PubChef Food Excellence Awards WINNER - Starters and light bites
Starters make a first and lasting impression on customers so it is important that pub chefs get their offer right. Our starters and light bites category challenged our three finalists to create a dish which could be served as either a starter for one or a sharing dish for two.
Richard Upton
Richard Upton
Position: Head chefPub: The Three Fishes, Mitton, near Whalley, LancashireContact number: 01254 826888Website: www.thethreefishes.comDish: Winnie Swarbrick's corn-fed Goosnargh chicken liver pate with golden raisins, Cumberland sauce, toasted organic breadClick here to see the recipeCost of ingredients: £1.33Menu price: £5.90Gross profit: 73.5%
Why this dish?: "It's an old classic done differently but simply, with fantastic produce."
Background: Richard has been head chef at the Ribble Valley Inns' pub for nine months. He has been a chef for 16 years and his CV includes Fosse Manor Hotel near Stow on the Wold, Gloucestershire, Wesley House Restaurant in Winchcombe near Gloucestershire and London's Savoy Hotel.
The Three Fishes, which serves an average 2,000 covers a week, has a menu described as regional, seasonal and home-cooked. It has a wet:dry split of 28:72.
Starters include slow-cooked Goosnargh duck on toast with onion marmalade, redcurrant relish and bitter leaves; treacle-baked free-range Middle White Garstang ribs with devilled black peas; and warm Morecambe Bay shrimp, blade mace butter and toasted muffins.
Richard believes good pub food should "use great fresh produce, sourced locally where possible, offering traditional classics, with some variety of twists and modern influences."
Best-selling dishes include: Three Fishes Pie, battered deep-fried haddock with marrowfat peas, real chips and tartare sauce, heather-reared Bowland lamb Lancashire hotpot with pickled red cabbage.
Judges' comments:
"Sex on a board."
"A wonderful rustic dish. Fantastic concept and great ingredients."
"The dish seduces you. It tastes fantastic."
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