It is with a mutual sense of delight that Henry Mackley and his merry helpers have joined up with Annie and her team at Russell House as in-house chef, and we are now able to provide you with the opportunity to partake in a weekend of foraging around Ludlow with Henry picking up ingredients in preparation for Henry to showcase his talents - cooking you and your party dinner and hopefully passing on a few tricks that you can use in your own local produce shops and kitchens. At an additional cost Henry Mackley will cater to all or some of your culinary whims. For more information please contact us stating your interest and requirements. All costings are competitively priced for individual parties so we can tailor to all abilities and budgets. From a basic (but delightful) dinner to grand fine dining. All capabilities and (most) dietary foibles catered for!

A LITTLE BIT ABOUT HENRY...
Henry Mackley is one of the leading lights in Ludlow’s gastro-chandelier. Famously robbed on BBC’s Masterchef two years in a row (2005/6), Henry is well known locally, and a little bit further afield (his name has even been heard in Leominster) for both his capabilities as a chef and a campaigner of soundly produced local food and drink.
From sound foodie stock – his mother Lesley is a well-known food writer and a co-founder of the town’s world-renowned food festival – Henry cut his professional culinary teeth in London’s Harvey Nichols Fifth Floor Restaurant, and a few less salubrious institutions in the capital (which he’d rather not talk about). Since moving back to the milky bosom of south Shropshire four years ago Henry has thrown himself like a thing possessed into keeping Ludlow firmly at the heart of England’s gastronomic map. A committee member of Ludlow Food Festival, Ludlow Slow Food, and a regular teacher at Ludlow School’s ‘after school club’ Henry has also run his own catering business, Smith & Monger (Traiteur) of Ludlow.
Whilst Smith & Mongering, Henry thought little of exploiting an abundant local crop, the grey squirrel, and immediately found himself not only answering to the Shropshire Star, but also The Daily Telegraph. His rabbit pies have been described as “the best in England” by, wait for it, The New Zealand Herald, and his ‘happy chicken / sad chicken’ campaign sparked lively debate on BBC Radio Shropshire last year.