'This is the first time I’ve loved coming to work': Jodie Kidd on opening her country pub
Jodie Kidd is pulling a pint of Half Moon Eclipse, the local bitter served exclusively at her pub, The Half Moon, in the green and picturesque village of Kirdford, West Sussex.
Trying to get modern kitchen equipment into a 15th-century Grade II-listed house was somewhat of a problem
Jodie Kidd
Better known as a fashion model, racing driver and television personality, if she’s been off radar for the past six months it’s because she’s been here, digging a vegetable garden with her mum, Wendy, renovating the interiors with an equine-inspired flourish (saddle-leather seats and hessian cushions) and sourcing the talented staff for her latest adventure.
But this is no vanity project. It’s her name over the door and she’s taking it all incredibly seriously.
“It’s a real labour of love but it’s the most gratifying thing I’ve ever done,” says the 38 year-old. “I’m out of the door at 8am and not back home till past midnight.”
All of which has meant her six-year-old son Indio has already grown used to pub life. “Someone asked him, ‘what does Mum do when she drops you off at school?’ and he said, ‘she goes straight to the pub!’” laughs Jodie.
More good life than glamorous, perhaps, but that’s all to the good for Jodie. She is a diehard country girl who appreciates the important role a country pub plays in a community – but nothing quite prepared her for how much closer becoming a landlady would bring her to her own.
“I’ve been here all my life and never met the people who live two houses away from me. I’ve discovered what wonderful people there are and how I’ve really missed out on them. I’ve never bonded with so many people in my life,” she says.
Yet The Half Moon could quite easily have gone the way of many struggling pubs in the UK. It was while en route to Goodwood at the beginning of the year that Jodie told two friends, now her partners Chris Lee and Dan Elson, about the cute country pub she went to as a teenager, which was now rumoured to be earmarked for residential conversion.
“We ended up taking a detour and drove past on a rainy January day. They said they loved it and we should buy it. I couldn’t believe it!”
Turning that dream into a reality has taken seven months and a full renovation. “Trying to get modern kitchen equipment into a 15th-century Grade II-listed house was somewhat of a problem,” says Jodie.
Three weeks ago though, The Half Moon reopened offering seasonal, organic and sustainable food at very reasonable prices. Sunday lunches start from £12.50 and at the upper end is a six-course tasting menu that costs £45.
Jodie is passionate about supporting local farmers and producers. All the meats are from Goodwood and Cowdray Park, and she says it’s even possible to name the boat and the fisherman who landed the exquisite piece of mackerel I’m lucky enough to try.
While there are lots of excellent pubs in the area, The Lickfold Inn and the Leconfield being just two, Jodie believed there was space for an establishment that did incredible food but was still a place where the locals could come for a pint after work and chew over the day.
“On one side we’ve made a restaurant where you can get dressed up and come and have a birthday party. Or you have the same menu sitting under the apple tree outside.
“The pub is the heart of the village and I don’t want to take that away. Yes, we’ve got a Michelin-starred chef, but we want everyone to try some of his delicious food. You can get two courses for £20, yet you can get a £200 bottle of Margaux with it. There’s something for everyone.”
While Jodie has been a lifetime country cook – Aga stews and shepherd’s pies mostly – assembling a team led by executive chef Paul Welburn, formerly of the Leconfield, has been a learning experience.
“I didn’t know about creating to this level. It’s an art,” she says. And Jodie gives full credit to her team, and in particular her general manager, for keeping her feet on the ground. “I’ve got someone behind me who is making this realistic and viable and not a vanity project. When I chose a butter knife that was about £5 he said, ‘people are going to put that in their handbags’. And I was like, ‘oh, of course!’”
Jodie hopes that as well as locals, The Half Moon will become a destination for Londoners seeking a taste of country life.
Participants in the Supercar Drive have already stopped off for bacon butties on the way to Goodwood, the sight of £10 million worth of cars outside becoming the talk of the village.
And although she’s not about to curb her adventures – next week she will be paddling 75 miles down the Gironde estuary, retracing the Second World War’s “Cockleshell Heroes” in a klepper (a kind of sea kayak) – it is the pub that she’ll be eager to return to. “This is the first time I’ve loved coming to work. It’s so personal. I’m normally being paid to wear a dress, whereas here I can be me and totally natural,” says Jodie.
Ask where she sees the pub in five years and she says. “I would love it to be just the same. Delicious food. Slightly more mature.
“The garden will certainly be a lot more voluptuous. I would love to get two rosettes, maybe get to three. That’s a little dream.”
The kitchen garden currently supplies 20 per cent of the veg and she hopes next year to cultivate a friend’s walled garden nearby and start supplying 50 per cent of the vegetables.
She adds: “I’ve lead this life that’s not been so real, flying on Concorde and all that goes with the highfalutin modelling industry, but this is the core and the roots. This is the real thing.”
