Robinson's

game plan

Game, such asmuntjacs and wild rabbits, makes for European peasant food' fit for a kingat Mike Robinson'sPot Kiln­ butat lowly prices.Mark Taylor reports

News that a TV chef was taking over at the Pot Kiln spread around the sleepy villages of West Berkshire like wildfire.

"There were all sorts of rumours going around that a fancy London chef was coming down to ruin their local pub," laughs Mike Robinson, who is best-known for his appearances on UKTV Food and Great Food Live.

"Somebody even wrote to the local parish rag, saying we were going to turn it into a safari-themed pub called the Ginger Giraffe."

Locals at this remote country pub, in the tiny village of Frilsham, certainly must have breathed a collective sigh of relief when they discovered that the new chef/patron was local boy Robinson and his wife, Katie.

"I grew up in the Pot Kiln. I had my first pint in this pub, and I can even remember coming to this pub at the age of 16, propping up my shotgun in the corner and hanging a brace of ducks from the coat hooks."

Life-long ambition to run pub

Although Robinson's cooking career has seen him working in French and Swiss restaurants, he always held a life-long ambition to run his own English country pub and he jumped at the chance of snapping up the freehold of his family's local.

With three TV series in the pipeline, two books on the way, an outside catering business and plans to open further pubs already, the Pot Kiln looksset to become the hub of Berkshire's most exciting new pub empire.

"It's like a dream. I'm only the third owner of this pub in 300 years," Robinson says. "The original owners had this place for 230 years and hopefully we'll have it for a very long time."

Since reopening at the beginning of May, the pub has been the talking point of West Berkshire, a wealthy area that counts pop stars Elton John and George Michael as residents.

Robinson says the pub badly needed updating inside, and he has installed a new Bonnet kitchen. But the Pot Kiln has retained its charmingcharacter ­ and its old snug area for the drinkers, many of whom enjoy the award-winning West Berkshire Brewery ales that are brewed in outbuildings behind the pub. Between 18 and 28 firkins of the ales are sold in the pub each week.

Although very much a food-led pub, Robinson is loathe to describe the Pot Kiln as a gastro pub, preferring to call it a country inn. "Gastro pub is a London invention," he says. "I wanted this to be more rural, a place where people can wear their wellies after shooting and let their dog sleep under the table.

"The perfect country pub should be somewhere you can have a fantastic meal at a reasonable price, but as a publican you should still be able to do that and make a very good gross profit."

Savings mean average GP is 75%

Ask Robinson about his GPs and he looks a little embarrassed. A chef who majors on wild ingredients and local produce (and one of the few chefs to have a forestry degree), he admits that his average GP is 75%, although there are certain dishes on his menu that cost little more than the time they take to produce them.

The savings are made by buying locally ­ pork and beef come from farms less than two miles from the pub, asparagus is grown half a mile away, and game is from the local game dealer.

"The best-selling dishes on the menu are the fresh tagliatelle with muntjac ragu and the seared roe deer liver. They also happen to be the cheapest dishes to produce. The wine that goes into these dishes is the most expensive ingredient," says Robinson. "Local muntjacs are effectively vermin and I buy three or four of them a week. They cost £15 each and I get 40 portions out of each one and sell it for £13.50 per dish. The roe deer liver costs us £1.40 per kilo, wild rabbits cost me £1.50 and you can get three portions out of each. I'm putting squirrel on the menu next month (braised with Madeira) and they'll cost me about 75p each.

"My ethos on the food has always been to use local, wild ingredients. Game should be the easiest and most widely available thing there is to pub chefs in the country.

"There's such an over-population of wild venison that I don't understand why pub chefs buy the farmed stuff. Within 10 miles of most pubs, there will be a licensed game dealer. I think it's crazy that more people aren't serving wild venison and wild rabbits."

Robinson plans to cook at the Pot Kiln 20 days each month, and has a team of four chefs in the kitchen, including head chef Chris Prow, who has worked with Gary Rhodes and, most recently, at the Wolseley in Piccadilly.

Passionate about good value

Described as European peasant food, the monthly-changing menu remains the same for lunch and dinner and consists of just five starters, five main courses and four desserts. Prices are surprisingly low, with starters averaging at £4.50 and mains around the £12 mark. Good value is something that Robinson is passionate about.

"You see pub chefs charging £20 for main courses and it's crazy. Our prices are cheap, but if I send out 100 dishes at lunchtime plus wine and beer, I can still make those GPs because of the cost of the ingredients ­ which are the best of their kind but not expensive. Why should I charge a fortune?

"Because I'm on television, people somehow expect the prices to be a lot higher than they are, but my main courses will always be under £15.

"People actually question their bills because they think they've been undercharged."

He adds: "It's not rocket science. If you serve good food, good beer and good wine in a good atmosphere, you can't go wrong.

"I keep looking for the catch, but have yet to find it. It's brutally simple and that's the key."