Top 50 Gastropubs chefs to create exclusive menu

Four top pub chefs who ranked in The Publican’s Morning Advertiser’s Top 50 Gastropubs 2015 are set to put on an eight-course fine dining menu at this year’s Eat Drink Bristol Fashion festival.

Stephen Harris of the Sportsman in Seasalter, Kent, Josh Eggleton of the Pony and Trap in Chew Magna, Somerset, James MacKenzie of the Pipe and Glass in East Riding, Yorkshire and Stephen Terry of the Hardwick in Abergavenny, Wales, will team up to create the one-off menu on Wednesday 6 May.

Harris, whose Michelin-starred Shepherd Neame tenancy the Sportsman came first in the awards, said: “I’ve got a lot of time and respect for Josh [Eggleton] – I’m looking forward to it.”

Each chef is set to produce two of the menu’s eight courses, with dishes set to include Mackenzie’s guinea fowl and ham hock ballotine with pease pudding and scampi fritters, Eggleton’s stuffed saddle lamb with crisp potato and monks beard and Terry’s belly pork and black pudding with apple mustard.

Great British Banquet

Chefs who competed in the South West heats of BBC’s Great British Menu are also set to showcase their culinary ability at the festival.

Josh Eggleton, Dominic Chapman of the Beehive in White Waltham, Berkshire and Emily Watkins of the Kingham Plough in Chipping Norton, Oxfordshire will serve a six-course menu consisting of dishes that featured on the popular show.

Tickets for both events cost £70 per head.

Humble beginnings

As well as cooking in the many of the events taking place at Eat Drink Bristol Fashion, prolific chef Eggleton also directs and organises the festival alongside a small team including Luke Haswell, Nick Roberts and Amelia Twine.

It began as a one-off Sunday lunch event held on a farm south of Bristol before being adopted as part of Bristol City Council’s Placemaking initiative in 2012, moving to Queen’s Square near the city centre.