Yorkshire chef Liz Cottam opened her new restaurant Byre this week – an old dairy farm in Wharfedale overlooking Bolton Abbey, and her first rural venue after a decade in Leeds.
She says the setting and the ingredients she now has on her doorstep are changing the way she works. A former corporate high-flyer who switched career after competing as an amateur in MasterChef, Liz operated Leeds restaurants Home, Cora, The Owl and Emba; said she was “heartbroken” at having to close the latter in March this year.
“I was looking for a different way to do what I love,” she says of her new venture. “As soon as I saw the place, it felt like an opportunity to step away from the usual restaurant model and create something more personal, both to cook from and to experience.
“What I’m creating here is a working food space rather than a fixed concept. Part kitchen, part dining room, part workshop. A place where people gather, where food is cooked thoughtfully. I’ve moved away from a conventional kitchen, towards something that feels right for the building.
“Cooking mostly happens over fire — with wood-fired ovens and stoves placed within each room. It allows the cooking to move through the space, creating a different way for us to cook for and serve our guests. It changes how I work, how I spend time, and what ends up on the plate.”
Byre has its own greenhouse growing herbs and soft fruits, and Liz is working with gamekeepers, farmers and foragers to source ingredients locally. “I’m definitely leaning into country life. It feels very special to have access to ingredients like these right on our doorstep — things raised, grown and cared for by people around us, rather than simply ordered.
“Our water comes from a natural fell source, filtered through limestone. It tastes extraordinary, no need for bottled water. The cream from the dairy farm down the road is already changing the way dishes taste. It’s giving a richer depth to a mint & cream sabayon for smoked Jersey Royals and is also making ice creams crazy delicious.
“We also have bees. Which means we now have honey. It’s floral, aromatic, somehow tasting of the hillside around us. I’ve been putting some of the honeycomb with fennel pollen milk and late harvest Riesling and I love it.“
Byre is open for dinner on Thursday, Friday and Saturday plus lunch on Saturday, with a changing set meal priced at £125 per person. Each table can choose either standard or pescatarian meals.
