Seasonal produce, fire-cooked food and one of Britain’s most beautiful gardens: the RHS Wisley Dining Club transforms an evening at Wisley into an unforgettable garden-to-table experience of cocktails, music and feasting.
Words and photography: Matthew Williams
REVIEW: The first clue that this isn't going to be an ordinary dinner comes with a mojito. The mint muddled into it hasn't travelled far: in fact, it was grown a matter of metres away.
We're drinking on the roof terrace of Hilltop, the UK’s first dedicated horticultural scientific centre of excellence, as the August sun softens over the gardens and a jazz band supplies the soundtrack.
Below us lies one of Britain's best-known gardens; around us, some of its produce is already finding its way into glasses and onto plates.
Alongside the mojitos come elderflower and cucumber spritzes, made with cucumber from the garden, and glasses of Wisley’s own small-batch sparkling wine, produced from Phoenix and Orion grapes.
Then the canapés begin circulating: marinated cherry tomato and caprese skewers with garden basil; lemon and harissa chicken skewers with mint yoghurt; and grilled peach and vegan feta tartlets finished with edible flowers.
This is the RHS Wisley Dining Club, and the garden isn't simply providing the backdrop.
Exploring the flavours of the world
Before dinner, we head into the World Food Garden and Orchard, where the relationship between what Wisley grows and what we eat becomes much more apparent.
The tour reveals an extraordinary diversity of edible plants, along with some of the less romantic realities of growing them.
Following this summer’s intense heat, the effects of a changing climate can be seen in decisions around planting and irrigation - practical challenges that are increasingly shaping what can be grown, and how.
There is tasting along the way, which is how I encounter the Electric Daisy.
One bite and my mouth begins to tingle, fizz and then go distinctly numb. For a brief and slightly surreal moment, I feel like Hunter S Thompson in Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. All that intensity from one innocent-looking flower.
Elsewhere, the surprises are quieter but no less interesting. Thai and Mexican basils demonstrate just how far the flavour of a familiar herb can roam, while oyster leaf performs its uncanny trick of tasting remarkably like its namesake. One intensely citrusy leaf transports me, rather efficiently, from Surrey to the Amalfi Coast.
For all the years I have been coming to Wisley, there is still something deeply satisfying about discovering that a plant you might otherwise walk straight past can deliver such an unexpected punch of flavour.
A tranquil lakeside picnic setting
From the World Food Garden, we walk past the vineyard and down towards Clear Lake, where dinner is waiting.
The scene beside the water has the relaxed charm of a picnic without any of the usual picnic inconveniences.
Low, family-style tables surrounded by cushions mingle with more intimate deckchair settings across the grass. Bunting hangs overhead and, nearby, chefs tend grills amid curls of woodsmoke.
Launched this spring, the RHS Wisley Dining Club is a monthly celebration of the season, combining food and drink with the horticultural knowledge - and, importantly, the gardens - at Wisley.
There is no fixed template. Each edition takes a different form, from tasting menus in the restaurants to more hands-on events in less familiar corners of the grounds.
It is a clever premise: Wisley has 240 acres to play with, so why keep dinner in one place?
Fire, smoke and feasting in the gardens
For August's al fresco edition, executive chef Julian Frost-Wilson and his team - with Head of Culinary and MasterChef: The Professionals winner Steve Groves also in attendance - turn to fire and smoke and, of course, salads.
The format sits somewhere between a feast and a very sophisticated family barbecue.
Guests pile their plates high at the serving tables - well, I certainly do - before retreating to their reserved spot beside the lake.
Spatchcocked Cornish chicken comes from the grill alongside smoked brisket and beechwood-smoked chalk stream trout. A generous vegetarian dish combines grilled vegetables, including produce from the garden, with pomegranate, pistachios and vegan feta.
And then there are the sides - the sort that make choosing a sensible amount of food almost impossible.
Red cabbage slaw comes sharpened with hibiscus-pickled onion, mint and pomegranate; green beans are paired with lentils; fresh beetroot; and roasted aubergine with onion. There are also Wisley garden leaves, roast potatoes with green sauce and tahini and deliciously soft focaccia with rich, creamy butter - simple and irresistible.
It is colourful, generous cooking, but what makes it interesting is the recurring presence of the garden.
Ingredients we've seen or talked about growing earlier in the evening keep reappearing on the plate, turning what could simply be an extremely good barbecue into something rooted specifically in this place.
Dinner stretches comfortably into dusk. The jazz band is still playing, the fountain sends columns of water into the lake and then, overhead, the bats appear, darting across the darkening sky.
Dessert keeps the evening’s connection to fire and the garden alive. Strawberries are roasted and served with lemon verbena cream. Summer berry pavlova is scattered with flowers, while bananas are barbecued and paired with rum and caramel.
By this point, the distinction between garden tour and dinner has disappeared.
Experiencing the gardens through taste
As a long-time visitor to Wisley - and now a member - that is what I enjoy most about the evening.
I already come here for the gardens: for the views, the inspiration and the chance to discover something I didn't know before.
The Dining Club adds another dimension, allowing you to experience the place through taste as well.
The mint in your mojito and on the plate matters because it comes from the garden you passed on your way to the table.
The vegetables coming off the grill have a different resonance after spending part of the evening talking about the challenges of cultivating food through increasingly hot summers.
Wisley’s sparkling wine has a greater sense of place when the vineyard its grapes come from forms part of the landscape around you.
And all the while there is the sheer pleasure of where you are: sitting beside Clear Lake, jazz drifting across the water, chefs working around the fire and bats beginning their nightly patrol overhead.
The RHS Wisley Dining Club may have only been running since spring, but its greatest asset has been here rather longer.
Wisley itself provides an extraordinary pantry, dining room and source of inspiration - and there must be countless ways still to explore all three.
I, for one, would happily come back to find out what they think of next.
- RHS Garden Wisley, Wisley, Surrey GU23 6QB. For more information about the gardens, visit RHS Garden Wisley.
- Learn more about the RHS Wisley Dining Club
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Coming up at the RHS Wisley Dining Club
Thursday September 10 - A Mediterranean Garden
Soak up the last of summer with an outdoor feast in the World Food Garden, inspired by Mediterranean flavours, late-summer harvests and Wisley’s edible landscapes.
Thursday October 1 - From garden to table
As the garden glows with autumn colour, the RHS Wisley Dining Club showcases the season’s harvest
Thursday November 5 - An explosion of colour
As the autumn borders blaze with late-season colour‚ the menu mirrors the fiery tones.
Thursday December 3 - A festive feast
The Dining Club invites you to an exclusive festive feast in the Terrace Restaurant, with tickets including entry to RHS Wisley Glow for a magical evening of seasonal dining.
