A luxury health and fitness club with a farm café has appointed an Australian head chef as it prepares to expand.
Be Well Barn at Redlingfield, near Eye, is planning indoor padel courts and a large natural swimming lake for next year.
Josh Wilby has joined Revive, the café, bar and events business, and is launching a new menu.
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He spent 10 years as executive chef at Brisbane’s Queensland Performing Arts Centre, leading a 40-strong team, before moving to Occold with his wife and son to be near her family.
Farmers and trained physiotherapists Will and Sarah Edwards founded the fitness and wellbeing centre.
They launched it on Will’s family farm in 2023 as a diversification and have since built up the business.
The centre offers fitness and wellness classes, a large outdoor space, a gym and an upstairs studio for Pilates and yoga.
It also has indoor and outdoor dining areas, plus private spa and fitness pods.
"Josh has come in with all his experience," says Will. "He's got lots of fresh ideas so we are launching out into a more mainstream food service with local produce."
The couple's aim is to build the events side of the business including private functions and parties with catering as part of their offer as they expand their facilities.
"That's a real opportunity to build the business in terms of using the venue we have got," says Will.
Josh has "the desire and drive to help us deliver on more evening events", he adds.
They are looking at submitting plans for three indoor padel courts in a 40m by 25m building about 9m in height in the near future.
The natural swimming lake is part of the original plan for the site.
It's thought it will be the region's largest purpose-built natural swimming lake at 3,000sq m, and a deep swimming area of 1,800sq m within it reaching a depth of 2.5m at its deepest point.
There will be "beachy" areas and filtration plants, retaining walls, a concrete base to keep it clean and water will be pumped through. UV treatments will be used to control bacteria.
"We want a wow factor to it," says Will.
They hope that outside of the summer it will appeal to cold swimming enthusiasts, triathletes and guests taking cold dips after their sauna.
"Part of our original planning permission from three or four years ago was a lake for swimming so it's fulfilling that promise," he says.
For the new chef it's a chance to build on the brand.
Julie Matthews did "a wonderful job" getting the catering operation off the ground for the first couple of years after it was taken in-house, says Will.
She is staying on as assistant lead chef after stepping down from the top role earlier this year.
The new head chef landed the job after a chance meeting.
Josh - who had recently arrived in the UK with wife Anne and son Cooper, 10 - was picking pumpkins at Will's brother, Duncan's pumpkin patch at Redlingfield.
"I moved over for family reasons," explains Josh.
Having worked in London in the early 2000s then in 2021, they were living in Australia where their boy was born.
"My wife just wanted to be close to her family," he explains. "I've been here just one year now.
"It's very enjoyable. We all love it actually - from central Brisbane to very rural Suffolk."
He adds: "We have settled in very well, made some good friends and are just enjoying the countryside."
In Brisbane, he catered for 330,000 guests attending shows including Hamilton and the Royal Ballet across five restaurants.
"It's pretty much the biggest performing arts venue in the Southern Hemisphere, he says.
Moving to the UK has meant a change of pace. He now presides over a team of half a dozen people.
He is enthusiastic about the challenges of his new role.
"I think it's got a lot of potential here - a lot of opportunity and a bit of a blank canvas I guess," he says.
“I like what Sarah and Will, the owners, are trying to achieve. I think it’s a great asset to the area and is something special for the local community.”
The business rebranded its catering arm as Revive in January this year to attract villagers and the wider public.
Josh will serve separate breakfast and lunch menus and has helped develop special events, including one-offs.
The chef has spent 28 years working in fine dining, restaurants, events and large-scale hospitality in Australia and the UK.
In the UK, he was head chef at Smiths of Smithfield in London and helped set up a private restaurant in Chelmsford for West Ham United players.
At QPAC, he ran a substantial food and beverage operation that served more than 330,000 guests across five restaurant outlets in 12 months and managed a 40-strong team.
Revive at Be Well Barn has hosted a successful run of Friday Night Pizzas to eat in or take away during September.
It will hold a Burger and Bar Night on October 9.
The new breakfast menu includes full breakfasts with Palfrey & Co dry-cured smoked bacon, plus croissants with poached eggs, smoked bacon or smoked salmon and hollandaise sauce.
Lunch dishes include Turkish eggs with slow-cooked lamb shoulder, herbed yoghurt and toasted sourdough, plus Caesar salad with smoked chicken, baby gem lettuce, poached egg, Parmesan, sourdough croutons, bacon and anchovies.
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