Dan Evans's passion for cooking began in the late 1970s when he was studying for a history of art degree in London. He prepared meals for his house-mates and became so obsessed with the enterprise that it took over completely from his academic studies.
After dropping out of university and travelling for a few years, Evans got his first proper kitchen job in the early 1980s at London's Poissonnerie de l'Avenue, where he worked for a year-and-a-half.
This was followed by a few months at Turner's and then four years working at Alastair Little in Frith Street.
Evans's first head chef's job was at Odette's in London. From there he went to 192 (Notting Hill) and then did some stages in Paris before becoming opening chef at the Fire Station in London's Waterloo. It was while in this job that Evans got to know the Anglesea Arms, located on the street where he lives. He bought the pub in 1995.
At first sight the Anglesea Arms in Hammersmith, west London, is just like any other neighbourhood pub. Situated at the end of a residential street, it has the usual wooden floors, a motley collection of tables and chairs, a slight smell of beer, the compulsory smoky haze and a very relaxed atmosphere. There's nothing glitzy or glamorous about it at all.
But at the back of the pub on a bare brick wall is a blackboard carrying the menu, and even a cursory glance at this reveals the food here is anything but bog-standard pub grub. Dishes such as Catalan-style chorizo, garlic and eel gratin, herb breadcrumbs and paprika, or sautéd lamb sweetbreads, pappardelle, pancetta, button onions, mushrooms and chives vie for customers' attention. A bustling open kitchen, in which a brigade of seven chefs is working at a frenetic pace, also gives a strong clue that the Anglesea Arms is something out of the ordinary.
No wonder, then, that here is a pub which literally bursts at the seams every day of the year: 150 dining customers a day is typical, in addition to the scores of people who pop in just for a drink.
And it is not just local punters who have realised that this pub offers something special. Since chef-proprietor Dan Evans first opened it with his wife Fiona three-and-a-half years ago, the Anglesea Arms has never been out of The Good Food Guide and in March this year it won the Montecristo Havana Award for Best Pub Restaurant in the Carlton London Restaurant Awards.
But a desire for accolades is far from being what motivates Evans. In fact, he says, one of the reasons he bought the pub and moved out of the mainstream London restaurant scene was because he was after a quiet life. "I've always suffered from lack of confidence and appalling feelings of self-doubt, so this pub in the back of beyond was a bit of a hide for me," he admits. "I didn't want to be one of those chefs opening to some great fanfare and I didn't want the food critics here. Good God, I'm getting them, but I never asked them to come."
More importantly, Evans explains that he wanted to open a pub rather than a restaurant because he felt compelled to take good food to people who would not otherwise have the opportunity to try it. "I wanted the working man and woman who had never eaten good food before to come in here and try foie gras and all the other delicious things I'd learnt how to make over the years," he says. "That's why I bought a pub, because in a restaurant there'll be bowing and scraping going on from the waiters and that can make a person feel uncomfortable."
The prices on the blackboard certainly bring the dishes within the reach of a wide clientele: at lunch nothing on the menu costs more than £7, while in the evening everything is under £10. So someone choosing whole roast John Dory, Jersey Royals, spinach and cäpe butter sauce, for example, will be charged £8.95; while another ordering stuffed saddle of rabbit "cock-a-leekie", mash, thyme, mustard and caramelised shallots will be asked to part with just £8.25.
Evans admits such prices mean he is only just making a profit, but he is determined not to raise a single dish above £10. "I'll never forget my grandfather telling me, ‘When you can afford to be generous, be generous,' and that's what I try to do," he says.
He takes great pride in the diverse range of customers who are now regulars at his pub - everyone from executives at the nearby BBC to students, old-age pensioners and even the odd villain. The food that Evans's diverse audience enjoys he describes as a "mish-mash" of everything he has seen over the years (see panel, page 54). But probably the biggest influence during his formative years as a chef was the four years he spent working for Alastair Little when he first opened his Frith Street restaurant in the mid-1980s. Evans says the period was a turning point for him because he realised that rustic food, simply served, could outshine more elegant cuisine in terms of flavour.
"For the first six months I worked for Alastair, I thought his food was rubbish. He'd put risotto in a bowl and if there was some rice on the side, he wouldn't wipe it. I couldn't understand how he could let something go out which didn't look good," says Evans. "But the point was, it tasted amazing, and after a while it dawned on me that this was the best food I'd ever been privileged to be involved with."
Evans's dishes today reflect a similar rustic style and also rely on the quality of their raw ingredients. Indeed, ingredients are a subject that he is absolutely passionate about: everything he buys must be organic and he would only ever consider using what is in season.
"I don't buy anything off the shelf or any Dutch stuff. I always follow the seasons. For example, there is six weeks of the berry season in Britain - August and the first two weeks of September. That's the only time I'll put summer pudding on."
It's the same story with fish, one of Evans's favourite ingredients. He says he wouldn't dream of serving farmed salmon because the taste and texture of its flesh is inferior to a wild one. "I look forward every year to the wild salmon season. And I'll only buy the fish from people with a rod licence, so money is going back into looking after the river."
Other fish are supplied to the Anglesea Arms by a fisherman who goes out daily from Mersea Island, Essex. "He'll ring me from the boat when he's got the sonar on and tell me he's spotted some turbot, so I can put it on the menu that evening," says Evans. "He'll land the boat and bring the fish straight here, so sometimes they're still alive when they arrive."
Buying such ingredients from independent suppliers allows Evans to offer new menus daily and, in fact, he changes the menu at both lunch and dinner. While admitting that the practice puts enormous pressure on the kitchen and leaves him exhausted, Evans says it ensures neither the brigade nor the customers ever get bored.
Hearty portions
Certain rules do apply to the menus, however. At lunch some 12 savoury dishes are offered and they are written in one long line on the blackboard - no differentiation is made between starters and main courses. This is because Evans wants people on tight budgets or those on a 45-minute lunch break to feel they can pop in and have a dish for less than £5. Portion sizes are hearty, so no one will leave feeling hungry, even if they opt, say, for a £3.75 bowl of summer shellfish minestrone: lobster, crab, mussels, scallops and tarragon pesto.
In the evening, meanwhile, eight starters are chalked up on the blackboard, six main courses and four desserts. A lot of work goes into ensuring this menu is carefully balanced, Evans says. The starters always include a soup, a seasonal salad and two meat, two fish and two vegetarian dishes.
"At main course two of the dishes are always fish, but they must be total opposites, so if one is an oily fish like tuna or sea bass, the other must be a white flatfish. I also always put on one bird, one offal dish and one red meat.
"And every one of the dishes must be cooked differently - one steamed, one grilled, one roasted, one sautéd - so the customer not only has a choice of ingredients but also of cooking styles."
Unsurprisingly, customer complaints are a rare phenomenon at the Anglesea Arms. n