Michelin-starred chef joins Hawkshead Brewery

A top chef has joined Hawkshead Brewery at its new Beer Kitchen to help its beer and tapas concept take off.

Steven Doherty, former head chef of two-Michelin-starred restaurant Le Gavroche in London, will work with resident chef Kester Marsh to develop the food offering and the food matching dinners already launched at Hawkshead.

"Our aim with the Beer Kitchen is to tackle the lamentable British tradition of drinking without food and eating without beer," said managing director Alex Brodie. "We do this by ensuring that down to earth, hearty food is of high quality and can come in delicious, small and inexpensive portions that will complement beer."

Doherty added: "Having inexpensive and surprising tapas dishes, swiftly served, to accompany beer at the bar as well as more usual seasonal main courses is different. I think the beer and food matching we are doing is the future for pub food."

The Beer Kitchen is part of Hawkshead's new £250,000 Beer Hall, which showcases real ale. It has viewing galleries that enable visitors to look into the brew house, cellar, beer shop and fermentation room.

Doherty has also worked at the Savoy, the Alain Chapel's restaurant in France and as a sous chef for Albert Roux's. He became the first British head chef at a three-Michelin-starred restaurant at Le Gavroche (though it has since lost one) and pioneered the gastropub concept with the Brown Horse in Winster, Derbyshire, and the Punch Bowl at Crosthwaite, Cumbria.