The winner of the Glanbia Food Service/Pub Food Mystery Diner Challenge is none other than John Gayden, head chef and co-proprietor of the Halfway House in Bastonford, near Powick in Worcestershire.
John picked up a cheque for £1,000 plus a framed certificate last month when representatives of Glanbia Food Service and Pub Food magazine paid a visit to the pub to present the prize and sample his excellent, freshly prepared pub food.
There were three runners-up - the Hazel Pear Inn, Acton Bridge, Cheshire; the Battersea Boathouse, South London; and the Bay Horse, Hutton Rudby, Cleveland - all of which received cheques for £250 and framed certificates.
Contestants were invited to send Pub Food magazine details of their food operation and provide evidence that most of the food on offer was freshly made and locally supplied. Four finalists were chosen and visited incognito by Pub Food and Glanbia Food Service judges.
The pub deemed the best in terms of their fresh food output would be the outright winner and the other three would be runners up.
A team of mystery diners travelled by train to Cheshire to visit the Hazel Pear Inn and then back to South London for dinner at the Battersea Boathouse, details of which can be found in the October edition of Pub Food. A month later the same team hired a car and drove first to Worcestershire and the Halfway House at Bastonford and then further north to Cleveland and the Bay Horse at Hutton Rudby.
For John Gayden, the outright winner of the event, winning was a dream come true. He and co-proprietor Stuart Keyte have only been at the pub for one year. And while business is picking up, the Glanbia event will certainly mean increased demand for John's flavoursome food.
On the day of the presentation, Pub Food arrived early from nearby Birmingham, just in time to catch John and his general assistant Michele 'prepping up' for the day's onslaught of customers.
A huge stock pot was on the boil, Michele was busy slicing fresh carrots and John was chopping up chives and preparing joints of meat for inclusion on one of the pub's many blackboards.
It is the selection of blackboards which first made the judges realise they might be on to something good at the Halfway House. As mentioned in last month's edition of Pub Food, the Halfway House has blackboards for starters, steaks, curries, main courses and fish dishes, not forgetting the sandwich board in the public bar.
Looking around the kitchen, Pub Food was amazed how John and Michele managed - it's tiny. John says it is not too bad and that he has worked in worse places during his 20 year career as a chef.
Small it may be, but it still manages to house an old Falcon six-burner range, a Classic 600 series dishwasher, two Valentine fryers, a Falcon overhead grill and a Litton microwave oven. A domestic cooker hidden away in the corner is used only as a plate warmer.
"It was a case of adapting the food to the equipment available, " said John. "But offering fresh food was crucial; it's harder work but at the end of the day it's the quality of the product. Trade goes up if the food is fresh."
According to John, a lot of companies prefer to standardise the food on offer in their pubs and hotels which is 'false logic'. John believes things are moving forward and cites Scottish & Newcastle's Chef & Brewer pub chain as a good example of how some pub chains are moving closer to his own fresh food only ethos.
John and Michele usually arrive in the kitchen for 10.30am, giving them one and a half hours to get things ready for the lunch time session. Food preparation carries on throughout lunch time which is never really busy and the process continues towards dinner time.
The Halfway House closes on Monday lunctimes and John sets up a buffet service for Monday evenings and then takes the night off. The main food preparation days are Tuesday and Wednesday and then it is a case of keeping everything topped up forf the busy weekend. John provides a very traditional Sunday lunch of beef, pork and lamb or baked ham with a vegetarian alternative and a range of four starters and puddings.
He works long hours but says he is used to it. "The average chef works a 10 to 12 hour day so in a sense it comes easy and you learn to pace yourself. You have to enjoy it and take pride in it. If you don't it will destroy you," he said.
Asked to sum up the secret of his success, John said he simply buys food and cooks it. "I buy it and then decide what I'm going to do with it. My customers know the food is fresh," he explained.
Wednesday is curry day at the Halfway House and John never uses curry powders or ready sauces. "Everything is from a spice base," said John. He cooks his curry from instinct and then uses a local Indian takeaway menu to find a suitable name for the dish he creates. He makes his own chutney too.
As for taste and flavour generally, John believes that both come from using good quality raw ingredients - "and then you just need to be confident," he added. Where seasoning is concerned, John said it is a case of 'getting it correct' which is simply down to experience.
What is interesting about John's kitchen is the number of fridges. Like his blackboards, John has a fridge for everything - puddings, fish, meat, dairy products and a big silver one for starters and garnishes - and they are all secondhand and bought at auction. On one occasion he bought two for £35 and spent £80 on fixing some minor faults. Either way they all seem to be working as does the kitchen as a whole.
"I hope eventually to totally re-design the kitchen," said John as he prepared a large bread and butter pudding. Time for lunch, I thought.
Box copy: Suppliers - all finalists
The Halfway House
• Meat: Dunn's of Droitwich• Fish: M&J Seafoods • Vegetables: Pershore Produce, Worcestershire• Dry goods: Ritter Courivaud of the West Midlands
The Bay Horse
• Meat: Country Valley of Darlington• Fish: Inshore Fisheries, Redcar• Vegetables: Andrew, 'the greengrocer over the road'• Dry goods: Cearns & Brown
The Hazel Pear Inn
• Meat: local butcher, Roger Minshal.• Fish: Kershaws of Liverpool.• Vegetables: Mid-Cheshire Fruit & Vegetables.• Dry goods: Brooke Marketing of Crewe.
The Battersea Boathouse.
• Meat: Senns of Piccadilly.• Fish: Simpson's Fisheries.• Vegetables: Nature's Choice at Covent Garden market.• Dry goods: 3663 (formerly known as Booker Foodservice).
ends
Box copy: More about Glanbia Food Service
Quite simply, Glanbia Food Service is the largest national supplier of fresh and chilled food to the catering industry.
It was formerly known as Cuisine Foodservice up until last spring. But while its name has changed, as a company it has retained its vast 30 years of experience in chilled food manufacture and distribution. What's more, it is unique in offering manufacturing, wholesaling and chilled and fresh distribution all from a single company.
To find out how Glanbia Food Service's fresh approach can help grow your pub business, please contact Marietta Richardson on 01895 826049.