Foraging in London: How to find the ingredients loved by top restaurants without leaving the capital

We go on a foraging trip with the man behind many of the ingredients served at top London restaurants. And we don’t even leave the capital... 
Ben Norum|Jenny Marc8 March 2016

Sister restaurants Pied à Terre in Fitzrovia and L’Autre Pied in Marylebone have a penchant for using foraged ingredients in their cooking. And clearly it pays off — both are Michelin starred.

Both are also owned by restaurateur David Moore, who clearly has foraging in his blood.

He tells of how, while working in the kitchens at Le Manoir Aux Quat Saisons in his twenties, he would poach crayfish from a nearby river using a contraption of nets, wire and Champagne corks.

With another chef friend he would then drive to top restaurants including Michel Roux’s Waterside Inn and sell for them for some extra cash.

Wild things: Herbs and flowers at Pied à Terre Pied à Terre
Pied a Terre

The sort of foraging his restaurants now do is very different, of course — and markedly more legit. All manner of leaves, fruits and vegetables are sourced for him by The Wild Food Centre run by Yun Hider.

On top of these two restaurants, Yun has an impressive array of top chefs lining up to buy what he finds. He has provided for Gordon Ramsay, Marco Pierre White and Richard Corrigan as well as for René Redzepi when he brought Noma to London. The latter required 42 kilos of wood sorrel over the course of just two weeks.

Based in Pembrokeshire in south-west Wales, he and his team gather much of the produce they offer from the local area and the country’s greenest parts. But there’s also foraged food to be found much closer to home — even in London.

On the lookout: Yun Hilder locating wild garlic in Kew Gardens Ben Norum
Ben Norum

Yun took us on a trip to The Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew with a group of chefs from Pied à Terre and L’Autre Pied to demonstrate just how much is out there.

His finds in little more than an hour include sorrel, wild garlic, rosehip, nettle, gorse and yarrow, plus plenty more.

Watch our video above to see his top foraging tips and find out just how much can be foraged without leaving the capital.

Note that we had special permission to forage in Kew Gardens, which is not generally permitted. Some other areas in London are less regulated, but always check whether you are allowed to pick plants before doing so — and don't pick anything if you're not 100% sure what it is; doing so can be dangerous.

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