Back in an English country garden

After some lean times and a foray into politics, British celebrity cook and greenie Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall is revisiting the good life.

- LINDA HERRICK

It’s early morning in Bristol, in England’s south-west, and Hugh Fearnley-Whitting-stall is in his shed looking out through the window, describing his garden. The English celebrity chef, and creator of the River Cottage TV series, award-winning cookbooks and ethical business brand, has eyes only for things he can eat, a loose metaphor for his life.

“My office is in the shed at the end of my garden,” he enthuses. “It’s early autumn, the apples have come early, the blackberries are bursting out all over, there’s a hazel-nut tree with loads of nuts.”

Fearnley-Whittingstall, 57, is on the phone to talk about his new recipe book, River Cottage: Good Comfort, and the delightful news that after a long absence, a new TV series, River Cottage Reunited, which recently screened in Britain, might be coming our way (Sky is looking at buying it for the Living channel; the series is also on YouTube).

In 2014, Fearnley-Whittingstall – let’s call him “Hugh” for brevity’s sake – decided to take a break from the telly to focus on other aspects of the business and his campaigning work on environmental and ethical issues.

He also wanted to spend more time with his family: his French wife Marie and their four children, one of whom was adopted when her mother, a family friend who worked for the BBC, was killed in Somalia in 2005.

The family now split their time between two homes: one in Bristol, to access schools, and a house near “River Cottage HQ”, 130km away on the border of Devon and Dorset.