MARION SAUVEBOIS explores the fine dining at Jesse’s Bistro, the undertaker-turned-abattoir-turned-critically-acclaimed restaurant

“AT the back you had the funeral director, and this whole area here used to be the abattoir, for the butcher next door,” smiles chef David Witnall, surveying the snug dining room with its neat rows of tables already laid out for dinner, sturdy beams, and exposed stone walls.

And just like that our snoop around Jesse’s Bistro turned into a bizarre house of horrors tour.

Under different circumstances, and at the hands of a less scrupulous landlord, the maze-like inn ensconced in an old courtyard just off Cirencester’s Black Jack Street may have easily been flogged as a macabre attraction.

As it was, the building was reinvented as a humble bistro in 2000.

Though only a side-note, the eatery’s colourful, if a little spine-tingling, back story (as well as its rustic fare) has captured the imagination of diners and critics across the region and beyond.

In fact slaughterhouse/undertakers credentials aside, Jesse’s most recent claim to fame is as the only restaurant in town to boast two 2016 AA Rosettes and feature in the holy trinity: the 2016 Michelin, Harden’s and Good Food Guides.

“It’s great to get this recognition in just a year,” smiles David. “We’re up to the level I always wanted to be at now.”

It should come as no surprise for a restaurant steeped in such quirky history to be headed by an equally colourful and off-beat team.

Owners Vanessa Curnock and Amol Patil, who took over a year ago, swiftly turning Jesse’s into a dining hub, and head chef David’s stories of meet-cutes in Guernsey, rubbing shoulders with MasterChef’s John Torode and toiling away in Michelin star kitchens are just as mind-boggling as their concern’s chequered past.

No butterfly owners, dropping in for a spot of supper before retreating home, Australian-born Vanessa and Northerner Amol are restaurateurs through and through.

Amol trained at Leith’s School of Food and Wine, before joining John Torode’s Smiths of Smithfield restaurant. He went on to hone his craft at Neil Snowball’s Guernsey eatery Saltwater. It is on the island that he met Vanessa, a restaurant manager from Melbourne, off backpacking across Europe. She made it as far as France to visit some relatives but, thanks to Amol, missed the rest of the continent.

Together the couple returned to Australia, where they opened their own restaurant Para Ti.

Finally two years ago they decided to pack up and move to the UK to be closer to Amol’s family and Vanessa’s French relatives. They settled on the Cotswolds and Jesse’s and ambitious head chef David fell into their proverbial lap.

“I said I’m only coming back if it’s a quaint place, nice and full of history,” laughs 32-year-old Vanessa. “It was chaos. We started looking online while we were still in Australia. We had our eye on this place. And we just came here with no house to move into. We stayed in a lovely B&B down the road. We signed here first, then we got a house. The business was more important.”

David cut his teeth in the business under Ian Mansfield at The Forest and at the five-star Swallow Hotel before joining Jesse’s in 2009. He was appointed head chef in 2013. But with just one other pair of hands to rely on in the kitchen and limited resources under previous management he could never quite push the envelope, show off his flair or attention to detail – until Vanessa and Amol waltzed in.

“Before it was just me and a part-time lad but we have three full time chefs now plus a few part-time and we’ve been able to push the menu forward a little bit more,” beams David.

Amol nods: “The place had lots of potential but it was about getting the name out there and giving the kitchen support. I wanted the kitchen team to really show what they can do and we have not been disappointed with the results.”

The menu features contemporary takes on British classics. Ingredients are locally sourced and when it comes to meat, the team keep it in the family. David trots just five metres down the road to Jesse Smith’s, the butcher Jesse’s owes its name and slaughterhouse-cum-dining room to.

Jesse’s favourites include deep fried Simon Weaver blue brie with celery and walnuts, Cotswold braised neck of lamb served with champ mash and the inventive Whelford venison loin topped by a braised shoulder sausage roll drizzled in chocolate sauce.

“The support of the new team has allowed us to refine the food and show it up a bit more, work on the techniques and the presentation,” adds David. “We’ve always had a great standard, with fresh, local ingredients but before the food was simpler. Now we can really do what we wanted with it, it’s hearty but with a twist.”

In the space of a year, the trio have certainly turned things around, placing Jesse’s firmly on the gourmet map. But their work has only just begun, they insist.

“You’re never there, even if you’re a Michelin star chef,” booms Amol. “But we’re always moving forward and changing.”

“It never stops, the food industry is chaotic,” Vanessa cuts in with a chuckle. “There’s nothing like working in a restaurant. It’s insane.”