Come on in
Apparently, Gordon Ramsay has never set foot in this place. But he (or his lawyers) persuaded it to change its name. We went to investigate this little Japanese-inspired joint in Worcester. See pages 10-13 to find out what we thought of it.
Hello and welcome
The
last few months have been great for us. And calorific!
As well as all the cafés and restaurants we’ve visited in Herefordshire and Worcestershire, we also enjoyed visiting food festivals in Gloucester, Hereford, the Forest of Dean and two in Malvern. We also plan to get across to Kington Food Festival on Saturday 7 December. That – as far as we’re aware – is the last local one of the year and comes at a great time to grab last minute Christmas pressies.
In this magazine, we have reviews of two award-winners: Maneki Ramen, Worcester (pages 10-13) and the New Inn, St Owens Cross, Herefordshire (pages 24-27).
We sometimes get asked why we say what we don’t like as well as what we do when we review food shacks we’ve visited. It’s because we really can’t think of a better way to build trust with our readers. We also hope that we’re helping the eateries themselves. Why else would they ask paying customers for feedback?
As well as reviews, we also have some really tasty recipe ideas for you. The Riverside at Aymestrey’s head chef, Andy Link, provided a lovely soup recipe (pages 18-19). We’ve created the others ourselves; though the cake was inspired by a very similar one from
Excuses, excuses…
Even though we babble on, we try really hard to be accurate with the copy. Unfortunately, occasional errors are as inevitable as overcooking food. Also, please bear in mind that the reviews are opinions. You may disagree. Many do. Please feel free to drop us a line if your experience of a particular eatery is different from ours. We’d love to hear from you.
Tuck in…
Lucas Editor, Get Stuffed Magazine
Rick Stein that’s currently on the BBC website. See pages 28-29 for an easy-to-do poached pear recipe and pages 30-31 for what should be a clementine cake but is in fact a satsuma one. With a soup and two potential dessert recipes to choose from, you only need to conjure a main if you’re having three-courses for Christmas.
Tuck in…
Carrots are
private kitchen trying to make things look and taste good. All we’re saying is, if you don’t have, or you don’t like pumpkin, here’s an option. Carrot and coriander really is a great combo.
Carrot
and coriander soup
What you need
• 2 tbsp veg oil
• ½ onion, finely sliced
• 4 cloves garlic, chopped
• 1 inch of root ginger, finely chopped
• 450g organic carrots, peeled and roughly chopped
• ½ tsp ground coriander
• Handful of fresh coriander (mostly chopped but reserve some if you want to use as garnish)
• 750ml veg stock (or ‘stock’ made from miso)
• Olive oil, pumpkin seeds, double cream, finely chopped chilli, seasoning and a squeeze of lime juice to finish
How to make it
Heat oil in a big pan. Add the onion. Fry slowly till translucent. Add the garlic and ginger. After one minute add the carrots and stir everything together.
After a couple more minutes, add the coriander powder. Once everything’s mixed together, pour the stock in. Let it simmer until the carrots are completely cooked through.
Add a bunch of chopped coriander then liquidise the soup. Once blended, pour it back into the pan and reheat. Taste and season with salt and pepper to suit yourself.
Serve in warm bowls.
You can add a swirl of cream and/ or olive oil, pumpkin seeds, chilli (if you like heat), a bit of fresh coriander and a squeeze of lime. Serve with your choice of bread.
Contents and contributions
In this edition of Get Stuffed...
Better bitters
We already knew that we’re lucky to live in an area that’s teeming with good eateries as well as great food companies. So, it didn’t come as a huge surprise to learn we have another local producer who’s impressed some hard-toimpress judges at the Great Taste Awards. Find out more in the local news section on page 6.
IN SEASON
Sumptuous spuds
Of course we love chips, roasties and baked potatoes.
But for a special treat, dauphinoise potatoes take a hell of a lot of beating. This dish is as rich as a slippery oligarch, so you shouldn’t be eating it every day. But, when it’s really cold outside, pulling a pan-full of creamy, garlicky pots out the oven will warm every fibre of your soul. See the recipe on pages 14-15.
14-15 16-17
Tucci toms
Ever wonder what a film star has for lunch?
Well, if that film star is as humble as Stanley Tucci, meals are probably way simpler than you may have imagined. Trendsetter Tucci’s aptly named book Taste contains recipes of some of the food he ate as a kid and continues to eat as a globetrotting gastronaut. We highly recommend his New York Times’ bestseller as a great gift to give for Christmas. We’ve adapted –rather than copied – Stan’s recipe for eggs with tomato. Whether you copy his or our recipe, we’re sure you’ll also want to make it again and again. See pages 16-17.
Thank you, thank you, thank you…
Thanks to Scarlett Jones at Encore PR for the information and photos she supplied of Hereford Indie Festival, which we very much enjoyed going to in August this year.
Thanks to Natasja at Blooms Sandwich Bar in Ledbury for her sage advice to mention more local foodies in these covers. I’ve no idea how good Blooms’ sarnies are as I’ve not tried them yet. But I can say Natasja’s customer-relations are a joy to behold. I was asked to wait to speak to her while she served an old man yet to make up his mind before he eventually landed on an avocado sandwich. The attention and patience from Natasja that went into that one, couple-of-quid transaction with the indecisive customer was a lesson quite a few restaurant servers could learn from.
As well as businesses covered in local news (pages 6-9), we’re pleased to say we foraged ingredients for recipes in this edition of the magazine from: the Nest, Ledbury; Malvern Bakehouse; and the Fold, Bransford. We’ll look to provide better details in future editions.
Unless stated otherwise, the copyright for all photos, and every story is: Get Stuffed Magazine. Thank you one and all.
Now, let’s celebrate. Let’s Get Stuffed
More Maneki, less legals
Local restaurant operator
A Rule of Tum (ART), which lost a trademark claim to Gordon Ramsay, is expanding.
Back in 2020, ART trialled a pop-up noodle bar called Lucky Cat. Ramsay’s lawyers wrote to ART saying the chef owned the name, which refers to the Japanese Maneki-neko waving cat. ART rebranded and opened Maneki Ramen within the arches that hold up the railway line into Worcester Foregate St station (manekiramen.com). At the time of writing, Maneki is due to open a second branch on Ludgate Hill in Birmingham. See our review of Maneki Worcester on pages 10-13.
Sshhh… sauce secrète
A new restaurant has recently opened not too far from Hereford city centre. According to its website, its menu is influenced by traditional French cuisine.
And, judging by the photos, it all looks very promising. So, why the secrecy? Well, its chef told us over the phone in July that he wants the word to spread through word of mouth from satisfied customers rather than through any media
promotions. So, we’ll keep schtum about the name for now and say good luck to him and the new venture. If you go along for a meal, tell everyone about your experience… everyone except any journalists you happen to know.
Sweet success for bitters brand
Malvern Bitters has been named among the top food and drink producers globally this year. The Worcestershire based company was awarded a highly prized gold star in the Great Taste Awards for its Malvern Inky Pink (Chilli) Bitters.
Great Taste judges described the bitters as follows: ‘These are unadulterated, uncompromising and delicious bitters. Hot, punchy notes of capsicum softened with a little fruit. Approach with caution, but decidedly worth approaching!’
Pippa Sanderson, Malvern Bitters’ founder and director, said: ‘We are thrilled to have won a Great Taste Award for our Malvern Inky Pink (Chilli) Bitters and are proud to be adding the prestigious black and gold Great Taste badge of
honour to the bottles of our very popular, fiery bitters.
‘Great Taste is one of the most recognised accolades for taste and quality in the food and drinks industry, so it’s a huge moment for us!’
Have yourself a coffee little Christmas
We’re ever so slightly addicted to good coffee here at Get Stuffed HQ. So, you won’t be surprised to learn we’re happy to, erm, drink in any facts on offer about our fave morning cup.
An article we stumbled upon recently provides 19 intensely flavoured facts about the world’s second favourite drink (after water).
For example, did you know that the UK coffee shop market is worth £15 billion a year? Or that latte, cappuccino and flat white are Brits’ three fave coffee drinks? Or that four in ten Brits have a coffee machine at home?
No. We didn’t either.
Anyhow, if you know one of the 39 per cent of people in the UK who has a bean-based percolator, here’s an idea of what you might get them for Christmas.
Local roaster Mill Bank Coffee Co is selling these little gift boxes of joy. All wrapped up and ready to give!
If you or someone you know wants to get their hands dirty (or smelling of coffee at least), then you may be interested to know that the Cradley company also offers short courses that teach you how to roast coffee. They’re tailormade for you, so you can pick up tips on your particular interests in beans, blending and brewing.
Head to millbankcoffee.co.uk to find out more.
Photo: Samuel Callen Films
I’m dreaming of a brown Christmas…
Nope. It’s not colour blindness. It’s just the thought of getting our hands on one or two of these chocolatey squares that sounds so appealing.
When we bumped into Emily, the Boozie Brownie Co’s owner, at Hereford Indie Food Fest in August we asked if she was creating any new festive flavours. Ta-dah…
She told us about these spiced Biscoff and speculaas liqueur brownies. If the ones we had in Hereford are anything to go by,
you could do a lot worse than treat yourself (or someone you know) to some of these this year.
Emily says they’re: ‘Hand-baked in small batches using high quality ingredients. Our flour is sourced from the Cotswolds and our free-range eggs are from Kilforge Farm (Herefordshire). The specualaas liqueur is lightly spiced with a warm blend of cinnamon, ginger, cardamon, vanilla and pepper, which adds a lovely Christmassy note, especially when combined with the decadent Biscoff. We also make a non-boozie spiced Biscoff option!’
The Boozie Brownie Co will be at the Ledbury Christmas light switch-on event, 24 November and Ross-on-Wye Christmas fayre, 1 December. Boxes are also available by email: info@ booziebrownies.co.uk.
Festivals
DECEMBER
The only local food festival we know of still to take place in 2024 is on the west side of Herefordshire…
’Kington Festival (Saturday 7 December) offers people a great chance to pick up one or two presents in the run up to Christmas. We have over 100 independent traders lined up, many of which are local. So, visitors should be able to find something a bit different while supporting businesses from their own community.
‘We’re expecting around 5,000 visitors and there’s always a really nice atmosphere at the festival. It’s mostly about food but there are other traders coming along to offer more variety. This is our 20th year and we’re pleased to say we still don’t charge people
an entry fee, Come along. Have a mooch. Seek out something different for Christmas,’ says Pam Peek, who organises the festival alongside Gareth Clark.
Search for Kington Festival on Facebook for more info.
Feline food shack is the cat’s whiskers
Maneki Ramen, Worcester
We’re hoping to zip off to Japan next year because A) neither me nor my partner has ever been there and B) everything about the place sounds like massive fun. It’s chaos and calmness rolled into one spotlessly clean bundle. Or so I’ve been told.
Photo: 773c.co.uk
Learning Japanese
Like most newbies, we’ll read a couple of books about the country before we go. For example, I’ll dive into my partner’s copy of Abroad in Japan by Chris Broad, when she’s done with it. That won’t be long judging by the way she’s hoovering up the English author’s experiences of living in the country of the rising sun for 10 years. By the time we get round to booking the trip, I’m expecting our excitement levels to be up to 11.
Currently, I know next to nothing about Japanese food. That’s bad in the sense that people can point at me and snort with laughter while asking what the hell I’ve been doing all my life. But it’s also good in the sense that I can look forward to learning about it.
Why the country’s food has more or less passed me by unlike, say, Thai or Chinese or Indian, makes a bit more sense when you realise the paltry number of Japanese food joints there are around these parts. I expect it’s the same in most other UK regions, other than the likes of London and Manchester. Feel free to correct me if I’m wrong.
Turning Japanese
The sheer lack of competition in Worcestershire may be one of the reasons the owners of Maneki Ramen decided to turn to Japan for their new venture.
But still, even with very few competitors to worry about, opening any kind of food joint is a risky business. An article published in January 2023 reported a 65 per cent jump in the number of restaurants going bust compared to the previous 12 months (1,880 British restaurants became insolvent in 2022, up from 1,139 in 2021).
Cat scrap
What new independent foodsters really need to get them off to a good start is positive publicity. Being involved in some kind of David-versus-Goliath story would be manna from heaven for foodfreshers.
So, it may be considered a bit of good fortune that in 2021 Gordon Ramsay’s lawyers made a complaint to what was then Lucky Cat Noodle (now Maneki Ramen). Turns out Gordon’s company
Maneki was no pussycat when it came to fighting against competition from London and Manchester to be named best Japanese restaurant in Britain in 2023.
owns the trademark to the name Lucky Cat.
Seizing on the opportunity, Maneki’s owner Pete Dovaston is reported to have said he’s ‘really grateful’ that the celeb chef’s lawyers had brought this fact to his attention: ‘It’s made us think harder to find a name that we can be passionate about and that won’t be confused with any other restaurant’, he said. The report went on to say Maneki planned to send Gordon Ramsay a voucher for its new restaurant to apologise for the distress caused by their use of the words ‘Lucky Cat’. Maneki, or Maneki Neko, the report adds, actually means ‘lucky cat’.
Sophie - manager, Maneki Ramen
Pete Dovaston, Maneki chef and director
Smooth or what?
While it rolled onto its back when confronted by big G’s lawyers, Maneki was no pussycat when it came to fighting against competition from London and Manchester to be named best Japanese restaurant in Britain in 2023.
Knows his chops
Japan is often said to be a place where centuries-old traditions fuse seamlessly with neon-bright modernity. I have no idea whether Pete had this old/new vibe in mind when he went hunting for a suitable venue for what was already turning out to be a lucky new venture. But cocooning the place within a Victorian viaduct arch (built in 1859) and giving the interior a modern twist of cheap and cheerful breezeblock and DIY-looking wooden tabletops hints that the chef really knows his onions.
Nor does it seem off-brand that the restaurant is on the dinky side. This means it was pretty full
with the 25 or so diners it had on the day we were there. With another smattering out front, I doubt it could cater for many more.
I doubt the chef could cope with many more. Matt, who was on duty that day, was in the goldfish bowl known in modern food shacks as an open kitchen. And, as far as I could see, he was dicing and slicing, frying and steaming everything himself. Hats off to him.
Off with a shot
To kick things off, my son ordered us a Suntory Toki whisky each. Lighter in colour than those from these shores, when knocked back in one, it was as warming as any Scottish blend or single malt. A familiar peaty afterglow soon followed. Which was pleasant. But one shot was enough for this lightweight.
Maneki’s menu is divided up into zensai (small plates), ramen (noodley stuff), shushoku (big plates) and dezato, which doesn’t
actually look or sound dissimilar to our word for it: desserts.
We’re familiar with things like kimchi, katsu, nori and soba. We’re not at all au fait with tonkotsu, togarashi, karaage, tebasaki, chashu or ajitama egg. So much to learn ahead of that flight to Tokyo…
Crunch time
The rice crackers we ordered came with a tiny bowl of citrus miso mayo and seaweed salt. I never expected to be able to tell the difference between seaweed salt and plain old sea salt. But we were in a Japanese joint and kelp with crackers sounded like a fine idea. It was. The crackers were so crunchy I wanted to take them outside and bite into them in the echoey archway.
Soon afterwards, our table was being loaded with my crispy tofu katsu, my partner’s mushroom, shiro miso and sesame ramen and my son’s triple-fried chicken katsu.
Photo: 773c.co.uk
I know it’s a myth that the whole of Japan is as spick and span as Marie Kondo’s sock drawer. But our bowls did give the impression that the organising consultant might be hiding somewhere in the kitchen, whispering instructions to Matt to only lift the tofu cubes from wok to bowl with a pair of tweezers.
Tofu trouble
Good presentation does indeed spark joy in me. But I also know how patient you need to be to achieve it. Occasionally, I buy tofu to have at home. Virtually every time I take a fragile block of the stuff from its packaging it has a nasty habit of falling to bits in my clumsy paws. In fact, it never seems to be whole on arrival. Therefore, any tofu dishes I make are never made up of neat little cubes. That’s because I get riled with the stuff and end up scrambling it. Japanese people everywhere – and Marie Kondo in particular – would be appalled by my tofu dishes. I later discovered that Maneki actually make their own tofu at least in part so they can get the texture just right. This
is why they can cut it and twicefry it and deliver it to your table like a set of box-fresh dice.
Ginger hit
That double-frying and sesame seed shell make for a delicate crunch before you hit the silken inner. It’s a joyful sensation. The tofu came with an oval of steamed sushi rice, sprinkled with furikake – a spiced seasoning also featuring seaweed – kare sauce (a bit too glutinous for my liking) and hair-thin strands of scallion. The shredded pickled ginger that came with it was a proper hit, in more ways than one. I was expecting a pickly kind of flavour, like kimchi. This was a full-on, punch you in the face root ginger sensation. An unexpected pleasure that beat the whisky for kick.
My partner was also delighted with her ramen. A shiitake mushroom and miso broth that also contained crispy tofu as well as charred sweetcorn, tenderstem broccoli, bean sprouts, scallions, nori, roasted sesame tare and burnt garlic oil.
As for my teenage son, he was typically taciturn when asked a direct question like ‘how was your food?’
‘That,’ he told me, ‘was the best chicken dish I’ve ever tasted.’
‘And that,’ I retorted, ‘is the best result I could have hoped for today.’
I’d go as far as to say Maneki Ramen really is the cat’s whiskers. Really good. And £63.50 (before service) for a light lunch for three adults is a lot better value than we expect to find in downtown Tokyo.
RATE THE PLATE
8/10
Go if you want to enjoy some of the tastes and textures of Japanese cooking without forking out for a flight to Osaka. Don’t go if what you really want to do is hog a karaoke machine all night.
We visited in August 2024
* Maneki’s manager Sophie later told me the restaurant has replaced the mushroom ramen we had with a vegan tan tan ramen. And that Maneki is now open on Mondays.
Photo: 773c.co.uk
Delicious dauphinoise
For many people across the UK, Christmas looks like this:
1. Wake up an hour before you went to bed
2. Watch (through very bleary eyes) children tearing through wrapped presents like hungry velociraptors
3. Sit down for a ‘traditional’ Christmas dinner that MUST include roast spuds
Especially if they’re cooked to perfection. Which means they will be light and fluffy on the inside and roughly crispy on the outside. And encrusted with salt.
But, as gorgeous as roast spuds are, we’re suggesting an alternative. Oh come on. You only live once.
This dish is right up there with roasties in terms of flavour. And, if you attempt to pop a spoonful of these spuds into your mouth immediately after taking them out of the oven, you will find that they’re as hot as the inside of an active volcano. Which means this dish has a lot in common with roasties.
Go on, give dauphinoise a go this Christmas… (or at least at some point during the festive period). They’re a creamy, salty (if you follow our recipe), quite fattening joy of a dish. Or, to put it another way, they’re everything you could possibly want for Christmas.
What you need
• 1kg Maris Piper (or similarly floury potatoes) thinly and evenly sliced to about 2 or 3mm thick
• 600ml double cream
• 50ml veg stock. This is optional. We didn’t use it but wish we had as the final dish was a smidge drier than anticipated
• A level tsp salt (yes, that much) and a good pinch of course black pepper
How to make
1. Preheat the oven to 150C
2. Place the potato slices and grated garlic in a bowl and add the salt. Pour over the cream (and stock if using) and mix well. Add in any herbs you’re using. We had a bit of sage and thyme but only because it was handy from the garden. Pour into a large gratin dish or ovenproof pan
3. Press the potato down gently with your hands so it’s more of a solid layer
4. Bake for about 1 hr 20 mins on the middle shelf. Check after an hour to see if it looks crispy on top and you can stick a fork into it very easily
Then, shout through to the kids that you have another present waiting for them…
WE LIKED IT SO MUCH WE MADE IT OURSELVES…
A Tucci tom taste bomb
Here’s a simple recipe you can do any day of the week with stuff you’ll probably already have in your fridge. It’s a recipe that’s easy enough to teach to kids. If you do, they may even write a book about you in future (see below).
The idea is not quite copied from Stanley Tucci’s book, Taste. But we do thoroughly recommend you get that on your Christmas wish list. Let’s just say our recipe is inspired by one from Stanley’s moreish memoirs.
Stylish Stanley credits his mother and grandmother for most of the recipes in his aptly named book. His mother and grandmother, no doubt, would likely credit their own parents/ grandparents.
You can put your own spin on the recipe if you like. I sometimes add chilli to the tomato sauce to give it a fiery zing. But plenty of herbs also work well with tomatoes. Experiment with oregano, parsley, coriander or basil.
The basic recipe
(for two people for brekkie or brunch)
• A good glug of olive or veg oil
• ½ medium onion, finely chopped
• 8-10 fresh, vine tomatoes, halved (Stanley uses tinned plum tomatoes)
• Four large eggs (crack them into a bowl first)
• ½ tsp sugar (it takes the edge of the tomatoes)
• A good pinch of salt and pepper
How to make
Warm the oil in a frying pan on low-to-medium heat.
Add the onion and fry till translucent. A good 10 mins.
Add the tomatoes and crush gently with the back of a spoon. Cook for 15-20 until the tomato juice is sweet. Add the sugar if using.
Gently pour the eggs from the bowl over the tomatoes. Cover the pan. Turn the heat to low. Cook until the eggs are done (whites opaque, yolk still bouncy enough so you know it’ll run into the tomato juice when you stick your fork in it).
Add as much salt and pepper as you like.
Serve with loads of good fresh bread. Enough to mop up all the yellowy-orangey-reddish goo. It makes an excellent Christmas breakfast.
The Riverside at Aymestrey’s
Roast pumpkin soup
The Riverside’s Andy Link leads a team that grows and gathers much of what the restaurant cooks to serve its customers.
We’re delighted Andy gave us this recipe for a heart-warming soup for chilly days. It’s a great way to use up surplus Halloween pumpkins.
What you need
• 1 medium white onion
• 2 celery stick
• 6 cloves garlic
• 1 kilo of pumpkin or squash (the Riverside grows crown prince pumpkins and red kuri squash, which are Andy’s favourites)
• 1.5 litre vegetable stock (homemade with leftover vegetable peelings is best, but a cube is fine)
• 400ml cider
• Good pinch of salt and pepper
How to make it
1. Fry onions, garlic and celery until lightly caramelised
2. Add peeled, chopped pumpkin and/or squash. Cover with stock and cider. Reduce until veg is cooked and the liquor has reduced by half
3. Season and blend until smooth. Add more stock if needed
To serve, ladle the soup into warmed bowls. Add a few drops of olive oil. Spoon some local crème fraiche or cream on top. Coriander or parsley makes a lovely garnish.
Inside the head of a chef
Phil Vickery
Celebrity chef/ TV presenter on ITV’s This Morning
Q. What three words describe you?
A. Driven, curious and (fairly) relaxed.
Q. What’s the first thing you eat/ drink each day?
A. Costa coffee – 6.30am. Soya cappuccino. Then I go and have a bit of toast, a banana, bit of Marmite.
Q. How long have you been a chef?
A. 47 years (including college).
Q. How many hours a week do you typically work?
A. Hardly any now. I do [ITV’s] This Morning once a week. A bit of recipe writing. When I was a professional chef, I’d be there at 7.30am till 3pm, then 4pm till about 10 or 11pm. Five days a week. If my sous chef was off, that’d be seven days a week. And he’d do the same when I was off.
Q. Can you pinpoint the moment when you knew you wanted to become a chef?
A. Yes. My father was a caretaker in a village hall. They had a Christmas fete. All the books were there that people donated. There was a book called Warne’s Everyday Cookery. Pictures of chefs in white hats. Black and white pictures of chefs filleting fish. Beautiful colour photos of plates of gateaux. Still got it in my library.
Q. What’s your best trait?
A. I’m very methodical. I find the quickest way to do something. Bill Gates once said, ‘to get something done, give it to a lazy person because they’ll find the quickest way of doing it’.
Q. What’s your worst trait?
A. Guinness!
Q. What would you like to introduce to the restaurant you work in and why?
A. [If running a restaurant now] A much more relaxed style of cooking. Small plates of food. People don’t want three courses anymore. I went to a restaurant in Cumbria on Friday night, I had a bit of octopus, patatas bravas, meatballs. Glass of wine. Lovely. So, it’d be a much more relaxed, easy style but tasty, really interesting, simple food.
Q. After a really tough shift, what do you do to relax?
A. I used to walk my dogs. When I was cooking professionally that dog walk every afternoon cleared my head. I didn’t drink much: I never drank on service. When I was a young chef, we had a beer allowance. Up until the late 80s, we got lager every week. When
I was a young apprentice, the head chef, larder chef, pastry chef… they all drank four pints of lager at lunchtime and four pints in the evening. I never saw a fight. I never saw anybody cut themselves. It’s just the way it was.
Q. What are you most proud of and why?
A. I was trained when the bully boys - beatings, punchings, stabbings, kickings, the lot [were going on] - and I vowed, if ever I became a head chef, I would never be like that. I used to shout a bit. But I was never physical. I used to have people write to me – girls especially – saying: ‘Can I come and work for you. Everyone tells me you’re just a really nice bloke.’ That was huge.
Q. What is it about customers that surprises you most?
A. When I pursued the Michelin star dream, I got it in my own right in three years. Up until that point, the three years to get the star, it was exciting. When I got my star, it was like turning off a tap. The complaints went through the roof. People didn’t come to have nice food they came to rip you to pieces. They started comparing you with two-star restaurants down the road. ‘You’re not one star.’ It was just awful. I hated it. When they took that away [the star] four years later, it was fantastic.
Walk the dogs every day. Don’t care any more. That’s when my cooking evolved. Because I wasn’t stifled by that worry of losing it.
Q. Which is your favourite restaurant (in the world)?
A. Rick Stein’s fish restaurant in Padstow.
Q. Which is your favourite restaurant (locally)?
A. I stayed in Church Stretton last night. My friend Andy [Knight] used to work for me as my head chef. He’s just taken over a pub called the Buck’s Head. He just does simple tapas food. Makes pizza, makes pasta. Gets his flour from Italy. Just dead simple. It’s a proper boozer. People playing karaoke. Fantastic. I had a really good meal there.
Q. What’s your favourite ingredient of the moment and why?
A. Tomatoes. I grow my own. I was up in Cromer on Wednesday for This Morning, we had the crab. I did a piece to camera (you’ll see it on Instagram) and I say, ‘why am I in Cromer? For the best crab in the world.’
Q. How would you like to be remembered and why?
A. My daughter bought me a Fathers Day card saying, ‘Nobody’s born a nobhead’. I’m very loyal.
Q. You’re stuck on a desert island with only one meal a day. What do you choose?
A. Cottage pie. I’d have to have meringue and Roddas clotted cream
Q. A school leaver is thinking of a career as a chef. What do you tell them?
A. You can travel the world. Good chefs travel the world. You can get a job anywhere in the world. But you have to work hard. And you have to put yourself out. And you have to do things that you won’t get paid for. I remember as a young chef, on my day off, I went to a bakery to learn how to make bread. Went to a fishmongers to learn how to fillet a fish. All for nothing. It didn’t bother me. You’ve got to put yourself out. If you’re that keen, you’ll learn
Q. The kitchen’s on fire. What one item do you save and why?
A. The recipe book.
Q. What’s the most unusual thing about yourself you’re prepared to share?
A. I was British schools judo champion at 14. Me and my brother. And I was a sub-three-hour marathon runner.
Phil was interviewed in Malvern in July 2024.
Want to know more?
Head to the ‘Puddings’ section of our website for similar interviews with other chefs.
Bread is heaven
Foccing gorgeous - cheesy focaccia
I’m not going to lie, making your own bread isn’t completely straightforward. There’s the mess. The kneading. The waiting around for the dough to prove.
But, if you don’t mind claggy hands and worksurfaces, oh my god, just look at it. Look. At. It!
When this bad boy comes out of the oven, passers-by will knock on your door and ask if they can be your friend. Homemade focaccia is nuts-good.
This particular loaf is based on Jamie and Buddy Oliver’s new potato and pesto focaccia recipe. Why theirs hasn’t got ‘cheese’ in its name is anyone’s guess as it’s definitely got cheese in it. A full packet of mozzarella. But Jamie and Buddy can do what they like if they’re going to conjure recipes this good. In fact they could call it baked flour and water if they liked and you’d still want to shove your face in it when it’s brought out of the oven.
What you need
• 1 x 7g sachet of dried yeast
• 500g white bread flour
• 1 tsp sea salt
• 2 tbsp olive oil (a bit more for greasing)
• 250g new potatoes
• 50g panko breadcrumbs
• 1 x 125g mozzarella ball
• 100g pesto (make it yourself with pine nuts – it’s just better)
How to make
Heat oven to 220C (200C fan).
Mix yeast with 300ml of lukewarm water. Leave for 10 mins. Tip flour into a large bowl. Add sea salt. Pour yeast mixture into well in the middle of it. Bring together with a spoon or your floured hands to make a dough.
Knead dough on a flour-dusted surface for 10 mins, till springy. Place in a lightly oiled bowl. Cover with a clean, damp tea towel. Leave to prove in a warm place for at least an hour, till it’s doubled in size.
Place clean potatoes in a pan of boiling water on a medium heat for 12-15 mins, until tender. Drain and set aside to cool.
Lightly oil a 25cm x 30cm roasting tray. Scatter in the breadcrumbs and shake around so they stick to the oil.
Knead the air out of the dough. Stretch it out to fill the tray. Gently push down with your knuckles so it’s bumpy.
Put potatoes in a mixing bowl. Shred mozzarella into it, add pesto and mix again. Use a masher to break the potato down slightly. Spread the mixture across the dough. Drizzle with olive oil. Add sea salt.
Cover the tray with a clean damp tea towel, then leave to prove in a warm place for one hour, or until doubled in size.
Pop the tray on to the bottom shelf of the oven. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes, or until golden and cooked through. We threw a few pine nuts (left over from making pesto) on top ten mins before taking the bread out the oven.
Remove from the oven. Resist for about five mins so it cools slightly.
Wolf down with a nice salad or whatever takes your fancy.
If you do have any left over (you won’t), wrap it in greaseproof paper then stick it in a plastic container and store it at room temperature. It’ll last a couple of days (you won’t do this). Or you can freeze it for up to three months. But you won’t do that either.
Swanky shack with beefed-up menu
The New Inn, St Owen’s Cross
It’s like being the king of England.
That’s what I thought to myself as I entered the New Inn, St Owen’s Cross, a quick zip up the road from Ross-on-Wye in Herefordshire.
I was basing those delusions of grandeur on the old joke about higher royals thinking that the whole world must smell of fresh paint because, of course, every venue they’re due to visit is freshly emulsioned in advance.
It’s not that I could actually smell fresh paint when I walked in. But the black and white frontage and subtly hued interior looked like they had just been gone over by a man with a tin of Dulux. Quite a fastidious man by the looks of the finish. I felt like I should check surfaces before sitting or leaning against them in case they were still tacky. It’s nice to report that there was nothing tacky about this place.
Inside, dark, gnarly oak beams criss-cross the diner’s ceiling and hold the place up. That buckled old wood contrasts against those freshly daubed walls. Meanwhile, the dining chairs’ plush fabric
of different hues add zing to this gorgeously renovated 16th century former coaching inn.
Pristine latrines
Even the toilets were immaculate. Thrones fit for a king I couldn’t help but think to myself while squirting some nicely scented lotion on my paws. Honestly, I’ve eaten in restaurants that aren’t as clean as the gents in the New Inn. If the owners don’t already praise their cleaning staff on a regular basis then they should consider doing just that.
The front-of-house team also deserve praise. Professional, pleasant and polite, they ticked a lot of the boxes I like to have ticked when I’m in a restaurant spending my, ahem, hard-earned cash (oh come on, it’s not as easy as it looks, eating out in restaurants and writing about your experiences).
All this reinforced my believe that I was in for a right royal treat as we were shown to our reserved table in a nook of the main dining space. We’d come here having learned – and reported in the last edition of this magazine – that the New Inn was recently named gastro pub of the year at the Midlands Food and Hospitality Awards. Unsurprisingly, expectations were high.
Cheesy pleaser
To start, the menu included a soup of the day (roast tomato when we were there); ham hock terrine; garlicky mussels with nduja sausage and cherry tomatoes; and charcuterie to share – again with tomatoes. My partner was delighted she opted for a souffle of Black Bomber cheese, which would have melted its way down from the mountains of Snowdonia. The souffle was surrounded by a moat of warm red onion jam that softened the flavour of that really mature cheese.
I went for a butterbean and black garlic hummus that I found among the ‘garden bites’. That came with homemade focaccia and a sauerkraut made with red-, rather than the more usual white, cabbage. This little ensemble was really well judged. The taste – as well as the colour – of the relatively sharp sauerkraut contrasted well against the richness of the hummus. Even the bread-to-hummus ratio was spot on. I’ve lost count of the number of times eateries have served a bowlful of dip with a skimpy piece of bread. This means you barely get halfway through the dip before the bread runs out.
The main issue
Up to this point everything had been top-notch. Alas, the mains did not live up to the excellent starters. This being Herefordshire there was a lot of beef on the menu. Rump, sirloin and a tomahawk sharer were all on offer, along with a Hereford Longhorn burger, a beef brisket burger and a chargrilled steak open sandwich.
Veggies could choose between Welsh rarebit, a vegetable open lasagne and a teriyaki-marinated black bean burger. We had the latter two.
The lasagne was uninspiring to look at. Served in the central bowl of a wide-brimmed white plate, its lacklustre creamy appearance reminded me of a serving plonked on the plate by a run-off-herfeet school dinner lady. The dish ached for colour. A splash green, orange or red. Any bright hue would have helped.
Nor did its flavour make up for its pallid appearance. My partner had to wade through layers of pretty bland pasta (and in-season patty pan and hunter beans) to get underneath to a peppery buckwheat bolognaise that was actually very tasty. Burying the tastiest element under that drab duvet seems perverse. Serving it ‘upside down’ would not only have put the best bit on top – and would mean it’d seep into lower layers – but it would also have added a dash of colour. Even a bright garnish would have lifted the appearance.
Aptly named black bean burger
It’s also a shame – because the starters imply the chef can do a lot better – to report that my black bean burger was also poor. All the beans’ moisture had been cooked out. Its cooking time also meant flavour from the teriyaki marinate just wasn’t there. It didn’t help that the bun it came in had also been left on the griddle too long. So, rather than featuring well-judged sear marks, the lines across the inside of the bread were thickly black. I asked for some ketchup to try to moisten things a little, but I still couldn’t finish the burger. I’ll attempt to make this myself because I think it’s a great idea. When I do, I’ll have it with a separate, decentsized bowl of homemade sauce. Teriyaki’s not much harder to make than a salad dressing. In my view, the New Inn’s dish of a burger stack and small pot of fat chips would also have benefited from a third element on the plate. Our friendly server said she’d pass my feedback on to the chef. So, you can be reasonably confident of getting a better version if you go for the same dish.
Hooked on meat
We felt the menu was a bit beef heavy. Obviously, that’s very popular in Herefordshire so, if it suits you, there’s a very good chance you’re in for a treat at the New Inn. In terms of its food, we suspect this is where this awardwinning restaurant’s strength lies. The veggie options were relatively limited. Maybe the New Inn’s admirable website statement about it striving ‘to create an inclusive environment that accommodates the diverse needs of our community’ should stretch as far as the diverse palates of its punters.
It’s such a shame because so much else at the New Inn points to it being a 9/10 kind of place. On top of the lovely interior, the garden at the back made for a sumptuous place to sit for coffee and petis fours (there’s proper puddings if you prefer).
It was a sunny 24 degrees when we were there. We sat at a table under a king-size parasol watching other guests disporting themselves about the place. If it’s like this when you go, you probably won’t want to dash off to any other engagements.
RATE THE PLATE
7/10
We paid £64.90 (before service) for the abovementioned starter, ‘garden bite’, two mains, a large bottle of sparkling water, an Americano with petis fours and a double espresso. The veg lasagne was £21.50, which seems a bit steep for what it was. Otherwise, in a place as handsome as the New Inn, that total would represent reasonable value if it got the veggie mains right.
Go if you’re into lovingly revamped interiors, excellent service and tip-top toilets. Don’t go if you’re looking for veggie mains that live up to this awardwinning restaurant’s reputation.
Contact
The New Inn, St Owen’s Cross Herefordshire HR2 8LQ 01989 55 33 87
reservations@ thenewinnherefordshire.co.uk Thenewinnherefordshire.co.uk
We visited in August 2024
A Mother Nature recipe
Poached pear, chocolate sauce, vanilla ice cream and pistachios
I do all of the cooking in our house. It’s not that my partner is lazy. She does practically everything else, so I know I’ve got an excellent deal going on.
As you’d expect, I occasionally feel guilty that I do so little.
That prompts me to bring out my A-game.
My A-game is this: I make a pudding. I know, I know, it’s really simple. But it’s also really effective.
Few puddings are easy to make as poached pears. They’re as elegant as they are excellent, which can fool people into thinking you’ve toiled for hours in the kitchen to create them.
Which, of course, you haven’t. If you can boil an egg you can poach a pear. Essentially, all you’re doing is dropping an object into liquid. Pears take a bit longer than eggs. And you might want to make a sauce to go with said pears if you want to be really fancy. But, as you’ll see, poaching pears is simplicity itself.
Enjoy the following. Just don’t tell your partner how it’s done. Otherwise, you’ll end up doing the hoovering as well...
What you need to poach pears
• Bottle of red wine
• tsp vanilla extract
• 200g caster sugar
• 1 cinnamon stick
• A sprig of rosemary
• An inch of root ginger
• ½ tsp fennel seeds
• 4 pears, peeled with stalk left on
How to make the pears…
Put the wine, sugar, vanilla extract, cinnamon stick, ginger, fennel seeds and rosemary in a big pan and bring to a simmer. Turn the heat down slightly and keep it simmering away for about 10 mins or so.
Strain this into a clean pan. Bin everything except the cinnamon stick. Pop that back into the strained liquor and bring back to a gentle simmer.
Lower the pears into the liquor.
Poach the pears for about 40 mins until tender (use a fork to check).
Take the pears out, along with the cinnamon stick. Pop them in a bowl while you make the chocolate sauce.
What you need for a chocolate sauce
• 125g dark chocolate (70 per cent cocoa)
• 100ml double cream
• Pinch of salt
• A few drops of water to loosen if it becomes too thick
How to make
Break the chocolate into pieces and put it in a heat-proof bowl. Pop that on top of a pan of hot, but not boiling, water on the stove.
When the chocolate is melted, take the bowl off the pan, add the cream and mix together. If it’s too thick, add some water till it’s pourable.
Add a pinch of salt if you like salty chocolate sauce. When your tastebuds tell you that they love you deeply, it’s done
Serving
Cut the bottom off a poached pear so it stands up. Pour a bit of the chocolate sauce onto a plate so the pear stays put. Add some chopped pistachio nuts. Dry-frying the pistachios for a couple of minutes before smashing them in a pestle and mortar will intensify their flavour, slightly. Also, add a spoonful of vanilla ice cream if you like. Add some seasonal fruit (like blackberries) if you have them. Then, pour as much chocolate sauce onto the pear as you like.
The future is orange
Satsuma and almond cake
We love Christmas cake. But, especially after a Christmas dinner, a rich, dried-fruit and royal icing-covered cake can be a bit on the heavy side.
So, we’re going for this satsuma and almond cake as a slightly lighter option.
The fruit zest gives it nice cut-through, which is usually welcome at a time when most of us eat a bit too much of pretty much everything.
Plus, this is a lot simpler to make than a traditional Christmas cake. There’s no waiting around for days on end for dried fruit to soak up a brandy marinate. No
separating eggs to make royal icing. No waiting for four hours or so that it takes to bake a Christmas cake.
This one, which is closely based on Rick Stein’s clementine and almond recipe, is ready in less than an hour after the mixture has been put into a pre-heated oven.
You need to wait for it to cool before brushing the syrup on top. But you could easily use that waiting time for snoozing. Well, it is Christmas!
What you need
• 2 large clementines (we used satsumas as there weren’t any clementines available when we put this together)
• 4 large free-range eggs
• 1 large lemon, zest only (use juice for the syrup –see below)
• 100g golden caster sugar
• 100ml olive oil
• 150g ground almonds (we ground flakes ones in a pestle and mortar)
• 2 tsp baking powder
For the syrup
• 15g caster sugar
• 1 large lemon, juice only
Serving
• A spoonful of icing sugar to dust over the top through a sieve
• 50-100g dry-fried flaked almonds for the top (a really lovely, crunchy addition)
• Dessertspoon Greek yoghurt
• Sprinkle of orange zest to add to the yoghurt
How to make
Put clementines (or satsumas) in a pan and cover with water. Bring to a boil and simmer gently for about 20 mins. Take them out the water and put to one side until you can handle them. Then, cut the fruits in half and throw away any pips you can see. Put the whole fruit into a blender and blitz.
Preheat the oven to 180C (or 160C fan) – don’t use the fan if you have the option.
Grease a 7-inch spring-form cake tin and put a circle of greaseproof paper on the bottom.
Whisk the eggs, lemon zest and caster sugar together. Add olive oil and beat to combine. Stir in the fruit paste from the blender. Then, gently stir in the ground almonds and baking powder.
Put the mixture into your baking tin and bake for about 50 mins until golden brown. Leave it to cool.
Make the syrup by warming the sugar and lemon juice in a pan over a low heat. When the sugar is dissolved, prick some holes in the cake with a skewer
and brush the sugary mixture over the cake. Put it on a plate and dust with icing sugar and sprinkle some dry-fried, flaked almonds, if you’re using them. Serve with a dollop of Greek yoghurt and a pinch of fruit zest.
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