Hotels serving dinner from owner's farm

Guests at the Robert Parker Collection of hotels enjoy beef from the Tedsmore herd, which is farmed on Mr Parker’s Tedsmore Estate in Shropshire, in a share farming agreement with Haydn and Emma Jones.

Providing complete traceability, the beef is also specially selected by the chefs at each hotel to suit their menus, from Hereford beef sausages for breakfast to sirloin steak dinners.

The 32-strong Tedsmore Hereford herd was established in 2007 on the 200-acre traditional Shropshire farm which also runs 250 to 300 Welsh mule breeding ewes.

The pedigree herd are supplying 12 cattle to Mr Parker’s hotels this year and the remainder to a leading supermarket, providing traceable, assured beef in accordance with its high-quality and animal-welfare standards.

Michael Thorpe, head chef at Doxford Hall, said: “We use the beef sausages for breakfasts, whole carved sirloin for larger parties and fillet steaks with a caramelised onion and butter kale risotto with a port wine jus on our a la carte menus.

“The traceability from the herd at Tedsmore, to the butcher and then to us at the hotel is so important to customers. You cannot get better than this – it’s field to fork at its very best. For me, if it goes straight into an anonymous food chain, it’s not the same thing at all.”

Beef from the Tesdmore herd is hung for 28 days and butchered directly to the specifications of chefs working at the hotels, including Doxford Hall, Guyzance Hall and Eshott Hall in Northumberland.