Where to stay

The Old Government House Hotel & Spa Guernsey’s first and only fivestar hotel, housed in a 18th-century residence, is steeped in history and has hosted many illustrious guests. Double rooms from £195. Guernsey, 01481 724 921, theoghotel.com

La Barbarie Hotel-Restaurant Relaxed and friendly accommodation in either the hotel or self-catering apartments. The popular restaurant offers an ever-changing menu of seasonal island foods. Double rooms from £120. Guernsey, 01481 235 217, labarbariehotel.com

The White House Hotel (see also ‘Where to eat’) Herm is an isolated island destination – yet remarkably easy to reach from Guernsey, weather permitting. The family-owned, country-house style White House Hotel boasts a harbour-side setting and stunning sea views. From £118 per person, including dinner and breakfast. Herm, 01481 750 075, herm.com/hotel

Braye Beach Hotel Standing on one of Alderney’s finest sandy beaches, the hotel offers comfortable, modern rooms and an excellent restaurant. Double rooms from £140. Alderney, 01481 824 300, brayebeach.com

Stocks Hotel (see also ‘Where to eat’) Rent a bicycle and make your way to this hidden getaway in the heart of car-free Sark. Double rooms from £225. Sark, 01481 832 001, stockshotel.com

Dixcart Bay Hotel Victor Hugo was once a guest at Sark’s oldest hotel, a haven of cobbled courtyards, covered walkways and terraced lawns. Double rooms from £160. Sark, 01481 832 832, dixcartbay.sarkislandhotels.com

The Club Hotel & Spa Elegant boutique hotel in the heart of St Helier. Its spa features a salt pool and thermal suite. Home to Bohemia (see ‘Where to Eat’). Doubles from £165. Jersey, 01534 876 500, the clubjersey.com

The Atlantic Hotel & Ocean Restaurant Luxury hideaway set amid extensive grounds overlooking Jersey’s west coast (see also ‘Where to eat’). Doubles from £150. Jersey, 01534 744 101 theatlantichotel.com

Travel Information

The islands lie off the coast of Normandy. Currency is British pounds, though Jersey and Guernsey both issue local notes and coins tied to the pound. The islands run on GMT. Summers are dry and warm, with average highs of 19°C in July and August. Winter lows from December to February reach 4°C.

GETTING THERE
Aurigny (aurigny.com) flies to Guernsey from London Gatwick, London Stansted, Bristol, East Midlands and Manchester; to Jersey from Stansted; Alderney from Southampton; and between Alderney, Guernsey and Jersey.

Blue Islands (blueislands.com) flies direct to Jersey from Bristol, London City, Manchester and Southampton; direct to Guernsey from Southampton; and between Jersey and Guernsey.

Flybe (flybe.com) operates between Guernsey and Manchester, Edinburgh, Southampton and London Gatwick.

Condor Ferries (condorferries.co.uk) operates ferries to Guernsey and Jersey from Poole, Portsmouth and Weymouth.

RESOURCES
Jersey Tourism (jersey.com) offers advice on how to plan your trip to Jersey, including suggested activities and attractions.

Visit Guernsey (visitguernsey.com) has tips on history and culture, as well as ideas for food-based hikes. Also good for inter-island transport.

FURTHER READING
Ocean Voyage by Mark Jordan (Buckingham Book Publishing, £30). The head chef of the Michelin-starred Ocean Restaurant showcases his dishes.

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer (Bloomsbury, £7.99). A moving novel about island life under the Nazis.

Where to eat

Prices are for a three-course meal excluding wine, unless otherwise stated.

The Auberge Restaurant Idyllic setting perched on the cliffs of St Martin, looking across to Herm. Head chef Daniel Green creates vibrant modern cuisine. From £30-35. Guernsey, 01481 238 485, theauberge.gg

Bohemia Restaurant Michelin-starred Bohemia at the Club Hotel (see ‘Where to stay’) has wowed diners since 2004. Head chef Stephen Smith has built on Shaun Rankin’s legacy while making his own mark. From £59.

Georgian House Probably Alderney’s best restaurant, serving a short menu of modern, seasonal and locally sourced cuisine in a light and airy atmosphere. From £25. Alderney, 01481 822 471,georgianalderney.com

Harbour Lights Hotel The restaurant’s outdoor terrace has views across the island and out to sea. Alderney, 07781 135 616, harbourlightsalderney.com

La Sablonnerie Hotel & Restaurant Serves produce from its estate and freshly landed fish. Don’t miss the sloe gin, made by the owner’s mother. About £30. Sark, 01481 832 061, sablonneriesark.com

Longueville Manor Jersey’s grandest and most traditional hotel-restaurant. Andrew Baird creates award-winning cuisine with ingredients from its own garden. From £40. Jersey, 01534 725 501, longuevillemanor.com

Mark Jordan at the Beach This sister to the Atlantic’s Ocean restaurant offers an informal setting and serves island-sourced produce. From £25. Jersey, 01534 780180, markjordanatthebeach.com

Ormer Shaun Rankin’s new restaurant, opened in May, showcases Jersey’s produce, from foraged seaweeds to the rare abalone that gives the restaurant its name. About £40. Jersey, 01534 725100, ormerjersey.com

The Pavilion Chef and author Tony Leck champions local produce and serves a varied menu of seasonal foods. Try the ‘bean jar’ for a real taste of Guernsey. From £20-40. Guernsey, 01481 736 676, thepavilion.co.gg

Red Grill House & Cocktail Bar A trendy Manhattan-style steakhouse on St Peter Port’s waterfront. Great charcoal-grilled steaks and an extensive wine list. From £25. Guernsey, 01481 700 299, red.

Stocks Hotel (see also ‘Where to stay’) Head chef Byron Hayter makes use of the abundant local and ethically sourced produce. About £35.

The Swan Inn One of Guernsey’s oldest watering holes. Serves local food such as slow-roasted pork belly and braised lamb shoulder, with island ales and cider. From £15-30. Guernsey, 01481 728 969

Tassili at the Grand Jersey Under chef Richard Allen, Tassili – Jersey’s newest Michelin-starred restaurant – offers the island’s most modern and innovative cuisine. From £49. Jersey, 01534 722 301,grandjersey.com

The White House Hotel (see also ‘Where to stay’) The hotel has a brasserie (mains from £12), grill (two courses £25) and a restaurant (three courses £28.50). Its Mermaid Tavern serves pub food and Guernsey beer.

Food Glossary

Chancre crab

Brown crab.

Guernsey gâche

Special yeasted bread made with raisins, sultanas and candied peel.

Bean jar

Haricot beans, vegetables and meats slow cooked in an earthenware jar or casserole.

Ormer

Prized Channel Island mollusc similar to abalone – usually tenderised with a mallet then dredged in flour and fried.

Food and Travel Review

It’s 6.30am and I’m on St Ouen’s Bay in Jersey, on a grey and raw morning. The tide is out on this popular surfers’ beach, revealing a jagged, rocky reef. Shaun Rankin, former head chef at the island’s Michelin-starred Bohemia, and proud new owner of Ormer restaurant in St Helier, has brought me here to meet Kazz Padidar, an avid forager. As we wade through the rockpools, Kazz hunches down to retrieve any number of edible specimens, which he offers for tasting: briny, chewy, smelling of the sea, intense in flavour.

‘Try this pepper dulse,’ says Kazz, handing me a delicate, leafy frond. The flavour is amazing – it smells of white truffle and has an intriguing, peppery finish.

‘I use the wild foods that Kazz forages for me as a seasoning and to finish my dishes,’ explains Shaun. ‘They add a unique intensity of flavour that, for me, represents the taste of Jersey. Everywhere else these days people are talking about eating locally and sustainably; here on the islands I think we take this to another level.’

Andrew Baird, executive head chef at Longueville Manor, continues the story. ‘I’ve been here for 23 years now and soon learned that as a chef you have to immerse yourself into life on an island. I learned to fish and to dive, and in this way I gained an understanding and a respect for the local seafood.’

Andrew takes us out to Bonne Nuit Bay to meet scallop diver Bob Titterington, who plies his trade year round in the shallow seas off Jersey’s shore. ‘Last year we served about 65,000 scallops at Longueville Manor,’ says Andrew. ‘As a diver myself, I know what is involved in collecting scallops by hand from the seabed. It is immensely hard work. But diving for scallops is not just better for the environment of the island, dived scallops taste better as they have not been stressed.’

I sense the closeness of an island where relationships with suppliers are far deeper than merely commercial. Richard Allen, chef at Jersey’s newest Michelin-starred restaurant, Tassili, is eager for me to meet Jamie Racjan of Fungi Delecti. Jamie’s family began cultivating shiitake mushrooms on Jersey’s north coast in 1996, a laborious process that can take upwards of two years from incubation to harvest. The results, however, were appreciated by top local chefs, and out of this grew a high-end business for the supply of all the island’s freshest seasonal produce. ‘Jamie understands food and he understands how chefs work,’ says Richard. ‘Sometimes he will deliver to Tassili five or six times a day. Quite simply, I couldn’t have the menu that I have without Jamie supplying me.’

Mark Jordan, head chef at the Ocean Restaurant at The Atlantic hotel, yet another Michelin-starred venue, is adamant that the bond between supplier and chef is a determinant of quality and excellence. ‘For me, it is all about the local produce. I know in detail each ingredient that I use. I know which fields my Jersey beef comes from, exactly where my lobsters are landed, and the bay where the seaweed I use is foraged. We do this day in and day out, throughout the seasons; we see our suppliers, shake their hands, and in the process they become our friends.’

Jersey is the southernmost of the Channel Islands, a British archipelago just off France’s Normandy coast. A remnant of the Duchy of Normandy, today the islands remain crown dependencies that are independent of the United Kingdom and the European Union, administered by two separate bailiwicks: the Bailiwick of Jersey and the Bailiwick of Guernsey. The latter oversees not only Guernsey, but also the islands of Alderney, Sark and Herm.

These are special, wondrous isles, full of riches, each with their own voices, histories and proud traditions. Yet each is also inextricably connected to the others: by transport links, history, culture, and an island cuisine based above all on ingredients that are foraged, gathered, grown, caught, hunted, produced, raised or processed on the islands themselves. Their restaurants, meanwhile, are fuelled by a continental eating culture – and wealthy diners who work in finance. This means there’s no shortage of fine places to eat and drink. Indeed the Channel Islands today can rightly be considered one of the great food destinations of the British Isles.

On Guernsey I meet chef and author Tony Leck at his acclaimed Pavilion, a coffee shop-cum-restaurant on a nature reserve just a few miles outside St Peter Port. Tony extols the fresh produce available to him: ‘Outstanding fruit and veg are grown here without the use of chemical pesticides, herbicides or fertilisers. We enjoy the best early-ripening cauliflowers, courgettes, carrots, onions, beans, peppers, cabbages, squash, artichokes, asparagus, beetroot and potatoes. Tomato growing has long been an important activity in Guernsey – you’ll notice greenhouses as large as football pitches – and we still have a huge variety of locally grown varieties.’

He is proud of the island’s abundant summer fruits, regularly using fresh strawberries, raspberries, loganberries, tayberries, blackcurrants, redcurrants, gooseberries, kiwi and physalis in his dishes. ‘Everybody grows something here,’ he says. ‘Drive around the island and you will see “hedge-veg” stands everywhere; roadside stalls selling own-grown produce, home-made jams and chutneys. You take what you want and leave your money in an honesty box.’

We drive out to St Martin to meet Andrew Coleman, who has been at La Barbarie Hotel for more than 20 years and who was recently honoured by Taste Guernsey for his dedication to the island’s hospitality industry. Andrew says: ‘Guernsey has its own style of cuisine based on its local produce, with the ingredients taking star billing. The whole island is a market garden.’ He enthuses over local cheeses such as Fort Grey, made with rich Guernsey milk, and the goat’s cheese from producers Peter and Mandy Girard, as well as island-reared Guernsey beef and rare-breed pork. ‘These foods give our dishes a unique flavour and character,’ he says.

Daniel Green, head chef at The Auberge, agrees. ‘Guernsey is a fantastic place to live and work. For a chef, to have foods that you can put on a plate knowing precisely where they come from is a little bit special. Here we aren’t tied to tradition either. I like flavours that are fresh and exciting,’ he says, offering me a crab and lettuce spring roll that has a rich taste of the sea, the crab also spiked with spring onions, chilli and a touch of toasted sesame.

In spite of the wealth that has come to the island, Guernsey still retains something of a simpler feel from a bygone era. With all the shops shut on Sundays, St Peter Port is quiet, almost sleepy, as locals take the time to lie in, go to church or simply relax.

A favourite day excursion is to hop on the ferry to Herm – lying just off Guernsey – the smallest of the publicly accessible islands. Herm is so close yet it is truly another world, even to locals from Guernsey. With only 63 permanent residents, this tiny isle feels like a secret, special place where life can still be something of an adventure. Electricity comes from diesel generators, water from bore holes. All waste has to be burned, recycled or taken across to the ‘mainland’ of Guernsey. Herm feels somehow surprisingly faraway, its beaches little visited and stunningly beautiful, with expanses of white sand that are almost Caribbean in feel – when the sun is shining.

The White House Hotel is the only hotel on the island; there are also some 20 holiday cottages and a couple of campsites. Weatherbeaten, constantly fighting the elements, yet incredibly beautiful and peaceful, this is the sort of place that people have been coming to for generations in search of a relaxed pace of life and to genuinely get away from things. But life and work is not without its challenges.

Nigel Waylen, head chef at The White House, explains something of the difficulties. ‘Here we have to literally be able to plan for a rainy day. In good weather, the island is heaving with visitors; in bad weather the boats won’t even run. The weather is the most significant determinant of what happens here. Yesterday, for example, we had a corporate event for 140 people cancelled because the ferry couldn’t run.’

The island is five kilometres from Guernsey but rain, tide, wind and weather can make it feel very far away, he explains. ‘From a catering point of view, I have to keep things simple. I prepare market menus that make use of the bounty on our doorstep: grilled lobster salad, scallops, Herm oysters, and traditional dishes such as Herm bread and butter pudding made with our own local honey.’

From Herm, I return to Guernsey, where I am staying at the Old Government House Hotel and Spa, which is located in one of the most historic buildings on the island. As the name suggests, this 18th-century mansion was the headquarters for the government of the States of Guernsey. It became a hotel in 1858, although during the Second World War it was taken over as the headquarters for the German occupying force. Today, while luxurious and modern in comfort, it retains a genteel and rather old-fashioned charm, both in decor and level of service. Indeed, there is almost something of a colonial atmosphere in The Curry Room, where fine Indian cuisine is served in the intimate maroon dining room.

The next day, I make my way to the airport to board the smallest commercial plane I have ever been on. The pilot is in the seat in front of us and we have a chat before he takes off to fly about 20 minutes to the island of Alderney, the northernmost of the Channel Islands. Alderney feels remote and rural, far less developed, bare, windswept, and totally unspoiled. Unlike Guernsey and Jersey, the island is not wealthy through offshore finance, though a windfall has come from the licensing of internet gambling, allowing for much-needed capital to fund projects and investments in hospital and schools.

Due to its proximity to France, the Victorians used Alderney as a military base. Its strategic position also meant that during World War II the inhabitants of the island were evacuated and it was taken over and transformed completely by the Germans. They constructed concentration camps where thousands of prisoners from Poland, Russia, Spain, France and elsewhere were brought to build bunkers and gun emplacements all around the island. Only the gates of concentration camp SS Lager-Sylt remain today. They stand as a mute and forlorn testimony to those who lost their lives to the Nazis on the island during those dark years.

Now, however, these relics of war stand empty, and the young people of the island use abandoned German bunkers as meeting places. Holly Fisher, who runs the Georgian House Restaurant in St Anne, the main town and capital of the island, has been coming to Alderney for much of her life. ‘My dad sailed here 35 years ago and fell in love with the island. Alderney is special,’ says Holly, who in winter runs a chalet business in the Alps.

‘You feel like you have absolutely escaped, yet the island is only an hour’s flight from London. It is a bit like stepping back in time. From a food point of view, it is so satisfying to work directly with local people. Our crab, lobster and fish come direct from the harbour down the road. Kiln Farm supplies Alderney beef, as well as amazing milk, butter, ice cream and yoghurt, while vegetables come from Pat and Frances, grown on their local allotment. Our menus have virtually zero food miles.’

This is a familiar theme throughout the Channel Islands: the importance and value of foods from the islands themselves. Sark is the smallest of the main islands, and is the most self-contained. With no cars, its transport system is reliant on a network of dirt lanes and tracks. Sark is still almost feudal in feel; like a throwback to the original 40 tenancies that Elizabeth I established on the island by royal charter. In spite of recent political battles, these tenancies remain mainly intact, with self-contained, self-supporting farms being the dominant feature of the island’s life.

On Little Sark (connected to the main part of the island by the narrow La Coupée) Elizabeth Perrée, the owner of La Sablonnerie, a small and exclusive hotel and restaurant, explains that her family is one of the original 40 from Jersey who were granted tenements in 1565. ‘Each family has always been responsible for their own section of the island. It has worked very well in many ways for all of this time.’ Elizabeth’s brother Philip still maintains the mixed farm and his produce comes straight to the restaurant kitchens of this delightful and idiosyncratic hotel.

At Stocks Hotel, on Greater Sark, head chef Byron Hayter shows me the extensive kitchen garden, which is able to supply his team with much of their vegetable, herb and fruit requirements. In addition, the hotel raises its own beef and dairy cattle, pigs and poultry. Sark lamb comes from the field just behind Stocks, while fish and shellfish are brought direct from the boat by a fisherman who knocks on the door with whatever he has been able to catch during that day’s expedition.

‘For a 25-year-old chef,’ says Byron, ‘working here is the most fabulous opportunity.’ The food that Byron serves demonstrates an ambitious and creative chef, and one who is certainly rising to the challenge. A dish of local scallops with slow-braised pig cheek combines rich and deep flavours. Line-caught sea bass is served with butter-poached lobster, Sark crab and new potatoes that have been freshly dug from the kitchen garden.

Massive investment on Sark, notably by billionaire businessmen the Barclay Brothers and their Sark Estate Management group, means that this small island now has a clutch of world-class hotels. While this is a relatively recent development, Sark has a long history of welcoming visitors. Stocks, for example, has been a hotel since 1895; the recently renovated Dixcart Bay Hotel can claim Victor Hugo as a guest in 1845.

Tourists and holidaymakers have been coming to the Channel Islands for generations. Given the mild climate, the leisurely pace of island life and the quality of local food and drink from the islands themselves – transformed with skill and passion by a new generation of talented chefs – it seems certain that these isles of wonder will continue to attract new generations of food-loving visitors.