Now, we all know that chefs occasionally need to employ a touch of artistic licence - Fuller's Tenants Extra January 2013

Now, we all know that chefs occasionally need to employ a touch of artistic licence. After all, ‘ground and spiced beef, lightly grilled and served with a rarebit topping on a freshly-baked ciabatta base” sounds a lot more interesting than a ‘cheeseburger’.

As we’re celebrating all things cheesy in this issue of Tenant’s Extra,  I thought it was worth sharing the explanation  given to me by a well-known chef as to why beer is a much better match with cheese than wine.

Apparently, it’s all to do with the fact that, on a molecular level, cheese and beer are very similar. Cheese is made from milk produced by cows, as well as other ruminants such as goats and sheep, which feed on grass. The primary ingredient of beer is wheat which is, basically, just domesticated grass - so the two complement each other perfectly

Now, I’ve no idea whether that’s true or not. We’d both had several beers at the time he explained it to me, but he definitely sounded convincing. It’s also hard to disagree that a nutty, mature cheddar or a creamy stilton, accompanied by a pint of best bitter, is one of life’s more uplifting experiences, and certainly beats a cube of cheese served up with a lukewarm chardonnay.

A few years ago, I also became involved in one of the great Cheese Mysteries of the Ages – the origin of the Ploughman’s Lunch. The BBC was looking into the origins of the staple of pub menus, and asked me to do some research.

Although there are some historical references, notably in Sir Walters Scott’s memoirs, and clearly   ploughmen have always eaten lunch, sadly there is no evidence of it having been a cheese-based dish prior to the 1960s. The Ploughman’s as we know it appears to have been invented as a marketing ploy by the amusingly-named British Cheese Board.

I’m delighted to report that the Cheese Board is still in business, and  its website at www.britishcheese.com  has some excellent information on cheese and beer matching  for pubs looking to pep up their pairing skills beer. Beer writer Melissa Cole suggests a series of specific matches on the site, including Fuller’s Golden Pride with extra mature cheddar – “a classic pairing of two great British institutions”.

The Cheese Board site also features some general guidelines on pairing cheese and beer from beer sommelier Nigel Sadler:

• Pair delicate beers with young, fresh cheeses
• Pair malty beers with nutty, aged cheeses

• Pair highly hopped, bitter beers with tart, sharp cheeses, especially Farmhouse cheddars

• Pair strong, sweet beers with blue cheeses

• Pair fruit/spiced beers with fruit cheeses.

And  to finish, my favourite cheesy song: I’m a sucker for a bit of operatic rock, so it has to be ‘Bat Out Of Hell’ by Meatloaf. Altogether now: “The sirens are screaming and the fires are howling way down in the valley tonight…” Sheer poetry 

This 'Kitchen Porter' column appears in the January 2013 issue of Fuller's Tenants Extra

It’s always gratifying to be proven right - Inapub November 2012

It’s always gratifying to be proven right, even when no one remembers that it was your idea in the first place. Now, I’m not going to pretend that I came up with the concept of serving food in pubs myself, even if Inapub does, somewhat harshly, focus on the longevity with which my insights have been entertaining and informing licensees.

However, there was a time when I had to fight hard to persuade the publishers of a now defunct pub trade newspaper to devote any editorial space to food. Blinded by the wads of cash being offered to advertise dayglo alcopops, headache-inducing nitrokeg beers, and bag-in-box leibfraumilch, the commercial powers-that-were ignored my insistence that food was the way forward.

Happily, most of those soulless, dead-eyed imbeciles are now in occupations more suited to their skill set, such as grave robbing and grandmother retailing, while my crusade continues. While there are still excellent wet-led businesses out there, it’s increasingly unusual to find one that doesn’t include food as part of the offer.

So, I was pleased to spend an afternoon at the latest Be At One cocktail bar watching another domino fall.  The group’s 13^th outlet at Guildhall in the City, is the first to include food. Ossie Grey, one of the team that originated the River Café, has developed a menu of sharing plates for Be At One.

The food is an object lesson in creating dishes that match seamlessly with the drinks menu rather than looking like an add-on.  The range include four sliders, including a tiger prawn variety, crostini, bruschetta and other hand held food with distinctive flavours, all great accompaniments to Be At One’s cocktail range.

In the brand’s defence, its earliest units were small venues which would have struggled to accommodate food. The addition of a food offer at bigger sites with diluting the appeal of the drinks offer should keep Be At One’s ambitious expansion plans on track.

Food and drink working seamlessly together? Who’d have thought it? Me, that’s who.

On the menu this month: I’m a sucker for a sausage sandwich, but the authentic US hot dog is rapidly overtaking the humble banger bap in popularity. Taking a cue from specialist restaurant chains such as Giraffe, pub group Grand Union has come on board with its new ‘Dirty Dogs’ menu. Options include the Hell Dog with chorizo, jalapenos, melted cheese and fiery sauce, and the Dog’s Dinner, topped with bacon, cheese, barbecue sauce and accompanied by onion rings. It’ a far cry from the day’s when the extent of choice “onions with that?” 

This ‘Pub Food With Porter’ column appears in the November/December 2012 edition of Inapub

The illicit appeal of a mid-afternoon pint is still very strong - Fuller's Tenants Extra, November 2012

The illicit appeal of a mid-afternoon pint is still very strong for those of us who learnt our drinking habits in the days when the licensing laws appeared to have been calculated to require pubs to close at more or less the exact point you wanted another drink.  

Not, I hasten to add, that I have very many opportunities to while away the afternoon in the pub, but I still like to remind young upstarts that, like bank holidays and universal suffrage, all-day opening is a hard-won freedom that should never be taken for granted.      

At this point, I know there will be a few older hands cursing me, kicking the dog, and recalling the days when a licensee could get a few hours’ break from the daily grind by calling “time” and putting the bolts across the door. I don’t underestimate the long hours and hard work that running a successful 21^st century pub involves.

It’s not simply more hours, but a more diverse offer as well. Increased competition as well as changes in consumer eating habits that mean we ‘graze’ more,  mean that pub food, in particular, has required a rethink.

From Sunday lunch to sharing platters, pubs need to cater for a wider range of expectations. During National Curry Week in October, I was lucky enough to spend an evening at Fuller’s pub The Red Lion, in Barnes, eating an authentic meal that would have put most ‘specialist’ Indian restaurants in the area to shame.

It’s not just food, of course. New figures from the Association of Licensed Multiple Retailers (ALMR) show that pubs sell more coffee than the specialist coffee chains, with 3.6m cups sold each week.

Experts forecast that the need for a more diverse operation will continue. Analyst Horizons believes that the high fixed costs of running a food business means that outlets which effectively run several food formats from the same site are best placed to thrive. That may sound too complicated, but a stroll through the average town centre shows how many needs a pub can meet:

·         Breakfast café – hot drinks, toast and  bacon sandwiches or the full English if there’s enough demand, to eat in or take away 

 

·         Coffee shop – with a menu of specialist teas and coffees, along with a few packaged snacks such as muffins and flapjacks, pubs can keep the morning coffee and afternoon tea market happy.

 

·         Sandwich bar – a simple sandwich menu and some sandwich bags could boost lunchtime trade.

 

·         Family meals – a kids’ menu of burgers, fish and chicken will appeal to parents looking for a change from fast food.   

 

·         Sit-down restaurant – pub food remains the nation’s favourite style of dining for consumers eating out

 

·         Late night menu – if customers head for the kebab shop at closing time, a simple range of quick-to-cook hot snacks will keep them in the pub while they wait for a taxi.

 

Each pub has to make its own decisions based on staffing, facilities and local demand – but if you don’t try, how will you ever know what the potential for extra trade is? 

This column appears in the November 2012 issue of Fuller's Tenants Extra

Lunch is, sadly, a habit I’ve fallen out of...

Lunch is, sadly, a habit I’ve fallen out of. There was a time, back in the days when I worked on much-missed trade paper The Publican, when lunch was more or less obligatory.

At the appointed hour, we’d head to Fuller’s temple of calm in Croydon, the Royal Standard, nestling in the shadow of the A232 flyover.  A sausage sandwich and a pint of Chiswick set me back less than a fiver, and was the perfect way to set up an afternoon’s work.

Alas, the old Publican team is now scattered to the winds, and the downside of working from a desk in the front room is that lunch tends to be less of a social occasion. I normally manage to compile a makeshift toastie from whatever’s in fridge, but with only the goldfish for conversation, debate about the burning issues of the day is somewhat lacking.

So my attention was caught by research from our old friends at analyst Horizons, forecasting that lunch is set to grow its share of overall foodservice sales. 

Among the insights, we learn

• The lunch market is currently  worth £14.9bn
• The lunch market  has risen by 3.3% on 2009 figures
• The average British adult eats lunch out 1.4 times per week in 2012, a rise from once a week in 2011
• Lunch through quick service and casual dining restaurants is doing well, meeting consumer needs for fast meals to eat-in or takeaway

Spurred on, I decided to pop out for a pub lunch. In my local – which sadly, isn’t a Fuller’s pub and  – the sausage sandwich comes with red onion chutney, something which  the Royal Standard’s otherwise impressive range of condiments never ran to, with the choice of chips or salad on the side.  Well, I was never going to have the salad, was I?

My lunch may have had more frills than the simple fare of old, but the price was also as eyewatering as the barman’s aftershave.  Could pubs learn something from other businesses which are successfully driving lunch trade? Just a few ideas:

• Deli counters – let customers build their own sandwich from a choice of fillings
• Takeaway – offer simple lunch deals ‘to go’
• Loyalty cards – stamp the card and drive extra trade with offers such as a free after-work drink after five lunch visits
• Meal deals – offer a pint, glass of wine or soft drink with a sandwich at a set price.

In a market where we’re all pressed for time and looking for value, a pub lunch shouldn’t feel like a luxury

This 'Kitchen Porter' column appears in the October 2012 issue of Fuller's Tenants Extra.

There was a certain grim inevitability...

There was a certain grim inevitability to the news that Tesco is to launch a traffic light colour coding system to let its customers know how ‘healthy’ or otherwise the food it sells is.

Those lobbying to change the nation’s eating habits have been pushing hard at Britain’s supermarkets, as well as pub and restaurant operators, to make nutritional information available on ready meals and menus.  As the UK’s biggest retailer, Tesco was an important scalp for the campaign.

I have no problem with giving consumers information which they want, and in ensuing that we all understand what a balanced diet is.  However, I’m deeply wary of people who want to decide what’s good for me, and I suspect those lobbying to change the nation’s eating and drinking habits fall into that category.

A reminder of the practical challenge facing busy pub kitchens was bought home recently when I spent a very pleasant morning preparing food in the development kitchen at Wadworth’s Brewery in Devizes. Cooking with a group of seven others, we cheerfully greased baking trays liberally with butter, sliced chips into non-uniform sizes, and dipped fish into bowls of freshly made batter.

Even with many of the ingredients pre-weighed, it’s a safe bet that no two meals served up at lunch that day had the same nutritional value. Frankly, none of us cared too much as we tucked in and, and that, I suspect, is why the – mainly self-appointed – health lobbyists have a problem.  We all need to mix the healthy with the indulgent, but the eating out is definitely a time for the latter.

I won’t argue that the smoking ban wasn’t positive in public health terms, even if I’d like politicians to acknowledge that it had unintended consequences in terms of hastening the decline of many wet-led pubs. Pushing pubs down the route of menu labelling would mean, in practice, that operators would have to buy in pre-labelled dishes, and would mark the triumph of bought-in food over freshly-made.  Would that really be better for us?

Menuwatch:  The rise of the takeaway continues. Having pioneered the take-home carvery at its Toby and Crown brands last year, Mitchells & Butlers has introduced a takeaway menu at its Ember Inns pubs which includes burgers, fish & chips, sandwiches and even steak and ale pie. If you don’t eat it at the pub, is it still pub grub? I’m not so sure…

 

This 'Pub Food With Porter' column appears in the October 2012 issue of Inapub   

How long is a reasonable time to wait for a meal? Fuller's Tenants Extra September 2012

How long is a reasonable time to wait for a meal? I’ve got a pretty good idea of how long it takes to cook a medium steak or deep fry a battered fish fillet, but knowing that doesn’t tell you how far down the service list you are in a busy pub. In my experience, asking the question tends to instil a look of fear in waiting staff, and barely concealed contempt from the chef.

The waiter’s fear is usually generated by the fact that it requires asking for a commitment from the kitchen, something that could well result in the demonstration of an imaginative new application for a professional food blender. The chef’s gripe is that he is an artist, and no one kept popping their head round the door of the Sistine Chapel to ask Michelangelo how much longer it would be.

I had cause to think about the issue myself recently. Our party of six eating was served drinks, our orders taken, and then it all went quiet. It was a biggish pub, but I reckon it took the member of staff far more time to plot a course that kept her well away from our table than it would have done to wander past, smile and say “sorry, the kitchen’s a bit busy, can I get you any more drinks?”

Research by Market Force Europe, which mystery visits pubs and restaurants, shows that customers are twice as likely to recommend a venue because of the service than because of the food and drink.  When asked to rate what is most important in a restaurant:

·         35% of people said service, compared to just 18% citing price

·         45% said the biggest frustration was slow service

·         31% said ay that staff showing a lack of interest makes them feel dissatisfied with their experience

It took about 50 minutes for our six meals to arrive, during which time we were left entirely alone by the pub’s staff.  There was no problem with the food – in fact, it was excellent. However, the wait is the lasting memory everyone took away from the meal.   

The company was good, but the conversation would have been rendered even more sparkling by a second round of drinks or the chance to order our first bottle of wine before the meal arrived. Those are simply lost sales – which no pub can afford.

Communication, between the kitchen and front-of-house, and from front-of-house to customers, is at the heart of good customer service, and should be built into procedures. If the kitchen team  update waiting staff on service times as a matter of course,  this can be passed onto customers through regular checks.  How long is a reasonable time to wait for a meal?  You tell me. Please.

This 'Kitchen Porter' column appears in the September 2012 issue of fuller's Tenants Extra              

Authenticity isn’t necessarily my strong suit when it comes to selecting a night out overseas - Inapub, September 2012

Authenticity isn’t necessarily my strong suit when it comes to selecting a night out overseas - I’ve drunk Guinness in Irish bars in Barcelona, and eaten Tapas in Dublin. So it was perhaps inevitable that I found myself standing in the Union Jack British Pub in the French town of Le Mans not so long ago.

In my defence, I’d sought out a bar to watch Andy Murray play in the Wimbledon men’s final, but since the commentary was in suitably unimpressed French, I don’t think I experienced the same level of excitement as I might have at home.

The bar itself was authentically British enough, to the extent that none of the beer was served in the correct branded glass and all the tables wobbled. However, they let us down on one crucial aspect. When we tried to order food, the barman simply pointed to the bistro opposite.

Given that I’ve rarely been in a French bar that couldn’t rustle up a baguette and a bowl of frites, it was an affront to my sense of national pride that the Gallic stereotype of a British pub is a venue that doesn’t sell food.

Of course, I didn’t make a fuss. But if I had, I would have quoted the findings of the latest QuickBite survey from Horizons’ latest QuickBite survey, which found that British adults are going out a bit more often than they have done in the past two years, and that pub restaurants are the top choice, favoured  by 19 per cent of consumers.

Marston’s is among the operators showing faith in the format, having recently confirmed plans for 25 new-build pub restaurants in the current financial year.

However, pubs also have to fight hard for spend in the managed market, with the Quickbite figures showing average spend per head down from £15.80 in January to £13.28 in June. This is being driven both by lower menu costs as managed operators drop prices to drive bums on seats, as well as a tendency to cut back on the extras, such as ordering wine by the glass instead of the bottle.

There was an interesting epilogue to my French misadventure. When our party of 10 adjourned to the recommended bistro, they managed to get almost every order wrong.  It doesn’t get much more British than that.

On the menu this month: In the most interesting Anglo French collaboration since Concorde, Taylor Walker pubs have added a Croque Monsieur to their sandwich menu. Behind the French name, the ingredients for the classic toastie couldn’t be more British - Wiltshire ham, melted Welsh rarebit and mature cheddar. Vive le difference?
 

This 'Pub Food with Porter' column appeasr in the September 2012 issue of Inapub.