The Eyrie
The top floor of Belper’s East Mill, built 1912, directly beneath the nest.
The building: the East MillFine Dining — L’Omelette Pèlerine · Belper
The rarest egg in England.
A pedigree bloodline of wild peregrines, finished on a diet of the Derwent’s finest. A deep marigold yolk, a texture of silk and butter, and a long, resonant finish. An egg of uncommon refinement, laid above the East Mill and folded at your table.
Bloodline. Diet. Altitude.
As with the world’s most celebrated beef, a great egg is the sum of its lineage, its feed and the life its mother has led. Ours are wild-born, free-flying and conditioned at altitude, producing an egg of remarkable depth, richness and poise.
Our suppliers
The peregrine falcon
The fastest animal on earth, and since at least 2011 a resident of the East Mill.
A bird of extraordinary athleticism and lineage, the peregrine has been prized for millennia, from the falconries of medieval courts to the cliffs of the British coast. In its hunting dive it can exceed two hundred miles an hour.
A breeding pair has made its home above the River Derwent for more than a decade. Every egg we serve is gathered on the morning of service and travels fewer than thirty feet from where it was laid to where it is folded: provenance in its purest form.
The stoop
Raised at altitude. Refined in flight.
Photograph: Hari K Patibanda, CC BY 2.0.
Terroir aérien
You are what your falcon eats
The character of an egg is the character of everything its mother has eaten. Ours forage freely over the River Gardens, the Derwent and the green spaces of the town.
Their diet is wild, varied and entirely self-selected: the game birds of the riverbank, enriched by the town itself, from the morning’s freshly roasted coffee to the sweet, buttery treats of the playground. It is a diet no farm could replicate, and it gives the yolk its remarkable depth: notes of roast and caramel, a gentle salinity and a long, rounded finish.
Chef de Chivers calls this le goût de la ville: the taste of the town itself.
Read the tasting notes
Le site
Beautifully unattended
Every great restaurant begins with a question of location. We chose a building that nobody has looked at in years.
The East Mill has been left, by its owners, to find its own character. Glazing has been allowed to open to the weather. Buddleia and young birch have taken root along the upper ledges, and the red brick is gently returning to the valley. It is a patina that cannot be commissioned, only neglected.
It is also, we should say, the reason we are here. No landlord has called in a decade. No inspector has climbed to the top floor. Nobody in authority has asked what we are doing up there, and we have taken that as an invitation.
The room is ours. The rules, such as they are, are Chef’s. We have found that a derelict building, in the hands of a legally uninterested owner, is the most generous host in England.
-
Natural ventilation, throughout.
- Owner
- AbsentA private company in Chorley, Lancashire. Wholly at ease with the situation.
- Upkeep
- MinimalEight years of planning and a roof that has been left to its own devices.
- Regulation
- DistantSeveral authorities have concerns. None is on the premises.
- House rules
- OursOpen flame, wild birds and river water. Nobody has ever asked.
L’œuf
The egg
A yolk of deep marigold. A white of rare clarity. A shell speckled, from cream to brick red, as though it had been dusted with paprika by somebody who loved it.
Like any great ingredient, it owes everything to breeding and to feed: generations of wild, athletic birds, hunting at altitude on a varied and entirely self-selected diet. The result is an egg of extraordinary richness and depth, with a clean, almost mineral finish that our guests describe, without exception, as unforgettable.
- Pedigree
- Wild peregrineA bloodline nesting on the East Mill since at least 2011.
- Feed
- Wild-caughtFree-flying, varied and entirely self-selected.
- Grade
- P5Our highest grading, awarded by Chef, by candlelight.
- Provenance
- Thirty feetFrom where it is laid to where it is folded.
The house
Before you arrive
The Chef
Chef Burciel de Chivers: born in the Camargue, trained among the great bird colonies of Europe.
Meet the chef: Chef Burciel de ChiversThe Menu
Six courses, one omelette, folded at your table over a copper flame.
Read the menu: The MenuReservations
Fully committed until mid-March
Every evening from our opening night until Saturday 13 March 2027 is fully booked. A limited number of tables from Thursday 18 March may be requested now.
Request a reservation