In our travels we had heard talk of Chef Robin Rea and his establishment the Rusty Pig Ottery St Mary in Devon. So as we made our way around Devon, we could not resist the opportunity to stop in and visit the man himself, to see what all the talk was about.

Arriving in Ottery St Mary we parked in the town center and walked up the eerily quiet Yonder Street looking for Robin. It was not entirely clear that we were on the right path until we stumbled across a sow-themed shop window, complete with faux knives, metaphorically at the ready, to dispatch delicious pork parts to hungry diners everywhere. Ah, this must be the place.

The Rusty Pig Ottery has the feel of being undiscovered. The kind of place you stumble across in an out-of-the-way place and can proclaim to the world, “Look what I have found”. Unfortunately for us, The Rusty Pig Ottery is quite well known in these parts, and much further afield, as attested by his name coming up several times in conversations with strangers. But, as we discovered, through Robin’s relentless pursuit of his passion for food, charcuterie and various other food innovations, quite a unique establishment has developed. Part butcher shop, part restaurant, part lunch counter and local meeting place, Robin has created the perfect spot to work his magic.

As an aside, Robin welcomed us in one of Teresa Green’s silkscreened aprons. A blood red linen one made especially for Robin. Who is Teresa Green? Check out Check out Journal Entry No.28.

Robin’s story is as diverse as the style of his establishment. He started cooking as a teenager. First leaving Ottery St Mary bound for Australia, and then returning to London, eventually ending up at the nearby River Cottage. Finally returning home to Ottery St Mary, he decided to take over his mom’s former 99p store on Yonder Street. After a gut renovation, the Rusty Pig Ottery was born.

Passionate about pigs, Robin keeps a few of his own, which he “lodges” at a friend’s vegetable farm. They fertilize her gardens and in return she provides the Rusty Pig Ottery with excellent veggies. He is also on a mission to educate people about animal husbandry and how we need to change our farming practices to be healthier and more sustainable. That means more vegetables generally, but better meat when you have it.

At the Rusty Pig you will only get what is in season from Robin’s local purveyors. But in Devon, that is not terribly limiting. With all its lush farmland and adjacency to the sea, it’s a food lover’s paradise. When I took Robin’s portrait in front of his store I momentarily held up traffic as I backed up into the street. As the trucks passed, Robin realized one of them was his seafood supplier and shouted “Hey! Where’s my fish?” He sped off shouting, “be there in two”. How’s that for a purchase order!

Wasting food does not sit well with Robin. His roof-top smoker cabinet bears testament to that. He built it himself, to my eye having the approximate proportions of the puppet theaters I remember from childhood. He smokes sausages, hams, but surprisingly, also carrots and any other vegetables he has left over. The smoked carrots are the main ingredients for his home-made ketchup which is just delicious.

… returning home to Ottery St Mary, he decided to take over his mom’s former 99p store on Yonder Street. After a gut renovation, the Rusty Pig Ottery was born.

Sometimes Robin’s drive to not let anything go to waste has driven him to extremes. One of his specialties is blood meringues. For Robin they are part object lesson and part dinner entertainment. Working with a food scientist, Robin found that the protein structure of pig’s blood is virtually identical to that of egg whites. So to illustrate his no-waste message, he now makes beautiful little desert meringues out of pig’s blood. They are slightly beige, and believe me if you were not told otherwise, you would not know the difference between Robin’s blood meringues and their egg-based cousins. “It took a lot of testing”, he says. “You just need to get the sugar level right, or it tastes like you got hit in the mouth”.

His real passion is Charcuterie and originally he set out to do exclusively that. But one thing led to another and soon Robin was preparing food for his customers on site, which turned out to be a better business model to support Robin’s constant culinary experiments. And luckily for you and me, you can now enjoy Robin’s extensive talents for breakfast and lunch from Thursday to Saturday. The day we visited, breakfast was already in full swing with locals and urban weekenders, all in for their weekly breakfast treats.

On Robin’s recommendation, we went for the Full English, which I have to say, was my best to date. Seriously, the flavor ensemble was perfect, and it was a food stylist’s dream in a sturdy black skillet with lovely vegetables, simply roasted, with blood pudding, sausages, hash and lovely thick cut of white toast.

You would think that someone that is so passionate about charcuterie would be snobbish with vegetarians. Not so with Robin. He very clearly expresses that in this day and age a good chef should be able to cook a main course with whatever is available to them, meat or not. Learning to be improvisational allows you to develop a much more interesting palette of taste. And as with doing anything risky, mistakes happen, which then become the next innovations.

So come hungry and don’t be shy about ordering vegetarian. I was torn as to which I liked best.

One of the Rusty Pig Ottery specials is his “dinner on demand”. If you make arrangements ahead of time Robin will prepare an ethically sourced four-course dinner for 40 pounds a head. He can host up to 15 people. Just remember, you need to book way in advance. His dinners are extremely popular and patrons travel from far away for the experience.

I left thinking this guy should be famous, I mean seriously famous. And then I remembered, he is already. It was just a lovely down-to-earth experience chatting with Robin and his team. His charm, wit and enthusiasm for food is something you very rarely see. He has created exactly the kind of place where people from all walks of life like to come and spend time with him and eat.

Go there. All I can say you will love it.

Details

For further details go to; www.rustypig.co.uk

Photography and story by Daniela Stallinger

Article last updated on: August 31, 2016