Harewood serves up a fine-dining experience like no other

Rustic dining with the Secret Supper Club

As the sun sets over one of the most historic homes in Leeds and one of the hottest days of the year so far, guests enjoy gin and tonic on the lawn.

They are then taken in an old army truck (or tractor), via 200-year-old walled gardens and fields of grazing animals to a magical bluebell wood where the fading sunlight nestles through the trees, before strolling through the grass to a candlelit barn for supper.

Out in the open countryside

Meandering though the Bluebell wood

It sounds like something from Wind in the Willows but this is the culmination of a family dynasty that dates back to 1759 and has links with royalty, teaming up with one of the most talked about and pioneering chefs on the Leeds food and drink scene.

The Harewood Food and Drink project has just digested its third Secret Supper Club, with more planned throughout the year, where fine food and paired wine is served up in pop-up locations in the Harewood House grounds that are not usually open to the public.

Josh Whitehead, formerly of the Ox Club, was behind a ten-course tasting menu that totally changes perceptions as to what you can do with traditional ingredients. Who would have put radishes with parkin or whipped up Yorkshire Blue cheese to make a mousse with diced grapes, celery and oats?

The ingredients are sourced from the estate and for last weekend's event it was given a Yorkshire twist - in a nod to the Tour de Yorkshire that has ended in Leeds earlier that day and Whitby Goth Weekend, the week previous.

The first course was Paris-Brest. The classic French pastry was invented by patissier Louis Durand in Paris in 1910 at the request of Pierre Giffard to commemorate the bicycle race he initiated in 1891. It is made in to the shape of a bike wheel but the Harewood version was savoury with a cream of lamb’s liver filling, topped with almonds and a dusting of powdered vinegar, icing sugar, garlic powder & onion powder.

The main dish was two cuts of Hebridean Lamb served with smoked eel fricasse and a spicy rhubarb sauce while the glazed Autumn ale bread, served with black truffle butter, crushed wild garlic and Rapeseed oil is fine-dining comfort food.

Frozen yoghurt with a whipped tea mousse and elderflower drizzle end the main meal before diners take to Carr House to finish the night with parkin and “Whitby Goth”, an old school ice cream flavour that commemorates the annual festival. In this case, it is a soured blackcurrant marshmallow with a liquorice jam on top.

Surrounded by nothing but nature and now creeping into the morning hours, firepits take the edge off the summer late night chill.