Shore winner

When Leigh Diggins left London's Michelin-starred restaurant scene last summer to run a pub kitchen on the north Norfolk coast, he knew he would experience something of a culture shock.

Burnham Market is a beautiful village to live and work in. Being 10 miles from the nearest town, though, it contrasts greatly with the city life the 27-year-old chef was used to.

But seven months into his new job as headchef of the Hoste Arms, Diggins does not miss London at all. "It's hard work and I probably do more hours than I did in London, but the environment here is extremely relaxing. I still have a flat in London, but I don't think I could work there again."

The Hoste Arms is a 17th-century coaching inn. It has been a court house, livestock market, art gallery and brothel. Today, it is a 200-seat pub-restaurant with 21 luxurious bedrooms that buzzes with business all-year round.

Although the pub is extremely large, it is divided into several rooms. From the front of thebuilding you enter the bar, which has dark wooden walls and floors, a roaring fire and a few tablesand chairs.

Turn right and you find yourself in a large, laid-up dining area. Take the stairs and you reach the 35-seat conservatory.

Turning left from the main bar leads you into the 34-seat restaurant, where the Hoste Arms drops its country charm and becomes more upmarket. It is this area that first attracted Diggins to the pub. "The restaurant has one AA rosette at the moment, but it has the potential to have three," he says. His ambitions do not stop there, however. "I don't know if Michelin would ever award stars to pubs, but I intend to bring a lot of awards here," he adds.

Prior to joining the Hoste Arms last August, Diggins worked for four years as sous chef at London's Capital Hotel under head chef Philip Britten. There, he learnt what it took to get and keep a Michelin star. "Consistency is definitely Philip's strong point," says Diggins. "But what impressed me most about him was that he cooks there everyday."

Diggins is not into absent chefs, and he practices what he preaches. He starts at 7am each morning and makes sure he is the last of his brigade of eight to leave at night.

Despite the huge volume of business passing through the Hoste's door - from March to October the pub averages 350 covers a day - Diggins will not succumb to buying in prepared produce. "We need to set ourselves apart from everyone else in the area," he says. "We don't buy in products because it is against my principles." The customers would not tolerate it either. Many of his customers, who are from London, own holiday homes near the Hoste and are used to eating out well in London. "They don't want heavy country food - that's why we sell so much shellfish."

Diggins's boss, Hoste Arms owner Paul Whittome, is a larger-than-life character who has worked hard to restore the pub to its former glory. During 100 years of brewery ownership much of the pub's interior has been changed, he explains.

Whittome was born into a potato-supplying family and spent most of his life doing just that. Then, in 1991, on impulse more than anything else, he decided to buy the Hoste Arms and went into partnership with the then tenants. The partnership had a short life, though, and Whittome soon became sole owner.

But Whittome has learnt the game quickly. The pub has received numerous awards under his command, including Johansens' 1996 Inn of the Year for Great Britain and Egon Ronay's Guides' 1996 Pub of the Year.

Diggins describes his fish-heavy menus at the Hoste as "simplicity with flavours", but is quick to point out that the pub is not a fish restaurant. "I would quite happily put more meat dishes on the menu, but it's not what people want up here," he says. He operates a daily-changing 25-item menu in the bar and a monthly changing 15-item, set-price menu in the restaurant.

On the bar menu, typical dishes include marinated salmon with a warm beurre blanc (£4.95), grilled calamari on provenáale vegetables (£4.75), deep-fried duck and spring onion rolls on a sweet and sour sauce (£4.95), best end of lamb on cassoulet of tomato and haricot blanc (£8.95) and risotto of sun-dried tomatoes, black olives and pesto with parmesan (£6.95).

The set-price restaurant menu (£21 for two courses, £24 for three) features similar dishes to the bar menu, but they receive a little more TLC. The restaurant is clearly regarded as one of the best eating places in the area - it gets booked up weeks in advance.

Starters may include beignets of foie gras on an apple and Calvados coulis, broth of wild mushroom and pearl barley or warm tartlet of oysters on a leek and Champagne sauce. Main courses are likely to include pan-fried hake with flat beans and a lime and caper beurre blanc, saddle of rabbit with a rosemary soufflé and red wine sauce or roasted breast of pigeon on a boudin of game and juniper, galette potato and red wine sauce. Desserts tend to feature a tart, soufflé and selection of British cheeses.

Baked fillet of turbot (£8.25), pictured opposite, is a dish that is found on both the bar and the restaurant. Diggins gently roasts the fish for about five minutes and then serves it on a bed of red cabbage, grilled potatoes and a thyme and veal jus. "I like to do classical meat jus with fish, "he says.

The cabbage, normally prepared a bucket at a time, is made from a reduction of onions, red currant jelly, red wine vinegar, red wine, grated apple (including its skin), juniper and thyme leaves. When this mixture has reduced by half, Diggins adds the shredded cabbage and steams it for a couple of hours. Cooked in this way, Diggins says it manages to retain its vibrant colour.

Sautéd scallops and deep-fried oysters on black pasta tends to feature on the restaurant menu because of its expensive ingredients and carries a £2 supplement to the menu's set-price. It is one of Diggins's favourite dishes because the oysters come from a farm just a quarter of a mile up the road. "We do 500 oysters a week here - I like to use the local guys as much as possible."

The scallops are sautéd in olive oil and seasoned with salt, while the oysters are fried for just 15 seconds. These are then placed on and around hot pasta and served with a Champagne sauce.

Assiette of caramel is the best-selling dessert on the restaurant menu. Again, it is a simple dish because Diggins has struggled to get a pastry chef and he has not got the time to devote to desserts. "I like this sort of dish because it offers different flavours and textures in one dessert. "The dish comprises a crème caramel, caramel parfait, caramel mousse, brandy snap basket and caramel sauce.

Diggins's ultimate goal is to have his own place, which probably won't be that dissimilar to the Hoste. "High-class restaurants are going to suffer," he says. "Look at the likes of Mike Womersley [of the Three Lions, Stuckton, Hampshire] and Mark Prescott [of the White Hart, Nayland, Suffolk]. Chefs are increasingly going for this sort of operation. People can sit here in green wellies and eat lobster in the bar and pay £15 - it's what people want nowadays."

NEXT WEEK: Chef travels west to visit a pub in deepest Powys, where local specialities are presented with a twist.