Guide points to a star-studded future for the UK
Every year chefs across the country wait with bated breath for the publication of the Michelin guide, and this year was no exception. The 2002 Michelin Red Guide, published last week, however, met with a mixed response from the chef community.
Some were disappointed to see no movement at the top (there were no new three-stars) and the fact that there was only one truly new two-star (Heston Blumenthal at the Fat Duck in Bray, Berkshire, while Martin Blunos transferred his two stars from Bath's Lettonie restaurant to his newly-opened Blinis).
Yet there were a commendable 22 new one-stars awarded in Britain and Ireland this year.
It is worth observing, for example, that there are four new one-starred establishments in Wales - at the Walnut Tree in Abergavenny, Carlton House in Llanwrtyd Wells, Ynyshir Hall in Machynlleth and Plas Bodegroes, Pwllheli - increasing the number of stars in Wales from one to five, and Guernsey attracted its first star ever.
The spotlight shines on the pub sector too. Following on from the history-in-the-making news last year when the Stagg Inn at Kington in Herefordshire became Britain's first Michelin-starred pub, the Red Guide this year has awarded stars to a further two pubs, the Olive Branch at Clipsham, Rutland, and the Star Inn at Harome, near Helmsley, North Yorkshire.
And who's to say that pubs with Bib Gourmands - the likes of Michael Bedford at the Trouble House Inn in Cirencester, Gloucestershire, and Stephen Bull's Loughpool Inn in Sellack, Herefordshire - will not join them next year?
The emergence of pub-restaurants as serious eateries is nothing new. Albert Roux encouraged British chefs to branch out into this area when he said many years ago that our pub-restaurants should be "the bistros of England", and Kit Chapman, owner of the Castle hotel in Taunton (which, incidentally, regained its Michelin star last week) championed this point in his book Great British Chefs, which was published in 1989.
For Chapman, this revolution has been a long time coming. How much more difficult is it, if a young person likes junk food, to persuade them to pay the same or a little more for the pleasure of honest-to-goodness fresh food?" he writes. "The battleground must be the pub which for the British has all the social allure of the bistro or café in France."
Whether or not you agree with Chapman's sentiments, the underlying message is an important one. If young people can be gently introduced to eating good food in a relaxed environment and at reasonable prices, they are more likely to show an interest in our industry. And that's no bad thing.
This year's Michelin guide points to a way forward. Britain now holds the highest number of stars it has ever held, and guide director Derek Brown is sure this will increase. He concludes: "British chefs have nothing to be ashamed of. We simply have not found anyone [new] that we feel has a three-star restaurant, but we recognise there are people in this country who have the talent to get there."
