HARRI E T MANS E L L ROB IN WY LDE IN LYME R EG I S , DOR SE T


The woodruff palmiers from Robin Wylde are going down a storm in Lyme Regis. The restaurant’s name is a play on words meant to evoke the wild foraged ingredients that play a large role in the concept. Robin Wylde was born out of a successful pop-up in 2019 in the picturesque Dorset harbour town, with its famous curved harbour (immortalised by John Fowles in The French Lieutenant’s Woman) and its pastel- coloured townhouses framed by soaring golden cliffs wedged into a sheltered cove. Its creator, chef Harriet Mansell, credits some


of her success to her proximity to the sea. “I can think clearly here. The sea is very calming, with an amazing feeling of freedom and space. On top of that, the coastal climate is phenomenal,” she says. Since the beginning of the year, Harriet has


diversified, creating a community bakery in the restaurant, offering dandelion root and sticky toffee cookies, and gorse and winter citrus Danishes, alongside nettle, rosemary and wildflower savoury pinwheels and seaweed and onion pastries. Bookings are available only on selected dates, which she releases a few months ahead. “I only have two spaces leſt before July,” she grins. Harriet also runs a small plates wine bar in Lyme Regis called Lilac, which focuses more on the local larder, but always incorporates wild food. Harriet’s passion for all things wild stems from


an introduction in early childhood, thanks to an education where leſt field-looking teachers encouraged pupils to spend time combing the countryside for the more accessible wild edibles. Her food is innovative, partly influenced by


an early stint working at Copenhagen’s ground- breaking restaurant Noma, which has been voted best in the world five times. “But it was the wild food focus that lured me in. I learned about stuff


I’d never heard of before and went picking with foragers, bombing around Denmark’s beaches and forests. I learned so much it was mindboggling,” she recalls. Her favourite wild ingredients are coastal


plants. “They take on the flavours of their environment, which is very special to me,” she says. Top of her list is black mustard leaf, alexanders, sea purslane and salt bush — the latter she cooks in the oven in a little oil. “You get this little salty, crunchy leaf that seasons a dish without the need to add salt,” she explains. Harriet is of course keen to spread the word,


and thanks to her new booking system she now can, with various chef residencies planned — she was at London’s Carousel at the beginning of March, where she served dishes such as bay croustade with woodruff goat’s curd, topped with barbecued alexanders. Dinner service at the restaurant oſten turns into


an impromptu Q&A session as diners drill her for ideas using wild food, even signing up for one of her regular foraging walks that she offers around Lyme Regis. “People love to try new things, to feel connected to nature and the world around them,” shrugs Harriet, who was once a superyacht chef. Her current favourite dish is a black dumpling


with gurnard, black garlic puree, black mustard broth, alexander buds and pickled wire weed. “The seaweed pops in your mouth like caviar,” she says. And her current favourite technique? “We


wanted to work with flowers a couple of years ago, so we started experimenting. We took the little red flowers from a quince tree and put them in a sugar syrup, which we let boil by a mistake. The room exploded with the aromas of a cherry bakewell. Now we’re making a flowering quince kombucha,” she replies. No wonder chefs are beating a path to her door to eat here. robinwylde.com


FROM LEFT: Cured sardines in oil and house pickles in a dukkah dressing; Harriet Mansell putting the final touches to a dish; wine selection at Robin Wylde


National Geographic Traveller – Coastal Collection 19


IMAGES: MATT AUSTIN


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