To the manor gone
After nearly a quarter of a century in its Kentish village home, Read's restaurant has moved. Janet Harmer reports.
Arriving at Read's new premises, anyone who has experienced chef-proprietor David Pitchford's assured cooking in the 24 years of the Kent restaurant's existence will know immediately that the setting is a more fitting location in which to enjoy it. A sweeping gravel drive leads up to a beautifully proportioned Georgian building, Macknade Manor, set among majestic chestnut and cedar trees in three-and-a-half acres of grounds. It's all a far cry from the restaurant's previous site.
Although situated in the picturesque Kent village of Painter's Forstal, the building which Read's formerly occupied couldn't have been more unprepossessing. Variously described as a municipal library, health centre or doctor's surgery, the 1960s-vintage square brick building, which originally housed a mini-market, did little to entice people inside. But those who did cross the threshold into the 40-seat restaurant were swiftly won over by Pitchford's Michelin-starred cooking and his wife Rona's relaxed and friendly service.
The restaurant's elegant new setting is a great boost to Rona and her front of house team of three staff. "Here," she says, "we've won people over before they've even walked through the door, whereas before we had to work really hard to convince them that they had come to the right place."
Her husband agrees. "It has certainly brought home to us the importance of the old adage that ‘location, location, location' are the three most important factors to consider in opening a restaurant," he says, although he points out that it is not just the vastly more attractive building that is working in their favour. The fact that Read's is now situated just outside Faversham, on the main A2 road between Sittingbourne and Canterbury, enables it to pick up passing trade.
Although Read's previous incarnation was only a couple of miles away, it was tucked down remote country lanes. "We could not be more delighted with the business we are doing," says David, who on average serves around 80 covers across lunch and dinner every day from Tuesday to Saturday that the restaurant, which again seats 40, is open. "Even on our quietest day, we've served 63 customers," he says. Such buoyant numbers seem far removed from those at the old Read's, where just six or seven customers on a Tuesday evening wasn't unusual.
Despite the fact that the Pitchfords had long had a yearning to move out of their former premises, the opportunity to finally do so came about by chance. "For a long time, I'd thought Macknade Manor would be an ideal location to have a restaurant with rooms," says Rona. "The man who lived there, and who I thought was the owner, was a customer of ours in Painter's Forstal. One day, I said to him that, should he ever plan to sell the property, then we would be interested. But the house wasn't his to sell. He was the tenant farmer and the property had been owned for more than 20 years by the insurance company, Prudential."
As it turned out, Prudential was in the process of selling the house to the Prince of Wales's Duchy of Cornwall concern, which was buying up the insurer's portfolio of 20 or so farms across the UK. But the Duchy had no real interest in Macknade Manor; it had bought the string of farms simply to acquire one of the UK's top organic farms, which is in Herefordshire.
The Pitchfords saw their opportunity and wrote to the Duchy of Cornwall. Their timing was perfect - within a week, they were viewing the late 18th century property. "Then we did all the things a good businessman would tell you not to do," David says. "We bought the house with a bridging loan and without planning permission for change of use. But all along, we felt we were doing the right thing."
Their instincts proved to be spot-on. They obtained planning permission to demolish the first Read's and build eight houses in its place before selling to a property developer, and at the same time successfully secured planning permission on Macknade Manor for conversion into a restaurant with six en suite bedrooms. After six months of extensive building works and a total outlay, including the purchase price, of £1.25m, Read's mark two opened on 6 May 2001.
Although Pitchford has continued to cook exactly the same kind of food that, for a quarter of a century, has won him such accolades as a coveted Michelin star, the decision to do so was no foregone conclusion.
"All chefs go through different stages with regard to their cooking style, and I've been no different," he says. "When you come out of college, you want to try new things all the time, and then you go through a period of complication when everything you cook involves as many different techniques as possible. But then you go back to wanting to cook a simpler style of food."
He recognised, in the run-up to opening the new restaurant, that the move would be an ideal time to change direction in his style of food. As well as wanting to both cook and eat simpler food himself, he was also concerned about being able to recruit enough skilled staff in the long term to be able to support the continuation of an haute cuisine menu.
"In an ideal world," he says, "I would have opted for perfect simplicity, offering dishes like a top-quality Dover sole, beautifully cooked with some floury potatoes and butter, lemon and parsley. But the young staff in the kitchen - and we have some very good guys at the moment - didn't want to do that kind of thing. They'd soon be bored to tears. Yet I think it is just as difficult to get a dish like that right as it is a more elaborate dish."
Consequently, the Pitchfords have transferred exactly the same style of menu and pricing structure - £18.50 for three courses at lunch and £38 for three courses at dinner - from Painter's Forstal to Macknade Manor.
Among the dishes his brigade of five chefs like to cook are ones involving many different elements, such as terrines. For example, a terrine of foie gras and shredded duckling served as a starter involves the butchery of the duck, the confiting of the duck legs, the preparation and marinating in Drambuie and Cognac of the foie gras, the cooking of cabbage leaves to layer between the foie gras and duck, the actual putting-together of the terrine, and the preserving of local morello cherries, which are served as an accompaniment.
Comparative cooking
Pitchford also likes to get his customers thinking about what they're eating through some comparative cooking. So, he might serve pieces of wild salmon and farmed salmon alongside each other, or domestic duck and wild duck, or English green asparagus and French white asparagus. But although most people prefer the taste of wild salmon at £11 a pound compared with farmed salmon at £1.50 a pound, not so many would agree it is seven or eight times better.
Similarly, he will serve haddock that has been oak-smoked in nearby Whitstable three different ways as a starter - as fishcakes, in a vichyssoise and as a brandade. And among the main courses is a dish that will delight most carnivores, incorporating five different cuts of lamb. The roasted rump and best end, together with the pan-fried loin and kidneys, are served with a rosemary jus, alongside a mini shepherd's pie.
Ultimately, Pitchford ensures that there is something for everyone on the menu. While the more adventurous diner might be enticed by fresh sea scallops with toasted sesame seeds and ginger stir-fried vegetable spring rolls on a light butter sauce, or slices of duck breast marinated in local honey and black peppercorns with romanesque and sarladaise potatoes, he is more than happy to cater for anyone who asks for a plainly grilled fillet of steak or Dover sole.
Breakfast is the one menu offered that is very simple - largely on the advice of fellow chef-proprietor Nigel Haworth at Northcote Manor, near Blackburn, Lancashire. "He told me to avoid a weird and wonderful … la carte breakfast menu, as what people want most mornings is a straightforward English breakfast of bacon, eggs, sausages, tomatoes and maybe black pudding," says Pitchford, who is cooking breakfasts for the first time since he was a 19-year-old commis at London's Dorchester hotel.
