At Birch hotel Lee Westcott has found a city oasis where foraging will sit at the heart of the menu

The 181-bedroom hotel is surrounded by 220 acres of rolling hills and green space, nurtured through a rewilding project. Westcott is heading up all-day brasserie Vervain as well as the hotel's signature restaurant Elodie, where he offers a tasting menu incorporating ingredients foraged from the estate and grown in the burgeoning kitchen garden.

He says: "[Pensons and Birch are] kind of similar because we have 220 acres here. I mean, it isn't 1,200 acres, but it's a bloody lot. We're using what the land has to offer for foraging and that's a big part of our approach to the dishes and menus. We have the scope, over time, to get to a point where our kitchen garden is flourishing throughout the year.

"This first year at Birch has been challenging, but our first growing year at Pensons was also pretty bad because the soil didn't have all the right nutrients. But that's just part and parcel of a project this big – you have to learn and persevere, to keep believing in the project and pushing forward."

Establishing a kitchen garden in south London

While establishing a thriving garden will take time, Birch's grounds have already given camomile, wild garlic, figs and fig leaves, cherry blossom and more to Elodie's menus.

Westcott adds: "We go off in the golf buggies and try and find things – we found pine the other day and now have that on the menu. At both Pensons and Typing Room [Westcott's former restaurant in Bethnal Green, east London] we used foraged ingredients, so I know what I'm looking for and on 220 acres of land you'll pretty much find it all. We have apple trees, damson trees, plum trees – you just need to find them. It's about knowing what to look for in each season." Westcott is working with head grower Hayley Caine to establish the kitchen garden and, despite setbacks including curious deer, rabbits and badgers, it is beginning to offer up produce.

"We've learned a lot," says Westcott. "We've had courgettes, courgette flowers, nasturtiums, radishes, turnips, baby cucumbers and a few tomatoes. The first year is a challenge – the people I speak to, who know more than I do, all agree the first year or two are all about trial and error, realising what you're capable of and where you might have gone wrong. We're adding soil with a no-dig approach so the ground has got to find its feet. We've had a bit of produce but we want to do a lot more."

The chef says a dish of grilled courgette with sorrel, elderflower and green almond, which has appeared on Elodie's six-course tasting menu, priced at £69, epitomises his approach.

"Each ingredient on that plate is super-seasonal, and they all live and grow and are surrounded by each other in the same season, so it just works in harmony," he explains.

"Flavours that are growing at the same time just go, it's that simple. The courgette goes well with tiny sorrel and then we have the elderflower, which we had foraged a few months before."

Using every part of ingredients

Westcott and his team strive to use every part of a product. For example, trimmings from tomatoes used in a crab dish are dehydrated and blitzed into a powder that now sits on top of a canapé of lamb tartare. The tartare itself uses fillet offcuts from a loin dish. The meat is chopped and wrapped in nasturtium leaves that had grown too big to be used as a delicate garnish.

"That dish – all of it – works in harmony with our ethos," says Westcott. "That's what we try and do. And I think as we keep going, we'll be incorporating more and more."

As work on the grounds evolves Westcott will grow the connection between location and menu further at Elodie, and new arrivals to Birch have included sheep and cattle, which will be reared on the land.

While Elodie gives Westcott the opportunity to produce elevated, seasonal tasting menus at Vervain he was tasked with creating a classic British brasserie for families, couples and solo diners, something that presented its own challenges. "For example, I have never cooked a roast dinner before," he says. "I have at home for friends and girlfriends, but never on a bigger scale. And it's been really fun to do that. I've been contacting friends for advice. It's a different type kind of cooking and I've found I've had a different kind of pleasure from doing it. I never thought I'd be putting a prawn cocktail on a menu, but I fucking love a prawn cocktail so why don't we want to see that on a menu?"

Menus at Vervain include a Dexter beef burger with brioche bun (£18) alongside line-caught Cornish cod served with barley, citrus yellow pepper sauce, rope-grown mussels and summer courgette (£19) and elements of enticing nostalgia, such as that smoked salmon and prawn cocktail (£12) and an English trifle (£9).

Just a few months into this project Westcott and the wider team of Birch have many ideas to make their most of their surroundings and offer guests opportunities to connect with the food around them. From summer festivals to fire-cooked outdoor suppers and foraging classes, there's a lot to come.

From Elodie's menu

• IPA sourdough with marmite butter and roasted yeast
• Line-caught Cornish mackerel with apple, cucumber and wild horseradish
• Spring lamb with green olive, turnip and three-cornered garlic
• English strawberry with cultured yogurt and cherry blossom