight people a night, and hopefully those eight people would turn up! Touch wood there’s never been a night when every table has not been filled, and we’re booked up for seven months. And we won the Michelin star in year one.”
Meadowsweet has attracted some serious extra talent with chefs joining from New York, and London’s Restaurant Gordon Ramsay. “They’ve got a huge wealth of experience,” says Greg, “and it’s enabled us to do 22 people every night.”
Greg loves local ingredients but he’s really, really picky. “We get local lamb and it’s really nice, but it’s not like the best lamb ever, so we invested in a meat ageing fridge and age the lamb for 3 weeks on the bone – it takes some of the moisture out and breaks down the proteins a little bit so it’s so intense, so tender. We work with the local produce and elevate it into something that’s special.”
“I’m not going to say we’re 100% local – we got some pigeons from the south of France last week and they’re the best pigeons in the world. I appreciate restaurants that only use local produce but I don’t think it’s wise to give yourself those restraints – I mean, if we did that we’d just serve sea bass every week.”
For such a slim person it’s hard to believe Greg gets inspiration from eating. “Rebecca and I have just come back from California where we ate in one 3-Michelin-starred restaurant, three 2-Michelin-starred restaurants and a handful of 1-Michelin starred restaurants… It's been a really expensive trip! But my whole life has been like that – whatever money I’ve made, I’ve always spent on going out. We just love eating and drinking.”
Greg has been working in Michelin-starred restaurants since he was 17: “My life was always the job”. But recently he’s given himself a few other hobbies: “It just makes your mind a bit clearer. I like running, and I bought a really old Alfa Romeo GTV which I chuck money at – just little things to keep your mind off stuff. We’re only open four days a week – we try to give ourselves time. It’s more balanced now.”
Greg’s North Norfolk recommendations:
Eat: The Old Bank, Snettisham
The Neptune, Hunstanton
Place: Salthouse – “I just love it here – it’s so bleak! I think it’s the nicest place on the coast.”
