Pioneer chef George Perry-Smith dies at 80

Acclaimed post-war chef George Perry-Smith died last week at the age of 80.

Perry-Smith, who was born in Widnes, Lancashire, in 1922, opened the Hole in the Wall restaurant in Bath in 1951, which was regarded as one of the most adventurous restaurants outside London at the time.

He was one of the first generation of chefs to be inspired by influential cookery writer Elizabeth David, who encouraged experimentation and the use of fresh, quality ingredients.

David Taylor, who founded management consultancy Catering Concepts and worked at the Hole in the Wall in the early days, praised Perry-Smith's "drive towards uncompromising excellence", "his love and respect for raw ingredients" and "his gift as a teacher" in a letter to Caterer in April. "George was a light in the dark culinary world of the 1950s, when we were emerging from the austerity of the Second World War, and the dreaded brown Windsor soup was commonplace," Taylor continued. "In times of deep mediocrity, he challenged the norms, ignored the accountants and produced the template from which so much has developed."

After selling his Bath restaurant in 1972, Perry-Smith opened the Riverside restaurant with rooms in Helford, Cornwall, in the early 1970s at around the same time his protégé, Joyce Molyneux, set up the Carved Angel in Dartmouth.

Perry-Smith is survived by his fourth wife, Heather Crosbie, five sons and three daughters.