The Pig: A Hotel for Food & Interior Lovers
I had heard of The Pig Hotels through rave reviews from friends, but only got around to visiting myself this month. And I was not disappointed! With beautifully designed interiors combining carefully chosen vintage furniture with luxurious design pieces for an old country house vibe, absolutely mouth-watering food and cocktails that hit the spot, The Pig more than delivered on my expectations.
For those of you who have not discovered The Pig yet, let me give you the low-down…
With a hotel in Hampshire, Somerset, Dorset, Devon and Kent, there is one within an hour or two drive for those of us based in the South.
Really restaurants with rooms, the Kitchen Gardens are at the heart of what they do. With an obsessive commitment to home-grown and local produce, and celebrating the seasons, the menus use only the freshest and most authentic ingredients available from their gardens.
The Pig kitchen gardeners work hand-in-hand with their chefs to create menus bursting with simple British garden food. What they can’t grow or rear themselves, they source from the local area. This is the foundation of their 25-mile menu.
This ethos of growing your own and restricting travel on produce is one I adore, and one I really need to embrace myself! I’ll take a tip from The Pig and start my own homegrown garden patch asap!
“Sparking interests with its tumble-down charm and huge potential
The very first seed sown in the ground in 2011 has led the way to inform everything we do at THE PIG.
Now with six PIGs in the litter, and by putting the emphasis firmly on the food with a very simple and honest philosophy to only use produce that we can grow ourselves in the kitchen garden or source from within 25-miles, our restaurants with rooms are home-grown in every way.
Each PIG has its own identity, each evolved rather than too designed, but each putting the kitchen garden at the very heart of the operation. This obsessive commitment to home grown and local produce means we can celebrate the seasons and use only what is fresh and available to us; our chef, kitchen gardener and forager work hand in hand to create a menu of uncomplicated and simple British garden food, true to the micro seasons with the emphasis squarely on fresh, clean flavours.
You will not just find that the kitchen garden influences your choices at lunch; its fresh zesty-ness will fill your morning mint tea, its gentle aromas will send you into a trance in our Potting Shed Treatment Huts, its wild flavours will infuse your new favourite G&T and its earthy colours will engulf you at the end of the evening as you fall into that snuggle-in sofa.”
We stayed at The Pig near Bath. We arrived at 2pm and were delighted that our room was ready for us. With classical tunes playing in the background, wonderfully soft bedding and comfy surroundings, we immediately relaxed and enjoyed the peace and little slice of luxury. We spent an afternoon in the bar enjoying a game of Monopoly (something we would never find the time to do at home!), fire roaring and glass of gin in hand, my worries and stresses melted away.
After a freshen up back in our lush room, we headed down for dinner. I’m vegetarian and was slightly worried that most of the options would be meat based, but my worries were unnecessary as there is a wide selection of veggie and vegan options available. The food was amazing and three hours and three courses later, we retired to the bar for a nightcap.
We enjoyed a leisurely lie-in and departed at 11am the next morning feeling refreshed and in high spirits thanks to the lovely receptionist, who on hearing we had devoured a bag of chilli bites in the room (a must for all spice lovers!), gave us two bags for free for our journey home! It’s the little things… :-)
Buy the book!
For all Pig aficionados, this is the perfect gift!
‘Tales and Recipes from the Kitchen Garden and Beyond’ is about all things PIG! Packed full of simple recipes, kitchen garden tips, and tricks, interior inspirations and home-grown how tos, it’s not to be missed.
The Pig’s sustainable commitment…
Garden, Greenhouse & Kitchen
Each hotel uses local food and beverage suppliers in line with our 25-mile menu ethos – reducing food miles and packaging
THE PIG, New Forest is an award-winning member of the Sustainable Restaurant Association, who firmly believe that by working as a collective in the hospitality industry we can improve the food on our plate which in turn will have a positive, measurable impact on the wider food system. Best practice as a member of SRA is then reflected in the way we run the restaurants in all PIG properties.
We produce around 17 tons of our own fruit and vegetables across our own sites each year, which require no packaging and do not need to travel!
We organically manage our Kitchen Gardens and polytunnels but are not certified
We grow our own mushrooms that are grown on spent coffee grounds that are a by-product of the restaurant waste therefore reducing waste
We forage from both land and sea working alongside a forager who has 40 years of experience in the field
We compost all garden waste
We recycle all cooking oil
We purchase Fish that is approved by the Marine Conservation Society
We work with Belu Water- A British social enterprise, Belu provides us with pure and natural mineral water from Powys in Wales in glass bottles that are made with 35% recycled glass. All profits and equity from Belu are used to end water poverty; 100% of its profits go to Water Aid, which helps to transform lives worldwide with clean water, decent loos and good hygiene. Since 2010 Belu have raised £4m for Water Aid and have helped to transform 270,000 lives.
We cure our own meats – reduced food miles
We have our own beehives producing honey and pollinating the garden
We strongly support the English Wine industry, championing vineyards that are local to our hotels.
Reuse, Recycle and Repurpose
We recycle glass, cardboard, paper and plastic.
We have removed all plastic from our bars including stirrers, straws and picks.
We are removing all plastic cotton buds and their plastic wrapping from rooms and replacing with paper.
We recycle all coffee capsules from bedrooms
We recycle all menus to make coasters and napkin rings
Bedroom soaps are wrapped in paper
Plastic bottles for soaps are recycled
We rag old linen to use for cleaning
All lightbulbs have been updated to LED bulbs, reducing our overall electricity consumption
We use reclaimed and natural building materials where possible across all properties
We use many antique furnishings and upcycle furniture where possible to give the pieces a second life!