Revealed: Jeremy Clarkson’s Farmer’s Dog pub serves meals made on an industrial property ten miles away

Jeremy Clarkson is preparing food for his Cotswolds country pub in a kitchen unit on an industrial estate in a town 10 miles away, the Daily Mail can reveal.

The Farmer’s Dog pub, which he bought for £1m, has been so rammed with customers since the TV presenter took it over that he’s had to extend the car park to cope with demand.

Star guests have included Ellen DeGeneres, David Beckham, Simon Cowell, Amanda Holden and Prue Leith – while the Daily Mail’s restaurant critic listed it as one of the best celebrity-run pubs in the country.

And it has traded on its field-to-plate image with the website boasting: ‘Our menu is made entirely with ingredients produced on British farms. It’ll change based on what’s in season, but it’ll always be absolutely f***ing delicious.’

But what may surprise the thousands who flock to the Farmer’s Dog is that some of food served in the pub is being prepared in a very un-rural setting.

Clarkson has rented a shiny kitchen unit on an industrial site in Eynsham, a town of 5,000 people just outside the sprawl of Oxford.

The kitchen – which is on an anonymous new-build small industrial estate – is being used to prepare a number of food items which are then sent on to the booked out pub.

It’s unclear precisely what items are being prepped in the Eynsham unit but they are thought to include vegetables, baked goods and some meats.

Clarkson told the Mail today that he had to buy the unit as the kitchen space at The Farmer’s Dog is simply too small to cope with demand.

He said: ‘The problem we have is that the kitchen at the Farmer’s Dog is very small and to enlarge it would mean getting planning permission from the council. 

‘So we do the basic stuff on some items in a prep-kitchen in Witney. 

‘I think you’ll find a lot of successful small pubs and restaurants do this. No-one minds so long as the food is good and ours very much is.’

The presenter reiterated that unlike many pubs and restaurants across the country, his kitchens – whether on-site or off – use only British food farmed from their collective of farmers.

When the Daily Mail visited the industrial site this week, we watched as what appeared to be baked goods and other packaged food items were placed on crates before being loaded into the back of a white light industrial van and driven the ten miles to The Farmer’s Dog.

The van pulled up outside the kitchens of The Farmer’s Dog and staff then collected the pallets, taking them into the back of the pub’s kitchen.

There is no suggestion that Clarkson has been in any way underhand about this – in fact staff for the kitchen unit are being openly recruited via local press.

A job advert released two weeks ago explicity spelled out that Clarkson was looking for more staff to help out in the kitchen in the off-site unit.

Paying £12 an hour, the employee would be expected to be a spare pair of hands on the site, overseeing kitchen safety, as well as checking and storing away food deliveries.

The full advert read: ‘Join our team and bring The Farmer’s Dog vision to life. A bustling boozer stocked with locally brewed stone beer and fresh seasonal food sourced directly from British farmers.

‘We want this to be everything a great pub should be. Fantastic opportunity for experienced adn motivated staff who can travel to The Farmers Dog, Asthall or to our Central Production Kitchen in Eynsham.’

The Farmer’s Dog has become known across the world thanks to its appearances on the wildly popular Clarkson’s Farm TV show – which has made the former Top Gear presenter an advocate for British farmers and food.

Cameras have shown pub staff working furiously in the small, cramped kitchen at the back of the popular Oxfordshire establishment, close to the village of Asthall.

More than 2,000 people tried to book a table during its opening week in August 2024 and more than a year later its popularity has merely increased.

Just last month a shiny new 100,000 sq ft car park was propped up on a field opposite the pub to cope with the droves of cars and even tourists buses arriving just to get a glimpse of the star’s new venture.

Bookings open a month in advance and are often gone within the day – and if you are lucky enough to grab a walk-in slot, you will most likely be waiting hours to sit down.

Needless to say, it is unlikely to turn away the hundreds of fans that are turning up in the Cotswolds village each day, forking out typically £20-£26 for a main course or £8-11 for starters.

The pub proudly boasts that every product sold in there is made in Britain meaning every day drinks like coffee and Coco Cola are absent from the menu – and even pepper isn’t available.

When The Daily Mail visited this week The Farmer’s Dog appeared a slickly run operation with a cosy atmosphere and happy customers.

This was in stark contrast to last year’s opening, as shown on Clarkson Farm’s Season 4, when the newly reopened pub was in shambles – with Clarkson later admitting himself that it had been ‘s*** show’.

On the opening day, Clarkson and his team were hit with power cuts, a leaky roof and ran out of food forcing to turn away some fans who had queued for four hours.

The £1million venture was branded a disaster by locals, with Clarkson responding to one fan who asked how it was going in a sheepish manner, laughing as he ‘everyone’s really happy, but behind the scenes… chaos, s***show.’

It led to waitresses and pot washers quitting the next day – while the two well-to-do pub transformation duo Sue and Rachel Hawkins who helped set up the pub also left under mysterious circumstnaces.

The pair, who appeared in the final episode of the latest series, quit the project just 48 hours after it opened.

That appeared to rattle viewers even more with accusations Sue and her niece Rachel had ‘jumped ship’ when ‘the going got tough’ while one went as far as accusing them of being an ‘awful pair of individuals’.

Rachel had pointed out the pub formerly known as The Windmill was ‘not fit for purpose’ with ‘too many issues to run a successful business’ that included ‘failing water, no toilets, no gas, leaking roofs, and struggling staff’.

While admitting he was battling to overcome ‘massive, massive struggles, Clarkson’s biggest bone of contention with the high spending pair seemed to be the cost of three massive umbrellas to cover his terrace which, along with lighting and heating, would set him back a staggering £40,000.

Since the opening night, Clarkson has continued to face his own battles when it comes to the pub – including against the local and distric councils in Oxfordshire.

West Oxfordshire District Council raised some concerns over Clarkson’s car park plans – claiming the new overflow park could ruin the ‘scenic beauty’ of the area.

In another blow, earlier this year cyber-criminals reportedly stole £27,000 from the Cotswolds boozer during a recent hacking raid.

On top of that, Clarkson, who has said running a pub is ‘more stressful than running a farm’, has faced the same struggles so many pubs across the country have seen with business rates rising.

Following last year’s autumn budget, he blamed ‘Starmer’s Britain’ for the staggering rise in prices of running a pub.

A tricky combination of thefts by customers, heating bills, parking and traffic marshal costs and payments to staff left the TV presenter claiming it was ‘nigh impossible’ to make a profit.

Writing in his column in The Times, he said previously: ‘People seem to have it in their heads that if they come in for a pint they are entitled to go home with the glass in which it was served. Last Sunday 104 went missing.

‘And that cost must be added to the £100 a day we spend on fuel for the generator, the £400 a week it costs to provide warmth on the terrace and the £27,000 a month we must spend on parking and traffic marshals to keep the council off our back.

‘And that’s before you get to the cost of employing people in Starmer’s Britain these days.’

More recently, he said that countryside villages like those in Oxfordshire, are ‘losing their soul’ due to the decline of local pubs, village schools, police officers and shops in rural areas.

Speaking on the fourth series of Clarkson’s Farm, Clarkson bemoaned loneliness in small villages as he discussed the frequent closure of local pubs.

While having a drink in his own local pub, the former Top Gear presenter tells viewers: ‘Loneliness is a big issue in rural areas and part of the problem is villages losing their soul.

‘You don’t have a village doctor anymore. He’s in a health centre 30 miles away and you can’t get an appointment.

‘There’s no village bobby on the beat. There’s no village vicar, there’s no village shop, there’s no village school.

‘If we end up at a point where there’s no village pub then what is a village? It’s just some houses. Pubs are the hub and it should always be that way.’