River Cottage

River Cottage is a brand used for a number of ventures by television chef Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall. These include a long-running Channel 4 television series, cookery courses, events, restaurants and products such as beer and organic yogurts.

There are two River Cottage Kitchen restaurants championing organic and local food. These can be found in Axminster and Winchester. River Cottage HQ is a 100 acre farm on the Devon/Dorset border that follows the farm to fork ethos through its various endeavours. Among other things these include: cookery, gardening and craft courses, long table dining feasts in the 18th Century Threshing barn and the 17th Century farmhouse which appeared in many of the later TV shows has recently been renovated to now host guests on a B&B and whole house rental basis. As well as this, River Cottage HQ holds many private events including parties, meetings and weddings.

The first TV series was Escape to River Cottage and was shown on Channel 4. In this show Fearnley-Whittingstall left London to pursue an ambition of self-sufficiency, growing his own vegetables and raising his own animals at a gamekeeper’s cottage near Netherbury in Dorset. The series had six episodes and first aired in March and April 1999.[1] It was followed by Return to River Cottage in 2000. and River Cottage Forever in 2001, in which viewers followed Fearnley-Whittingstall’s further adventures as a downsized smallholder.

In 2004 the River Cottage brand left the original holiday home to follow Fearnley-Whittingstall’s progress as he set up a new business from old dairy buildings near Broadoak, Bridport, Dorset in the series Beyond River Cottage. An additional series, The View from River Cottage, was a combination clip show and retrospective of the previous series.

The 2005 series, River Cottage Road Trip, follows Fearnley-Whittingstall as he explores Dumfriesshire, Cumbria and Lozells and East Handsworth, Birmingham for regional recipes that he can bring back home.

In 2006, moved to the Park Farm location near to Uplyme in Devon. Here at the new River Cottage H.Q., the team would film the 2006 series The River Cottage Treatment where Fearnley-Whittingstall would attempt to convert junk food lovers’ eating habits.

The 2007 series, River Cottage: Gone Fishing, saw Fearnley-Whittingstall travel to fishing locations throughout the British Isles in order to promote the culinary benefits of sustainable fishing cultures.

In 2008, Channel 4 began broadcasting River Cottage Spring, later followed up by River Cottage Autumn,[10] which shows Fearnley-Whittingstall using home-grown produce in recipes. The series also tracks a group of families in Bristol who attempt to convert a large bramble patch into a small-holding, now known as Bramble Farm, growing vegetables, and rearing meat. A four episode series River Cottage: Summer’s Here began airing in June 2009.
November 2009 saw the broadcasting of a new series titled River Cottage: Winter’s on the Way, following Fearnley-Whittingstall as he grows, forages and cooks winter treats.

In 2010 a new series titled River Cottage Every Day was released, each episode concerning the specific topics of meat, fish, vegetables, fruit, breakfast, lunch, bread and treats.

During the year 2011 Fearnley-Whittingstall released the series River Cottage Veg, documenting his experiences of giving up meat whilst learning about different vegetarian cooking styles.

In July 2012, a new three-part series began on Channel 4, titled River Cottage: Three Go Mad. Fearnley-Whittingstall was joined at Park Farm by three celebrities who wished to increase their knowledge on where their food comes from and how it gets from farm and sea to plate.