Who dares wins

Few chefs in Britain visit the market each morning to buy their provisions for the day, but Dermott Slade is different. Insufficient storage space and a reluctance from some of his suppliers to deliver on a daily basis - his 34-seat restaurant requires so little of their supplies - means he is forced to go shopping every day that the 13-month-old business is open for service. The upside, though, is that Slade gets to select personally the best produce available, and wastage is kept to a minimum.

Dermott's, which is open from Tuesdays to Saturdays inclusive for dinner only, offers a weekly-changing set-price menu at £22.50 for three courses or £18.95 for two. The fish changes every week so that Slade can purchase on the basis of price and quality, while the best-selling meats, Welsh lamb and beef, which carries a £2.50 supplement, are always a feature of the menu.

"Unfortunately, beef and lamb are the most popular dishes," says Slade ruefully, "so I keep the cuts on [fillet of beef and loin of lamb] because they are the best I can get for money. But I serve them differently."

For example, one week Slade may serve the lamb with a white truffle risotto, the next week it could be with a celeriac and goats' cheese parfait. Presentation will change, too. "Sometimes I serve the lamb as just a loin, sometimes it's four racks, and other times I will drop all of the racks bar one," adds Slade.

Despite his customers' reluctance to stray from their native lamb and beef, Slade is quick to point out that "they can't say the selection is not there". For example, recent starters included smoked cod terrine with pea and smoky bacon purée, tomato and white truffle dressing; ratatouille and feta timbale with olive and anchovy fritters, chorizo and balsamic dressing; and pepper monkfish with wasabi, beetroot salad, baby corn and beetroot dressing. Among the main courses were fresh halibut slow-braised in clam, orange, fennel and basil broth; and steamed scallops and Serrano ham, warm Italian-style salad and saffron butter sauce. The dessert selection included coconut parfait, winter berry and Sambuca compote, and roasted figs with maple syrup and pecan ice-cream.

"People are slowly coming round," adds Slade. "They are getting more adventurous."

Gourmet nights, held once or twice a month, have helped Slade and his team to educate their customers. For £35 for a six-course meal including wine, Slade and his front of house manager Kevin Davies have been able to "get stuck in to a more technical style of cooking", as well as illuminating guests with facts such as, "You can serve red wine with fish."

Slade says his cooking is influenced by the amount of time he and his sous chef Adrian Bennett have available, which ingredients they have to play with, and the cost price of his dishes. "The food isn't very technical because we haven't got the time. We do the best we can for the time we've got."

Nevertheless, when Caterer visited the restaurant during a recent Saturday night service, customers were visibly delighted, many of them gasping when their desserts were served. "Right from the start, I decided that I didn't want to do a fantastic starter, fantastic main course and then a crap dessert. I want the meals to finish with a bang."

The first two weeks of October were quiet for Dermott's, which Slade puts down to the Rugby World Cup. "Other local restaurateurs were dining with us on the Thursday night, which gave me an indication that everybody was suffering a bit," says Slade. The third week of October picked up, though, "and the last week went absolutely mad" - the restaurant was full every night.

Christmas is looming and will prove to be a significant period for Dermott's. Having made a decision during the restaurant's embryonic stages to operate for dinner only, Slade will be opening at lunchtime every day from Tuesday to Saturday during December and will be providing a semi-traditional Christmas lunch for office parties. "It's going to be a 7am start for me and a 3am finish for three weeks," says Slade.

For £14.95, excluding drinks, Dermott's will be serving a starter choice of tomato and basil broth with deep-fried cockles; seasonal fruits and berries with satsuma and cranberry sorbet; game terrine with Muscat jelly and warm winter salad; and chicken apricot Stilton mousse with celeriac and apples. These will be followed by ballottine of turkey, sage and onion parfait; seared salmon with creamed parfait and ciabatta crust and watercress sauce, roast eggplant with chargrilled vegetables and creamed Parmesan; or entrecôte of beef with tomato and honey mustard, peppercorn café au lait. To finish, there will be a festive pudding with a fig and brandy ice-cream, little pot of chocolate with Grand Marnier; apple and mint lattice pie with Bourbon and lemon honey ice-cream; or espresso torte with orange and cardamom. In the evenings, the restaurant will revert to its conventional set-price menu.

Last month's annual Cockle Festival, held in Swansea Market, saw Slade's first live cooking demonstration in front of an audience of 70 people. Sporting a microphone, Slade cooked and served 70 portions of ginger crab and cockle cakes on Mediterranean-style dressing, and 70 portions of chocolate mousse and Turkish delight sauce with rum and raisin ice-cream. "That's 140 portions in one hour and 20 minutes," explains Slade. "I flipping loved it. I just love working under pressure. I would love to do Ready Steady Cook - it would be so good for the restaurant, not to mention the country."