Hare style

01 January 2000
Hare style

DAVID Fullerton is on a mission. Like many of his contemporaries, the chef at the Three Hares Inn at Bilbrough, near York, is striving to change what he believes is the lingering public perception that pub food comprises prawn cocktails and scampi and chips. His goal is to show his customers that there are creative culinary minds at work in the pub sector.

Fullerton has already proven this to food guide inspectors who have termed his cuisine "imaginative" (AA) and "enjoyable" (Good Food Guide). His food is certainly very far removed from the typical 1980s pub grub of dried-out lasagne. His menu is more likely to feature dishes such as a starter salad of sesame roast duck, caramelised pear served with a spring onion and ginger sauce (£5.50).

The dish, with its overtones of a classic Chinese sweet and sour combination, illustrates a deft touch by Fullerton as he manages to turn what could easily be a heavy, rich starter into a light salad. The duck is roasted in sesame seed oil before being pan-fried and finished in the oven. Soy sauce and ginger, which permeate the spicy sauce, add a further Eastern influence, while the pear gives the dish its contrasting sweet aspect (see recipe on page 51).

"This is typical of the type of thing I can do and it has turned out to be one of the biggest sellers with our customers," says Fullerton. Most of those customers - a mixture of middle-class professionals and affluent locals - treat the 18th-century free house pub, owned by Fred and Val Ingham, as a destination eating place and regularly make the five-mile trip from York or 23-mile journey from Leeds to eat Fullerton's food. Some even come from as far afield as Harrogate and Sheffield.

Luring Yorkshire's diners (an average of 50 a night spending around £22 per head, excluding drink) are two menus: an à la carte, which changes every three to four months, and a daily changing specials board. Both are complemented by an extensive 45-strong wine list and a six-beer selection looked after by operations manager Dominic Smith. The two menus are served in the 30-seat pub area, described by Fullerton as "a more relaxed atmosphere for grabbing quick meals", or the 50-seat restaurant, more of a "special occasion place".

World-wide influences

Among the eight à la carte starters is an English-style home-made soup or broth (£3.50), such as tomato and roasted pepper, and an American-Italian influenced Piedmont roasted pepper on olive focaccia bread, accompanied by American blue cheese dressing (£3.95). The Far East is represented by salmon and crab beignets with tsatziki and tomato jam chilli (£4.50), while Central American food surfaces in Mexican-style tuna tortillas, accompanied by avocado and tomato salsa and sour cream (£4.95).

More traditional pub fare appears on the 10 main à la carte dishes "so as not to alienate customers who want something simple". Beef steak with wild mushroom casserole in a suet pudding (£7.95) sits alongside roast fillet and leg of rabbit with a vanilla seed risotto and grilled pancetta (£8.95).

Then there are sausage dishes such as pork and sage sausages with a casserole of puy lentils, smoked bacon and shallots (£7.95). The sausages are made up to Fullerton's own recipes by a local butcher, Tadcaster-based John Dinsdale (who also supplies the pub's meat).

Snack menus are also on offer, such as bacon and Brie sandwiches (£3.95), antipasta, which might feature smoked duck, smoked salmon and quails eggs (£5.95), or a salad du jour (£6.95).

Fullerton's more experimental dishes are reserved for his specials board. Supplier availability dictates what wins a place but fish and seafood are clear favourites. On one occasion, eight of 10 specials were centred on sea produce, two being sea bass dishes.

This fish is a particular Fullerton favourite. "Sea bass is easy to cook with," he says. "There are so many ways you can play around with it. It's a good seasonal fish that makes a nice summer dish. I wouldn't serve anything heavy with it, definitely not a cream sauce." Pan-fried, with a warm salad of spinach, new potatoes, grilled pancetta and a sweet chilli dressing (£11.95) is one preferred option this summer (see recipe on page 52).

"The dressing lends itself to the fish because while you get the fire of the chilli it still has a sweetness from the caster sugar so it's not too in-your-face," he explains. "That's the thing with fish; because it has a light flavour, it can be influenced." He says that his job is made a lot easier because the standard of fish he buys from Whitby-based Bill Rae, who sources locally, is "superb".

"If you have good monkfish or sea bass you are not restricted to doing things a certain way like you can be with cheaper produce. OK, we pay a little bit more, but it's worth it," he asserts.

Discovering good cod was a revelation: "I never used it before I came here because we never managed to get good-quality cod when I worked in large hotels - it was usually small and tasted like cardboard."

Fullerton's background is almost entirely hotel-based. It includes stints with the Keswick Hotel, Keswick, Cumbria; Woodhall Hotel, Linton, near York; and the Grange Hotel, York. His only non-hotel stage was seven months spent as a sous chef with a ferry company immediately prior to coming to the Three Hares in 1996 - an experience he did not relish. "I felt I was being wasted because you spent most of the time working with packaged food," he says.

One good thing Fullerton did learn during his stint at sea was the ability to work in a limited area - a skill that has stood him in good stead at the Three Hares, given that he and his brigade of two are squeezed into a 6ft x 12ft kitchen. Lack of space forces them to be practical about how adventurous they can be with their food. "Everything is made by ourselves - bread, pasta and sauces, even desserts," he says, "so we have to be aware of the limitations in such a small kitchen."

A white chocolate mousse wrapped in a dark chocolate sponge with marinated cherries (£3.50), one of seven desserts offered, illustrates the problems. "We had come up with the idea of making chocolate cases ourselves but, after trials, we decided it was going to be too time- [and space-]consuming so the lads decided on a chocolate sponge - it's easily adaptable."

Fullerton encourages menu input from his two chefs, believing their contribution is crucial. "They have to cook [the food] so they should know about it," he says. "How can they be interested in serving the best they can if they don't know how it is all put together?" n

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