The former Leicester City player-cum-sports broadcaster posted a picture of his meal last night (7 December) on Twitter with the caption: “No food critic… well actually, aren’t we all? Either way, sensational dinner at #handandflowers in Marlow @ChefTomKerridge.”
Lineker’s fame in the 1990s led him to front Walkers crisps adverts, including a temporary name change of the company’s salt & vinegar flavour to ‘Salt-n-Lineker’.
Meanwhile, the Tom Kerridge Group was announced as a finalist in the Best Premium Food Offer at next year’s Publican Awards, alongside Red Mist Leisure and Bel & The Dragon.
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Kerridge owns three pubs – the two Michelin-starred Hand & Flowers, the one Michelin-starred Coach and the recently opened Butcher’s Tap.
Each pub is based in Marlow, Buckinghamshire, and the Butcher’s Tap was developed as a joint venture with Greene King to help “bring the high street alive again”.
Greene King managing director Clive Chesser told The Morning Advertiser (MA) there were plans to launch more joint ventures with pub industry stars such as Kerridge, with more details set to be released next year.
There were also plans to invest in the pubco’s estate in the coming year, he added: “The investment we work on compared to some of our competitors, with the average investment level being between £40,000 and £50,000 for refurbishments and repositioning – we’re investing more than we ever had.”
Michelin star this year
The Coach, which is Kerridge’s smaller ‘tapas’ dining venue and run by head chef Nick Beardshaw, was awarded a Michelin star just this year.
In an exclusive video interview with MA, Beardshaw described the venue and what it is like to work alongside Tom Kerridge.
He said: “I’ve worked with Tom now for nearly seven years so his style has obviously had a big impression on my mine and how I create recipes and that does have its boundaries so I couldn’t do something so alien to Tom’s style.”