Of all the parties I expected to attend in 2026, I hadn’t anticipated that the most fun would be had from vegetables. ‘Rovi has always been about great produce,’ says chef and cookbook author Yotam Ottolenghi of his restaurant in London's Fitzrovia, which hosted the capital’s foremost harvest party last Thursday. ‘It is about vegetables from root to tip, with a menu shaped by our growers and our kitchen garden near Tottenham.’ The shindig, harking back to Athenian tradition, was also an excuse for a hoedown. Moonlighting as disc jockeys for the night were Aimee Phillips, former manager of The Scissor Sisters, and Femi Koleoso, the live-tour drummer for Gorillaz.
As the country gets back to work and diners return to their old watering holes, restaurateurs are finding renewed success in celebrating the ancient food network. ‘We wanted an evening that had growers, cooks and consumers in the same room,’ Ottolenghi says of his party. Despite 2026 proving fatal for many crops — our winter saw record-breaking rain before the summer baked in record-breaking heat — the UK’s best kitchens are refusing to put on the brakes. Joshua Overington, co-founder of the award-winning Mýse near Castle Howard in North Yorkshire, is hosting the restaurant’s inaugural churn supper on October 4. ‘We had no idea, when we decided to do this, how challenging this summer was going to be for farmers,’ he notes.
The churn supper is an old, northerly tradition that was first named as such in the 19th century, perhaps after the jug of cream that would have been passed around the table or for the first churn of butter that would have taken place at the time. ‘Our supper will be for 26 people,’ Overington explains, ‘and to mark the occasion, we have invited chefs from far and wide to shine a light on a different aspect of British farming: meat, dairy, horticulture…’ Each chef will serve a different course.
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‘Far too often,’ he continues, ‘kitchens are self-celebratory and overlook the fact that the hardest work is done by its suppliers. Yet without our farmers or growers, restaurants like mine wouldn’t exist.’ These events, then, are an opportunity for customers to engage in a more direct dialogue with the people who harvest the ingredients on their plate. ‘There’s a real desire to feel closer to our food again,’ says Ottolenghi. ‘To know who grew it, where it came from, and understand why it tastes better at certain times of year. ‘A harvest party,’ he concludes, both ‘makes that connection and celebrates it.’
This feature originally appeared in the September 9, 2026, issue of Country Life. Click here for more information on how to subscribe.
