Farm-to-Plate
The secret to Sophie’s enormous success is a farm-to-plate concept. It all starts with meat sourced in Devon, Cornwall and Bathgate’s own farm. ‘Sophie grew up on a farm in Oxfordshire where we still get quite a lot of our meat from,’ explains Sparling. ‘All the cows are Aberdeen Angus, which is quite something. We take our staff there regularly to meet them and see how it all works.’
hen the primal cuts of native breeds arrive at the restaurant, they are dry-aged in the restaurant’s own meat-hanging room, which is viewable from the curved dining booths that punctuate the capacious wooden floor. These cuts are butchered daily by Sophie’s multi-skilled chefs, creating the menu’s popular ‘Chef Cuts’ of Chateaubriand, Porterhouse, double entrecote and cote de boeuf.
‘A lot of love goes into our steaks, from the minute the meat arrives to the moment we serve it to our customers,’ says Sparling of the process, which includes resting the meat before it’s ready to serve.
‘Chateaubriand comes in a variety of sizes, from 20oz to 50oz, and it’s not your average cut. It’s a delicious, lean, melt-in-your-mouth kind of fillet. It’s perfect for sharing, too.’
