"Letting the Landscape Lead": A conversation with Chef-Owner Ryan Blackburn, Old Stamp House and The Schelly
- James Massoud
- May 5
- 11 min read
At the Old Stamp House, chef-owner Ryan Blackburn has built one of Britain’s most compelling ingredient-led kitchens, where Herdwick lamb, coastal seafood and centuries-old regional recipes converge with modern technique. In this conversation with The Knife, Blackburn reflects on growing up in the Lake District, the suppliers who shaped his cooking, and how his newer venture, The Schelly, is redefining what "fine dining" can feel like today.
Cumbria runs through your menus. How did growing up in Great Langdale and being the third generation in hospitality first shape your relationship with food and local produce?
I grew up in Great Langdale, less than five miles from the restaurants, and that upbringing shaped everything about the way I think about food. Some of my earliest memories are of my father cooking in the kitchens of our family’s hospitality businesses, so being around food and service was simply part of everyday life. As the third generation in hospitality, it was never something that felt separate from life at home; it was just something I absorbed naturally.
The landscape around me played just as important a role. Herdwick sheep were constant neighbours when I was growing up, and the valleys, fells and coastline of Cumbria formed the backdrop to my childhood. I remember one school project where our class carved a Herdwick sheep from local slate, which says a lot about how deeply the landscape is woven into life here.
It was a very small community. There were only twenty-seven children in my whole school, and most of us were the children of farmers, quarry workers or people working in hospitality. That sense of community has stayed with me, and it is the reason I work closely with a small group of local suppliers whose produce defines the food we cook today.
Your menus often reference Herdwick sheep and other deeply local ingredients. Can you talk us through how Cumbria's landscape and heritage inform your approach to dishes at the Old Stamp House?
Cumbria’s landscape feeds directly into the way I build menus at the Old Stamp House. The fells are home to Herdwick sheep, the rich Solway coastal plains produce outstanding dairy, and the Irish Sea coastline gives us sea bass, crab, langoustine and brown shrimp. In the wooded river valleys, you find trout and deer, and the surrounding woodland provides mushrooms, nuts, berries and herbs.
The heritage of the county also plays a role. Historically, the ports of Whitehaven and Maryport brought spices, sugar, rum and molasses into Cumbria, which helped create distinctive regional foods such as Cumberland Rum Nicky, Grasmere Gingerbread, Westmorland Pepper Cake and Cumberland Sausage. I draw on those stories and flavours when developing dishes.
For me, it is also about supporting the people who are still working the land here. I have close relationships with the farmers and producers we work with, and I hear firsthand how challenging it is to maintain these working landscapes. That is why I feel strongly about championing the produce that comes from Cumbria itself. Using something like Wagyu beef from Japan instead of grass-fed Galloway beef raised on a regenerative farm here simply does not make sense to me. By celebrating the ingredients, the people and the stories behind them, the menus become a reflection of Cumbria itself.
You blend Cumbrian tradition with flavours from around the world. What's your process for balancing authenticity with innovation on the plate?
My approach always begins with the ingredient. I try to identify a local producer or product first and then build a dish around it, rather than starting with an idea and finding ingredients afterwards. My cooking is very ingredient-led and rooted in Cumbrian produce, but it is also informed by my classical training. That combination naturally creates a balance between tradition and technique. I must be doing something right because JRE awarded me their Culinary Innovation Award in Paris in 2024.
The Schelly has the tagline "fine dining without the faff." How does The Schelly's casual, small-plates format let you express yourself differently than at the Old Stamp House?
At the Old Stamp House, there is a certain weight and formality that naturally comes with Michelin starred fine dining. With The Schelly, which seats around thirty diners, I wanted to strip that back and create something more relaxed while still cooking with the same care and quality of ingredients. The small plates format gives me a different kind of freedom. Dishes such as potted Morecambe Bay shrimp with curried cauliflower velouté, chalk stream trout ceviche, or Wye Valley asparagus with morels and wild garlic oil can stand on their own as clear expressions of the produce without needing to fit into the structure of a full tasting menu.
The format also allows a much wider range within a single meal. Guests might move from Potted Shrimp with curried cauliflower or three baked scallops with chorizo butter/seaweed butter, to Yew Tree Farm Herdwick hogget with mint and anchovy, or glazed pigs cheek, with parsnip, hazelnut, apple and then to something like Chocolate torte, with buckthorn, milk sorbet or Pevensey blue, with Cumbrian gingerbread and pear. Those combinations might feel unusual in a traditional tasting menu, but when they are shared around the table, they feel natural and generous.
The idea of earning a Michelin Bib Gourmand was actually part of the thinking from the very beginning. Whenever my wife and I travel, it is often Bib Gourmand restaurants that we seek out because they are exciting places to eat. Restaurants like Noto in Edinburgh, The Sardine Factory in Looe and North Street Kitchen in Fowey have given us some fantastic meals, and I loved the balance they strike between great ingredients, skill in the kitchen and a flexible menu. That was something I wanted to bring to Ambleside.
It has also been refreshing as a chef to cook great ingredients simply, without overcomplicating things. People are busy and do not always want to plan weeks in advance for a tasting menu, so the fact that guests can drop in and eat at the bar has really resonated with people locally. Receiving a Michelin Bib Gourmand confirmed that the cooking is every bit as accomplished as at the Old Stamp House. It is simply expressed in a more relaxed way, with the same ingredient-led philosophy but in a setting that feels more spontaneous and easier to enjoy.
Walking the fells seems intrinsic to how you develop dishes. Can you tell us about a recent ingredient discovery on one of those walks that ended up on the menu?
My food always starts with a conversation with my suppliers. I normally do this on a Monday when the restaurants are closed, it could be with John Watson, the farmer at Yew Tree Farm, Coniston, Jon Stott at Cartmel Valley Game, or even my fish merchants in Cornwall or Hartlepool. Find out what’s consistent, what’s at its best. I then tend to go for a long walk somewhere in Cumbria, often the coast in the summer months, the forests in autumn and spring, or head up into the fells. I find that this is a great way to clear my mind; it helps me develop dishes and balance the menu for the week to come. During The Schelly renovation, I also created a development kitchen (which we’ve christened The Workshop – it's an old tailor’s workshop), in the yard at the rear of the Old Stamp House. I never use it; primarily because I prefer being out in the fresh air for a good walk, which seems to do the trick.
Your relationship with suppliers is clearly personal and fundamental. How has that shaped your menus and helped you keep dishes both seasonal and rooted in place?
My relationship with suppliers is absolutely fundamental to what I do, and one of the most important has been with John Watson at Yew Tree Farm. Early on, when I became head chef, I felt my menus were technically competent, but they were soulless. Visiting John changed everything for me. He is involved in every stage of the process from breeding and lambing through to ageing and butchery, and I simply drive to the farm to collect the meat myself.
Having that level of intimacy with the supply chain, knowing the animal, the land and the person behind it, completely reshaped how I cook. It became the foundation of my culinary identity. Without suppliers of John’s quality and dedication, no amount of skill or ideas in the kitchen would be enough.
You've retained a Michelin star since 2019 and won the JRE Innovation Award, but what does success mean to you beyond accolades?
The accolades are wonderful, and I am incredibly proud of them. Retaining a Michelin star since 2019, holding three AA Rosettes, being named AA Restaurant of the Year for England, and receiving the JRE Innovation Award are all huge honours. But for me, success is really about continuous evolution. I am always developing, always looking for ways to improve. If I ever reached a point where I felt I had stopped evolving, I do not think I would still feel like a chef. My real motivation is the desire to keep getting better.
Can you share the story behind one dish – perhaps a favourite or signature – that captures your culinary philosophy and why it matters to you?
The dish that probably captures my philosophy most clearly centres on Herdwick lamb. When I first became head chef, I struggled with menus that felt hollow, and it was after visiting John Watson at Yew Tree Farm that I decided to commit to working with the whole animal rather than just the prime cuts that most chefs wanted.
It took many attempts before I developed the dish that I was truly happy with, but it became the single most important thing I have done in my career. A review by Jay Rayner of the dish when I was at The Cottage in the Wood really put me on the culinary map. I credit that dish with helping me earn my Michelin star and with bringing guests from around the world to experience Herdwick lamb. It has even led to moments like meeting King Charles and serving Herdwick at the Houses of Parliament.
More than anything, that dish taught me the importance of letting the ingredient lead. Instead of starting with an idea and forcing ingredients into it, I learned to let the produce itself guide the dish. That shift in thinking changed everything about how I cook.
In a part of the world beloved by tourists and locals alike, how do you balance celebrating local identity while also surprising guests with something they've never tasted before?
I grew up here, less than five miles from the restaurants, in a tiny community, and that has had a huge impact on me as a chef. I really value the sense of community, which is why we work with a small number of suppliers and why I have a personal relationship with all of them. Their produce naturally dominates the food we serve. The quarry workers [in the community] have largely gone now, and it is really important to me that Cumbria remains a working landscape rather than becoming somewhere that exists purely for tourism. Promoting the people who are still farming the land and producing the incredible ingredients we use is a big part of that.
Because I have such close relationships with our suppliers, I hear first-hand how difficult it is becoming for them, and it reinforces how important it is that they are not taken for granted. For me, it makes far more sense to champion the food that is produced here rather than looking elsewhere. Sustainability and social responsibility are so important in the way people think about food today.
At the same time, the surprise for many guests comes from the depth of Cumbria’s story itself. Few people expect the county’s food heritage to include rum and spice trading, connections to the Titanic, or the fact that our restaurant building was once William Wordsworth’s Stamp Office. When you explore those histories properly, they naturally lead to new ideas and flavours. For me, being genuinely rooted in place and understanding that local story in depth is often what creates the sense of surprise on the plate.
You've spoken about chefs and places that inspire you, from Barrafina in London to L'Enclume nearby. How do those references feed back into what you're doing in Cumbria?
Barrafina, for me, feels like being back in Barcelona, and the food transports me to a happy place. Quality seasonal, regional tapas, you can’t beat it! As for L’Enclume, it’s a masterclass in cooking and culinary skill, and it always impresses.
Sustainability and supporting working landscapes come through in your work. What changes do you hope to see in the regional food system in the next decade?
For me, supporting working landscapes is absolutely essential to the future of our food. I do everything I can to promote the local suppliers who are still farming the land and producing the ingredients we serve, but through my relationships with them, I hear firsthand how difficult it is becoming. If we do not support the people producing food here, whether they work on the land or on the water, we risk losing both them and the ingredients that make British food distinctive.
I have seen that change very clearly with fish. When I was younger, wild salmon caught during the haaf netting season on the Solway Firth was one of my most prized ingredients and something I always looked forward to cooking with. The decline in stocks in recent years has been sudden and dramatic. It is a powerful reminder of how fragile these ecosystems are and how poor land and water management can affect the food we rely on.
Chalk stream trout is a good example of what can be achieved when natural systems are respected. Chalk streams are fed by mineral-rich spring water from chalk aquifers, which creates a very stable and healthy environment. The trout that live there feed on that rich ecology and swim constantly against strong currents, which produces fish with a clean, delicate flavour and a firm texture. It is a world away from the conditions in which many farmed fish are raised.
Another example is Arctic charr, which used to be abundant in the lakes here. It became heavily overfished, and after the closure of the last producer at Houghton Springs, we can no longer source it in the United Kingdom. I still reference it on the menu because it allows me to tell that story and highlight the wider issues around declining fish stocks and the pressures on our natural environment.
My hope for the next decade is that there will be greater awareness of these issues and stronger support for the people working to protect them. Organisations like WildFish are doing important work to highlight what is happening and hold decision makers accountable. If that awareness continues to grow, I hope we will begin to see wild fish stocks recover and a stronger commitment to championing ingredients that are grown and reared here. We should always be open to influences from other cuisines, but wherever possible, those ideas should be expressed through ingredients produced in the United Kingdom.
Looking ahead, are there new directions or projects that you're excited to explore next?
There’s always something rattling about, but it has to be the right thing. I’ll know when it’s right – just like I knew The Schelly was going to work. The building became available, even though it took some time to secure, but this allowed us to refine our plans and open, hitting the ground running, and within a fairly short period of time, we were fortunate to secure Bib – Cumbria’s only one, which was incredibly rewarding for the whole team.
At the moment, I am heavily involved in a project with a local charity called Waste into Wellbeing. We are working with Year 5 pupils from primary schools across Kendal, teaching them how to cook. The sessions give the children practical experience in preparing meals while also helping them understand food waste, nutrition and healthy choices.
During the workshops, pupils work in small groups alongside chefs and volunteers to prepare a meal that they will enjoy together. The activities are designed to align with the Year 5 Design and Technology curriculum, so the children learn about healthy and varied diets, explore a wide range of ingredients, practise different preparation and cooking techniques, and receive guidance on food hygiene and kitchen safety in a way that is age-appropriate. Being part of a project like this is exciting because it allows me to pass on knowledge and inspire the next generation while highlighting the importance of sustainability and cooking skills.
