Simon Rogan's Lake District

Wild swimming, epic mountains, villages with history etched into every building, and the small matter of a three-Michelin-starred restaurant and England's best pudding: it's no wonder Simon Rogan loves the Lake

The walk up to High Dam, a tarn near Lake Windermere, is worth the early morning start. Weaving your way through thick woodlands as the sun slowly cuts a dappled a path through the gaps in the forest roof, it’s a steep climb to the beauty spot, a favourite among locals for an early-morning swim. Luckily, while using the view as an excuse to catch a breath, you can stop for a breather and take in the lush meadows running alongside the trail. When you reach the summit and High Dam – a man-made lake dating back to the 1800s – you can wash away the rigours of your walk with the most refreshing of swims. So fresh, it doesn’t so much give the circulatory system a kickstart as put it into a spin cycle.

Not that it’s stopped the chefs and staff of nearby L’Enclume, Simon Rogan’s freshly three-Michelin-starred restaurant with rooms in the village of Cartmel. Even on the frosty day we visit in spring, Sam Ward, the managing director, and restaurant manager Graeme Cumine are taking dips (the former getting extra credit for lending his wetsuit to this guest for the day).

It’s a routine for in-the-know locals aware of the powers of the wild, and even Simon Rogan – who we meet afterwards in the warmth of his six-seater chef’s table, Aulis, next to L’Enclume – is about to dive in. ‘I’m going to start doing cold-water swimming with the guys – they keep ribbing me to go,’ he says, ‘but I’m going to work my way up to winter; I’ll try and season myself first.’

With travel taken away in recent times, Simon’s passion for the Lake District has been rekindled. ‘I got to spent time away from the restaurant, going for a ride around the lakes or up to the mountains, seeing the kind of places that blow your mind,’ he says. ‘The job always prevented me getting to know everything, but lockdown was mega for me – staff on furlough, doing “at home” [deliveries], plodding along. I got out and saw the Lake District again, reminding myself why I fell in love with it and what I’d been missing by travelling.’

Ever since he opened Roganic in London more than a decade ago, Simon has traversed the UK and beyond. But with travel even to his own restaurant in Hong Kong off the cards for now, he’s back in thrall to England’s northerly region of glacier lakes, wildly rugged mountain landscape and literary fairy tales.

It’s magical isn’t it?

‘The mountains, the greenery, so plush, and, yes, the weather can be moody, but that’s the beauty of it. You could have a torrential downpour one minute, and half an hour later the skies are crystal clear. There’s something about that crisp blue skyline against the mountains. The quality of life here is so much better,’ he adds. ‘I think now a lot of people are working that out. This has got to be the most beautiful place to work in the UK.’

And he makes the most of it. ‘Hiking Scafell Pike [England’s highest peak at 978m] is my favourite pastime – on a clear day, you can see so much of the UK. Then there’s Bassenthwaite, the most northerly lake, where I was shown a secret pathway from a caravan park right at the top leading to this isolated spot on the north shore. You look down with mountains on either side – it’s one of quietest spots there.’

Despite his knowledge, he’s not quite a local yet. ‘You have to be here for 23 years,’ he laughs. ‘It’s what I’ve always been told, and I’ve only been here for 21 years! But I consider myself to be a local; this is my home. I love being in London for a day, but I’m always excited about getting on the train to come back here.’

He first came to L’Enclume after failing to find his cooking mojo in previous kitchens, which include myriad big names. ‘I’ve been a bit unlucky with jobs, working for other people,’ he says. ‘They probably say the same about me, but I’ve never quite got what I wanted, I’ve never found the person to work with. I worked for some pretty heavy-hitting chefs and you just think that’s the way to do it,’ he continues. ‘But then you gradually realise it’s not the best way.'

The best way is to be nice, to share and encourage and train and, you know, make people better. Then people want to try, they want to get better and, nine times out of ten, they will become better.

He was tempted north by an old antique shop that the owners had begun to turn into a restaurant with rooms in Cartmel. ‘I left the south coast at 5am and on arrival they sold me a dream of Cartmel. I looked at a building site and had a bit of a vision, and the building just got me.’

He rang them to say he wanted it on the journey home. He won his wife, Penny, over to the idea and nine months later, they opened in 2002. ‘The first six months nobody came during the week, then we had 15-20 on Saturday nights,’ he recalls. ‘I’ve no idea how we survived.’ But soon ‘London PR kicked in’, and people began to travel north. Then Michelin inspectors joined the punters, giving them a first star in 2005, and a second in 2013.

There were challenges on the way (‘we’ve almost gone to the wall three or four times’), but the allure of Simon’s cooking and the environs kept people coming, including the inspectors. ‘We’ve been rumoured as favourite to get a third ever since the second one in 2013,’ he says, ‘but you can’t pay too much attention. You just have to get your head down and cook your heart out. You’re looking for that one thing that gets you over the line.’

Two things, in particular helped Simon. ‘Paul Burgalières, my head chef, and Tom Barnes [former head chef] coming back were major factors,’ he says. ‘Having those two very talented guys on my shoulders is just invaluable. As well as Aulis, whose namesake in London has a star, Simon also has the Michelin-starred Rogan & Co in Cartmel, a shop, rooms and, nearby, Henrock, at Linthwaite House, plus his own organic farm in Cartmel Valley. But, where other chefs may have turned their destination town or village into culinary theme parks, everything Simon has done is in keeping with the character of the area.

He wasn’t here first. ‘You mustn’t forget the sticky toffee pudding shop,’ he says. ‘That’s always been here.’

Even on the restaurant front, Simon knows he wasn’t the first. ‘People say I started it, but there were some great restaurants like Gilpin Hotel, Holbeck Ghyll, Michael’s Nook. Possibly not enough people knew about them,’ he admits. ‘Cumbria has the most Michelin stars outside of London and Bray, and I thought there might be more stars this year – I was a bit disappointed. We thought Lake Road Kitchen and Rothay Manor might get one, and Ryan Blackburn at The Old Stamp House might get a second… But there are definitely more coming. A lot of amazing restaurants are just beginning their journey and a couple of sleeping giants are trying to get back into the game too.’

Although a giant of the scene himself, Simon is certainly not going to be sleeping. Three stars may be the culmination of a life’s work but, as 53-year-old Rogan points out, there’s plenty of life to go. ‘We have plans for the end of the year,’ he says. ‘We hope to announce plans for a radical shake-up of L’Enclume. ‘Not of the kind to put our three stars in jeopardy,’ he quickly adds. ‘But new bar, toilets, lounge, cellar – and all of it will be in the building, so we might be losing a few rooms.

‘The job’s still there,’ he concludes. ‘Three stars is not the end, it’s just the start. It’s about the guest experience: we’re all wanting to make it the best it can possibly be. Getting three stars is recognition of that, but we still think we can make it better.’

Simon's Hotspots

Heft. Inn + Restaurant, High Newton
Kevin Tickle – who used to work here – is doing really well in this 17th-century inn, and we were quite surprised he didn’t get a star. Great place; it’s also going to have five bedrooms.

Gilpin Lake House, Windermere
It’s not far from its sister, Gilpin Hotel, and with only six bedrooms, it’s really secluded in 100 acres of private grounds – it looks amazing. And I’d have to include Gilpin Spice (at the hotel) as a place to eat too. Hrishi [Desai] is behind it and it’s probably the best Asian-influenced restaurant. Fine dining, but more relaxed.

The Old Stamp House, Ambleside
Ryan Blackburn is doing some really good food in Ambleside. A high-quality tasting menu, with good Lake District ingredients cooked with real flair. It’s Michelin starred too.

Drunken Duck Inn, Ambleside
There’s so much history to this place, it was one of the first real gastro pubs up here. It’s always had an amazing reputation and I’m a big fan of vegan chef Jonny Watson, who is doing some really good, tasty food (I thought he was an outside bet for a Michelin star). Although he does dishes without meat protein, they’re just as good and because it’s really interesting vegan food you don’t feel like you’re missing anything.

Words by Alex Mead

This interview was taken from the May 2022 issue of Food and Travel Magazine. To subscribe today, click here.