six weeks in advance.
And you’ve never thought about expanding, or at least getting some more staff in?
Not really, it feels perfect the way it is. I think if we wanted to do something else, we’d go somewhere else to do it rather than change things here. In terms of cooking on my own, it’s not something I want to do all my life but again it just feels right here. We do the covers we want to do and it feels like cooking for people in your own home. The most covers we do is 34 and we don’t do turnovers; if people are here, they’re here for the night. When we first got the star it went absolutely crazy, especially with having the new baby. We could have expanded then and had twice the number of tables but we didn’t want to because we’re not motivated by money at all. I’m motivated by the satisfaction of serving simple, top quality food.
Does a lot of that quality come from great local produce?
Yes we get Middle White pork from Richard Vaughn at Huntsham Court Farm in Ross on Wye. He’s been a great support and his meat’s amazing. I get my fish from Alan Sparks in Cornwall who also does the foraging for me; I get my mushrooms off him as well as my fish which he gets straight off the boats from Looe in Cornwall.
I get Hereford beef from Roger Warner, a local farmer who comes in here to eat. I get the oxtail off him, the ribs, the cheek and tongue with which I do a tongue and cheek dish. A local couple, Jane and Alex Morton from Vine Farm, come round twice a week with fruit and vegetables – salad, asparagus, potatoes, courgettes, eggs – things like that. They’re very much small-scale artisanal producers, very much like The Good Life!
Do you grow your own stuff?
We’ve started doing that because we’ve got about four acres of land here. We’ve put in about 50 fruit trees – damsons, quinces, crab apples, bramleys – I won’t see them of course; I’ll be dead by then but it’s nice to put those back because there used to be a lot of trees here before they were cleared for horses. I’ve also put in a lot of horseradish and rocket, but to be honest, with me on my own it’s easier to get other people to bring it in for me, and I need to focus on what I’m good at. I’m not a great gardener; I planted some trees the other day and Elizabeth went behind me replanting them all!
How would you say your food style has developed over your career?
I know it’s a bit of a cliché but I’ve grown the confidence to treat ingredients simply. I like what innovative British chefs like Heston do but I think too many chefs try to do it without really thinking it through like Heston does.
I’ve seen things like oysters served in sand so if you accidentally tip one of the oysters over it gets covered in the sand; you need to think these things through a bit more instead of doing them just because they look nice or are in vogue.
That’s why I never put ‘local’ on my menus or write the names of suppliers because I just get fed up with it, when I go out and have to read a list of names all over the menu!
