Ben Bartlett is using his expertise and experience as a restaurant chef to take the Union Pub Company's pub fare to a new level. John Porter reports.
From Heston Blumenthal to Phil Vickery, well-known chefs taking on their own pubs is becoming quite fashionable.
However, famous chefs going to work for pub companies is still unusual enough for Ben Bartlett's move to the Union Pub Company (UPC) last year to have raised a few eyebrows in culinary circles.
As catering development manager, Ben has taken on responsibility for supporting, developing and guiding the catering operations of the 1,720-plus pubs owned by UPC, the tenanted and leased arm of expanding "super-regional" Wolverhampton & Dudley Breweries (W&DB). While some of his contemporaries might view the pub sector as less than glamorous, Ben is clearly relishing his new role. His success in driving the development of food in UPC pubs has seen him storm into the finals of the Food Champion of the Year category in this year's Publican Pub Food Awards.
Ben's track record includes stints at restaurants such as Conran's Campina del Ponte in London, Masaccio in Florence and Debolini's in Rome. He is also a member of the UK's international barbecue squad and at the start of this year added the accolade of winner of BBC TV's Celebrity Ready Steady Cook to his CV.
However, he really came to the notice of UPC during his four-year stint as head chef of the UPC-owned Pump House pub in Bristol. With high-profile food-led sites such as Ben's spotlighting the potential for food sales in pubs, UPC created a new role for a food specialist within the company. The general growth of food sales in pubs, as well as the challenge of smoking restrictions and longer trading hours, created a clear need for the company to up its levels of support.
"The role involves adapting my expertise and experience in both the restaurant and pub industry to help tenants get the best out of their businesses," says Ben. In practical terms, the brief includes everything from "devising hands-on, business-building training courses, to creating a practical catering and menu guide, and working with licensees and chefs in their own pubs to develop their food offering".
As with any tenanted estate, UPC has a wide range of pubs across its estate. These vary from classic locals with little or no food trade to top-end destination food pubs.
As W&DB continues to expand, so does the scope of Ben's responsibilities.
For example, the acquisition of Lakeland brewer Jennings earlier this year increased UPC's numbers, "although fortunately most of the Jennings' pubs already have very healthy food trades", says Ben.
As well as giving access to Jennings' established Lake District food suppliers, the acquisition also added a new range of cask ales to W&DB's already formidable armoury, allowing Ben to continue to indulge his passion for beer and food matching.
The job is made more interesting by the fact that UPC tenants are not tied for food sales. That means Ben's job is all about the carrot, with no stick involved. "Our strategy is focused on advising and supporting tenants rather than telling them what to do. This is particularly beneficial for our pubs as they have much more freedom to develop their food businesses, whereas managed houses are often restricted to branded menus and more basic skills and knowledge."
Having carefully segmented the estate by type of pub, Ben has gone on to develop a range of practical solutions, including:
- Active Ingredients, an innovative food manual and menu-making system
- Practical catering workshops that key into UPC's Skill Pool training programme
- A series of 12 "how to" chef-training DVDs
- Regular tutored talks and in-pub demonstrations - beer and cheese matching being a recent, and popular, subject.
While Ben is the first to admit there is a long way to go, the number of UPC pubs to benefit from his hands-on support is now well into three figures, and growing all the time.
"I'm passionate about pub food," says Ben, "and feel that I'm playing an important part in raising standards and widening the scope of pub food."
Food Champion of the Year
- Ben Bartlett, catering development manager, Union Pub Company
- Tim Bird, operations director, EP Pubs and Bars
- Paul Drye, catering development manager, St Austell Brewery
- Kevin Lock, area chef, Ha! Ha! Bar & Canteen.