Celebrity chef Marcus Wareing speaks out on his time at an East Grinstead country hotel

And the Michelin-starred chef made a surprise confession.

He spoke out on the BBC Two programme Marcus Wareing’s Tales From A Kitchen Garden - screened last night - which featured him at the four-star Gravetye Manor at West Hoathly.

As he accompanied Gravetye chef George Blogg into the hotel’s grand Victorian kitchen garden, Marcus confessed he had never been into the garden during the time he worked at the hotel as a trainee chef.

He described Gravetye as a place close to his heart. And as he stepped into the veg-packed oval-shaped garden, he said: “It’s incredible. It’s vast. It’s huge. I have kitchen garden envy.”

George told Marcus that the garden “shows me what we should be using and when we should be using it.”

The pair harvested a range of fresh vegetables with which George created a ‘Gravetye garden salad’ - described by Marcus as “Gravetye on a plate.”

He added: “It has really inspired me as a chef to look at my garden and see it as a basis for my cooking.”

Marcus, who is currently embracing a slower pace of life at his own Sussex smallholding, also received some insider tips on veg growing from Gravetye’s head gardener Tom Coward.

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