Galton and Tracy Blackiston's hectic life in north Norfolk involves juggling the demands of a successful hotel and restaurant with those of bringing up their two young sons

The big skies and wild coastline have always made north Norfolk a popular holiday destination but, thanks to Galton and Tracy Blackiston, the area has also been put on the culinary map. Their Michelin-starred Morston Hall Hotel & Restaurant at Morston, near Holt, not only serves the best local fish, game, vegetables and meat but is in an enviable location in which to combine work and play. There is nothing the couple, and their sons, Harry, 11, and Sam, four, like more than messing about on their boat, going shrimping on deserted beaches just beyond the kitchen door or making jam from fruit picked in the hedgerows.

It wasn't always so idyllic. “In 1991, we decided we wanted our own hotel,” says Tracy. “Galton's parents lived in Blakeney and we knew there was nowhere else we wanted to be: you only had to step outside to be in beautiful surroundings. We also thought it would be a great place to bring up children.” So they borrowed money to buy the hotel Morston Hall, moved into the loft and did all the refurbishment themselves before reopening it in 1992.

A huge advantage of the area is its produce. “We hadn't realised how much these wonderful foods would influence Galton's cooking,” says Tracy. “He'd cooked with lobster and crab in the Lake District, but here we had mussels for sale outside our door at £3 per bag. And people were always coming to the kitchen door with something they'd grown or caught. Galton's latest book, which focuses on top-quality seasonal food cooked simply and well, reflects this.”

Today the Blackistons' suppliers know just what the hotel wants. “Our fish man at Holt phones to tell us what he's got and what's good. We even have someone who brings us blueberries. Local fish, samphire, asparagus, vegetables and meat are all superb. And Galton loves to shoot game.” Inevitably, the family eats well at home. “Galton never gets fed up with cooking and always cooks for guests, but at home we eat more simply: salad, new potatoes and fish or chicken. In the summer we do lots of barbecues and use the Aga in the winter. I make family suppers and Sunday roasts. Our parents come and it's a great chance to relax.”

Harry and Sam show every sign of enjoying good food, too. “Harry adores fish,” says Tracy. “On a visit with a schoolfriend to a local fish and chip shop, he asked for sea bass and chips! And both boys love to cook: this year we made raspberry, blackberry and strawberry jam. They loved picking the fruit and then making something with it.”

But living by the sea is the major pull. “Tides and weather permitting,” says Tracy, “we'd rather go out on the boat than do anything else. We don't go far but it feels like a million miles away. The boys love mackerel fishing, although we never catch anything. And on shore we go crabbing, cockling and shrimping.” Filming TV cookery demos, running a successful hotel and restaurant, writing a cookery book and bringing up two sons – life is certainly busy, which is even more reason to savour the location. “The sea is such a calming influence,” Tracy concludes. “Being anywhere else in the country wouldn't work for us, as our lives are so intertwined with this beautiful coastline.”

Galton Blackiston's latest book, A Return to Real Cooking (Navigator, £20), will be published in May.

WORDS JO HILL
STYLING MIRANDA WATCHORN
PHOTOGRAPHS NIALL MCDIARMID
FEBRUARY 2006