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In Cartmel, a picture-postcard Cumbrian village on the cusp of the Lake District, chefs in their whites are scurrying across the cobbled streets like an army of well-dressed worker ants. Some are heaving wheelbarrows stacked with mounds of freshly picked vegetables, still earthy from the farm; others are dashing from one building to another, precariously balancing enormous stacks of clean pans. They all have one thing in common: they work for Simon Rogan. If they’re the workers, he’s the queen. This well-rehearsed choreography is a typical sight every morning in Cartmel, where the Michelin-starred chef – one of only eight to own a three-starred restaurant in the UK – set up shop 20 years ago. After a decade of working at various levels in restaurants around the country (including a placement under Marco Pierre White and two years at the three-star Lucas Carton in Paris), Rogan was keen to open his own restaurant. Priced out of Hampshire and Sussex, he looked further afield and found a rundown 800-year-old former smithy in Cartmel available to rent. “I didn’t come here for anything as glamorous as the area or the scenery or the people,” he tells me, having just taken me on a tour of said area to meet said people. “It was just for this building. I was desperate for my own restaurant. I felt like I had never really achieved the things that I’d wanted to working for other people. I wanted to make my own mistakes and be in control of our own destiny. I know it sounds cheesy, but it’s true.” He made an offer on his way back from his first visit to the area, and L’Enclume was born. “Once you realise where you are, you think: s***, this is beautiful,” he adds, laughing. Over the next two decades, the ambitious chef transformed the Cumbrian village into a culinary destination unlike anywhere else in the UK. It’s now home to not only L’Enclume – awarded the environmental green star in 2021 and the coveted third star in last year’s Michelin Guide – but also the one-starred neighbourhood eatery Rogan & Co, and Aulis, L’Enclume’s six-seater chef’s table behind the main restaurant. He also put his name to Henrock, a more informal and relaxed offering just a half hour’s drive away at Linthwaite House, overlooking Lake Windermere. The engine behind this mini empire, and the reason I’m here, is Our Farm, a 12-acre plot in Cartmel that supplies the majority of the restaurants’ ingredients. A sustainable, closed-loop growing operation had always been “at the back of his mind”, Rogan says. He was inspired by his father, a fruit and vegetable salesman who would bring home a box of the day’s best produce, teaching him the importance of using every part of the ingredient. When they arrived in Cartmel to get started, though, “the standard of produce”, Rogan says “was absolutely rubbish. The reason we got into farming was my frustration at the ability to buy a perfect radish, which is the easiest thing in the world to grow.” They rented a small plot close to the restaurant, and filled in the gaps with local suppliers. But, back in 2002, it was too expensive to buy organic. “Things were triple the price they are now,” Rogan tells me, taking a sip of his beetroot juice at the Aulis counter. “So we bought little bits and pieces here and there alongside the normal suppliers. Then we had the opportunity to take over the farm. That’s when we thought: ‘Right, let’s start growing radishes.’” What started as a little garden has become something bigger than he could ever have anticipated. A restaurant growing its own produce is not a groundbreaking concept, but a kitchen garden this is not. You won’t find pristine beds and trimmed rose bushes and arty ornaments. But you will find a patchwork of muddy fields growing hardy vegetables, the topsoil painstakingly “fluffed” by hand; a regiment of polytunnels housing the more finicky plants, delicate micro herbs and other culinary experiments (I try something that tastes like pickled onion Monster Munch); and enormous hand-rotated compost bins that process all the food waste from the restaurants into mulch for the farm. All this is surrounded by hedgerows that have been carefully curated to attract birds and other wildlife to act as natural pesticides. None of this would be possible without head farmer John Rowland. Regenerative agriculture might be his trade, but birds are his true passion. During a tour of the farm, he lists off the species he’s seen circling overhead, drawn by the blackthorn, hawthorn, rowan and birch trees he’s been planting on the borders. “We cater for the birds more than the people,” he tells me, in a Welsh accent so bucolic I wonder whether he’s been shipped in specifically for the tour. “Everything on the farm has a use, and not only in a culinary way. The seeds and the berries attract the birds onto the farm. The birds are my pest control, so the more I can attract to the farm, the more pest control I have, and that is fantastic for birdlife. In Britain, we’ve lost 84 per cent of our bird species, but this area is really rich because of these techniques.” While he might prefer looking upwards, it’s what’s beneath our feet that Rowland is really focused on. “The life is in the soil,” he says, grabbing a great fistful of the stuff. “You have hundreds of types of fungus right here. We don’t want to disturb that biome in the ground so rather than rotavating the soil [breaking up the earth with a machine ready for planting] and destroying the millions of organisms that live in it, we build a six-inch layer of compost on top and aerate it with a fork. Once you’ve done that, each year you just top it off with an inch, and that’s regenerative farming,” he says matter-of-factly, clapping the dirt from his hands. Well, that’s the gist anyway, and while it’s perhaps a little more complicated than that, Rowland struggles to understand why more people aren’t farming in this way. “We’re the most nature-depleted country in the world. We’ve lost our wildflower meadows, we’ve lost our insect population, we’ve lost our wild songbird population. They’ve taken the hedgerows away to make the fields bigger. All the natural food in our countryside is being lost to intensive farming.” Regenerative techniques like those Rowland is putting into practice on Our Farm would go some way to reclaiming it, he says, but “it’s a shame that they don’t realise that”. He pauses for a moment, then corrects himself: “Well, it’s not that they don’t realise it. They know. It’s just that they want intensive farming because it makes them money and it’s wrong because we are killing everything.” How this translates to the table at L’Enclume is manifold. Every dish on the menu begins life on the farm, where Rowland will flag what’s in season and at its best, or suggest something new he’s been experimenting with. Or it might start as an ingredient foraged from the countryside or sourced from a local supplier. The idea is then tweaked in the development kitchen at Aulis, before it finally makes its way to the pass at L’Enclume. This results in a transient snapshot of Cumbrian cuisine that changes every time you dine, and a menu quite unlike anything else I’ve come across. When I visit in February, Boltardy beetroot – a variety chosen for its resistance to erratic weather – shines in a bitesize tart with smoked pike-perch fished locally, and perilla, a Southeast Asian herb cultivated on the farm that adds notes of mint and licorice. Elsewhere, there’s lovage and rose hip and lemon thyme, all foraged; there’s Cornish cod and Mylor prawns and potted shrimp and Maldon oysters; sweetcorn and champagne rhubarb from the farm that were fermented after they were harvested last summer so they could be used year-round; and an enormous selection of British cheeses, including Tunworth, which is frozen and crumbled in a palate-perplexing, salty-sweet dessert. It happens to be my favourite dish. Managing a farm-to-fork operation this complex, not to mention the empire, is no mean feat. “I could pretty confidently be a tax exile given how little I am in the UK at the moment,” he jokes. When we chatted in February, the team was preparing to revive their pre-Covid plan for a five-week residency in Sydney, which concluded this month. The punchline, of course, is the delay meant Aussies were given a taste of not a two-star L’Enclume, but all four stars. Given Australia is yet to receive a Michelin Guide and is not particularly well known for its agricultural sustainability, it was an interesting move, but one there is clearly appetite for. Despite the $420-a-head price tag, it was sold out, serving more than 4,000 diners. While the food at L’Enclume, at home and abroad, is clearly special, it’s the people that set it apart from other restaurants in this league. Their hospitality, affability and, perhaps most noticeably, northern accents, are not typically what you find at this price bracket (£250 a head for the tasting menu, plus £100-£290 for a pairing). Stuffiness is neither present nor tolerated. Many of the staff have been with Rogan since the beginning, switched between the restaurants, or left for pastures new only to return. “We get a lot of people coming back – only the ones we want, anyway,” he says slyly. There’s certainly been a few famous quarrels. The “Rogan alumni” is a term thrown around a lot during my visit, and includes Mark Birchall, who was executive chef at L’Enclume during its two-star era before setting up a curiously similar “restaurant with rooms”, Moor Hall, in Lancashire, which also boasts two stars and a further green. Then there’s Dan Cox, who cut his teeth at Rogan’s now-closed Fera in Claridges as well as L’Enclume, and helped him set up Our Farm in the early days. He’s now down in Cornwall, running the farm-to-table Crocadon. But, generally, people are drawn back to L’Enclume for the variety it has to offer. “Look around the country,” says Rogan, “and [other restaurants] haven’t got any staff because they can’t offer as many career progression opportunities for people. I suppose that makes them lucky. “It’s about not spreading yourself too thin. We’re only able to do these things because these guys are really, really hungry.” Acknowledging that hunger, he established the Simon Rogan Academy in 2021 to “nurture aspiring chefs”. It includes paid work across the Cartmel restaurants, and culminates in a week-long placement at his restaurant Roganic in Hong Kong. In the beginning, “we thought that maybe if we had just a third of them left at the end of the quarter, it’d be brilliant,” Rogan tells me. “But almost all of them stayed on! And now they all want jobs” – he comically rolls his eyes – “but really it’s great.” As I drift between the farm and the Cartmel restaurants, everyone hard at work but always smiling, it strikes me that L’Enclume isn’t just a restaurant; it’s a story. And its influence is immense. “Sustainability”, “farm-to-table” and “regenerative agriculture” were mere whisperings 20 years ago. Now they’re affixed to almost every new menu, and you could say they were born here. The people I’ve met could well be the next batch of Rogan alumni, attracting Michelin’s attention with their own restaurants in years to come. If it takes 20 years to craft a legacy like this, then I’ll make sure I come back in 2043. For more information about L’Enclume, visit www.lenclume.co.uk and for more information about Simon Rogan and his other restaurants visit www.simonrogan.co.uk Read More Why I won’t be doing Veganuary this year – or ever again Marina O’Loughlin is wrong – there’s joy in solo dining Michel Roux Jr announces closure of renowned restaurant Le Gavroche to have ‘better work/life balance’ The true story – and murky history – of Portuguese piri piri oil 30-minute summer recipes for all the family to enjoy What to cook this week: Tomato tart, sweetcorn pasta and other summery suppers

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Max Verstappen has revealed Sebastian Vettel told him he will break his record of nine consecutive victories after the home favourite put his Red Bull on pole position for Sunday’s Dutch Grand Prix. The unstoppable Verstappen will equal four-time world champion Vettel’s streak from 2013 if he takes the chequered flag in front of 105,000 expectant fans. Verstappen starts his quest from the front after he topped a chaotic wet-dry qualifying session in Zandvoort. Verstappen finished nearly six tenths clear of second-placed Lando Norris with a mighty final lap. George Russell qualified third for Mercedes, one place ahead of Alex Albon – the London-born driver continuing his impressive campaign with Williams. Lewis Hamilton lines up only 13th after he was surprisingly eliminated in Q2. Verstappen dominated the opening half of the season, taking 10 victories from the 12 rounds so far, and he has emerged from the sport’s summer break still as the man to beat. He last failed to win in Azerbaijan on April 30, and it will be a major surprise if his crushing run comes to a halt in front of his orange-clad army. “After five wins in a row, Seb texted me to say, ‘well done with what you are doing at the moment, keep it up, you are going to get the record’,” said Verstappen following his eighth pole of the campaign. “I was like, ‘that’s nine wins in a row, and that is something very impressive’. I never thought I would be able to get to eight. If it is possible tomorrow of course I go for it. “But it is not something that is in the back of my head. I am not in this sport to try and break records. I am just here to win in the moment.” Verstappen is in a league of his own as he closes in on a hat-trick of titles. But it has been suggested that his reign – akin to Michael Schumacher’s emphatic dominance for Ferrari at the turn of the century – has been a turn-off for the sport’s booming fanbase. “It is clear that unpredictability is what makes the sport exciting,” said Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff. “You want to look at the television on Sunday and see a fight. That is not the case at the moment. “But that is because one team and one driver are doing a much better job than anybody else, and we need to acknowledge that.” While Verstappen has been aided by his all-conquering Red Bull machine, it is worth noting that his team-mate Sergio Perez – the only other driver to win a race this year – qualified seventh here, 1.3 seconds behind in the same car. Qualifying started on a wet track before a dry line emerged for Q3. Two red flags followed as Logan Sargeant and Charles Leclerc crashed out. By this stage, Hamilton was back in the Mercedes garage. The seven-time world champion appeared to be impeded by AlphaTauri’s Yuki Tsunoda and he failed to post a time fast enough to progress to Q3. The incident was noted by the stewards, but Hamilton did not feel he lost time. However, Wolff added: “Tsunoda is a nice guy but he clearly impeded Lewis. “The answer is to penalise. If you know you don’t go to prison for cheating tax, you cheat the tax. I don’t understand why these things are not penalised. “You could say Lewis dived on the inside and it didn’t cost him much. But going from a dry line, to a wet line, and back to a dry line costs time and a tenth of a second would have put him into Q3. “We need to be harsh on penalties and then people will start looking in their mirrors.” Read More Charity boss speaks out over ‘traumatic’ encounter with royal aide Ukraine war’s heaviest fight rages in east - follow live Max Verstappen is one of the best drivers in F1 history – Lando Norris Daniel Ricciardo ruled out of Dutch Grand Prix after breaking wrist in practice Daniel Ricciardo to miss Dutch Grand Prix after suffering broken wrist in crash

Max Verstappen delighted his home crowd by taking pole position for Sunday’s Dutch Grand Prix. In an incident-packed wet-dry session, the unstoppable double world champion delivered a crushing lap to finish half-a-second clear of Lando Norris, who qualified second for McLaren. George Russell will start from third place for Mercedes with the impressive Alex Albon fourth. Lewis Hamilton was eliminated in Q2 and will line up from only 13th spot in Zandvoort. “It was a very tricky qualifying session,” said Verstappen. “It was all about putting your laps in and staying out of trouble and we managed that quite well. “The pressure is always there to perform but when you pull it off it’s incredible.” Q3 was red-flagged twice. First when Logan Sargeant crashed out in his Williams. The American rookie lost control of his machine on the entry to Turn 2, sending him into the gravel and then the tyre wall. Sargeant, 22, emerged unscathed from the accident but the force of the impact contributed to significant damage on the front of his machine. The running was suspended for 20 minutes as Sargeant’s stricken Williams was removed and the barriers were repaired. A dry line had emerged and it was Norris who put his McLaren at the top of the order before Charles Leclerc put his Ferrari into the wall. Leclerc carried too much speed into the ninth bend and ran onto the grass and then into the Armco. A six-minute stoppage followed with just four minutes and five seconds left on the clock, with Norris hoping to hold on to claim only his second career pole. Norris said: “Every now and then you hope Max makes a mistake, but he doesn’t, so frustrating in a little way. But I’m very happy. The team did a good job and I will take P2.” Russell, seven tenths behind Verstappen, said: “We are in a great place tomorrow to battle for a podium. “I’m sure Max will have his Sunday drive and be waving to the crowd but I hope to have a good fight with Lando, Alex and the rest of the boys.” But Verstappen delivered an emphatic answer by racing to top spot with his final lap to huge roars from the Orange Army. On Sunday, he will bid to match Sebastian Vettel’s record of nine consecutive wins. Hamilton revealed in the build-up to Sunday’s race that his goal for the second half of the season was to take runner-up spot in the championship. But on Formula One’s return from its summer slumber, the seven-time world champion – who is currently fourth in the standings – will start way down the order following a disappointing qualifying session. The British driver, 38, appeared to be impeded by AlphaTauri’s Yuki Tsunoda on his final run in Q2 and failed to deliver a time speedy enough to progress. The stewards have noted the incident, but Hamilton, 41 points adrift of Sergio Perez, who is currently best of the rest behind team-mate Verstappen, now faces an uphill task to salvage a respectable result. Fernando Alonso qualified fifth for Aston Martin, one place ahead of Ferrari driver Carlos Sainz, with Perez only seventh, 1.3 seconds behind team-mate Verstappen. Liam Lawson has been handed his F1 debut here as a substitute for Daniel Ricciardo. The 34-year-old Australian suffered a broken left wrist in a practice crash on Friday and has been ruled out of this weekend’s race with the prospect of missing further rounds, too. In Ricciardo’s absence, New Zealander Lawson, 21, will start his maiden F1 race from 20th and last. Read More Charity boss speaks out over ‘traumatic’ encounter with royal aide Ukraine war’s heaviest fight rages in east - follow live Max Verstappen is one of the best drivers in F1 history – Lando Norris Daniel Ricciardo ruled out of Dutch Grand Prix after breaking wrist in practice Daniel Ricciardo to miss Dutch Grand Prix after suffering broken wrist in crash

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Max Verstappen topped a rain-interrupted final practice session for Sunday’s Dutch Grand Prix. The concluding hour before qualifying was red-flagged on three occasions following a series of accidents in the tricky conditions at Zandvoort. With the session a little more than 10 minutes old, Kevin Magnussen spun out in his Haas at Turn 3, before Zhou Guanyu beached his Alfa Romeo at the penultimate corner. Liam Lawson – the New Zealander making his Formula One debut as a replacement for Daniel Ricciardo who suffered a broken wrist in practice – then performed a pirouette heading into the main straight. Lawson, 21, grazed the tyre wall on the opposing side of the circuit which led to a third stoppage. When the action resumed, Verstappen, who is bidding to equal Sebastian Vettel’s record of nine consecutive victories, set an impressive pace in front of his home crowd. The Red Bull driver finished three tenths clear of George Russell, with the Mercedes driver the only man within one second of Verstappen. Sergio Perez took third spot, one place ahead of Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso with Lewis Hamilton fifth for Mercedes. Qualifying takes place at 3pm local time (2pm BST) with the unsettled weather conditions forecast to continue throughout the day. Read More Charity boss speaks out over ‘traumatic’ encounter with royal aide Ukraine war’s heaviest fight rages in east - follow live