The founders of London institutions Ducksoup on opening an osteria in Devon

About this time last year, waves of excitement began to ripple outwards from a quiet corner of southern Devon. News of a tiny osteria opening on the edge of Dartmoor was spreading and the rumour was that it was going to be run by restaurateur Clare Lattin and chef Tom Hill, the founders of London institutions Ducksoup and Little Duck The Picklery. Anyone familiar with those restaurants – known for their cosy neighbourhood vibes and simple, delicious food – will appreciate why this was causing a buzz.

Roll back a few years and Londoner Clare had found herself in a situation that looked fabulous on paper. She was running two celebrated restaurants, living in a great warehouse flat in east London and in a very happy relationship. However, she was also experiencing a huge desire for change. Not just of location, but a whole way of life: ‘Having lived and worked in the capital for over 25 years, I kept thinking, what next? I was looking for a new chapter. I’d fallen in love with plants and growing and I couldn’t ignore this desire to nurture a proper garden of my own.’

Clare was taken with the wild landscape of Dartmoor on a camping trip with her boyfriend, filmmaker Mark Harbour. ‘It was a bit mad,’ she says. ‘But we thought, let’s do it, let’s move to Devon and see what happens.’ They fell for Chagford, a moorland town of pretty granite cottages, where wild ponies roam the single-track lanes.

After a few false starts, they found their new home – an Edwardian villa set on the side of a tor, having first viewed it on a snowy December day in 2018. Although the house was bigger than they wanted, the amount of land – three acres – was perfect. The year before, Clare had attended Martin Crawford’s course on edible forest-garden planting at his farm in Dartington, learning how to create a self-sufficient garden where nature does all the work. She had come away inspired and determined to put his lessons on permaculture into practice. Their 1.5-acre paddock is now home to a variety of edible trees and shrubs; with birch, hazel, rowan and szechuan-pepper trees and plenty of low-growing fruit bushes, and perennial vegetables for ground cover. The ethos has been much the same in the vegetable garden, where chickens peck their way around self-seeded salad leaves, herbs and wonderful drifts of flowers, which are picked for the restaurant tables.

The move was gentle to begin with. Clare spent weekdays in London working at her restaurants and then escaped to Devon every weekend, but, as she explains, ‘It became harder and harder to go back to the city – I completely fell in love with the land, the gardening.’ Then, of course, the pandemic hit and everything changed. Clare spent lockdown in Devon and, by the time things had returned to normal, the restaurants were running themselves. ‘We’re very lucky to have the most fantastic teams,’ she says. Suddenly, there was no need to return to London.

I visit Clare in Chagford, on the cusp of a summer heatwave: the house is bathed in a beautiful play of shadow and light from the large windows. Rooms are painted in quiet colours and furnished with antiques, many from local dealer Catherine Waters. ‘The more modern things from my London flat didn’t work here at all – and you live so differently in the country,’ Clare explains before adding, with a touch of the confessional, ‘I’ve fallen in love with curtains for a start, because they’re bloody well needed.’