Palace statement

"cor, isn't he lovely," chorused a group of female catering students at Hospitality Week earlier this year, pouring over the front cover of Best of Chef on the Caterer stand. Gary Rhodes grinned back at them, hair stiff with fixing gel, and winked.

"Garyitus is all around us," says Joe Levin, sitting in his new restaurant venture on London's South Bank. Gary Rhodes, TV personality, author of several cookery books and chef at fashionable Mayfair restaurant the Greenhouse, has teamed up with Levin once again as executive chef at the People's Palace, the ex-Terrace Restaurant at the Royal Festival Hall, London.

Leased by The Capital Group - a collection of London hotels and restaurants owned and operated by the Levin family - the 200-seat river-front restaurant stretches across the first floor of the 1950s-built concert venue.

Opened earlier this week, diners can now gaze through the double-height windows of the restaurant at the Thames and bank opposite, while trains rumble across the railway bridge into Charing Cross station. Dwarfed by the six-metre-high ceiling, the best tables occupy the river view. On a warm day, says Levin, the windows can be opened.

Talk of the town

Affable general manager Charles Morgan (formerly of the Ritz) leads Rhodes over, head chef Stuart Busby in tow. The task of recruiting a kitchen staff of 35 does not show on their faces. "This place is going to be talked about," announces Rhodes. "I don't want it to become one of those flash-in-the-pan places that you read about for six months, then don't hear of for six years. We are going to be consistent with our food."

"Whatever we do," Busby continues, "be it Shepherd's Pie or Beef Wellington, it has to be to the same standard."

"Maintaining standards" is Rhodes' dictum, dropped into the conversation at numerous intervals. He is also adamant that the People's Palace is not going to be another Greenhouse, in fact the only dish that will make the move is his renowned bread and butter pudding. Not so for the kitchen staff. Many are ex-Greenhouse and know what Rhodes wants.

A loyal staff

"The sous chefs have all worked with Gary at the Greenhouse," explains Busby, "the same with the senior chefs de parties - we are even asking old staff back because they know the score."

But with a string of television programmes, a new book on the way and his former Greenhouse sous chef, Busby, now ensconced in the kitchen at the People's Palace, how will Rhodes divide his time? "Well, obviously I'm still very much involved with the Greenhouse, and also involved with what's happening here. We will work together as a team, which is what we have done for some time."

Touring the new kitchen, Busby explains how the sections are split and how a computerised ticker tape system spells out each order, dispensing with hoarse shouts from the waiters. "We have to be set up like this if we are dealing with 600 covers a day."

The kitchen is divided into areas for starters, main courses and puddings; three individual kitchens within the main kitchen. Fourteen kitchen staff are on duty at any one time and will rotate around each section. Busby runs through all the movements each chef will have to make: "There is a printer on each section, everybody gets a print-out in front of them but it only shows what each of them is cooking." He will be putting together the main courses."

So if it's not like the Greenhouse what will it be? "A variety of styles," says Rhodes. "You might come in one day and find a chicken curry on the menu. But it could sit alongside home-made fish fingers and chips or a Thai dish. But we won't do something unless we can do it properly.

"There are a lot of restaurants that follow fashions in food but never pull it off, we are not going to be like that," he adds. "There will be some old favourites on the menu, but everything will have a twist to it."

For example, roast beef with cracked pepper, a little jus and horseradish mash, or suckling pig with mustard mashed potatoes. "Or how about this," says Rhodes, "home-made Turkish delight ice-cream served with a chocolate fudge sauce."

The crispy anchovy niçoise salad (£5.50) comes with baby anchovies coated in a cayenne flour batter on the mixed leaves. "We are almost too limited at the Greenhouse," adds Busby, "especially with ingredients. But here we can do what we want."

The menu still needs some tweaking. The plan is to change dishes on the fixed menu every week, and produce a daily changing menu with a choice of three starters, three main courses and three puddings - bringing the total choice up to six for each course. It is the pricing that breaks the mould, though. There will be main course dishes from £6 to £18 - choices to suit every pocket. Two courses from the menu of the day for £10.50, three courses for £13.50.

"That is the way it's going to stay," says Rhodes. "That's why we called it the People's Palace." Rhodes and Busby point out that some customers will already have spent a small fortune on theatre and concert tickets, also many students on a tight budget come to the Royal Festival Hall. "We want to encourage everybody to eat here."

A club table for 12 to 15 people is available for single diners. And if you just fancy a coffee and dessert, that is fine too. "People can come along and spend as little or as much as they like," explains Rhodes. "We don't want to look at this as a restaurant. This is more of an eating house."

Flushed with excitement, Rhodes rounds off magnanimously: "Nothing would please me more than if I get a check with one starter and a coffee. This means they've only got half an hour and no more than £5 to spend, which they could have spent in McDonald's but would not have had the comfort, view and everything else that goes with it.

Tomato soup will read chunky tomato soup - no fancy French or flowery descriptions, the surprise is in the eating, says Rhodes. This comes in a bowl with crunchy croutons covered with thick shavings of Parmesan and vegetables coarsely chopped (£3.50). He is particularly proud of the one-pot dishes where you help yourself. "There's no silver service here," he says.

"It's going to be very successful," he adds. "This room has failed so many times before. I think it always had the wrong concept; they always had starchy tablecloths and waiters."