Our story
Est. 2019 · Frome
A field, then a fire.
Firstlight began outdoors, on trestle tables at the edge of a farm. The building came later; the idea — cook what the morning gives you — never changed.
Kiln Yard, Frome
N 51.2308° · W 2.3203°
We kept the chimney and built a single hearth where the ovens had been. Twenty-eight seats around one fire, and a chalkboard that is wiped clean every afternoon.
There is no walk-in full of next week’s plan. What arrives each morning is what we cook that night — which is why no two evenings here are quite the same, and why we wouldn’t have it any other way.
How we cook
Four rules
I
The field writes the menu
We start with what is ready, not with what we feel like cooking. If the peas aren’t sweet yet, they wait. The card is printed at four in the afternoon, once we know what came in.
II
Short is the point
Nine dishes, most nights. A short menu means everything is picked close, cooked properly, and finished before it tires. Abundance is a supermarket idea.
III
One fire, no shortcuts
A single wood hearth does almost all of it. Fire is unforgiving and honest — it rewards good produce and exposes bad. That suits us.
IV
Nothing thrown, if we can help it
Yesterday’s bread is today’s ice cream. Trimmings become the stock, the stock becomes the sauce. Thrift is not a virtue here, it’s just the craft.
2016
A field in Mells
It began as a supper club at the edge of Gully Farm — thirty covers on trestle tables, cooked on a fire pit, everything grown within sight of the plates.
2019
The old kiln
We took the lease on a derelict brick kiln in Frome, kept the chimney, and built a single hearth where the ovens had been. Twenty-eight seats around it.
2022
First light
We stopped writing menus in advance entirely. The kitchen now starts at the market, not the notebook. Two days a week we close to source.
Today
The morning run
Six growers, one boat, one baker, all within a morning’s drive. You can taste the postcode. We think that’s the whole thing.
Everyone who feeds the kiln.
Six growers, one boat, one baker — plotted by how far each is from the door. The boat is the only long road we’ll drive.
Gully Farm
Tide & Line
Wick Bakehouse
Home Field
Marsh & Meadow
The Orchard Rows
The most honest cooking in the West Country — a menu you can trust because it can’t lie.
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The Broadsheet
A single fire, a short card, and not a wasted gesture on the plate.
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Field & Fork Guide