Great Pub Chefs - Courage under Fire

In the hot seat - Jonny Haughton

What do you think of the gastro pub explosion?

"On the whole, it's clear that standards of food and standards of cooking have improved in the past 12 years and I think the great thing about gastro pubs is that they tend to attract more free-thinking chefs rather than your average fodder for the Michelin restaurant machine."

How do you see the future for gastro pubs?

"I get the slight sense that it's a bit of a tarnished concept in a way. If you talk to people like Michael Belben, of the Eagle, he agrees that pub chains getting in on the act have diluted the appeal of the gastro pub. The other problem is that it's ncreasingly difficult for independents to get in cheaply. When we got in 10 years ago we bought our lease for £60,000, although we spent a lot of money converting it. The average lease in London now would probably be about £500,000. That is a big problem. When you have pubs in the hands of what are effectively property companies run by accountants, it doesn't auger too well for the future."

What makes a good gastro pub menu?

"There are so many factors that go into producing a good menu. The first thing is that you've got to make sure you're catering for both sexes. On the whole, women are not very well catered for. We had a very heavy male-orientated menu in the first couple of years, with lots of offal, game and heavy meat dishes. That all changed when I ended up with an all-female kitchen of very talented, dedicated women chefs. Their legacy was that the menus started to have more fish dishes, more salads and more pasta dishes with fresh sauces, rather than heavy ones. If you are running a short menu you have to make sure there's enough to appeal to the mainstream. The overall idea is to do food that is appropriate for the time of day - whether it's lunch or dinner - but also appropriate for the weather and season."