Spotlight: Made in Oldstead Food Box

Tommy Banks and Matthew Lockwood have made their food boxes available for delivery nationwide

You mean we don’t have to live in Yorkshire to get these?

Not any more. Tommy and team first made their boxes of seasonal dishes available on a local level in April, but the have now announced that the service has gone nationwide so that many more people can get a taste of their food.

What do they contain?

Two options are available – the Made in Oldstead Food Box (£75) and the Celebration Box (£120) – both filled with produce grown both on and around the Banks’ farm and from the

restaurant’s local suppliers. Dishes come delivered oven-ready with menus changing on a weekly basis. The coming months’ dishes pay homage to the bounty of produce from the family’s farm and garden during what Tommy describes as the Time of Abundance (June to September).

Time of abundance… I like the sound of that

Yes, and there’s plenty to be happy about. Made in Oldstead Food Box includes two different menus, each containing a three-course meal for two, with the latest comprising smoked ham hock terrine served alongside a gherkin ketchup using cucumbers pickled from last year’s restaurant garden crop; a glazed spring shoulder of lamb with the farm’s Maris Bard Potatoes that come still covered in soil to retain their freshness; and an elderflower drizzle cake using foraged elderflower with cream cheese icing for dessert.

And if I’m feeling in a particularly celebratory mood?

The Celebration Box includes an five-course tasting menu for two people of some of the restaurant’s most popular dishes with a bottle of wine selected to match the food. The latest food drop includes The Black Swan’s signature beetroot cooked in beef fat with smoked cod’s roe emulsion and Linseeds, as well as Lincolnshire poacher custard to go with the bread course. For mains there’s salt-aged beef wellington with dauphinoise potatoes and red wine jus with a lemon verbena posset as a palate cleanser before a chicory root tiramisu finishes things off in style.

Can I add to my order?

You sure can. In addition to the boxes, you can order a range of pre-batched 500ml bottle cocktails including a damson sazerac (£42 ) , marigold martini (£38) and a rhubarb ‘Negroni’ (£39) – produced by Tommy’s brother James. A selection of wines and beers are available too, including The Black Swan’s own English sparkling wine, made exclusively for the restaurants by Charles Palmer and his family in Winchelsea on the coast of Sussex; and a lemon verbena pale ale made with lemon verbena from The Black Swan’s own garden.