England’s Southwest has much to offer for food lovers, not least the county of Somerset.
It’s home to many great restaurants, including Michelin-starred Osip, where chef Merlin Labron-Johnson invites diners for a taste of the English countryside through vegetable-forward dishes that are elegant without being showy, where everything tastes of what it is, utilizing techniques learned from his time working in France and Switzerland. Since opening in late 2019 it’s deservedly won a reputation as one of the best restaurants in the country. I once ate a life-changing onion dish there and haven’t been the same since.
This summer, Osip was relocated from the heart of the Somerset village of Bruton to an 18th-century inn just outside it, a larger site than the tiny but perfectly formed original, with four guest bedrooms, that brings the grower-chef closer to his beloved Somerset earth.
“I think that being stationed out in the fields, closer to nature and the land where we grow our vegetables will have a huge natural impact on our cooking,” says Labron-Johnson of the move. “Being in a larger kitchen will allow our cuisine to evolve naturally with a lot more space for development and trying things we wouldn’t have been able to before. We will also be cooking a lot more over open fire, both inside and outside so I am really interested to see how that influences the way we cook over time.”
When he’s not getting his hands dirty out in the fields or turning out perfect plates at the restaurant, this is where Labron-Johnson likes to eat, drink, and food shop in Somerset.
