Guernsey has so many great growers and small producers that we are proud to feature on our menus. Whatever the season, we have access to some fantastic fresh produce from both land and sea. In an effort to celebrate the flavours of Guernsey and the fantastic people whose hard work goes in to the dishes that we serve here at the Bella Luce, we’d like to take you on a short tour of our island and our menu:

Guernsey Crab

We are proud to serve locally caught fish and shellfish on our menu, sourced from Guernsey’s fleet of small day boats that work the local inshore waters (out to three miles off our coast) and supply the island’s restaurants with fresh seafood all year round.  Local Guernsey crab is available on our Summer 2019 menu as a starter served with citrus gel, fennel and orange or as a main course crab and prawn tail tagliatelle. Learn more about Keith (the skipper of Handy Man), one of the fishermen who supplies our crab, in this Explore article.

Golden Guernsey Goat’s Cheese

This soft goat’s cheese is produced by Peter and Mandy Girard of Le Douit Beuval, Les Sages. The Golden Guernsey Goat is a rare breed indigenous to the island of Guernsey, and the Girards are the proud owners of a flock of 25. The production of the goat’s cheese began as they had an excess of milk from their flock and Mandy experimented with different ideas to utilise their goat’s milk. The result of turning the milk into a creamy cheese was a success and they now supply restaurants across the island as well as running popular farm tours to meet their goats, and you’ll find their cheese on our menu throughout the year. Click here to find out more about the Golden Guernsey Goat and why they create such great cheese. 

Castel Farm Eggs

You will find Castel Farm Eggs featured throughout our menus, and we are proud to serve fresh and local eggs. Castel Farm is a family business headed up by Steve and Emma Brooks who are one of the leading egg producers in the Channel Islands. All of their happy chickens are free to roam the farm and produce exceptional eggs that deserve their place on our menus, from breakfast through to dinner.

Moulin Huet Wild Garlic

Between April and June our chefs forage for wild garlic in the damp woodlands just down the lane from the hotel’s front door on the walk down to Moulin Huet Bay. Wild garlic grows in abundance here and it is one of nature’s real treats, but the team take only what they need and forage responsibly. The leaves and flowers are edible and produce a lovely garlic flavour (and aroma in the woodland), which we celebrate in our Moulin Huet Wild Garlic Soup, which is served alongside a 63 degree Castel Farm Egg.

Fort Grey Cheese

Fort Grey is an award winning blue cheese made on Guernsey’s west coast in Torteval by artisan cheese maker Fenella Maddison. The cheese is a soft, young, natural rind cheese with blue exterior and interior veins. The business stemmed from Fenella’s longing for simple and whole foods made slowly by hand. The cheese is made with full-cream Guernsey milk bought directly from The Guernsey Dairy; it is truly a local business with cows producing the milk no further than eight miles away.

Fresh Guernsey Herbs

We are incredibly lucky to have access to locally grown herbs to use in almost all of our dishes served in the restaurant. Grown locally in St Sampsons by the Lloyd family who were originally tomato growers before diversifying into fresh herbs over 20 years ago. Fresh Guernsey Herbs grow over 30 varieties for the local and UK markets, including basil, coriander, rosemary, thyme, chives, mint, dill, sage, tarragon and chervil. Because of their close proximity it is usually only a matter of hours between herbs being picked and them arriving at our kitchen door, so the herbs that flavour our dishes are incredibly fresh and showcase the best of our island’s great growers. To find out more about the history of Fresh Guernsey Herbs and how the herbs are grown, take a look at our previous Local Artisan Producers article.

Le Hetchet Ice Cream

No dessert menu is complete without a serving of ice cream, and we are proud to feature ice cream made just across the island in Castel. Le Hetchet Ice Cream is produced by the Ogier family who have been farming a herd of Golden Guernsey cows since the 1950s, and now produce 200 litres of ice cream a week in 30 different flavours using their own or local ingredients such as apricots, salted caramel and honeycomb. Guernsey cows are known worldwide for producing beautifully rich, golden, milk and the Ogiers have a herd of around 80 Guernsey cows that produce the milk for their ice cream. Click here to read more about the Ogier family and their famous ice cream. 

The Guernsey Dairy

All of our milk and butter comes from the Guernsey Dairy, a short distance up the road from the hotel. The raw milk is supplied only by cows on the island, and is then processed to create rich and high-quality dairy products such as milk, butter and cheeses. Guernsey cows have unique qualities that come through into their milk; it is known for its rich flavour, high butterfat and protein content, and its distinctive golden yellow colour thanks to its high beta-carotene content. So, whether it is the milk in your coffee or the butter on your toast, you can enjoy an authentic taste of Guernsey and our famous dairy cows.

Enjoy these local flavours and more in our summer 2019 menus, carefully crafted by Head Chef Patricio Filipe.  Click through to our Eat and Drink section, select the area that you'd like to base yourself in (you can eat from any menu in any of the hotel's public areas) and browse the menus.