JUS, ME AND GEORGE

According to new Mintel research, pub chefs need to get back to basics. In striving to be everything to everyone - affordable, healthy, convenient, ‘new’ - individual operators risk devaluing their brand, while the industry as a whole risks diluting its original, distinguishing characteristics. One firm believer in this is Paul Pegrum, head chef at The George Inn in Oxted, Surrey, whose mantra is not just believing in yourself, but accepting help when needed. Essential Cuisine has helped him take stock…

Game for good food
“No gimmicks, no two for a tenner,” Paul Pegrum says defiantly. “Just good, honest food.”

It’s this forthrightness that enabled Paul to walk through the door of The George Inn, a Grade II listed, village pub last Christmas and take its food operation to a whole new level.

Crossed between a brasserie offering and fine dining, Paul’s approach at The Great Little Pub Company watering hole – sistered with The Lord Raglan in Wokingham – is proving to be a huge success, with like for like food sales in the last quarter up 12 percent on last year.

So much so, Paul and owner Greg Sergeant have also recently gone into partnership with Feast Anywhere, a new private catering firm for outdoor events across Surrey and Sussex.

“I came to The George to help out last Christmas and saw the establishment had a lot going for it, just needed a bit of vision to take the food somewhere special,” said Paul, a former Merchant Navy chef who rose from a British Masterchef to one of just 30 World Masterchefs in the UK and has worked on ITV cookery roadshows, meeting the likes of Sir Michael Caine.

“I liked it so much, I never left. As a chef, I’m extremely passionate and not someone who stays in the kitchen, but goes out into the restaurant and gets customers’ views. Do I think consumer attitudes changed with the downturn? In my opinion, not really. People want good food, good service and they are happy as Larry. They are the two main ingredients.”

With 30 years of experience, Paul happens to be doing what market analysts predict is the way forward for pubs in the climate. Instead of relying on price promotions to re-engage customers, he follows a broader set of positive values, making good-quality, affordable ‘grub’ the central thesis while using locally sourced foods as a point of pride and distinction.

“Fresh and seasonal really is the way forward,” he said. “In the summer, we had beautiful plaice in butter with new potatoes, no messing around, and a butternut squash risotto on the menu. Right now, we’ve got a lot of game dishes; game stew, roast partridge with caramelised pear and sweet potato, and our own homemade venison sausages. Fantastic.

“I’m a great believer in local produce, wherever possible. Our game is from G and S Meats, a local guy who shoots it, prepares it and brings it straight into us, while all other meat is from VT Meats, which sources everything for me from inside the M25 corridor.”

You should never be afraid to do what you do best, he adds, a philosophy he instils in young cooks who sign up to School 2 Chef, a venture he founded to forge bonds between schools and colleges, and in candidates he judges at culinary competitions in the UK and abroad.

“You mustn’t be frightened of what you are putting out,” he said. “Stand by it and be proud. If a customer has criticisms, take them on board. Pubs, and any establishment for that matter, should do what they are good at. For example, if you do a mean steak and ale pie, do that. Just improve your skill sets and give customers the best you can do.”

Essential help
Paul is fiercely proud that everything at The George is freshly prepared. He has, however, no qualms about enlisting a bit of help when it comes to certain areas of cooking and prep if it means he can balance delivery of consistently first class food with time and cost constraints.

The pub market, after all, is generally operating under difficult market conditions, according to Mintel, with central themes including inflationary and cost pressures, societal trends away from regular pub habits, cost efficiency, streamlining operations and employee retention.

Making stock, which delivers depth and balance of flavour to a dish, from scratch can be time consuming and, ultimately, costly in more ways than one. For this reason, Paul is happy to relax the rules slightly and buy in pre-prepared stocks, but only if, and it’s a big if, they can deliver the kitchen-made quality he could generate in his own stockpot.

Paul has been using Essential Cuisine’s stocks for five years after discovering that the gap between what he could make himself and the company’s products, made by chefs for chefs, was so miniscule, it made good business sense to change tack a little.

“Whether us chefs like it or not, things are changing, and you have to look at how much time is spent preparing essentials such as stock,” he said. “In my fine dining, I do make my own stock from scratch, but, generally, as long as everything is freshly prepared on the premises, I have no problem using a prepared stock, especially if it is one of the best.

“Having Essential there is a very, very good stop gap, saving us around five hours a week in the kitchen, while being as close as possible to scratch-made as it could be.

“We use the Mushroom Stock in a multitude of ways. As a stock, but, because it’s a powder, we also sprinkle it into mushroom risottos as a seasoning, as well as beef and ale pie to add flavour. The Vegetable Stock, we use in soups as well as dishes, again for extra flavour.

“Yields vary with different brands, but it’s yield to flavour ratio that is most important. A pre-prepared stock might make 20 litres, but if it doesn’t have the flavour, it’s not cost-effective.”

Nigel Crane, Dorchester-trained chef and the man behind Essential Cuisine, said: “When you can’t make your own, for whatever reason, finding and using a good, bought-in stock really is the most cost effective way to deliver great taste in cooking, with the stock component cost of an average dish under five pence. But that bought-in stock must deliver on taste. You can buy in cheap stock, but risking the meal for a couple of pence is a false economy.”

As well as calling on Lamb, Beef and Chicken Stock from the range, Paul also uses Essential Cuisine’s Premier Veal Jus for finished sauces. “This is a fantastic product in itself and when it comes to proper pub food, makes a mean caramelised jus for sausage and mash,” he said.

“We also use it to enhance what we are doing. In our demi-glace, for example, we add a bit to give it that bit more flavour, a really smooth finish and just the right depth of shine.  At the end of the day, we all have certain time constraints and restrictions and haven’t necessarily got time to do everything. Companies like Essential Cuisine are out there for a reason, producing products that are so close to the real thing, it’s unreal. Nigel being a chef helps as he knows what we are looking for and has hit the nail on the head.”


Picture of Paul Pegrum was taken by to photographer Alex Beard.

27/10/2010|