The Rose and Crown in Warwick is building its reputation on good quality food. Kerry Rogan pays chef Lee Cash a visit.Lee Cash is a chef with a passion. He is passionate about good food, about customer service and staff morale - but most of all he is passionate about his new pub, the Rose and Crown in Warwick.Twenty-eight-year-old Lee opened the pub in June after spending his formative years working for top chefs Raymond Blanc and Robin Shepherd and popular television chef Brian Turner.Despite his training in some of Britain's top restaurants, as well as the less salubrious settings of Center Parcs and an Australian diving boat, Lee believes the eating out market is going the way of the pub."I really believe gastropubs are the future," he said. "They should be to the British what brasseries are to the French - a place where you go and eat if you're hungry and drink if you're not and where you're not afraid to go by yourself."Lee's first venture into the pub market is well on its way to becoming the pub he described. The Rose and Crown has a front bar area with comfortable sofas and a regular crowd of after-work and weekend drinkers. But step into the back of the pub and the atmosphere is more like that in a restaurant. Customers can choose from the extensive menu or snack on a deli-plate - a selection of cheeses, olives, hummus, vegetables and bread.The pub is already establishing itself as a destination in Warwick, attracting locals for its lunches, evening meals and breakfasts, and tourists who are drawn to its stylish letting rooms.Lee's career began in a pub when, as a 14-year-old, he took a job in a kitchen alongside his mum. Lee started washing up and preparing salads - and he was smitten, if not with food, then with the lifestyle it offered."It was a really good pub-restaurant," he said. "The guy who ran it was tall, good looking, drove a sports car - I wanted to be him."After leaving school Lee went to Bournemouth University to study for an HND. As part of his course he had a placement with television chef Brian Turner."Brian Turner is a classic chef - a real character," Lee said. "He worked the room more than he worked the kitchen. At the time we didn't always see eye to eye, but now we get on really well - he's a big inspiration."From lofty beginnings Lee then went to work at holiday village Center Parcs - a completely different experience."I really believe you learn as much from bad experiences as from the good," Lee said stoically. "From Center Parcs I learned that if you want people to enjoy themselves, you have to make your staff feel happy."Similarly, Lee learned a lot from the time he spent working in the kitchen of a diving boat off the Great Barrier Reef.But it was on his return to England that his career began to really take off. Lee worked first for Robin Shepherd, who he described as "a great mentor and friend". "If I ever get to be close to being as good as he is, I'll be happy," Lee said.From there Lee went to work for Raymond Blanc, moving between Le Petit Blancs in Oxford and Cheltenham before helping launch the restaurant brand in Birmingham and Manchester.But he knew he wanted to work for himself. "I couldn't leave Le Petit Blanc until I'd achieved a few things, like improve staff retention," Lee said. "When we finally got a good review in the Telegraph I'd achieved everything I'd set out to."Lee recruited his friend Victoria Moon, who he'd met first when she was a student and waitress at the Birmingham Le Petit Blanc and later sales and marketing manager at the restaurant, and they began to formulate a business plan."I knew I wanted a pub because I believe that's where the future of eating out lies," said Lee.But investors were hard to come by until Hamish Stoddart, who was formerly at Cearns & Brown, and entrepreneur Tim Doyle stepped in and the Peach Pub Company was born.Peach takes its name from a skateboarding term for good. "It still makes me laugh when people say is it a Peach site," Lee said. "I wanted the name to be foody, but to be about people and fun because that's what we're about."Victoria and Lee scoured the Midlands looking for a suitable site until they came across the Rose and Crown, a run-down Punch pub without a lessee and about to be refurbished."It was dismal," Lee said. "We saw it on the Friday and the builders were due to start on the Monday so we had to move fast. I wanted a say in the colour scheme and so on, so I could believe in it."Victoria, who had built a successful customer database for Le Petit Blanc, took over the marketing of the Rose and Crown while Lee developed the menu along with his head chef Nigel Brown who he also met at Le Petit Blanc."It was a bit of a struggle to begin with," Lee admitted. "We were doing things we'd never done before. We're very much owner-operated. I thought I'd worked hard at Le Petit Blanc but it's nothing compared to this!"The pub's marketing is, Lee said, its unique selling point. Victoria has brought her database skills to the Rose and Crown and the company has been sending out successful mail shots."I knew I wanted the company to have a marketing angle," Lee said. "I don't think there's many small companies doing mail shots and things like we do."The Rose and Crown's menu is varied and covers coffee and cake at breakfast time, sandwiches at lunch and main meals in the evening.It changes regularly and there is always a soup of the day, a sausage of the week and a cheesecake of the week.One of Lee's big passions is the quality of the food he serves. He refuses to compromise and is still using suppliers he built up relationships with while he was at Le Petit Blanc.But this dedication to quality comes at a price."We've got small profit margins," Lee said. "We're only going to make money if we're busy. But it's good quality and we're building up a reputation."Lee believes a meal for two at the Rose and Crown, with a bottle of wine, should not cost more than £50. "I want people to eat here when they feel like it," he said. "If a meal costs much more than £50 it becomes an occasion."Lee's ambition to open more Peach Pubs does not seem too far away from being realised. Customers are flocking to the Rose and Crown, it is beginning to make a name for itself and Lee and Victoria are already thinking about other sites.The Peach Pub Company is definitely one to watch - it could be giant.On the menu
- Deli plate: £1.25 per itemStilton, French brie, Exmoor blue, Pont L'Eveque, local cheddar, chorizo, salami, prosciutto, char-grilled courgettes, mixed antipasti, hummus, sun-dried tomatoes, rustic bread, pitta bread.
- Smoked duck salad with raspberry vinaigrette: £5.50
- Mediterranean vegetable cannelloni with gruyere sauce: £8
- Crème brûlée: £4