Kitchen Old Stamp House

The restaurant showcases a unique food culture long influenced by the landscape, and though many don’t realise it one also hugely influenced by its seafaring trade with distant lands in the Americas, Caribbean, and India. Historic Cumbrian dishes make full use of a huge array of use imported spices such as pepper, mace, ginger, sugar and rum brought to these shores through the historic coastal ports of Whitehaven and Maryport, the latter synonymous with the iconic White Star Line of Titanic fame. These historical footnotes are central to Ryan Blackburn’s food, by utilising the traditional he seeks to innovate and create the unconventional, all the while referencing the rich food culture of his surroundings. Ryan’s food not only celebrates his surroundings it celebrates the farmers who rear the animals he uses, the fishermen who land his fish and seafood and the artisan producers who craft nurture his ingredients.