Meet the team

Our Kitchen

I'm a paragraph. Click here to add your own text and edit me. It’s easy. Just click “Edit Text” or double click me to add your own content and make changes to the font. Feel free to drag and drop me anywhere you like on your page. I’m a great place for you to tell a story and let your users know a little more about you.

The food served at Kysty has been lovingly crafted by our dedicated team of chefs. Led by head chef Dan Hopkins they have created a seasonal menu brim full of dishes inspired by the Cumbrian landscape that surrounds us.

Dishes that reflect the simple food ethos of our Chef Patron Ryan Blackburn, which is to utilise only the finest seasonal ingredients available from carefully selected small artisan producers, who grow and rear quality produce with real care and attention to detail.

We utilise Herdwick from the high fells, beef from the Solway Plain, wild game from the high Pennines, mushrooms, nuts and berries from the woods and forests that surround us, wild salmon and trout from the rivers that criss-cross the landscape and fresh fish and shellfish from the cool waters of Cumbria’s Irish Sea coast. All of which provides us with an abundant ever-changing larder to use in the dishes we create.

Dishes include garlic mushroom, with roasted hen of the woods, garlic emulsion and hazelnut, Garside’s lamb rump, with roasted broccoli, mint and anchovy emulsion and custard tart with poached rhubarb.

Kids aren’t left out either, as they will be able to enjoy their own delicious menu created using the same quality seasonal ingredients.

Head chef

Dan Hopkins

Unsurprisingly food plays a big part in Dan’s life. He’s a London born lad who came up to the Lakes for a year, loved it some much that turned into 15 years and he’s been serving up top notch food at some of the region’s finest eateries.

He cut his culinary teeth so to speak way back when in 1999 as a commis chef at the Burn Howe, before making the move to the Langdale Chase in 2002, where his career really took off. He started out as a chef de partie, rapidly progressed to sous chef before seriously stepping up as head chef in 2004 and winning a host of awards including one AA rosette along the way.

Early 2014 saw him make the move north to Borrowdale, and take over the stoves at the Leathes Head, where he quickly carried on his award-winning ways, collecting two AA rosettes and a job lot of other accolades.

He was tempted back to the Langdale Chase in 2017 as executive chef, where, in the same year, he secured a second AA rosette. He joined the team at The Old Stamp House as sous chef in early 2019, where later that year after a huge amount of work the team collected their first Michelin Star.

In recognition of Dan’s sheer hard work Ryan has given him an opportunity to head up the kitchen at Kysty, to develop an entirely new dining concept and transform the Cheapside eatery into an informal neighbourhood restaurant.

Dan’s local knowledge inevitably plays a major part in his cooking and it’s just as important as his obvious skill in creating delicious plates of food. As you might imagine Dan has been working closely with Ryan over the last year and that influence has rubbed off.

Under Dan and Ryan’s direction the team at Kysty have crafted a selection of tantalising dishes using only the finest local ingredients. And as you will discover, each and every dish has designed to showcase the quality and provenance of the amazing produce that Dan and his team have available to work with each and every day…

And of course, it’s all served up in relaxed and informal surroundings where people can unwind, savour a glass and simply enjoy good wholesome cooking.