Little Seeds is winning over guests with its one-of-a-kind tasting menu and thoughtfully sourced seasonal British ingredients.

Jake Lowndes, originally from Sandyford, first opened Little Seeds in Stone with his partner Sophie Hardman in 2016.

With a startup loan and a dream to bring a fine dining experience to the area, they ditched their full-time jobs to open the restaurant with just two weeks to get it up and running. 

After painting the walls, sourcing suppliers and fitting out the kitchen - Little Seeds opened with a very different menu than today. 

"We opened with really casual food and serving from enamel tin plates so we didn't even have any proper crockery," chef patron, Jake, said. 

On opening, Little Seeds served burgers and buttermilk fried chicken, which proved to be a huge hit and as the years rolled on Jake began to refine what the restaurant was serving.

Fast forward to today and the eatery is featured in the Michelin Guide with a growing team, led by Jake, dedicated to elevating the best seasonal British ingredients, thoughtfully pairing them with herbs from the restaurant's garden.

Jake said: "In the first three years, all we were focusing on was just making enough money to keep the door open, keep the staff employed, and then if we got a little bit of money, great.

"And as we went on, we're finding that the clientele didn't really want to eat off tin plates, and they didn't want burgers. So we put more refined things on and they gravitated towards that."

The pair first met while working at David's Brasserie at the Trentham Estate. Jake was working 40 hours a week in the kitchen there and filling the rest of his time with a business degree at Manchester Metropolitan University. 

Before this he worked his way up from Burger King when leaving school, to Toby Carvery before landing a commis chef role at an Italian restaurant in Stone. 

Jake added: "I started at the started bottom, then found myself at Toby Carvery and within six weeks I'd done every station you could do there and then I was thinking there's got to be more than this out there. 

"So I began to learn new skills and refine what I did.

"Around Staffordshire, at the time especially, there was not a place to look and think 'that's a really good fine dining experience'

"And looking back now when we started Little Seeds we were so young but it felt like we had nothing to lose."

From 2023 the restaurant has been listed as one of the best restaurants to visit in the Michelin Guide with a popular tasting menu which can be paired with the world's best wines.

Little Seeds opens to guests on Wednesday-Saturday evenings and Friday and Saturday lunchtime but preparation for the week starts much earlier, taking deliveries direct from the best British suppliers they can find. 

Strawberries from Staffordshire, tomatoes from the Isle of Wight, Old Winchester cheese and more - direct from the farms where they are produced and then paired with herbs from the restaurant's garden.

Jake works with local butchers and even on days off sources ingredients such as sea herbs, blackberries or damsons to use in dishes throughout the week. 

He added: "We're at that stage now where we want the best for the guests, whether it comes from the Highlands, Staffordshire or down in Cornwall. Obviously, around here you can't get fish, you can't get scallops, so we go and source the best.

"So it's very seasonal and dependent on what we can get at the moment. We print the menus ourselves and could change them everyday if we want to. 

"We source two varieties of tomatoes from the Isle of Wight because they get the most sun down there, so they have the most flavour. 

"We use them in a starter dish and pair it with the Old Winchester Cheese to make a savoury crumble out of it with hazelnuts and a little bit of ricotta cheese. 

"We season with oregano and marjoram in a gel with some confit garlic. It's like the flavours you would get in a Neapolitan pizza almost, but refined and simply tasty. 

"I'd say it epitomises what we try and do, and it's a lot of people's favourite dish.

"People loved it so much last year, so we tweaked it and bought it back this year.

"We're just going to continually to develop our menu, improve and see where we go. That's the key thing.

"The business is viable, people are enjoying what we do and we enjoy what we do. So whether it's a Michelin star or no star, it doesn't really matter to me but we will always be working towards that standard."

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