Opening: The new Cambridge restaurant offering Michelin-worthy menus from £35

Mark Poynton brings Michelin-star quality to Cambridge’s Ancient Shepherds – with tasting menus starting at £35 for three courses

Hot on the heels of his Michelin star win – for Norwich restaurant Caistor Hall – Cambridge-based chef Mark Poynton has opened a new eatery closer to home: a rebrand for what was MJP @The Shepherds, The Ancient Shepherds in Fen Ditton will offer three, five and seven-course tasting menus four days a week.

The venture is a partnership with Fen Ditton villagers Gareth and Emma John, who have run their own business in Cambridge for more than 20 years and decided to invest in order to secure the future of The Ancient Shepherds - and to keep Mark’s cooking, which they’ve loved since he launched city-central Alimentum back in 2009, local.

Opting for the tasting menu model to showcase the freshest seasonal ingredients, including crops from the Shepherds’ own kitchen garden, while also minimising waste and maximising cost control, Mark will helm the kitchen alongside Chris Lee, a former Crown at Bildeston chef who’s held three AA rosettes for more than a decade.

Summer dishes will range from an amuse bouche of chilled pea mousse, cottage cheese and truffle to dessert of sweet pineapple parfait, fennel sorbet, pineapple and fennel pollen meringue.

Dating back to 1580, the former pub building has been sympathetically renovated under Emma’s design direction, with a Farrow & Ball palette of soft plaster pink and grey complementing original brickwork and slate-topped tables.

The Ancient Shepherds is at 5 High Street, Fen Ditton. Open Wednesday to Saturday, lunch is served 12-1.45pm and dinner 6-8.30pm. For more and to book: ancientshepherds.com