Cateys 2025: Menu of the Year Award: Flora

Tim Spedding and his wife Louise Rødkjær met while they were both working in restaurants in Copenhagen. After moving to Helston in Cornwall, the pair opened Flora in spring 2023, with experienced restaurant manager Rødkjær running front of house and Spedding in the kitchen.

Spedding cut his teeth at revered restaurant the Quay in Sydney. He then came back to London to the now three-Michelin-starred Ledbury in Notting Hill before becoming head chef at the Clove Club in Shoreditch when it opened in 2013, alongside chef-patron Isaac McHale.

When the couple moved from London to Cornwall in 2016, Spedding and Rødkjær worked with Tom Adams at Coombeshead Farm, near Launceston, as head chef and restaurant manager respectively. It was here that they realised they could work in a restaurant together, and the seed for their own project was sown. 

Flora’s ethos is to source amazing local produce and make sure it’s delicious. Spedding told The Caterer that his cooking style was mostly influenced by his time at the Ledbury and the Clove Club, but there are Danish and Japanese influences, too.

In the kitchen there are two other full-time chefs and some part-timers – about 80% of the team are from Cornwall. There are 50 covers in the restaurant and 25 in the café, and during the peak summer months there are 60 more seats in the outside courtyard.

The hyper-local and super-seasonal menu that impressed our judges features dishes such as grilled St Enodoc asparagus with hazelnut, elderflower and brown butter emulsion; roast lamb chop and slow-cooked shoulder with broad beans and new season onions; and roasted monkfish with a tomato and saffron sauce with aioli, new potatoes and fennel salad.

“As far as I know, we’re one of a few restaurants getting hand-dived scallops from the local area,” Spedding said. “In fact, all the seafood we use comes from day boats or divers on the Lizard Peninsula, from a three-mile radius. The scallops are grilled over hazelwood and brushed with a homemade green chilli, a riff on the Japanese yuzu kosho, made with Cornish lemons. They’re served with grilled leeks from the garden, some beach herbs and a sauce made from the scallop skirts and roes, like a classic white wine velouté.”

The restaurant also works with fish supplier KernowSashimi: “They’re now neighbours, but I worked with them in London at the Clove Club – we were one of the first restaurants to do so. They’re supplying a lot of the best restaurants in the country and we feel very fortunate that we can get our pick of the great fish that they have on offer,” said Spedding.

Not only is Spedding recognised with the Menu of the Year Award, but sponsor Seafood from Norway will also invite him on a chef’s trip to Norway to further his fish knowledge.

What the judges said

“A passionate, hearty and creative menu that really showcases amazing ingredients treated with care and respect.” Sally Abé

“A restaurant with a chef cooking with creativity at incredible value for money. Flora absolutely deserves recognition.” Kirk Haworth

“This is a cook who wears an elegant ease in the kitchen in this charming endeavour.” Jeremy Lee

Shortlist

• A Wong
• AngloThai
• Flora
• Lir
• Trivet

The judges

• Sally Abé, the Pem
• Kirk Haworth, Plates London
• Jeremy Lee, Quo Vadis
• James Mackenzie, Pipe & Glass

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