Matt Gillan to open Heritage restaurant in West Sussex next month

Matt Gillan will open his new restaurant Heritage in West Sussex next month.

Heritage will open in the Chequers pub in Slaugham following a kickstarter campaign that saw the chef raise £89,007 from 640 backers, smashing his initial £60,000 target.

Gillan said: "We are thrilled to finally announce that Heritage's opening date will be the 17 August. We've been working incredibly hard to get the place looking fantastic and the building definitely feels like it has had a new lease of life breathed into it.

"We can't wait to welcome our guests through the doors and show them around. We've recruited some amazing people and have just finalised the menus ready for opening too, so it is really coming together now. "

The Edwardian property has been renovated to incorporate a bar area, restaurant, garden with views over the Sussex countryside and steam-punk lounge.

Heritage will offer lunch, à la carte and seven-course tasting menus with dishes including saddle and belly of lamb, artichoke purée, roasted artichoke, pressed pepper, truffle peas, tomato and basil sauce; as well as fjord trout, lettuce cream, roasted baby gem, braised ox tongue and tomato jam.

The former chef/director of Red Roaster and Pike & Pine restaurants in Brighton's Great British Menu winning dish, the Herder, will also feature on the menu. Inspired by his mum, it incorporates preparations of goat; stuffed loin, salt-baked leg, barbecue shoulder, herder pie, jelly, goat-fat dumpling and roasted pineapple.

Five boutique bedrooms will also open at Heritage in due course.

The chef, who appeared in series eight and 10 of the BBC's Great British Menu, had previously held a Michelin star at the Pass restaurant in the South Lodge hotel in Lower Beeding, near Horsham.

His CV also includes stints at Restaurant Gordon Ramsay, London; the Vineyard at Stockcross, Berkshire; and Midsummer House in Cambridge.

Menuwatch: Pike & Pine restaurant>>