Roots chef Rob Howell on his soil-to-service ethos

While Howell is focused on getting the Bath site up and running, each of the Roots restaurants has its own head chef who has creative licence with the menu. “Our head chef in Bath, Joe Fowler, also worked at the Pony & Trap and at Root Bristol for three years, so this type of cooking is ingrained and natural – we have techniques and formulas each season that just flow,” he says. 

Working with hyper-seasonal menus requires continuous learning and thinking on your feet: “Sometimes I look at the growers’ list and don’t know how to cook half of it – you have to teach yourself, which is great fun and really rewarding.”

Dishes are designed to be shared and the menu leans into familiar flavours and comforting dishes inspired by Howells’ travels. Take the grilled leeks with pumpkin seed romesco, fennel and preserved lemon, Chalk Stream trout with a plum and ancho ketchup with pickled vegetable, or mushroom skewer with red cabbage and tahini yogurt, served with an onion seed flatbread.

The mushroom skewer is a favourite, and one which Howell describes as a “big, messy, eat-with-your-hands” kebab. He begins by seasoning the oiled mushrooms with a spice mix before blasting them in the oven and letting them relax. A skewered mushrooms are dressed with soy and molasses and the flatbreads are made fresh each morning, the dough kept in the fridge ready to puff up for service. The dish is accompanied with pickled red cabbage, fresh from the field, which is heavily salted and combined with white wine vinegar and spices. “Loads of fresh herbs” finish off the plate.

“We had a Som Saa guest chef a few years ago and I remember eating the food and being really annoyed that it was so much better than mine – the flavours were so different and unique,” says Howell. “The reason was the volume of fresh herbs. The Michelin-style way to do herbs is perfectly cut chives, but whole pieces of parsley and mint completely change a plate.”

Mushrooms also appear as a tartare, smoked and lightly roasted before classic steak garnishes such as shallots, parsley, capers and cornichons are added, along with a wet mix of tabasco, tomato ketchup, mustards and vinegar. Topped with cured egg yolk and crisps, Howell believes the dish is just as delicious as the steak version.

“Mushrooms are such a vehicle for us to put on the menu in lots of different ways and helps us fill a gap in the winter as they grow all year round. And these two mushrooms dishes are such as contrast.”

Moving onto another winter staple – celeriac – Howell takes a whole head of the vegetable and steams it before rubbing with a mustard and pastrami mix made from three different types of peppercorns and spices. This is brushed carefully over the steamed celeriac, which is then smoked at 140ºC to dry it out.

“The idea is that it is almost like a ham. When it cools down we slice it and fan it out on the plate and serve with relish and pickles. It’s so meaty in flavour and it’s so unique to us. There’s nothing over-the-top technique-wise, but it’s a confident, familiar classic with a twist.”

Another Root classic sits on the dessert menu – doughnuts filled with carrot jam and served with brown butter frosting.

“It’s a really fun sharing dish that just makes you smile,” says Howell, who says the flavours remind him of carrot cake. “It’s really simple, but it’s familiar done differently, which nine times out of 10 is our ethos.”

Seasonal fruit pavlova; doughnuts with carrot jam and brown butter cream cheese; fruit and nut chocolate mousse; and tiramisu

With Bib Gourmands in Bristol and Wells, attention now turns to Bath – a larger, 150-cover site that Howell is keen to ensure retains its individuality. “We don’t want to feel like a chain,” he says. 

“Roots works, because I think the expectations are low, and because veg is always underrated. But once we get people through the door and try the food, they trust us with what we do.”

Shires Yard, Bath BA1 1BZ
www.rootrestaurants.co.uk/bath

From the menu

Snacks

• Cheese puffs, Old Winchester, brown sauce £6.50
• Carrot and sunflower seed hummus, harissa oil, rye cracker £7.50

Plates

• Tempura spring onions, leek mayonnaise £8.50
• Chew Valley burrata, walnut Waldorf salad, pear £12.50
• Smoked beetroot, apple, grilled radicchio, walnut butter £9.50
• Homewood ewes’ curd dumplings, braised greens, pangrattato £13.50
• Crispy potatoes, sour cream, caper, dill, mustard, pickled red onion £9.50
• Ox heart skewer, green sauce, pickled turnips £16
• Baked Cornish hake, brown butter squash, courgette £24
• 14oz Somerset pork chop, celeriac rémoulade, burnt apple £25

Desserts

• Dark chocolate mousse, hazelnut, boozy prunes £9
• Pavlova, custard, plum, almond crumble £9
• Tiramisu, burnt orange gel £9
• Bath Blue, brab apple jelly, rye cracker £9