Sweet smell of excess
A pub in the middle of the Devon countryside is suddenly attracting huge recognition for its culinary offerings. Tessa Fox reports.
The Nobody Inn is on something of a roll as far as accolades are concerned. The 16th century pub, six narrow, twisting miles out of Exeter in the village of Doddiscombsleigh, has scooped double recognition this year from two influential guides - it's the Good Hotel Guide‘s inn of the year and the Good Pub Guide‘s pub of the year. What's more, numerous platters and trophies on display recognise the pub's whisky list (there are over 240 types on offer), its wines (around 700 at last count), and cheeses (about 40, all local).
"We seem to do everything to excess," says Nick Borst-Smith, who left a career in hotel management to buy the pub with his parents in 1970. "We've got far too many whiskies, far too much wine and now too much cheese as well!" As if managing that amount of stock were not enough, he also runs four letting rooms at the Nobody, three more in the Manor House in nearby Town Barton, which he bought 15 years ago, regular wine tastings, and a mail-order service for wine.
Despite having, by his own admission, fingers in lots of pies, Borst-Smith also finds time to develop the pub's food offering with restaurant head chef Keith Finch - a loyal employee with no fewer than 33 years at the Nobody Inn under his belt - and Paul Tait and Anne Searle, who look after the bar menu.
The restaurant regularly feeds about 30 diners a night, while the number of bar meals can reach 1,000 a week during the summer, so all three chefs are kept busy. "When we came the food was all scampi and chips and chicken in a basket," Borst-Smith recalls. "We always had visions of the sort of food we wanted to offer and it has developed slowly over the years."
Now, popular starters on the bar menu include salmon parcels filled with cream cheese, mint and cucumber; and vegetable risotto with sweet pepper sauce. Rolled plaice filled with spinach and prawns with a lemon butter and coriander sauce sells well as a main course, as does the grilled organic salmon on Mediterranean vegetables.
"We've managed to find a source of organic salmon that's cheaper than the farmed fish we were getting," says Borst-Smith. "And being organic makes a dramatic difference with salmon." Tait, who trained at Exeter College five years ago and took a variety of jobs before joining the Nobody Inn 18 months ago, agrees. "I don't normally like salmon but this is really tasty and meaty. It's a very simple dish but the fish is such good quality it doesn't need anything added."
Tait and Searle generally offer eight starters on the bar menu and a dozen or so main courses, changing items on a daily basis, and sometimes twice-daily, but keeping the best sellers on for longer. They will even ring the changes with these favourite dishes from time to time, for instance using wild mushrooms, garlic and cream in risotto instead of vegetables and the sweet pepper sauce. Or they might offer a breast of chicken with tomatoes, olives and peppers one day, and with mixed peppers in a spicy Chinese sauce the next. Tait's favourite dishes include his steak, kidney and Guinness suet pudding; and the guinea fowl, coriander and red wine terrine.
"When I put the steak and kidney pudding on the menu we don't seem to do anything else, and I love cooking with game, particularly venison - it's got such a strong, earthy taste," he says. Searle, meanwhile, gets a particularly enthusiastic response from diners to her Beenleigh Blue, leek and nut pie.
Local cheeses such as Beenleigh Blue - with its "pungent bite and creamy sheep flavour, strong spicy finish", according to the tasting notes that accompany each cheese - feature in many dishes. The Ashleigh cheese ("tangy cheese with a hint of hazelnuts on the palate") and Swiss chard filo bake with basil and white wine tomato sauce sells well, as do the butterbeans casseroled with peppers, tomatoes and onions topped with grated Denhay cheese ("Cheddar type, the best we've found, very mature and full of flavour").
The Nobody's take on a ploughman's includes three local cheeses with a home-made real ale chutney, while the cheese platter made up of six local cheeses is a popular alternative to a pudding.
Some of the bar dishes also appear on the restaurant menu, which is made up of eight dishes at each course, plus cheese. Warm kiln-roasted salmon on brioche with a light citrus sauce and roasted peppers, and the gravadlax with smoked Dartmouth prawns and crevette tails served with dill and herb mayonnaise and lumpfish roe are both popular starters. Sliced fillet of beef with a red wine, shallot and mushroom sauce sells well as a main course.
"The halibut, pan-fried with green peppercorn, tomato, bell pepper, coriander and white wine sauce also flies out in the summer," says Borst-Smith. He adds that the locally sourced ostrich fillet, cooked rare and served with a rich slightly spicy cranberry, gherkin and oxtongue sauce, is popular too. "And I just love the lamb sweetbreads, which we braise in a creamy white wine sauce with mushrooms and parsley."
Puddings are the same across the bar and restaurant and might include Toatley Farm ewe's milk yogurt with a jug of warm Doddiscombsleigh honey; apple pie and Devon clotted cream; or baked lemon cheesecake. All are made in-house except for the ice-cream, which comes from Wiltshire firm Hill Station.
Common to both menus is insistence on local produce. Supporting local businesses has become even more important to Borst-Smith since the outbreak of foot-and-mouth, which has hit Devon so badly. But he ensures local patriotism is not at the expense of quality. "Quality is the number one priority and, while I don't go for a small supplier for the sake of it, we're very well off in Devon for small suppliers. Visitors like to eat local produce too," he says.
Sausages are bought weekly from Denhay Farm in Dorset, and increasing amounts of fresh produce are bought from Chris Towel, a grower with just four acres in nearby Bridford who delivers the produce by motorbike. "He grows wonderful things - green, yellow, black French beans; Swiss chard; round courgettes; white beetroot and he's freezing soft fruit for us at the moment. He'll ask what we'd like next year and plant accordingly."
Although the kitchen seems to be ticking along serenely at the moment, producing a bar and restaurant menu that has some crossover but is essentially separate, Borst-Smith reveals that he's planning some radical changes over the coming months. A new kitchen is on the cards that will bring Finch, Tait and Searle into a closer working relationship, working on a single menu with a single cost and producing more meals to order.
"I don't think the main courses will change dramatically," says Tait, "but starters might because at the moment a lot are prepared in advance. It'll be more interesting for the chefs and better financially, too."
Following visits to the kitchens of friends in the industry such as Michael Caines and Dennis Watkins, Borst-Smith has come up with a layout for the new kitchen. The serious work will begin when the busy holiday season has finally come to an end.
Guinea fowl terrine with Dorset-cured ham (serves eight)
INGREDIENTS 1 guinea fowl
220g butter
220g chopped onion
170g sliced mushrooms
150ml red wine
110g very finely chopped mixed bell peppers
30g chopped coriander
Finely sliced cured Denhay Farm ham to line terrine
Salt and pepper
METHOD Brush the guinea fowl with butter and season. Roast it in a hot oven for approximately 50 minutes. Strip the meat and chop roughly. Soften diced onions in the butter along with sliced mushrooms. Add the red wine, peppers and coriander and reduce by half. Add the chopped guinea fowl. Season.
Line a terrine with cured ham, leaving enough to wrap over the top. Overfill with the mixture and press firmly into the terrine. Fold over the top. Chill overnight.
To eat, take out of the fridge in good time, slice and arrange on serving dishes and serve with hot toast or bread.
The Nobody Inn, Doddiscombsleigh, near Exeter, Devon EX6 7PS. Tel: 01647 252394. Web site: www.nobodyinn.co.uk
