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About us

The Lost Kitchen wood-fired restaurant is situated in a traditional Linhay and former cider barn built in the 1800s, in the village of Chettiscombe near the Devon town of Tiverton. The restaurant with beautiful views, sits at the top edge of the village and is instantly in sight as you drive into Chettiscombe village. The kitchen is led by Head Chef Jason Meade alongside Co-Creators Aurora and George Aykroyd.

Close-up of flames and sparks in a fire against a black background.

Restaurant‍ ‍

The restaurant interior combines an open kitchen with a wood-fired oven, while the sitting area has floor-to-ceiling windows, framing the beautiful village and countryside views. The stalls have been repurposed to retain much of their original character and architectural detail, including exposed segments of the stone wall and roof trusses. Our tables have been hand-made by George & Billy using timber from Knightshayes Estate’s woodlands (and with help from Blundells’ CDT students), brought together to create a sense of place and purpose.

The Tables

Our larger tables were made by hand using timber felled from the woodlands of Knightshayes Estate, the same estate in which The Lost Kitchen sits. Milled locally and shaped over many weeks, each one carries the grain and character of the land just beyond our windows. It felt important that the furniture, like the food, came from here.

The Garden

The Design

The garden was designed by planting designer Giles Hoey, with a brief rooted in authenticity rather than productivity. Native and heritage varieties were chosen wherever possible, alongside specialist edibles that are rarely seen outside of kitchen gardens, plants with a story as much as a flavour. The planting moves through the seasons deliberately, from spring through to autumn, with biodiversity threaded through every bed and border. The result is somewhere that feels quietly, unmistakably British, and yet somehow like being on holiday.

The Gardener

Katie Vantsone tends the garden week by week, bringing her own quietly feminine sensibility to a space that rewards that approach, plants chosen as much for how they look as what they give. Culinary and beautiful in equal measure, though altogether more relaxed in practice. She keeps the familiar returning year on year whilst introducing something new each season, so the garden always feels both settled and alive.

The Planting

Along the terrace, medlars, espalier apples, Szechuan pepper, thyme, borage, catmint and artichokes grow in the full Devon sun, adapted over time to what the south-facing aspect and its visitors actually want. The raised bank belongs to the ox-eye daisies, which we've embraced wholeheartedly; their arrival in early June is one of the true signs that summer has settled in. Daffodils hold the bank in the cooler months, and anemones carry the colour into autumn, all quietly keeping the wind-blown rye grass at bay.

The Harvest

What grows here finds its way into the restaurant in every sense, dried florals hung through the barn, fresh stems on the tables, edible flowers on the cake counter and in the cocktails, and whatever is ready and worth picking making it onto the menu.

An outdoor cafe with colorful chairs near garden beds, a brick building with large windows, and a cloudy sky.

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There is something honest about cooking over fire, it asks you to work with what's good rather than what's convenient. At The Lost Kitchen, that means Devon and West Country produce at its seasonal best, a menu that changes because the season does, and a kitchen that takes its cues from the people who grow and rear for us.

George and Aurora Aykroyd run the restaurant alongside Head Chef Jason Meade, together with a team that genuinely cares about where food comes from.

We'd rather not claim more than we can stand behind, but we're committed to operating as responsibly as we can, and always looking at where we can improve. And if you can walk here, please do.