A LITTLE MORE ABOUT US...
Welcome to The Strand Cafe! A boutique, beachside cafe in the quaint, seaside village of Shaldon.
Relax. Enjoy. Watch the world go by in our calm, relaxed environment.
When the weather is good, the garden with delightful sea views, provides the perfect backdrop for you to enjoy all that The Strand Cafe can offer - be it a slice of cake, homemade and handcrafted by our chef, with a cup of barista coffee or loose leaf tea, or something more elaborate for breakfast, lunch or afternoon tea. All our chefs pride themselves in serving food cooked and prepared to order, using fresh ingredients, locally sourced whenever possible.
Well behaved canine companions are always welcome.
OUR SUPPLIERS
We offer quality produce from a range of excellent suppliers, ensuring only the freshest meals are prepared.
Challices is a high class fruit and vegetable wholesaler delivering the freshest fruit and vegetables to our customers in the South West. They provide us with local, seasonal produce of high quality whenever we need it.
Kingfisher Brixham Ltd holds a prime coastal position near the famous Brixham Fish Market. The business has grown since it was established over 30 years ago, and is a supplier to some top restaurants and hotels in the South West and surrounding regions. We regularly speak and coordinate with their fish buyers for our ‘catch of the day’ fish specials and seafood that we feature on our menu.
Forest Produce Limited supply us with specialist quality ingredients with uncompromising standards, quality and reliability. They supply us with gourmet ingredients that are not readily available elsewhere.
Ritter Courivaud Ltd was established in 1929 and is now one of the leading food distributors to the upmarket sector of the UK’s food service industry.
Hawkridge Farmhouse Dairy Produce was established in 1976, originally specialising in cheddar and hard cheeses for delivery in Devon and Cornwall. They now supply a full range of English and Continental cheeses, cooked meats, pate, delicatessen products, and chilled goods to approximately1500 outlets throughout Southern England and South Wales.
J&A Gibbins are high quality catering butchers firm with over 150 years’ expertise in delivering premium, fresh Westcountry meat and associated products to the food industry.
Devonia Water is bottled at source in a peaceful valley in South Devon. The spring is in the old village of Beeson and has now been in use for over 300 years - offering truly refreshing tasting water. They also supply us with their lovely own brand of Sparkling Elderflower.
DJ Miles is based in Porlock, Somerset, and supply us with our own, special blend of coffee. They source, blend and roast their own coffee beans and are a family-run business with an unrivalled passion for both quality and service.
J&R Food Service are a family-owned business, located in Exeter and have been successfully trading as a local Catering wholesaler for over 30 years. They work closely with Taste of the West, supplying them with a distribution hub for their Members’ Range, some of which we use at The Strand Cafe.
ABOUT DENISE...
Chef Denise’s passion for cooking stems from a family whose life centered around good times sharing really great food.
She started cooking at a very young age and remembers only too well spending many, many hours at the stove trying to perfect pancakes in order to please her grandmother! Her current determination to use the freshest local ingredients also dates back to her roots; she was raised deep in the Philippine countryside in a farming community renowned for its culinary expertise.
On obtaining a degree in Hotel, Restaurant and Institute Management, Denise decided to do an apprenticeship in one of the best multi-awarded restaurants in Manila, the capital of the Philippines. At that time, kitchens were very much male dominated and she will never forget the chef ordering her to get out of his kitchen simply on account of her being female! However, Denise determined to stay on and soon proved her worth as a chef by winning both local and international culinary competitions while still very young.
Later, she went on to cook in a variety of hotels and restaurants before finishing a Master Course in Cuisine at the Ecole Ritz Escoffier in Paris. She then accepted the job that brought her to England in 2003.
Denise was now ready to tackle a real incline in her career. She worked for Hall & Woodhouse as Head Chef for some years at various sites, before taking on a Head Chef role to run Peter de Savary’s kitchen at the Cary Arms, Babbacombe in 2009. She was then asked to advise and train kitchen staff at Vanderbilt Hall, Rhode Island, USA - another of Mr de Savary’s ventures – an experience she thoroughly enjoyed, but the call to run her very own business was now really beginning to take hold.
Within a few months, she had opened Twentysix as Chef de cuisine, and was determined to style it in such a way as to reflect her positive experiences of different cultures, countries and cuisines. Her broadly international style of cooking, with a very strong classical French tradition at its core, is now reflected in the variety of the frequently changing menus at Twentysix, as well as in her absolute passion for high quality and seasonal freshness. She now works with a team of Chefs who share the same passion for cuisine.
Eventually, Denise was asked to take over and open the doors of this famous Shaldon beach cafe once known as Beachcomber Cafe and Number 1 The Strand. Following the ethos and tradition of what makes Twentysix beloved, she created a boutique beachside cafe and bistro that specialises in fresh food cooked to order, homemade cakes and pastries, barista coffees and loose leaf teas in a relaxing and calm environment.