18/06/2026
It's time to meet one of our members! π
π£π²πΌπ½πΉπ² ππ²π΅πΆπ»π± ππ΅π² π£πΏπΌπ±ππ°π², The Ship Inn - West Stour
Nick was nine years old when he first helped out in the kitchen of his family's Exmoor Inn. He's been cooking with the West Country in his bones ever since.
Learning from the land up
Nick trained in professional cookery and studied agriculture. Not a common combination, but one that makes complete sense when you taste his food. It gave him a grounding in both the craft of cooking and the world that feeds it: the soil, the seasons, the producers, the provenance.
His early career at the DHB in Plymouth earned him professional recognition for locally sourced, sustainable, creative food. The kind of cooking that looked like a trend to some people, but to Nick was simply how things should be done. A Gold Award from Taste of the West in 2014 arrived around the same time, and as he tells it, it quietly confirmed the direction of travel. A sustainability award for his fish dishes followed shortly after.
"It spurred me on to develop environmentally positive food with great provenance."
From Plymouth, Nick's career took him to London. The Savoy. Simpsons. Head Chef at The Shard, where he earned two AA Rosettes. These are not small things. But he was always clear about where he wanted to end up.
His return brought him to The Ship Inn at West Stour: a handsome coaching inn in Dorset that he runs as an independent, family business. He raises chickens in the garden. He grows what he can. He cooks real food for locals and visitors alike, with the honest, unfussy character that has defined his work since the beginning.
Coming back to the West Country also meant coming back to a community of people who speak the same language. Nick reconnected with Taste of the West and found the experience as rewarding as ever; not just the recognition, but the network, the collaboration, the shared sense of what the South West is capable of.
"There is much talent, entrepreneurial spirit and commitment to producing quality products in the West of England," he says, and you sense he's talking about people he considers his people.
That, perhaps, is what it's really about. Not the awards alone, but the feeling of being somewhere you belong.
