Custom ‘River Cottage’ Land Rover with in-built kitchen listed for sale

The car in question actually predates Fearnley-Whittingstall's successful River Cottage franchise, having first appeared in his early 1990s series A Cook on the Wild Side. 

The four-wheel drive, long-wheelbase Land Rover 109 (III Series) was customised to suit Fearnley-Whittingstall's unique needs, boasting a fully furnished kitchen, sleeping quarters and a shower.

Nicknamed the 'Gastrowagon', it was used as the celebrity chef's portable home base as he travelled the British countryside, foraging for food and cooking the best natural produce the area had to offer.

The off-roader will be offered up for sale on December 11 via British auction house Bonhams, where the asking price is listed as between AUD$45,000-$63,000.

For that spend, you'll score a foldout cooking area with in-built dining table, a full kitchen complete with oven and fridge, and a vintage ice cream maker.

There's also a spare tyre and crayfish net on the roof, plus a perspex roof (put in for filming purposes).

The overturned boat on the roof serves as the vehicle's sleeping accommodation, while the on-board shower and two sinks run water from a roof-mounted tank.

Under the bonnet is a 2.25-litre, four-cylinder petrol engine producing roughly 52kW and 162Nm, with a four-speed manual transmission.

After apparently falling into a "sorry state" when the show ended and sitting idle for the last 25 years, the Land Rover landed in the care of restoration company John Brown 4x4, where it was fully restored to its former glory.

"We purchased this vehicle in somewhat of a sorry state – and in an array of pieces – in effect an enormous jigsaw puzzle," John Brown 4x4 explained.

"The vehicle was completely stripped, and rebuilt onto a brand new galvanised chassis.

"[T]he whole vehicle is better than it was – no kicked in wings, no flapping door tops – they have all been reworked and replaced to give a new, improved version of the original ... even the canopy has been replaced with a £500 bespoke new item, which is wind and waterproof."

Following the restoration, the John Brown 4x4 team took the car to River Cottage HQ, where its bulkhead was signed by Fearnley-Whittingstall himself.

You can see the Land Rover in action on the show below: