Meet Helen from TERRA Restaurant and Tottington Manor as she introduces us to her sustainability program and choices with Sussex suppliers.
Helen’s commitment to sustainable dining is evident in every aspect of her work, from sourcing local, organic ingredients to reducing waste and supporting regional farmers. By partnering with Sussex suppliers, she ensures that TERRA and Tottington Manor serve the freshest, highest-quality produce while minimising their environmental impact.
Helen’s dedication to sustainability not only enhances the dining experience but also supports the local economy and promotes a greener future.
Helen is the Director of Crowns Venues Ltd which is trading as Tottington Manor Hotel and TERRA Restaurant.
1. When did you take over the running of Tottington Manor?
We acquired Tottington Manor in March 2021 at the end of the lockdown and had just 3 weeks to give the whole place a spruce and stamp some of our own identity on to it before opening the doors again. We had a huge opportunity to make the place stand out and for past customers to start to see the changes that were being made. This beautiful listed building with so much character in the most stunning setting at the foot of the South Downs needed a new vision and we embraced that and let our creativity run.
Post COVID, hospitality businesses were sadly falling in numbers and to secure our success we needed to ensure our business model was fresh, hospitable but most importantly sustainable in the long term.
2. You have a newly launched destination restaurant called TERRA on site, what is the inspiration behind this new restaurant?
After operating the Restaurant as a Hotel restaurant, we quickly established ourselves as a quality destination serving excellent food and drinks. After seeing a box of green beans arrive that had been grown in Uganda, I was reminded of all the green beans I ate from my Mum’s vegetable garden and this was the start of our challenge.
We have spent months and months finding local suppliers who now supply us with meat, fish, produce and dry goods that are from our doorstep and TERRA, Latin meaning ‘of the land’ or ‘of the earth’ totally encompasses our ethos.
A Hotel Restaurant isn’t necessarily somewhere that guests might consider coming for a special night out, but TERRA is fast becoming the place to celebrate the start of the weekend and all special occasions.
3. What do your customers love about TERRA?
Our customers love our Sussex inspired menu, they love our location and the creative touches we have made to our Sussex restaurant. They like our intimate fine dining spaces that guests can choose to dine in at no extra charge, they love our alfresco fire pit dining overlooking the South Downs, but most of all I think they love our team and a quality meal and drink at the right price.
4. Which dishes on your menu are your best sellers and why do you think that is?
Our best sellers are our Sussex Twice Baked Cheese Souffle, definitely the Bolney Pork, our TERRA Salad Bowls and the Piña Colada Meringue for dessert, all washed down with our own grapefruit infused TERRAGIN!
5. Sustainability is huge on your agenda. Tell us more.
We all have to do our bit to make our own kind of difference.
With the pricing of energy, it was important to reduce costs wherever we could.
- In 3 years we have now completely eliminated gas from the building, significantly reduced our oil usage through heating monitoring systems, and in the last month alone halved our electricity bill which is a huge win.
- We recycle everything, we have separate bins for all our waste including food waste, and the level of monitoring we do makes us much more mindful as a whole.
- We have eliminated single use plastics in our guest accommodation, all our lighting and refrigeration has been replaced using the most energy efficient available and we have been able to access grants to help us fund this.
- Sourcing our food locally has reduced food miles and we have minimal food packaging.
More plans are underway to continue on our sustainability path, we are Bronze Award winners with the South Downs Green Initiative programme and currently working towards our Silver accreditation. We have our business partner (and my husband) Steve to thank for all the initiatives we have completed so far.
He has presented us with ideas which at the time we thought were insane, but he achieved everything he set out to achieve and made a huge difference.
6. Why is sustainability so important to you and your team?
We only have to look out of our windows to see our beautiful location set at the foot of the South Downs, why wouldn’t we want to do everything we can to conserve, preserve and protect this for our future generations.
Our energy reduction programme is not only sustainability on an environmental level, it helps us become sustainable as a long term hospitality business too whilst also reducing costs.
7. What HR measures do you have in place which means you invest in your team to encourage longevity in employment and sustainability?
Our team are a vital component in our success, we cannot deliver our vision without them.
We pay a living wage to all our part time and casual staff, we pay very generous full time salaries to our full time team and our staff benefit from receiving 100% of our 12.5% service charge. 10% is paid directly to staff every month in tips, the remaining 2.5% provides them with an off-menu food choice every day, on shift drinks and also full membership to Hospitality Rewards programme. With this, all our team have 247 GP access, Mental Health Support Programme, discounted gym membership, discounted cinema tickets, cashback at all major retailers and so much more, the package offered is huge.
We work very hard alongside our team and we all pull together but we have so much fun too.
8. What percentage of your suppliers are from Sussex and nearby counties?
Almost all of them. 90% of our food served is from Sussex, 25% of our wine is produced in Sussex, our premium spirits are from Sussex.
We use a national drinks wholesaler for beer and spirits but have introduced beer and cider from Kent and London to sit alongside some guest favourite international brands, and our wine supplier (Burgundy Wines) is literally 5 minutes away in Upper Beeding meaning we can call on them any time to top up!
9. Give a few examples of which Sussex Suppliers you work with and why do you choose to work with them?
Chef’s Farms is a big one for us. A co-operative of Sussex farmers (some from neighbouring counties too) and the ability to offer locally grown, seasonal produce is very important to us whilst also supporting the local farming economy right on our doorstep. Burgundy Wines are also a very important supplier for us and they have introduced us to Poynings Grange, Albourne, Ridgeview, Hidden Spring, Henners and Roebuck Estates and we stock all their wine range by the bottle and by the glass. Through Burgundy we have also established relationships with Goldstone Rum in Henfield, Generation Distillers in Chailey who supply us with Gin and Vodka, Spirit of the Downs who supply us with South Downs Brandy, and Hastings Gin.
We have also just moved our fish supply to Brighton and Newhaven Fisheries who are incredible.
10. Would you be able to share a whistle stop tour of your career?
Wow, not sure I can make this brief but I started a career in hospitality whilst still at school.
I believe everyone should work in hospitality at some point because there is nothing quite like it for learning excellent customer service.
After a few years managing pubs in the South of England I dedicated my career to Customer Relations, Sales & Marketing which I love. Marketing is too often overlooked when it comes to hospitality but it is an essential ingredient for the success of any Hotel or Restaurant. It comes at a cost but when executed well will pay for itself ten times over.
11. When dining out in Brighton or Sussex, where would you visit for brunch and dinner and why?
I never get out for brunch, it’s just not my meal of choice. I love sitting at Malmaison in Brighton Harbour for the views, and their cocktails have always been amazing.
I have been to Nostos twice recently and both times have been superb. My favourite is Zorba in Lewes which I love for a casual night out, Turkish food has always been my favourite.
12. What is a typical day for you?
My typical day is a late start, I’m normally at the Hotel by 11am and you will often still find me here gone midnight. They are long days but I wouldn’t have it any other way. I look after the Sales & Marketing. I’m the chatty one and I love going to tables of guests I have never met before and just chatting. I work very closely with the team of chefs and I am very involved with the menus. I work very closely with Phil, my business partner and Co-Director and we will always end our day with a game of ping pong followed by a drive home call to plan for the following day.
13. Where would you like to go and eat next?
I’ve never been to a Michelin Restaurant but I would love to go soon. I’m quite creative and would love to see the artistry they create with the food they serve.
14. What has been your biggest challenge with Tottington Manor and TERRA?
Tottington Manor has always been a very special destination but it had developed a reputation for being quite old fashioned.
Since our arrival we have made so many changes to everything including our restaurant, bedrooms, event spaces and grounds but also to our style of serving, and the food and drinks we offer too.
Every day we have guests arrive and they say ‘Wow, I’ve driven past so many times but I’ve never been in’.
So, communicating that we are new, everything here is new and we are totally worthy of a visit – this is a message we continually need to push forward. The creation of TERRA has made a huge difference and we continue with our journey to grow TERRA to what it deserves to be.
15. What plans do you have in the next 6 months?
We always have plans!
One of our other challenges is convincing ourselves that we don’t need to do everything this week! We are currently renovating one of our private dining rooms which is going to look incredible, this should be finished by the end of next week.
We are also redesigning our smaller private dining room and have introduced a new Tasting Menu which goes live from September onwards.
