Meet The Chef - James Goss

I started simply. At 14 I was peeling carrots and onions, washing pots and making the sandwiches and pies at a local pub - The Fox and Hounds in Old Somerby. This job took me throughout my school years through to university. During those years I would also travel out to my uncle’s restaurant in Heidelberg, Germany and help him, where the cooking began to take on a much higher degree of skill.

After some years travelling and in my third year in Zermatt, Switzerland I returned to the kitchen as Head Chef at a hotel before moving on to a Michelin starred kitchen in Zermatt (Chez Gaby). Having taken on several other projects, I left the Alps after a total of 7 years for a new challenge in Denmark. Whilst running the kitchens of a 40 room hotel in Silkeborg I was also tasked with implementing four new high end steak houses in various larger towns in the Danish mainland. In 2004 I took the decision to head home to England to set up The Kings Arms in Wing with my mother and father.

Our restaurant is nestled in the charming village of Wing between Oakham and Uppingham slap bang in the middle of the Rutland countryside. The on-site smokehouse offers many treats for the menu and to take home, from classic dry aged charcuterie, to smoked Rutland trout or staples such as bacon and black pudding.

Our menus are created by what the seasons have to offer. A starting point will always be the local game, be it vermin species all year round like, pigeon, muntjac, squirrel, rabbit or crayfish. Or in season, pheasant, partridge, woodcock all manner of duck and geese, hare, fallow deer, roe deer, sika deer and of course the ubiquitous Rutland fly caught trout. Around these treasures after dressing in our kitchen we then pair them with what the time of year allows, foraged treats are often on the menu and so are home grown allotment items from staff members ourselves and villagers alike.

We make as much as possible on-site so that we can truly offer a unique dining experience and are always able to let you know what is in your food because we literally take each dish from field to fork. It’s a very nose to tail approach and we do make a lot of pies, sausages, pates, terrines, faggots and more traditional items to ensure that we never waste a morsel. The one thing we can say for certain is that the menu never stays the same for long and there will always be something new when you visit even if that is more than twice a week. The menu never rests and like the countryside is always changing.