The chef, who this week judged the National Chef of the Year final at the Restaurant Show, said: “We’d like to build up a small group of pubs in Kent.
"But at the same time, it would be great to talk to one of the larger pub groups to see if they wanted to offset 10 or 15 [pubs] that we could go in and run as a management contract with them or as a joint venture.
Mark Sargeant:
"It would be great to talk to one of the larger pub groups to see if they wanted to offset 10 or 15 pubs that we could go in and run"
“We also want to make sure [any future pubs] are reasonably unique,” he added. “So it would be great to work within a partnership.”
Sargeant previously worked as sous chef at Restaurant Gordon Ramsay in London before going on to open a string of restaurants including Morden & Lea in London and Rocksalt Restaurant & Bar in Kent.
He oversaw the openings of four Gordon Ramsay Holdings pubs - the Narrow, the Warrington, the Devonshire and the Foxtrot Oscar - before making his first solo foray into the pub trade this year with the opening of the Duke William in Ickham.
Dishes on offer at the Duke William include pan fried wild sea trout fillet with marinated grilled courgettes, tomatoes and landcress, whole rye bay grilled lemon sole with buttered marsh samphire and Romney Marsh lamb neck curry with pilaf rice.
“We wanted it to be a proper pub. It took us about four or five years to find the right location – eventually that spot just chose us. We kept true to our roots – it’s a proper pub, not a gastropub,” he said.