The Great British Roast Competition: James Rogers, Chef Owner, The Eight Bells

James Rogers is the chef owner of The Eight Bells in Hawkhurst, the winner of Knorr's Meat Great British Roast Competition 2021.

The 42-year old chef said that winning this award was a "real achievement" and that "it’s just a testament to a hell of a lot of hard work from the [staff]."

Biography

James originally comes from an art and antiques background. He started his career working for large auction houses, and after spending some time working in India, he bought a pub on a whim. At just 24, he joked that he only bought it because of its “eye-wateringly cheap price” - though he still needed to remortgage his house to afford it. 

With no experience working in a professional kitchen, he said, "it literally would have been soup, prawn cocktail, chicken liver pâté, it was that basic. You just build and build and build on that”

Despite a bumpy start, James found that pubs were well suited to building up experience in cooking and hospitality, because, especially at the time, most served little to no food, therefore he started by cooking basic side dishes, then meals, before pushing more experimental, complicated dishes - all without any formal training.

“I’m sure we can all roast a chicken, so if you can roast a chicken why not roast a guinea fowl,” he said.

James hasn't fared badly - as The Eight Bells is his fifth gastropub. Previous sites included The dog at Grundisburgh and a Hall & Woodhouse tenancy at The Woodman. The chef makes a point of employing people with no formal experience in the culinary world and says his teams currently include two university leavers with a background in business and politics and neuroscience. 

This gives all of his staff the chance he got with his start in the industry, allowing those with a love of cooking and incentive to work hard and prove that they can be chefs too.

Competition Criteria

Launched in 2011, the Great British Roast Competition is open to all businesses that serve roasts.

Upon application, Knorr’s panel of judges will review the entries, visiting shortlisted restaurants anonymously to reach a final decision on which two roasts - one including meat, one vegetarian or vegan - are the best in the country for the year. 

The Roast

The Eight Bells' winning roast dinner is a roast rump of local, 28-day aged beef served with all the trimmings. 

The chef explained that his aim with the roast was to be simple, without being simplistic, pairing it with local and fresh veg.

“If you start off with blinding ingredients you don’t have to do a great deal to it to deliver a great plate of grub,” he said.

The restaurant strives to exclusively use local ingredients and works closely with farms to make sure they are getting fresh seasonal produce. The potatoes, for example, are from a nearby village.

The chef explained: "We do the right thing, but we don’t bang a drum about it.”

 At £14 for a roast, he added, "We try and get the best ingredients within the price point we’re in”.

On having won the award for Britain's best roast, the chef said: "It was absolutely brilliant," and that “it’s just a testament to a hell of a lot of hard work from the guys, especially coming out the back of the pandemic. No one really knew where the business was going to be, or if we were really even going to survive. We were toying with whether we were going be able to continue."