
The Wild Kitchen was established by Lucia (prononunced, “Lucheea”) Stuart who lives in Deal, Kent. She believes that expanding our nutritional repretoire gathered from the landscape around is key to happiness and an improved food system. In Kent, the 'garden of England', foraging with gourmet feasts are wild food dining extravaganzas set up in wild locations. Theatrical settings, delicious food, amazing service and nature's bounty each season make these adventures truly unique and loved since their inception in 2012.
Background : In the nineties Lucia ran a cafe in SW France. This rural life immediately invoked a connection to the land; further strengthened by an unlikely mentor; a botanist & war veteran called 'Juju'who came to the cafe with his arms full of wild plants for the menu. His insistence on eating food from 'Le terroir' confirmed Lucia's role as a 'forager chef'. With artistic flair, creativity infused everthing in the restaurant. Aesthetics and art feature stongly in the business and it featured in The New York Times. In 1996 she started residential 'ateliers', 'French Food from Hedgerow to Market'.
In 2011 Lucia wrote and illustrated Eating Flowers, an illustrated foraging cook book for children. The Wild Kitchen courses opened in 2012 offering gourmet foraging. The Wild Kitchen is in an 18th century Ship's pilots house* in Deal, Kent, a town seeped in history on the Dover straits with exceptional eco-systems inalnd too. (See feature: *Press 'World of Interiors' article.