It Started with an Airstream and a Horsebox
How we went from cooking out of a converted Airstream to a wood-fired restaurant and an orchard full of weddings, and the bits that never changed.
Most restaurants start with a building. We started with a 1967 Airstream, a converted horsebox and a fire to cook over. The buildings came later, and then the orchard, but the fire is still the first thing we light in the morning. It's still the whole point.
2015: cooking on the road
We got going in June 2015, taking wood-fired, modern British food out to weddings, festivals, May balls and country shows around Cambridge. We'd come at it from opposite directions. Greg had spent the best part of thirty years in kitchens, a lot of it as head chef at the Three Horseshoes in Madingley. Kate had been in Cambridge's tech and start-up world for years before deciding to build something around the food and hospitality she'd always loved.
What we landed on was "fast slow food": proper cooking with no corners cut, served without fuss. Use what's growing nearby, cook it over flames, look after whoever's in front of you. That was about the whole plan. It still is.
2019: Brix + Mortar
In 2019 we stopped moving and settled in Whittlesford, just outside Cambridge, and opened Brix + Mortar. At the heart of it, then and now, is a brick-built wood-fired hearth. Almost everything crosses it: local meat, fish straight over the fire, and vegetables we fuss over just as much as anything else.
The menu changes every month because the produce does. The best thing in April is nothing like the best thing in October, and we'd rather follow that than fight it. Greg will tell you he actually thrives on cooking with fire, and you can taste why. Wood is the last ingredient in almost every dish.
The Orchard Barn
The Orchard Barn came a few years on. There was an old sheep barn on the site with an orchard beside it, and we could see a venue in it. Its own wood-fired kitchen, a stretch tent, a bar (a nod to how we started out), a firepit, and the option to eat out among the apple trees. We host weddings, celebrations and our own community events there, and it's grown every year since the first.
What hasn't changed
For all the new space, the things underneath have stayed put.
Fire first. Produce from as close to home as we can manage, a fair bit of it from a few miles away, some from our own orchard, the wild garlic from down the road every spring. Everything made from scratch, the focaccia and the ice cream included. A proper welcome at the door, more often than not from Kate. A full run of vegetarian, vegan and gluten-free dishes, because everyone should eat well, not just some of you. And we try not to waste much: we hire locally, cook to our bookings, and send the used oil off to become biofuel.
None of it is complicated. We're not convinced good food should be.
More than a decade in
The question hasn't really changed since the Airstream days: what's good right now, and how do we cook it over fire. The horsebox has earned its rest. The hearth, the seasons and the welcome are right where we left them.
Come and find us in Whittlesford. We'll keep the fire going.
Kate & Greg
Co-founders, Provenance Kitchen
Book a table or explore our events spaces, we'd love to welcome you.
ask@provenancekitchen.com · 01223 839993 · Hill Farm Road, Whittlesford, CB22 4AN