Guiding light

Good Pub Guide 2008 editor Fiona Stapley talks prices, pub characters and bad soup with Lucy Britner

This year's industry bible contains more than 5,000 pubs and, according to the Good Pub Guide, Britons eat 1,100

million pub meals a year. Fiona has worked on the guide for 24 years and it was started by co-editor Alisdair Aird 26 years ago.

"Alisdair used to drive around the country with a typewriter on his knee," says Fiona.

Now the guide has more than 2,000 contributors, and around 27,000 readers write in with their opinions and recommendations.

According to Fiona, the standard of pub food is higher than ever - but so are the prices.

Are some pubs in danger of pricing themselves out of the market?

Over the past couple of years prices have shot up. Readers often write in, saying they can't afford to eat out regularly any more. We found the average price of a main course to be £10.50. This is outrageous. In some gastropubs, main courses are around £15 to £17.

I think at the moment pubs aren't going to price themselves out of the market. We hope

by bringing attention to this, the brakes will

go on.

What has caused price hikes?

I think there are issues with brewery and pubcompany ties, plus business rates.

But I think some licensees are getting a little bit greedy, perhaps because they know many

people would rather eat out in an informal atmosphere.

I don't think the problems we've had with

the weather and sourcing produce are the

major issues.

However, not everyone is guilty of this and we have highlighted Bargain Award pubs. One in 12 pubs in the guide has been given the award and it goes to show that food doesn't have to be expensive. The pubs might specialise in basic food or sandwiches - some are more adventurous - but whatever they do, they do it well.

Is local and regional produce really on the menu?

Over the past 20 years there has been a food revolution. Scares like BSE and bird flu have made people think more about where their food is coming from. Once upon a time organic food on pub menus was so rare that it was worthy of a news story, today it isn't.

Many pubs seem to source locally and regionally and some even grow their own produce.

How does pricing compare from region

to region?

The West Midlands is the cheapest area,

followed by Staffordshire, Derbyshire, Notting-hamshire, Scotland and Northumbria. The most expensive are - starting from the top - Warwick-shire, Gloucestershire, Kent, Sussex, Berkshire, Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire.

London pub-food prices tend to be rather lower than the national average - certainly much lower than you'd expect from drinks prices there. This might be because of the amount of competition.

Cornwall and the West Midlands are still quite weak when it comes to good food pubs, especially when compared to their neighbouring regions.

What do you think of the term 'gastropub'?

I've never liked it much. It's a bit ugly and popularist. Our favourite pubs may specialise in

good food but they have to have a proper bar.

I think successful food pubs will have a bar, rather than become more like restaurants.

Describe your ideal pub

A proper local pub, with a licensee who knows his or her locals and cares about the community. It may do food - it may not. It depends what kind of offering you're in the mood for. I'm a firm believer that, although the smoke ban might dictate a little, there's always a pub for every occasion. This includes a place for wet-led pubs. Alisdair and I are keen that our country retains as many unspoilt pubs as possible.

How does the guide compare to other guides?

All of our inspections are anonymous and totally unbiased. We don't accept payment for inclusion. We often find out about places after readers write in.

You can spot fake reports because there will be a sudden influx of praise for a particular site. We will contact the site and tell them they will be blacklisted if they don't stop. We would much rather people sent a menu and a description and said "Look, we're here, come and check us out."

If we get a lot of reliable recommendations, but we are unable to visit the pub, they are labelled as "lucky dips".

What inspires you most about the pub trade?

Licensees - they are the heart and soul of every pub. They don't necessarily have to own the place - they might be a manager or manageress. In my opinion, whoever is in charge makes or breaks it. It's quite amazing how you can

have a pub that's top whack and someone leaves and it goes downhill fast. Licensees are amazing people.

What advice would you give to someone entering the pub trade?

Talk to existing licensees. I think it is rare for people to make a hit if they haven't had any experience - they tend to run the pub from what they know, not what suits customers. Love the place you're running and care about the customers.

Desert-island dish

Steak and mushroom pie with good chips. It's an easy thing to get right, but so easy to get wrong.

Crimes against pub food

Bad soup is unforgivable. I also hate pretentious food - stacks, towers, on a bed, dusted - that kind of thing.

A few years ago, menus were fancy and silly. But over the past two years, poncy descriptions have almost vanished - there's just no point cooking with lots of ingredients that people have never heard of.

l The Good Pub Guide 2008 is published by Ebury Press and costs £14.99

Good Pub Guide 2008 regional dining pub winners

Bedfordshire: Hare & Hounds, Old Warden; Berkshire: Hinds Head, Bray;

Buckinghamshire: the Swan, Denham;

Cambridgeshire: Old Bridge Hotel, Huntingdon; Channel Islands: Fleur du Jardin, King's Mills, Guernsey; Cheshire: Grosvenor Arms, Aldford; Cornwall: Gurnard's Head Hotel, near St Ives;

Cumbria: Punch Bowl, Crosthwaite;

Devon: Drewe Arms, Broadhembury;

Dorset: the Museum, Farnham; Essex: Peldon Rose, Peldon; Gloucestershire: Bathurst Arms, North Cerney; Hampshire: Wykeham Arms, Winchester;

Herefordshire: the Stagg, Titley;

Hertfordshire: Bricklayers Arms, Flaunden; Isle of Wight: Seaview Hotel,

Seaview; Kent: Sankeys, Tunbridge Wells;

Lancashire: Inn at Whitewell, Whitewell;

Leicestershire and Rutland: Olive Branch, Clipsham; Lincolnshire: George of Stamford, Stamford; London: Anchor & Hope, SE1; Norfolk: Hoste Arms, Burnham Market; Northumbria: Feathers, Hedley-on-the Hill; Nottinghamshire: Caunton Beck, Caunton; Oxfordshire: the Trout, Tadpole Bridge; Scotland: Applecross Inn, Applecross; Shropshire: Armoury, Shrewsbury; Somerset: Woods, Dulverton; Staffordshire: Hand & Trumpet, Wrinehill; Suffolk: Westleton Crown, Westleton; Surrey: Parrot, Forest Green; Sussex: Griffin, Fletching; Wales: Corn Mill, Llangollen; Warwickshire: Kings Head, Aston Cantlow; Wiltshire: Compasses, Chicksgrove; Worcestershire: Bell & Cross, Holy Cross; Yorkshire: Appletree, Marton.

National dining pub of the year

The Appletree in Marton, Yorkshire, has been named national dining pub of the year in this year's guide.

Licensees Melanie and TJ Drew were praised for their almost "obsessive concentration on good ingredients, grown by themselves or produced for them specially by local farmers."

Melanie said it is attention to detail that won them the accolade. She said: "We look at things from the customers' point of view - the whole package."

The best selling dish is TJ's confit of belly pork with grainy mustard cream, apple sauce and black pudding (£15). TJ runs the kitchen single-handedly and serves around 200 covers a week.

l Visit www.appletreeinn.co.uk for info.