Update: the winner of the Taste of England award, announced tonight (Apr 23) is Fifteen, Cornwall (see full list of awards, below left)

The rise and rise of the restaurant scene in London has been well-documented - probably over-documented.

But are we now in danger of being over-run by countryside imitations of these hip capital tratts?

The answer looks very much like yes, if the short-list of restaurants in this year’s Taste of England Awards (known as ‘the Oscars of tourism’) are any indication (the awards are run by the tourist authority Enjoy England).

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For this relatively new category in the nineteen year old awards, the restaurants were judged not only on excellence of service and customer care, but on their food sourcing and environmental policies.

As it turns out, their degrees of commitment in sourcing local, seasonal produce, lowering carbon emissions and reducing waste puts our capital’s glamorous restaurants to shame.

London-based restaurant critics can hype up the city’s pitifully few ‘eco-restaurants’ as much as they like, but media attention in the country, where the real progress is being made, is still as rare as spotted flycatchers.

Take the family-run Strattons Hotel in Norfolk, for instance, where the rare spotted flycatcher really does nest every spring in the rambling rose bushes of the bird-friendly gardens; a lovely thing to spot as you down your breakfast kedgeree of locally smoked fish with poached bantam egg.

Or dine in a majestic 30-bedroom castle at Swinton Park near Ripon in Yorkshire, where the Cunliffe-Lister family has installed a carbon-neutral woodchip boiler and eco-friendly laundry.

More importantly (well, to me), they have restored the original 4-acre walled kitchen garden with its 62 varieties of fruit, vegetables and herbs, and all venison, rabbit, trout and game come from their own estate.

Then there is the cute-as-a-button Parrott Inn, a country pub in the Surrey hills run by Charles and Linda Gotto with lashings of humour, self-belief and wine.

Their veggie garden is pillaged for the pub kitchen and the farm shop is stocked with meats and eggs from their own farm.

Only two of the regional winners made it through to the national finals, and while both have an Italian bent, they could not be more dissimilar.

One is the glamorous media darling that is the working charity Fifteen, set up by Jamie Oliver and the Cornwall Foundation of Promise on the surf beach at Newquay; the other is a small family-run restaurant with a nice taste in folk music in an old bakery in lovely Lincoln.

I decided to find out for myself why these two made the cut out of such a strong field, and to take a stab at who will win the national.

THE OLD BAKERY, LINCOLN

Okay, so it is an old bakery. But I still didn’t expect the freshly baked bread to be made on the premises every day from flour milled at the local Ellis Mill, powered by wind and volunteers. And I certainly didn’t expect the smell of real espresso coffee in the air, or the sound of fresh pasta being pummelled by the chef in the kitchen.

The charming Italian/English dynamic of the Old Bakery comes from Alan and Lynn Ritson, their daughter Tracey, and her Italian husband Ivano de Serio. They run their business hands-on, doing their darnedest to use and promote local produce and producers, and to feed their lucky customers until they burst (which hasn’t happened yet apparently, but it’s been close).

Dinner in the newly installed glass-roofed, slate-floored conservatory is a friendly, well-paced affair, fuelled by good bread and robust red wine from de Serio’s native Puglia. Peter Lundgren of Branston supplies de Serio with four-month-old Gloucester Old Spot pigs that the chef slow-roasts in hay and herbs for four to five hours, or tea-smokes and turns into a rustic terrine with horseradish jelly. Veggies come from local Craig Benson and the family’s own allotment - I wanted the recipe for the sweet, buttery leeks, but I suspect it is simply to grow them yourself and cook them the day you harvest them.

Servings are generous, and the cheese list is the biggest I have seen – which isn’t necessarily a good thing – but the 18 month old Lincolnshire Poacher on plum bread was a right treat. As broadcaster Gyles Brandreth wrote in the visitors book ‘An eight week waiting list? I’m surprised its not eight years’.

Score: 7 Bulldogs (out of a possible 10 British Bulldogs)

FIFTEEN CORNWALL

Hot damn, this place is buzzing. How on earth do they maintain the air of a laid-back, all-day surfside café while packed like sardines for breakfast, lunch, and dinner seven days a week?

The large open room is dazzling, with its knockout views of Watergate Bay, colourfully illustrated walls and modern low-level seating. In the open kitchen, the students (in white hats) work next to trained chefs (in black hats) but there are no tantrums and tears as there were on the telly.

The £50 per person dinner tasting menu changes daily, often at the very last minute. There are loads of highlights, among them featherlight potato gnocchi in a glorious Angus oxtail ragu and fresh Cornish brill, pan-fried and served with baby springtime peas and broadbeans in a rich, buttery broth.

According to exec chef Neil Haydock, the restaurant sources 80% of all produce in the south west, spending £500,000 with local food and drink suppliers in their first year alone. ‘We buy whole carcasses of meat’ he says, ‘not only to reduce packaging and food miles, but because the students learn more that way’.

Provenance is not just listed on the menu, but is drilled into the waitstaff. My waiter, Danny, tells me everything but the fish’s shoe size, and that only because I didn’t ask. ‘Your salad was put together by Andrew, one of our trainees’ he says. I wave to Andrew in the kitchen, who blushes. The leaves are beautiful, but Andrew has yet to learn to pinch off the brown stalk ends.

Fifteen has energy, style, self-confidence, great food, wine, cocktails and coffee, and an unbeatable location, even in gale-force winds. It sells itself relentlessly, but how can you take umbrage when it succeeds in its aim to give young people from disadvantaged backgrounds a chance to turn their lives around? Every staff member and student I met sparkled with pride in what they were doing. The place is irresistible.

Score: 8 Bulldogs out of 10.

Fact box:

The Old Bakery, 26 Burton Road, Lincoln Tel 01522 576057, www.theold-bakery.co.uk

Fifteen Cornwall, On The Beach, Watergate Bay, Cornwall Tel: 01637 861000, www.fifteencornwall.co.uk

The Hotel & Extreme Academy in Watergate Bay has a special offer of three nights D, B & B including one dinner at Fifteen from £185 per night. For reservations, tel 01637860543.

ENJOY ENGLAND AWARDS FOR EXCELLENCE REGIONAL WINNERS IN THE TASTE OF ENGLAND CATEGORY:

East of England:

Strattons Hotel, Norfolk

www.strattonshotel.com

South East:

The Parrott Inn, Surrey

www.theparrot.co.uk

West Midlands:

The Bridge @Wilton, Ross on Wye

www.bridge@wilton.co.uk

South West:

Fifteen Cornwall, Watergate Bay, Cornwall

East Midlands:

The Old Bakery, Lincoln

North West:

London Carriageworks, Liverpool

www.hopestreethotel.co.uk

North East:

Oldfields Restaurants, Jesmond

www.oldfieldsrestaurants.com

Yorkshire:

Swinton Park, Ripon

www.swintonpark.com

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