Kim Champion's St Albans pub has become a destination venue. But, as Sue Nowak discovered, despite winning many awards the chef still has her sights on one elusive prize
If ever a woman lived up to her name, it's Kim Champion. In little more than a year she's won four pub awards and reached the national finals of three cookery contests. It's hard work being a winner - so what spurs her on?
'It's a great marketing tool. Also, I need to prove to myself that my skills are up to scratch - and I enjoy messing about with ingredients, it's more of a hobby,' says Kim, who is attracting diners to her back-street boozer in St Albans like flies to a honeypot. And I always get a real buzz during the cook-offs, there's a great sense of camaraderie with the other finalists. Anyway, it's good fun.'
Pulling in the prizes
Fun or not, it's certainly paid off. The Portland Arms is a Fuller's house which won the brewery's Best Newcomers' Award 2004 and first prize for front of house flowers, then was highly commended in pub gardens 2005. Both Kim and business partner Ken have gained their Master Cellarman certificates.
Kim reached the final of the Food from Britain category in PubChef's 2004/2005 awards, and this year the cook-off for the new food and beer title, too. While not the overall winner she scored high marks and praise from the judges, but the real payback is in what this feisty New Zealander calls 'treads' - footfall, to us.
'The publicity has been brilliant for business. We have had a lot of coverage in the local press and that brought in locals who didn't know we were new here,' says Kim. 'When you can say you've reached the national finals of a competition, it definitely helps, and our growing wall of certificates attracts attention, too.'
Apart from printing their own fliers to put through doors in what is a 'chimney pots' area, the only money Kim and Ken have spent on advertising in two-and-a-half years at the Portland is £500 to go in the Essential Guide to St Albans. 'Not cheap, but it definitely got results.'
With just one bar divided into different areas and no separate restaurant, and being away from the main tourist attractions, the Portland is not a natural food location. Which makes Kim's achievement in turning it into a destination diner all the more significant. As she says, entering cookery contests has certainly helped establish them.
She was first attracted to the PubChef awards in 2004 by the Food from Britain class, for Kim is passionate about local produce. In a remarkably short time after she and Ken arrived from their previous berth, skippering the Royal Yacht Club on Lake Windermere, she has tracked down local producers despite being in a city.
Supporting local suppliers
A mile away beyond the golf course Liz Harris, Hertfordshire's only cheesemaker, is producing award-winning Childwickbury goat's cheese from her tiny flock.
And just off the St Albans bypass Drew Woollatt raises lamb and beef, selling direct to the public through his Hedges Farm shop. The Portland is the only pub he supplies, and he is a great support to Kim.
'I've been to the farm and seen the animals - Drew makes all his own feed and the animals are raised naturally on grass, with no additives or antibiotics,' said Kim, who lists her suppliers on the menu.
For her last year's Food from Britain entry he hung the lamb for three weeks to 'make sure it would melt in the judges' mouths'.
Kim used it to create lamb noisettes with Childwickbury goat's cheese stuffing on a minted pea puree with rösti potatoes and redcurrant gravy.
Hedges Farm's equally melting beef appears on the menu as: half-pound fillet steak with mustard mash and red wine shallots; roast sirloin on Sundays; monster beef burgers to her own recipe; and braised in London Pride for a pie unusually topped with filo pastry.
Her modern take on beef olives, which she cooked in this year's Food from Britain final with a chestnut and thyme stuffing on a bed of roast beetroot and wilted Swiss chard, is now on the menu too.
For the beer and food category, Drew's tender lamb cutlets were served on a sweet potato cake with red onion and cherry confit, matched with Belgian cherry beer in the glass.
An innovative chef who learned her trade with the New Zealand Brewing Company, Kim offers a simple menu for weekday lunchtimes, then a short but alluring menu for evenings and weekends.
'Business has trebled since we moved in,' said Kim. 'We only take bookings for groups of six or more because we haven't got a lot of space and I don't want to see lots of empty reserved tables.'
Prices start at £5.25 for a huge fillet of cod in home-made Fuller's beer batter, or home-cooked ham with egg and chips. At £6.25 is a 'conversational' sharing platter of all the goodies Kim finds on a walk round St Albans market, from olives to sun-blush tomatoes with crusty ciabatta.
Pork loin escalopes (the pigs raised by Drew Woollatt's brother on Lord Verulam's nearby estate) have an apricot and mustard crust, served on celeriac lasagne with pine nut and cream sauce.
There are smoked haddock and chive fish cakes on tomato and celeriac remoulade, chicken and wild mushrooms in a filo parcel or, for vege- tarians, char-grilled vegetables layered with Childwickbury cheese on puy lentils Provençale.
Prices average £7.50-£10.95; the dearest, at £13.95, is the prime fillet steak with all the trimmings.
When full, the pub seats 45 diners, so to average 225-250 covers a week is no mean achievement. The busiest times are Thursday, Friday and Saturday evenings, and Sunday lunches, when they often get 60 diners.
At 58%, her mark-up may be lower than some pub chefs boast, but she finds it a decent profit margin. 'I don't believe that you should substitute quality for profit, and I also know that if people are going to pay hefty prices they expect more of a restaurant environment. I take a bit of a dive on some of the higher-priced items, but I enjoy cooking them.'
Her cooking also raises drinks take at a pub which is still 65:35 wet to dry trade. 'The food definitely helps the wet trade side,' says Ken, 'especially wine, though this is a beer pub. We sell Fuller's full range of cask beers, and get through three to four 36-gallon barrels a week.'
With business brisk and the pleasure of leasing a lovely pub in a historic city, Kim's only regret is that she hasn't won PubChef's overall title - yet. 'I know it's three times a bridesmaid, but I'm going all-out to win next year.'
And then she really will be Ms Champion.
Success is the best form of advertising
Kim and Ken see competitions as a marketing tool that has won them publicity and brought new local trade, while they've only spent £500 on advertising in more than two years.
'The PubChef awards are well worth entering because it helps you develop your own menu,' said Kim. Inspired by the competition's food-and-beer category, they are planning trips to Fuller's brewery.
The Portland was also selected for the Campaign for Real Ale's Good Beer Guide 2005 and 2006.
On the Portland menu
Lunch
Fresh ciabattas and paninis with interesting fillings plus salad and crisps, £3.25-£3.75; Three-cheese platter with grapes, apples, walnuts and pickle; Warm salads; Secret-recipe beef-burgers with salad, beetroot and chips, £4.75-£7.50.
Evening
Pork loin with apricot and mustard crust on celeriac 'lasagne', £10.95;
Mini lamb joint from Hedges Farm on mash with rosemary and red-wine gravy, £9.25;
Large cod fillet in Fuller's ale batter with chips, £5.25;
Beef sirloin filled with chestnut and thyme stuffing on roast beetroot and wilted swiss chard with red-wine reduction, £13.95.