Having reviewed The Crown at Church Enstone when it first opened in 2022, this midweek February visit was an opportunity to reconnect and chat extensively to the new chef Jason Christie. We’d previously met Jason as sous chef at sister pub The Kingham Plough, one of three excellent Cotswolds gastropubs run by Matt and Katie Beamish.

From turnip tops to Alpine tartiflette or Spätzle, Jason is a proper chef creator and modern day culinary artist. Everything is made on site. You’ll be delighted by his menu innovations and you’ll get to sample ingredients and meat cuts you’ll have never contemplated. At the heart of his cooking is freshness, seasonality, local supply and using as much of the raw material as possible with minimal wastage and maximum sustainability.

Jason offers a different menu each month. It’s hard to stand out in our quality Oxfordshire country dining scene but this is excellent food that will excite you, without chasing some hipster hogwash or latest fad.

Jason’s cooking has been influenced by his worldwide travels and that shone through in the February menu.

Jason has previously worked at Calcot Manor in Gloucestershire and Daylesford but the turbo charging of his craft and ideas come from stays in South Africa, Italy & Korea. He attended The University of Gastronomic Sciences near Alba in Piemonte, Northern Italy for a year. This was where the “slow food movement” was born nearly 40 years ago. Jason is a true believer in traditional and regional cuisine, local food production, biodiversity and provenance.

The venison and pheasants are sourced from bar dwelling locals. Fresh fish is from Flying Fish in Cornwall. Farm Wilder supply sustainable beef, based on agro forestry, woodlands and regenerative farming – a sort of free range meat if you like. Jason is looking to use the whole animal and current ideas in development include dishes with oxtail, ox tongue and brisket. That afternoon a pig was to be butchered by Jason himself with homemade bresaola the priority.

What I love most about Jason is his youthful, energised demeanour and his absolute dedication to his profession – a “farm to fork” purist.

For appetisers, venture to some new territories with the smoked cod’s roe with cod skin scratchings (£8). Sounds weird but it’s a starter like you’ve never experienced before with the large fish skins flared and crispy, like giant prawn crackers, the cod’s roe perfectly blended resulting in the finest freshest taramasalata you’ve experienced. It’s not your 80s hackneyed supermarket taramasalata – this is the ‘real deal’ befitting of any Greek kitchen.

The warm, house-malted, smoked sourdough with whipped flavoured butters (£6) was worth the trip alone, celebrating the joy of basic “good food”. Crunchy on the outside, warm and freshly baked on the inside, the bread was perfectly complemented by the two whipped butters – green, vibrant garlic & herb and the zesty, yellow black pepper & lemon.

The blue cheese beignets with fresh aioli (£7) is one of the bar snack favourites.

The Bleu de Gex – a creamy, mild blue cheese from France’s Haut Jura region – gives the warm, crisp, cheesy parcels a subtle earthy tang set against the garlic of the aioli.

Most mere mortals would be satiated by these three appetisers alone but the menu provided the opportunity to extend gastro boundaries, without going full Heston Blumenthal or smashing your wallet to smithereens.

We settled into the most surprising and innovative set of starters I’ve seen anywhere this past 18 months.

The colourful Crispy Duck, House Lardo, Crumpet & Poached Egg (£11) was tantalising, both visually and texturally. The taste explosion when the juicy lardo combined its flavour with the drier duck and a perfectly poached Cacklebean egg was to be savoured. The golden yolk cascaded over the duck shreds and the contrast with the light crumpet created the most decadent ensemble imaginable.

Crab & Kimchi Thermidor & House Roll (£12) was another risky creation on paper but it absolutely worked.

Straight from the oven, oozing with a creamy sauce of cheddar and Parmesan cheeses, served in a tiny black metal skillet, the pickled kimchi made the white & brown Devon crab meat fishiness cut through. Mopping up the cheesy juices with chunks of wholemeal bread gave you that heartwarming feeling. If these starters are too racy for you, there’s a knockout White Onion Soup, with crushed hazelnut and the most moreish Roast Garlic on Toast with watercress. Spread the sweet runny garlic on the crisp toast and pray you’re not on date night!

Jason is also big on pickling and fermenting – scrap vegetable leafs, kimchi or sriracha.

Kimchi is one of the most important staples of Korean cuisine with hundreds of different types made with different vegetable ingredients. Jason’s signature kimchi contains Chinese leaf, salt, ginger, garlic, all left to ferment for 4-5 weeks. He even ferments cauliflower leaves from the Sunday lunch remnants to use in the spätzle that my dining partner sampled (£19). He’s recently introduced his interpretation of this classic mountain dish after several visits to Switzerland.

My main dish was the perfect Roast Venison, Rosti & Forestière (£26). The comforting forestière side dish – made with sautéed soft sweet silver skin onions, golden button mushrooms and smoky pancetta – provided heartiness and textural contrast. A slice of crisp rosti paired seamlessly with the rare and tender sliced venison. Juicy and perfectly cooked, this was a fine example of a satisfying seasonal classic.

Growing the chef talent in the hospitality industry is Jason’s other passion.

Jason leads three sous chefs Fred, Batista & Kasper and two apprentices Jack & Charlie. The five understudies take it in turns to create and perfect a new dessert for the menu each month. Crêpes suzette and ‘new school’ trifles have been big hits but February’s pistachio soufflé with homemade chocolate ice cream brought our meal to a perfect crescendo. Soufflés seem all the rage in Oxfordshire right now.

Is Jason the ultimate ‘Scrap Merchant’ or ‘The Pickling Prince’?

I’d say he’s so much more than that and an accomplished Inventor. You can’t help but admire him for his breadth of cooking skills, his thought-provoking ideas and purist principles. He’s trying to be different not for the sake of it but to gently push people’s boundaries and extend their food repertoires and experiences. Premium burgers and fish & chips still feature on the menu as a nod to more conservative tastes. But that would be a wasted opportunity if you do visit The Crown.

Jason’s reputation is growing exponentially. Thursdays to Sundays are getting busy. If you fancy a midweek meal of discovery in a cosy country pub, this is certainly original food. The tight menu changes every month. So stand by for some culinary surprises and the odd creative rarity!

The Crown Inn at Church Enstone
Mill Ln, Church Enstone, Chipping Norton OX7 4NN