Chef
Sam Lomas
- Discipline
- Chef
i. Biography
The cooking is set by West Country seasonality: produce close to hand, weather as a constraint, ripeness as the brief. In Sam Lomas’s work at the restaurant, the fixed menu gives way to a daily changing blackboard, built from kitchen-garden produce, foraged ingredients, and local fruit and vegetables. The register is not decorative locality; it is the practical act of using what has arrived in good condition and cooking it before that character is lost.
Formation
A West Country apprenticeship put raw material before concept early. Sam Lomas began as a chef apprentice at River Cottage HQ in Devon (from 2013), where seasonality, hands-on cookery, and ingredient timing sat at the centre of the work. Bread, service, and place each added a different discipline. Work experience at Beasdales restaurant in Bollington was followed by a bakery role at Flour, Water, Salt in Macclesfield, where dough, fermentation, and the pace of daily baking broadened the craft base. A kitchen position at Surf Tiree in Inner Hebrides and a kitchen position at Tide Llanw café in Wales continued that education through different landscapes, produce, and service conditions. The written side of the work has a parallel root outside the kitchen. A political communications role preceded Lomas’s return to River Cottage as a cookery-course leader, where technique and ideas were taught rather than only executed. The role of head chef at Glebe House in East Devon (from 2020) sharpened a garden-led, seasonal style tied to hospitality. Today, Sam is food writer of Field Notes and chef of Briar (since 2024), holding together observation on the page and adjustment at the stove.
The Practice Today
A small neighbourhood restaurant serving hyper-seasonal food depends on limits being useful. At Briar, the sourcing language is not a badge added after the fact; it is the operating system. Lomas has described an interest in connections to untamed landscapes on the fringes of modern life, and the kitchen works with foraged ingredients, kitchen-garden produce, and nearby fruit and vegetables. The daily changing blackboard menu is the main technical structure. It allows dishes to move as produce appears, as weather changes the garden, as foraged ingredients become available, or as local fruit and vegetables reach the point where restraint is the better decision. The work is attentive rather than expansive for its own sake. “My favourite thing about cooking is the never ending creative process of coming up with recipes and dishes that make the most of ingredients at their peak,” he has said. That is a working description of seasonal cooking: repeated adjustment, not a fixed repertoire. Before opening, he described the project this way: “I’m partnering up with the beautiful hotel Number One Bruton to open, a small neighbourhood restaurant serving delicious hyper seasonal food.” The sentence still frames the restaurant clearly: small scale, local focus, and a menu led by season rather than ornament.
Career - Food writer — Field Notes - Chef — Briar, Bruton, Somerset (2024–present) - Chef apprentice — River Cottage HQ, Devon (from 2013) - Work experience — Beasdales restaurant, Bollington - Bakery role — Flour, Water, Salt, Macclesfield - Kitchen position — Surf Tiree, Inner Hebrides - Kitchen position — Tide Llanw café, Wales - Political communications role - Cookery-course leader — River Cottage - Head chef — Glebe House, East Devon (from 2020)
Signature
The signatures are Sam’s Porridge loaf with cultured butter and Westcombe ricotta ice cream with damsons. The first places bread at the opening of the meal as a craft object, with cultured butter doing the supporting work. The second keeps dairy and fruit in close focus: Westcombe ricotta ice cream against damsons, with the structure resting on clarity rather than excess.
Accolades
Recognition has followed both the restaurant and the writing. Sam's honors include Michelin Bib Gourmand for Briar, Chef to Watch shortl
