The Apricity chef-patron will open The Cordia Collective, which will be located within Borde Hill, a historic 2,300 acre estate in West Sussex.
It will start life as a bakery and garden café that will open in the spring, before developing into a glasshouse restaurant, café, wine bar, and workshop space located in the former stables that will open in the autumn.
The Baked by Cordia bakery will be headed up by baker Janine Edwards, formerly of Little Bread Pedlar, Darby’s and most recently Toklas Bakery.
Championing a field-to-plate ethos, the bakery will serve bread and pastries as well as daily-changing lunch options.
Later in the year, The Cordia Collective will open in the estate’s 118-year-old Victorian stables building for its café and workshop space.
The addition of a destination glasshouse restaurant will overlook the restored biodynamic walled kitchen garden. There will also be outdoor seating on a garden terrace.
The venue will focus on regenerative principles with menus that highlight responsible sourcing and champion small-scale farmers and ingredients grown from seed in the garden itself, or from nearby fields and farms including Borde Hill’s biodynamic market garden, which is adjacent to the walled garden.
The drinks programme will include local, Sussex producers and low-intervention wines, as well as garden-led cocktails and spritzes.
Set within 383 acres of outstanding natural beauty on the High Weald, Borde Hill has been owned by the Stephenson Clarke Family for 130 years and is currently run by Jay Goddard (pictured above), the fifth generation of the family.
Also joining forces with Nicholson will be Ruth Osborne, co-founder of London’s Wine Car Boot and who has worked on a number of hospitality projects in London and overseas including wastED for Dan Barber’s Blue Hill at Stone Barns.
The new venture will bring Nicholson’s regenerative ethos into the English countryside for the first time, she says.
“The Cordia Collective will be the true embodiment of everything I love, respect and enjoy,” says Nicholson.
“It will sit alongside Apricity, and work in tandem with the ethos and aspirations I treasure.
“To have the opportunity to be in the heart of nature, and work in tandem with the terroir and seasons is a true realisation of a dream.”
“I can’t wait to immerse myself in it all and, alongside Ruth, create a new, dynamic collection of nature with delicious food and drink, and warm hospitality, welcoming guests from near and far to share this experience with us next year.”
Nicholson is also chef and owner of the Green Michelin-starred Apricity, a sustainable, zero waste restaurant in Mayfair.